Remember penny candy?

There was a time when a dime could get you 10 pieces of sugary delight. My college-aged daughter, who indulges in the occasional $5 fancy coffee, shakes her head in disbelief, as do I. Penny candy is from another lifetime.

I also recall the expression on my Uncle Fred’s face some 30 years ago when I handed him a plastic bottle of water. We were in Pittsburgh, the largest city he’d ever visited, and the bottled water both shocked and amused him. He thought it was ridiculous and told me so, even as he drank the water. A dairy farmer, Uncle Fred worked long hours seven days a week and was keenly aware of the value of a dollar.

Some of you might even recall when you could actually buy six hamburgers for a dollar. We were told it was beef, but I’m not convinced. Today a dollar doesn’t go very far. It won’t buy a gallon of gas, quart of milk or even an hour of parking at many meters.

Here is one exception. For an additional $1.17 per month, Colorado Springs residents will continue to enjoy an expanding trails and parks system that is the envy of many cities across the country.

An additional 117 pennies per month is what the average household will contribute through the Trails, Parks and Open Space (TOPS) initiative if it passes in November. That’s far less than any membership to a health club, pool pass or one day at an amusement park.

A couple of years ago while explaining parks funding and the TOPS program to a Colorado College political science class, I wanted to know if they valued parks and trails and how much they were worth to them. At the end of the discussion, after some great questions, they concluded what we were really seeking was additional “pennies for parks.”

Over the next 20 years, those pennies each month will add up to a continued legacy of responsible and visionary management of our natural resources.

Several ballot measures are likely to go before voters in November. We will get to decide if we’re willing to allow city and county leaders to keep excess tax revenue and invest in county roads and parks and forest management to lessen the risk of wildfires.

This isn’t nickel and diming but rather prudent and affordable investments in our future.

For a kid who enjoyed penny candy, this all seems like a pretty sweet deal.

Davies is executive director of the Trails and Open Space Coalition.