Tracy Ferrell: No good reasons for Sunshine Canyon paving

In his letter from 9/29, Scott Mesch states that, “all the neighbors are in agreement” about getting the road paved.  While this may true of those who live directly around Mesch, it is not true of many of us in the community at large, all of whom will be affected by the proposed paving.  The arguments of those who support the paving are entirely specious.  Mesch claims that the gravel road causes more wear and tear on cars, but the section proposed to be paved is a mere 1 1/2 miles long.  I seriously doubt that driving such a small section of unpaved road will do much harm, especially since I drive my own cars on 1 mile of unpaved road everyday without problem.  As for the health argument, although it is true that dirt roads create dust, I have never had problems with dust in my own home, even though I live much closer to the road than the large, closed up, climate controlled homes in question.  And the windows in my home are open for almost half of the year.  I suspect that t!
he real reason that this small group of homeowners wants the road paved is to raise the property values of their already highly priced, million dollar homes.

The issue here is safety, and I strongly believe that pavement would lessen safe conditions on this stretch of Sunshine Canyon.  I ride my bike or run on this road everyday, and when I drive I have to turn out from County Road 83 onto Sunshine Canyon just below a blind curve on the dirt section.  I regularly see cars speeding around this curve at 50 miles per hour or more.  I have almost been hit several times.  It is no doubt that if this road were to be paved, cars would only go faster, making the road more dangerous for pedestrians, bikes and the vehicles below the blind curve.  So, to Scott and the neighbors who support him I can ony ask: Did you not know when you bought your house that it was in a rural area on a dirt road?  If pavement is so important to you, why did you move here in the first place? Let’s leave the road unpaved to preserve the rural character of historic Sunshine and maintain the safety of all of its residents.

Tracy Ferrell
Sunshine, Colo.