Re: Town of Mono ad Nordic Ski Club

Sadly, and quite wrongly, Mr. von Veh has framed the issue of the future of Mono Nordic Ski Club as an adversarial one. The issue is not the Town of Mono versus Mono Nordic Ski Club. The issue is the relative long-term value of two Tow of Mono assets - a gravel pit and Monora forest as a major community recreational facility (including its use as a ski club).

Once the western forest tract of Monora is deforested and the gravel extracted all Mono will have left to show for it will be a 0 acre crater. So the fundamental question is what is the full cost of Mono town running its own gravel pit plus the long-term environmental, recreational/health and economic costs of losing the Monora forest tract versus the cost of acquiring aggregate elsewhere.

The Town of Mono's own rough calculations - which does not include all the environmental and social costs - suggest that by extracting its own aggregate it is only saving in the order of just over one dollar per tonne of aggregate extracted.

Sadly too many costly public policy decisions are made by people who like Mr. Veh think that one issue or another isn't, "...even worthy of detailed consideration..."

Let's not make the same mistake here.
Usman Valiante
Mono