Many people say that things have changed in the years since Christo proposed the project in 1992. The fundamentals of the local economy, still connected in many ways to the old anchors of mining and freight, have shifted toward service and tourism. An arts community that barely existed has emerged and flowered, with people drawn by low rents and sweeping mountain vistas.  The recession, supporters say, has made “Over the River” more desirable in a community that is bound more to economic engines of tourism than it used to be.  “This would just be a gift, and we don’t even have to do anything,” said Matt Landry, 35, a co-owner of Headwaters, an outdoor clothing shop in downtown Salida.  “As soon as this is made public, people are going to start Googling Salida,” Mr. Landry said.  Carlo Boyd, 58, a landscape designer who was in Headwaters on a recent morning, took the opposite tack. Yes, he said, the money would flow, and that is exactly the problem.  “It’s all about the almighty buck,” Mr. Boyd said. “It’s the destruction of Mother Earth and the life blood of the river for money.”  The project, financed by Christo through sales of lithographs and other pieces, would take two years to build and would be displayed for two weeks in the summer of 2014 at the earliest.  In the meantime, a kind of exhausted draw has settled over parts of the field of battle here, with warriors on both sides saying there just are not many minds left to change.  “My thing now is just to keep on painting,” said Paulette Brodeur, an artist and gallery owner in Salida. “Whatever is meant to be will be.”  Ms. Brodeur’s feelings have ebbed and flowed over the years, she said. She opposed the project because of the possible environmental effects. She supported it because of the economic benefits. Now in the final act, she said, she has settled into a kind of weary abstention.  Greg Felt, a co-owner of a local fly-fishing and river guide service called ArkAnglers, opposes the project but has a similar fatigue.  The project would drape fabric over 5.9 miles of the river in eight sections between Salida and Cañon City. “I’m about done talking,” said Mr. Felt, who said the two-year construction schedule would chase away fly-fishers who come here for the nature and solitude. “If someone hasn’t taken the time to read the environmental-impact statement, then I just don’t have anything more to say to them.”  A final decision will come at a time when attitudes toward faraway economic powers-that-be — whether in government or business, or art for that matter — have shifted in the recession, many people here said. When so much in the world seems broken or bent, people said they feared losing something in the community fabric that still worked.  “We never sacrificed the real small-town nature of this place for quick development,” Mr. Felt said. “I don’t see any need to change that pace and risk fundamentally changing the nature of what we cherish so much here.”  Environmental groups remain divided over the project. The local chapter of the Sierra Club has voiced support, while the statewide chapter has been neutral. In October, during the public comment period, a coalition of local environmental groups across Colorado denounced the plan.  “It amounts to an industrial-scale facility that would be constructed in an area prized for its mostly natural environment,” the groups said in a letter.  Some residents said that they thought the effects — positive or negative — had been exaggerated in the heat of argument, and that much of the intense feeling was really just about the fear that nothing would be same afterward.  “It’s probably not going to be the impact they’re blowing it up to be, but we’ve had this little valley all our lives, most of us, and we would just like to not see it change,” said Stan Embry, 58, a building contractor. “It’s just this guy is coming in, and he’s got the bucks so we feel like he’s controlling and intruding in our little life.”  Supporters say that Christo’s projects — from the wrapping of the Reichstag Parliament building in Berlin in 1995 to “The Gates,” a meandering path of orange awnings through Central Park in New York in 2005 — are typically misunderstood beforehand as ideas and only really appreciated when they become reality.  “To take our beautiful landscape and then work something incredibly massive, to enhance it for a short period of time — I frankly can’t understand why anybody is against it,” said Ms. Frances, who owns the Four Winds Gallery.  Jerry Hixon, who owns a cabinetmaking shop along the river near the proposed site, said he had some ambivalence. He also owns a liquor store in Salida that would probably see a jump in business, he said. But he knows the area is changing with or without the project.  “I might have to lock my front door,” he said.  A version of this article appears in print on November 26, 2010, on Page A20 of the New York edition with the headline: Another Christo Project, To Engage and Divide. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
The artist wants to drape 5.9 miles of the Arkansas River in fabric, but not everyone in the area is a fan of the plan.