Voice Your Opinion
We need to raise awareness through a variety of media. Here we target the printed word.
You will see below that there is considerable overlap between each newspaper and the communities they are likely to cover. We need to hit both the big papers and the small ones. Plan your letter with one or more entities in mind, but email only one newspaper at a time, copying no one else at the same time.
Keep your letters short, less than 200-300 words; simpler, down-to-earth letters are more likely to be printed and read. Find a hook -- try to catch the reader's eye with the first paragraph. For sample points you may wish to make, see the bottom of this page. Be specific and use facts; provide a recommendation. Personalize your letter by explaining how this project affects you and your family. Always include your name, mailing address, and daytime phone number, and be courteous to the editor. Finally, proofread, checking for spelling, grammar and punctuation errors; then proofread it again!
Remember, many readers of these newspapers will have absolutely no idea what NISP and Glade refer to, much less that their town councils or water district boards plan to obligate ratepayer money, burdening the town’s infrastructure with extremely rapid growth to pay for the project. You must explain the situation first, and then voice your opinion. Adding a note to see www.SaveThePoudre.Org (not .Com) is always advisable.
If you would like to help with a more targeted outreach campaign including other media outlets, or if you have other contacts you think would be good to add to this list, please let us know at Count-me-in@SaveThePoudre.Org. Thanks!
| Opinion Outlet | Entities Covered | Contact |
| Berthoud Recorder | Berthoud | editor@berthoudrecorder.com |
| Berthoud Weekly Surveyor | Berthoud | becky@berthoudsurveyor.com |
| Daily Camera | Erie; Lafayette; Left Hand Water District | openforum@dailycamera.com |
| Denver Post | All | openforum@denverpost.com |
| Erie Review | Erie | opinions@coloradohometown.com |
| Fort Collins Coloradoan | Fort Collins-Loveland Water District; Windsor | opinion@coloradoan.com |
| Fort Collins Forum | Fort Collins-Loveland Water District | fcforum@verinet.com |
| Fort Lupton Press | Brighton; Erie; Fort Lupton | gsears@metrowestnewspapers.com |
| Fort Morgan Times | Fort Morgan; Morgan County Quality Water District | fmtimes@fmtimes.com |
| Fossil Creek Current | Fort Collins Loveland Water District | info@northfortynews.com |
| Greeley Tribune | Central Weld County Water District; Eaton; Evans; Fort Lupton; Severance | letters@greeleytribune.com |
| Lafayette News | Lafayette | opinions@coloradohometown.com |
| North Forty News | Waverly | info@northfortynews.com |
| North Weld Herald | Eaton | nwh@slbbi.com |
| Reporter Herald | Berthoud; Fort Collins-Loveland Water District; Windsor | news@reporter-herald.com |
| The Northern Colorado Business Report | All | www.ncbr.com |
| The Yellow Scene | Erie | editorial@theyellowscene.com |
| Valley Courier | Left Hand Water District | Editorial@lhvc.com |
| Windsor Beacon | Severance; Windsor | http://www.coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section? Category=WINDSORBEACON1102 |
| Windsor Tribune | Severance; Windsor | tfasano@windsortribune.com |
Points You May Choose To Make
Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something.
~Plato
Think carefully about the (few) points you wish to make. The following may offer starting points, but please modify to suit your personal perspective:
• I am deeply concerned that Larimer County and the Poudre River are being used as sacrifice zones to subsidize rapid uncontrolled development on the Eastern Plains. We get all the negative impacts, and they make massive financial profits.
• As a fiscal conservative, I’m disturbed that economic analyses show that water conservation is five to ten times cheaper than building dams, but yet these cities are choosing to waste millions in taxpayer money on this wildly expensive project.
• The Poudre River is already drained and dried up as it runs through Fort Collins in over a dozen places every year. This project will further drain and dry the river that provides so much enjoyment to our citizens and helps fuel our economy.
• As a fiscal conservative, I disapprove of the borrow-and-spend and tax-and-spend programs that will pay for this project. The public demands fiscal responsibility, not deficits and massive debt loads.
• This project will fuel rapid uncontrolled growth on the Eastern plains. Tens-of-thousands of acres of farms will be sold to developers, and the agricultural economy will disappear even faster.
• The Larimer County public has spent tens-of-millions of dollars building the Poudre River Trail and buying land around the river. Now, cities from outside our county are going to spend a half-billion dollars to further drain the Poudre. We gain nothing. We lose our huge investment.
• If you build it, they will come. The Glade Reservoir is like ringing the dinner bell for rapid uncontrolled growth in Northern Colorado.
• Water conservation will not decrease your quality of life, whereas Glade Reservoir will put each subscribing family $5,000 to $15,000 in debt.
• In five years they will say, “Fort Collins: A River Used to Run Though It.”
• Conservation is cheaper, conservation is sustainable, and conservation will preserve the Poudre River.
• Like Debt? Approve Glade.
• These cities want Glade Reservoir so they don’t have to buy low-flow toilets. I think we should flush Glade.
• Glade will kill Northern Colorado’s agricultural economy. The Ranch will be ringed with strip malls. You’ll have to truck cows in from Wyoming to have the Fair.
• The developers don’t see a river; they only see acre-feet.
