Mountain Rec Community Survey Findings

Established 40 years ago, the Mountain Recreation District spans from Edwards to Dotsero. From the beginning, our community’s well-being has occupied the space at the very top of our priority list.  Thanks to your recent feedback, we’ve developed a roadmap that provides increased opportunities for our community to stay active, healthy, and together. Today, tomorrow, and for the next 40 years.

Our services are engrained in our valley’s history, as are our facilities. Countless children have learned to swim, swung their first bat, or kicked their first soccer ball with us. Today, we face a significant challenge: our current facilities were built to serve only half of the current population. Complicating matters further, population is expected to grow significantly over the next 10 years.

With community-driven input over the past two years, we’ve been updating our facilities plan. The goal is to enhance spaces in Eagle, Edwards, and Gypsum, in essence, converting our recreation centers into community centers. Three open houses and multiple public surveys later, we learned that our diverse, multigenerational community strongly supports improved facility amenities and program offerings.

Why? Because collectively, we recognize that recreation and exercise play an important role in individual and community health and wellbeing. We invite you to learn about the amenities that were most requested through past survey results for Eagle HERE and for Edwards HERE.

After pausing to focus on serving our community during COVID we’ve taken your input and created a more accurate scale, identifying the associated costs of proposed improvements. We recently surveyed taxpayers in April 2021 through a phone survey. We also produced and distributed an online bilingual survey that was made broadly available.

We learned of our community’s strong support for Mountain Rec along with their willingness to invest their tax dollars into the district. Our community values the role recreation plays in health, wellness and economic vitality. There was especially strong support for a further unified, equitable and affordable district-wide pass that would provide access to all three of our facilities for one low rate.

Just like many government surveys there were those in favor as well as those who were opposed. Notably, there were many who simply wanted more information. The greatest worries understandably focused on the costs of our proposed improvements and continued concerns about the local economy. With each subsequent survey, a theme began to emerge and solidify: To know Mountain Rec is to support Mountain Rec. Our community recognizes the value we provide along with our community impact. Because of this, they’re willing to invest their tax dollars into the district’s future.

With rising construction costs, our facility needs will likely be placed out of reach with each passing year. A temporary capital improvement mill levy would allow us to accomplish the goals our community set for us. To place this in context, the last time the district requested a mill levy increase was in 2002.

Our job now is to make sure that everyone has the inside scoop, every individual, business and nonprofit. We’re requesting your help to raise awareness of the Mountain Rec District along with its capital improvement plans. As always, we pledge to follow the will of the people as they decide how best to address our community’s health and well-being.

Every step of this updated facilities vision will continue to be shared with our community and is publicly available at MountainRec.org/capital.

Eddie Campos is the Marketing & Communications Manager of Mountain Recreation.
Contact Eddie at ECampos@MountainRec.org