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Avon on track

Vail Daily Editorial Board

The town of Avon is heading in the right direction and should continue. Not that any of the five candidates running this year for three seats on the Town Council would pull the town onto a different path.

The relatively quiet campaign season this year is a sign the citizenry largely agrees with this assessment.

Gone are the dopey, 527-style flyers. The developer who will double the size of the town has not campaigned for any particular candidates, a gambit that backfired two years ago. The candidates do not have dramatically different views, they’ve kept to the issues and have thoughtful answers to difficult questions. Avon’s campaign is a model we wish the presidential campaigns would have tried a little harder to follow, frankly.



It’s not as though Avon’s big issues have gone away. If anything they are tougher now as the High Country braces for the economic hurricane looming over ski season. Will we escape with a glancing blow, or catch the full brunt this time? No one knows.

The developer has grown more difficult than ever, if anything, and the town has sued the metro district associated with the stalled Village at Avon. Dealings with Beaver Creek will only get more complicated as the two communities get more intertwined.

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The first tangible construction of Main Street finally has been teed up. The town finances are in good shape. The hotel part of the Westin is open, new transportation hub on line, and gondola from nowhere now has made the town “beachfront” for the resort.

The current council has made a lot of progress, and the two incumbents have earned their chance to continue. So we recommend that Kristi Ferraro and Amy Phillips be re-elected.

We also like Buz Reynolds, who has served on the council, been mayor, served for 13 years on the planning commission before that and been a big part of building Avon for as he puts it, “most of my adult life.”

Reynolds has the knowledge and prudent approach to town governance to be an important member of the next council. We look to him to ask more of the hard questions that help ensure the council has the fullest discussions possible before making those crucial, often difficult decisions to come.

Finally, we encourage candidates Sharon Peach and Karri Willemssen to stay involved with town government if they are not elected this year. Both have a lot to offer the Avon community, and as we all should remember, there are many ways to serve our communities outside the relatively higher profile roles on town councils.


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