Letter: Congrats to Dave Eller

Dear Editor:
Congratulations to Dave Eller for his completing a successful career with CDOT. His was a difficult job due to the politics involved. When I retired during 1982 the position was named District Engineer as it should be today since CDOT is an engineering organization.
When I was working our jobs were essentially free of politics. We went about the business of satisfying the demands of taxpayers, within the constraints of financing, the best we could. There was never enough money to begin to meet the needs.
An example of the change caused by politics was on a project involving the entrance to Aspen. A coalition of environmentalists was fighting for building a railroad, which in their view was the solution to the congested and dangerous SH 82. This is still going on with no improvement in highway flow or safety. Since I was against the railroad, a report coming from the study stated, “Don’t worry about Prosence. Dick Lamm has just been elected governor and Prosence will be out of our hair.” That never happened since I was under civil service and could not be fired for disagreements such as this.
My recommendation to our legislature: get the politics out of our highway improvement program.

Dick Prosence
District Engineer, Retired
Meeker