I am writing to support Sweetie Marbury and Dick White for re-election to the City Council. I urge you to vote for them when your ballot arrives in the mail.

We all know that our federal government is broken and our state government, with the recent budget battles and increasing partisanship, is not far behind. These governing bodies spiraling into irrelevancy puts more pressure on our City Council to make tough decisions that help ensure that our community continues to thrive.

With Marbury and White, we are blessed to have two individuals who have the discipline, integrity and intelligence to successfully take on the difficult decisions that will come before the City Council in the years ahead. They will help determine the right size of our airport, how to best address the increasing pressures on our city’s infrastructure and ensure that we address our city’s inevitable growth in a sustainable and thoughtful manner.

I know they can address these issues, because they have proved in their four years on the City Council that they have our best interests at heart. Marbury and White successfully led our city after the great recession. They have taken a forward-thinking approach to growth to help ensure that young people such as myself can dream of settling down and raising our families within the friendly confines of Durango and not just use this place as a layover in life. Also, they support tackling climate change.

I am saddened that their opponents’ supporters have used the letters to the editor pages of the Herald to take a narrow-minded, unsustainable approach to the growth of our community. Their outright venom for young people such as myself who work hard and are doing everything they can to afford housing in this town by supporting ADUs and other in-fill growth shows that these individuals do not have what it takes to make the important decisions facing our community.

Please join me in voting for Dick White and Sweetie Marbury by mailing your ballots in as soon as they arrive.

Matthew Sheldon

Durango