KEYSTONE, Colo. — Rolling through Keystone, Highway 6 is a busy road that Ken Riley says people rarely drive 45 miles per hour on, and has become too dangerous for people who have to walk next to it.
“We have had two fatalities over the past decade there,” said Riley. “We have employees walking to and from work on the edge of this highway and we have children standing at a bus stop here.”
Riley has spent 12 years trying to improve the safety along the highway and now heads up the Keystone Incorporation Committee.
He says they have worked hard with CDOT and Summit County but face a lot of limitations, and the only way to get something done is for Keystone to become the Town of Keystone.
“We believe if we incorporate we will take charge of those issues and be able to determine what we want to fund,” said Riley.
About 900 residents are voting by mail to see if Keystone will break from Summit County Government and become its own town in an election that will end on March 28.
If it passes, residents will still need to draft a town charter, elect a town council and come up with a plan for police and public works, which could take years.
People opposed to Keystone becoming its own town worry that will mean more taxes and will mean less help from the county, but Riley says millions of dollars from restaurants, business, and a hotel sales tax that goes to the country would be kept in Keystone, allowing them to make more decisions on how to spend it.
“We can take control of our destiny and have citizens of Keystone make decisions for Keystone," Riley said.
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