It was ballyhooed in the local media that Mayor Greg Palmer was to have a national appearance on MSNBC’s “Squawk On The Street” show Feb. 4. This is a business show that in this segment was talking with mayors from five towns across the country over five days on how their towns seemed to be dodging the down economy. Palmer’s spot was preempted to Feb. 9.

When the mayor got on it appeared he was reading from notes. TV hosts hate that. After the intro, they asked him two questions and abruptly ended the segment. One question was how important is the oil and gas industry to Grand Junction. Palmer’s answer was embarrassing. Our mayor said our area has had a “flirtation” with that industry.  A “flirtation” my rear-end. We are married to the gas and oil industry. This is the same mayor who backed the huge, debt-packed, $100 million, two-block long public safety building which may be coming again to our ballots.

We are an energy town. In the 1950s and ’60s it was uranium and agriculture. Orchards were everywhere and Gerber was a major buyer. In the ’70s and ’80s, it was a combination of oil and uranium, less agriculture. We learned the importance of oil in 1982.

The MSNBC people knew better too. It’s called show prep; give a jive answer and the interview is over. A couple of days later in an unrelated local interview Diane Schwenke, Chamber of Commerce president, accurately said each oil patch job in our area affects 10 jobs in town. Thanks to legislative actions in Denver the “flirtation” is crashing down.  To our mayor, I say, get a clue.

JIM SHULTS
Grand Junction

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