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VOLUME 121
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Happy Halloween?
A special wish come true for teen .............................. 5
â– ARTS & CULTURE
A time to brood in Golden .................................9
â– SPORTS:
A new phase starts for rod and gun .............................11
â– COMMUNITY:
It was Halloween in July as children from the Summer Fun Day Camp took to the streets of Golden. The camp runs from Monday to Friday and spaces are still open. Michele LaPointe/Star Photo
A look to the future of small town Darryl Crane editor@thegoldenstar.net
A natural soap made locally ............................ 12
The future of smaller municipalities, and how they are going to have to adjust to keep moving forward in the future, is often debated, discussed and questioned. This week Jon Wilsgard Manager of Corporate Administration for the Town of Golden shared his thoughts on the issues that will face municipalities in the future. Wilsgard has worked in two levels of government for more than 20 years and sees great changes in the future for smaller towns to flourish going forward. “A real social reconciliation of what is important for services provided by local government. The scope
and range of services plus what does society deem as necessary and essential,� he said. “I think we are coming to a point, due to limits in taxation and less money out there, along with decreasing populations, there will have to be a reconciliation (for the first time) of what’s truly important.� Wilsgard pointed to the decision by local government in Golden to discontinue the local transit system, as one of the signs of this new kind of thinking. “There is a real motherhood type of service to provide once you get into it people expect it to be an essential service. Well we lost it. Why? because the value for the tax dollar was not there for council. It was not there for a variety of reasons,� Wilsgard said. “More and more local governments are faced with demands upon
them that people expect. But there are costs to everything and where is the funding to cover services going to come from if they do not come from taxation?� Wilsgard felt there is an expectation from the public for grants to provide a wide variety of services, but he feels at some point a wall will be hit and small communities are going to have to decide how best to move forward. “It is not going to be pretty. We are seeing this in the United States where cities down there are doing things like shutting down the lights on streets. Whether or not that is a temporary result of the recession I do not know, but you cannot go on forever with this expansion of services,� he said. Continued on page 2