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Hansen for mayor
Contributed by: Howard Weiss on 10/17/2007

Ask the average person who they are voting for in this years mayoral election, they will respond by saying no one. A common response is that local elections are not important like Presidential elections.

I could argue that our local officials are equally and maybe more important than the officials we send to Washington. It is our local officials who work on issues that can change our quality of life. I assume most people purchase their homes based on quality of life issues; parks, schools, senior centers, shopping, etc.

When Thornton was founded in 1957, no one would have imagined their little community growing to over 200,000 people. Well, that is exactly where Thornton is headed. We currently have over 100,000 citizens, making us one of the largest cities in the state. Additionally, Thornton is only 60% developed. This leads us all to wonder what will be built on the remaining 40% empty land?

The mayor and city council play an important role in working with city manager Jack Ethridge to build a city we can all be proud to call home. They have a great many issues to deal with: code enforcement, redevelopment, development, new parks, recreation centers, etc. All of these issues can change the perception of Thornton by our residents and others. Voting in municipal elections is everyone's obligation to assure we have great leadership that can build the city we want.

When people from outside Thornton drive through our city, they do not see the divided parkways and beautiful neighborhoods in original Thornton that we know and love. They see the closed Wal-Mart, Albertsons, Target and other blight from run down shopping centers on our thoroughfares.

Thornton is a great city, with nice parks, good schools, and a great place to raise your family. We need a leader with a clear vision to address our issues. This leader needs to represent all of Thornton, North, South, Central, to assure that our community grows in a direction we all feel comfortable with. This leader needs to be a person of their word.

Several months ago the park in my community was vandalized. The estimated damage to the playground was $40,000. In trying to find the perpetrators, our community worked with the police, schools and other city departments to try and resolve this. I sent a message to all of the members of city council asking for help on this issue. To my surprise, only one member of city council responded, Erik Hansen. I was amazed that I never got even a generic response from anyone of the other members of our city council.

With the assistance of Ward IV councilman Erik Hansen, proper action was taken and the perpetrators were caught. Action speaks volumes over words!

All of us will be receiving literature with lots of campaign promises. Keep in mind, TALK IS CHEAP! Only one member of council put his words into action and actually helped members of our city to resolve our vandalism issue.

I spoke with the police about the vandalism issue, and they stated our neighborhood situation helped resolve other related vandalism issues in the city. Again, we will hear lots of promises, but are the candidates willing to actually put their words into action.

My family and I live in Thornton as I believe it is a great place to raise a family. Thornton is electing a new mayor in just a few weeks. We need a leader who can keep their promises and build a community we can all be proud of, and feel safe in raising our children.

Thornton faces some serious issues which include:

- What type of homes and businesses should be developed on our open land. We have a choice in being known as a great city of the front range or a cheap place to live.

- How can we re-develop the old shopping centers to improve the perception and reality of those areas?

- Can we provide better code enforcement. One bad neighbor can bring down the value of every home in the neighborhood.

- How can we build on the quality of live we want and expect in Thornton?

I have never put a campaign sign in my lawn, nor felt so strongly about the differences in the candidates we have to chose from. This election is different!

I realize we can all make a difference in the type of community we live in, and the quality of life we have, by voting for Erik Hansen. Erik Hansen is a candidate that provides ACTION, NOT JUST WORDS!


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Showing 1-2 of 2 comments
Submitted By: Holly Hansen
posted on 10/18/2007 @ 4:46:37 PM
Rated Story
Howard: On behalf of our family, thanks for your comments. I don't know the person who made the unnecessary and unsubstantive comment to your post, but I apologize. Don't stop caring!
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Submitted By: Randy Bishop
posted on 10/18/2007 @ 1:53:25 PM
Rated Story
Cool Howard, you got a free yard sign out of this deal. Now thats what I call a man of action.
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Showing 1-2 of 2 comments
CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

John Eisel

Denver , COLORADO

John Eisel has posted 2865 stories and 12 comments since joining on 9/14/2005. John Eisel's average story rating is 4.39.
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