Tag Archives: FasTracks

Coombs’ agenda not in Longmont’s best interests

  By Chris Rodriguez | October 9, 2013 - 7:18 pm |
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Mayor Coombs, who proclaims himself the “Mayor for everybody” on his website, apparently doesn’t think too highly of a fairly substantial segment of Longmont residents.

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Times-Call endorses Jeff Ilseman for RTD District I

  By Chris Rodriguez | October 29, 2012 - 10:58 pm |
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Today (October 29, 2012) the Longmont Times-Call endorsed Jeff Ilseman for RTD District I.

Of a field of what appears to be four capable candidates for the District I director’s position, our recommendation to voters is Jeff Ilseman of Longmont, who has served on the Longmont Transportation Advisory Board, the Public Policy Committee of the Longmont Area Chamber of Commence and the Judicial Performance Commission of the 20th Judicial District.

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Jeff Ilseman: RTD: Who Needs It?

  By Chris Rodriguez | September 18, 2012 - 3:26 am |
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(The following was submitted from RTD Board of Directors, District I candidate Jeff Ilseman.)

In 2004 a proponent of FasTracks rang our doorbell and talked with my wife. After listening to the cordial conversation, my right brain, which allegedly focuses on creativity and feeling, thought how great it would be to have a train that my transit-dependent son, then 22 years old, could use to access opportunities that he may not otherwise be able to access. Continue reading →

You’ve always heard it here first

  By Dave Larison | August 24, 2012 - 12:50 am |
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Now that there’s been more than 1000 posts on the Longmont Advocate/LightningRod/Politics sites, and many more previous entries on Chris Rodriguez’s Wrongmont blog, it strikes me how many times the non-politically correct, common sense point of view has proven to be true in the long run vs. the reactionary pushing of underlying agendas.

One of the numerous examples from Chris’s writings – Cooling off a solar flare-up – came in early 2010 when Mayor Bryan Baum was besieged by the local left due to his efforts to halt a program providing solar system rebates to Longmont residential and commercial customers at a cost to the city of $150,000. Continue reading →

Jeff Ilseman: An Inconvenient Train

  By Chris Rodriguez | August 17, 2012 - 3:27 am |
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(The following is a guest submission by RTD District I candidate Jeff Ilseman)

I love a good train ride, especially if it is also fast and cheap. I grew up near the end of the BNSF line coming out of Chicago’s Union Station. It was built in the 1860s, during the Civil War, when Lincoln was president, and decades before automobiles were invented. How ironic it is that I retired near the end of a “planned” BNSF line coming out of Denver’s Union Station, to be completed in the 2040s. Continue reading →

Mayor Coombs: “Tax the hell out of us now”

  By Dave Larison | March 21, 2012 - 9:30 pm |
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As if we didn’t know it already,  Longmont Mayor Dennis Coombs has once again shown he’s a mere sock puppet for local hard left progressive ideologues.

The latest proof came with Coombs’ absurd suggestion regarding the passage of a sales tax increase to fund RTD FasTracks.  It’s a plan that at best can promise Northwest Rail to Longmont in an unfathomable 2028-2034 timeframe. Continue reading →

A better rail alternative for Longmont?

  By Dave Larison | March 3, 2012 - 4:15 pm |
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Could the emerging northern Colorado rail transit initiative known as Front Range on Track be the answer to Longmont’s ever-growing RTD FasTracks dilemma ?

From a Loveland Reporter-Herald article reprinted in the Times-Call this morning…

“Advocates of a plan to use railroad lines in Northern Colorado for passenger service will meet Sunday to raise both awareness and money to push their transit proposal forward. Front Range On Track, a group that has assumed a low profile since its formation three years ago, is leveraging some of the attention paid recently to similar rail plans in Boulder County and north metro-Denver to draw some to its own efforts.” Continue reading →

The FasTracks fraud presented to Longmont voters in 2004

  By Dave Larison | February 28, 2012 - 7:30 pm |
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Feb. 28, 2012
To City Council:

Having worked with RTD Board member Mary Blue on petition signature gathering for the FasTracks sales tax proposal in 2004 (I have now, however, done a complete 180 on FasTracks), I think it is important to review several key points that were presented to Longmont voters regarding the planned Northwest Corridor.  (graphics displayed from RTD document “FasTracks Plan”; April 22, 2004) Continue reading →

Paying for imaginary railroad

  By Chris Rodriguez | December 20, 2010 - 12:50 am |
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As the ever-growing RTD FasTracks boondoggle exasperates Longmont (we’ve commented on this debacle before), former Longmont Mayor Fred Wilson tells it like it is with a letter printed in the Sunday Times-Call, Dec. 19…

To the Editor:
As I read the latest chapter in the long and winding tale of FasTracks, many quotes suitable for describing the situation pop into my mind. Like “Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me”. Or “Go ahead, Charlie Brown, I won’t pull the football away this time”. Or “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results”. Continue reading →