Well, here we are on the bell lap of the summer tourist season. I hope it has been a profitable summer for our local businesses. Kudos to all who pulled together despite the hardship.
Recently, there was a special election featuring an increase in the lodgers tax to shore up the funding of Durango's marketing efforts to attract those visitors. From my perspective, it worked. But we must also take stock in what to do with some of those marketing funds.
I believe we need to fund another marketing campaign, one to keep Durango as charming and attractive as ever. As a frequent user of the Animas River Trail and the newer Oxbow river park and its trails, I am disheartened by the face masks and plastic bags of dog poop littering the trails. This thoughtlessness of a new, small group of self-absorbed residents and visitors is disgraceful, and it must end.
Thus, I urge the Chamber of Commerce, Fort Lewis College, and Ballantine Communications to launch a campaign to end the littering and vandalism of private and public property. This would also include working with our residents and local business owners, as well as city and county governments, as promoters of that message.
In the meantime, I would urge city officials to get out of their offices on occasion and roam free to see why this campaign is so important. Their heads-in-the-sand approach is failing us. It is time to act before the next tourist season.
David Ohman
Durango
