EPHA director latest installment

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John Meissner

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Jul 25, 2026, 10:41:42 PM (2 days ago) Jul 25

to Gary Hall, Bill Brown, Kirby Hazelton, cesh...@estes.org, Mark Igel, flancaster, jmi...@estes.org

I don't know who requested these columns, but the last installment sent shivers down my spine. This was the last of the bullet points:

EPHA is not a replacement for the town board. The town retains responsibility for broader community policy and land-use decisions.

Gosh, that's a relief. EPHA is not plotting an overthrow of the town board. EPHA will still allow the town board to retain its mistaken belief that it makes important decisions about the future of Estes Park. But the very denial, the very need to bring it up in order to deny it, causes even more paranoia: Do they somehow think they are more important than the town board, and could step in to fill that role if the town board was somehow (briefly or completely) incapacitated?

Imagine the hubris of the Chamber of Commerce reassuring stakeholders they are not plotting to overthrow the town board. Imagine if VEP said, "No, don't worry, even though we are the main reason the town board has any money to spend, we are not planning on replacing them (anytime soon)."

This is scary. Frankenstein's monster scary. HAL 9000 from Space Odyssey scary. Did the town board create the EPHA? Can it be unplugged? Or is it now operating completely independent of oversight, and letting citizens know in advance there is a possibility they may have to be destroyed in order for the town to be saved?

If anything, this latest column did very little to reassure me EPHA is operating with any constraints from citizen-provided or town-board suggested guardrails. Maybe it is time, if there is still time, to elect more trustees with a healthy skepticism about the need for an entirely independent, overfunded HA.