With the future of Base Village and The Related Companies becoming ever more tenuous and troublesome, our town executives and elected representatives are working overtime to keep all of us in the dark concerning the true magnitude of the problem and their plans if any to get us out of this mess.

If I felt confident they had the expertise and experience to work through these very complex problems, perhaps I'd be content to sit back at bit longer and let them attempt to work through the issues at hand. Unfortunately, it's been many weeks since they went underground with no public communication and no evidence they have a clue what to do next.

Having recently reviewed the working draft of the Financial Advisory Board's Findings & Recommendations concerning the Financial Management of various town projects, specifically Town Hall, the Recreation Center/Entryway Complex and the Rodeo Place employee housing project, it's clear we don't have the necessary resources and experienced manpower capable of protecting the town's economic viability which is being severely threatened by the implosion of The Related Companies and the resultant collapse of the Base Village project.

During the planning process, our town leaders rationalized and structured our community's future economic viability on the successful development and operation of Base Village along with a redeveloped West Village and Snowmass Center. Unfortunately, all of this is now threatened by the collapse of Related WestPac and our failure to obtain the traditional formal safeguards and guarantees most of which were left to trust.

Remember, it was the Skico/Crown Family they trusted our future to. Jim Crown stood up at a pivotal town meeting and asked our leaders and the community to trust them…they were here for the long haul, The rest of the story is all too painful to restate.

Obviously we've learned our lesson regarding trust versus firm contractual protections and I'm confident we'll never make that mistake again. But we must deal with the resultant problems we're now faced with in a professional, transparent and expeditious manner. I'm not willing to just go along with the same old backroom finagling that has gotten us into so much trouble in the past.

I don't intend to sit by and wait till the powers that be decide, if ever, to include the community as part of the process. Too much in the past has been done out of public view without adequate and clear public disclosure. If you doubt me, check out the resultant economic waste and mismanagement detailed in the Financial Advisory Board's soon to be finalized report.

The urban blight in the middle of our Village demands our immediate attention. We can't just sit back as it appears our leaders are doing and hope that a white knight is going to ride into Town and save our Village.

We're all dependent on each other, both full and part-time residents. We're doomed to failure unless we recognize and appreciate each others needs and work collegially toward the common goal of saving our community.

It's time we stand up to the powers that be, tell them we want in, we want transparency and we want to be a party to planning our future. We've tried it their way numerous times…it hasn't worked.

A current example of previous planning failures is evidenced by the rising sounds of discontent coming from those unfortunate new Base Village residential owners who were never given the details of the enormous taxes and assessments they're now facing. Our town leaders at the time allowed Skico and now their successor to walk away with all the cash and none of the Base Village infrastructure and on-going maintenance costs.

Responsibility for covering all these costs was left solely to the new Base Village residential owners while the rest of us enjoy all the Base Village amenities and don't pay a dime for the privilege.

I'd suggest our town leaders quickly rethink this formula for disaster, which if not quickly addressed could likely signal the downfall of the entire Village.

Since the maintenance costs and taxes incurred by Base Village residential owners far exceeds those payments in any other area of the Village, it becomes clearly evident that future buyers would have to be out of their minds to buy into Base Village, particularly since the initial cost of purchase carries such a significant premium to all the other favorable alternatives in other areas of the Village.

Unfortunately, we can't afford to ignore this dilemma 'cause rightfully or wrongfully, our leaders banked our future on the success of Base Village.

I'm writing this column at various road stops on my drive back to Snowmass. My traveling companions, Riley and Scout, egged me on to write this critical diatribe. I was campaigning for a more upbeat homecoming column. As you can tell, I lost out to Riley and Scout's vote for a reality gut punch.

The quid pro quo for going along with their approach is an arrival stop at Fuel for my first iced non-fat cappuccino of the season. You can catch us there most days or via e-mail at secondview@earthlink.net.