In a 6-2 vote Tuesday, the Loveland City Council decided to offer Crop Production Services $300,000 for executing a lease for office space at Centerra. Crop Production Services is currently located in Greeley and employs 250 people.

The money comes out of the City Council Economic Development Incentive Fund. The fund, allocated $350,000 annually, is meant for primary employers — those that export more than 50 percent of their goods and services outside of Larimer County — that pay average wages 150 percent higher than the county average. CPS’ average annual wage is 160 percent of the county’s average annual wage.

Colorado State University professor and regional economist Martin Shields indicated the company would bring Loveland a net fiscal impact of up to $600,000 during the next five years, assuming the company adds 100 new positions. The number of positions was determined using information from the site selector, the company, CSU and the Northern Colorado Economic Development Corp.

One of the world’s largest cheese producers moved closer Tuesday night to calling Greeley home to its latest factory, though company officials insist they are still considering other sites.

Why does Greeley want a Cheese Factory?

The factory is projected to bring 400 jobs to Greeley. What type of jobs will these be?
Are these the same types of jobs provided by JBS?
Will this contribute to our immigration problem?
Will this put Greeley further behind Loveland and Fort Collins in terms of average wages, crime, gangs, etc…?
Is this the kind of industry we need in Greeley?

Evelyn King has an interesting editorial on the proposed Northern Colorado regional transit authority.

She claims that ’special interest groups’, namely Bus and Rail, are attempting to acquire the majority of funds to push through their programs.

Her proposed solution our growing transportation problems is not more public transit, but more roads.

She claims that transit programs will not reduce gridlock, only new roads will… and on that point she is correct. The bottom line is that the majority of Coloradoans don’t want to use public transportation. Driving is much more convenient and independent. Public transportation will never reduce gridlock for one reason, gridlock is the major reason most of us would choose to use public transportation.

King states that:

Data shows that only New York’s transit carries more than either 15 percent of commuters or 10 percent of all travel. Additionally, only the Washington, D.C.; Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia and San Francisco areas carry more than either 10 percent of commuters or 5 percent of all travel. We do know that Denver’s FasTracks was planned to carry only about 2 percent of all travel; and, the Interstate 25 Study also indicated that neither rail/bus transit programs could attract more than 2 percent of all travel.

While I will not dispute her quoted statistics, I do find them incomplete. If New York (I’m assuming New York City, but the reference isn’t clear) transit carries 15 percent of commuters. What kind of impact would a 15 percent, 10 percent or even 5 percent reduction in traffic have on gridlock on I-25 during peak traffic times? As gridlock increases, wouldn’t public transportation usage increase as well?

Her point is well taken, perhaps we do need new highways, but transportation MUST be well funded and well thought out - and mass transit must not be dismissed. Mass transit usability and cost efficiency problems must be solved and citizens must be given adequate motivation to use it. The longer we wait the more difficult it will be to do and if the problems aren’t addressed soon Colorado will just be another Southern California.

Eaton Mayor Keith McIntyre wants to funnel a percentage of sales tax receipts that exceed a businesses average to town parks.

The plan, beside being a little difficult to articulate clearly, does seem like a good one. Residents can support local merchants with the knowledge that some of the sales tax they pay will go directly to improving the town. If the Mayor gets approval from the Eaton Town Board and does a good job of communicating his new plan to Eaton residents, this could be a great move for the city.

The Greeley Chamber of Commerce has come up with a new slogan for the city.

This new slogan has prompted our first poll here at Greeley Elections:

In response to concerns by local home builders, the Greeley City Council has decided to postpone raising impact fees on new construction.

John DeWitt of the Greeley Area Realtor Association questioned why the council proposed the fees at the time it did.

“Higher impact fees can have a devastating impact on new home sales,” DeWitt said.

Colorado voters decided to raise the minimum wage in 2006 and this increase took effect January 1.

The Tribune has an interesting article on the impact this change has on two local restaurants.

Minimum wage increase laws are passed on the premise that an increase will give workers at that level a better quality of life. The dark side of a minimum wage increase is that some workers will lose their jobs as businesses cannot meet the new payroll requirements and are forced to lay off workers. Nine such individuals have lost their jobs at Greeley’s Goodberry’s Restaurant, 2400 17th St.

If you live in the Northern Colorado area and have been impacted by the minimum wage increase, positively or negatively, I would welcome your comments. I would be very interested to see what a minimum wage worker would have to say about this topic.