By DELIA CRUZ-MURPHY

As a parent, I have already lived through not having a: splash pad, a rec pool, or improvements to the ice rink. When it comes down to it you get creative with things to do with your kid(s) when living in Los Alamos. There are plenty of things you can do, take them to: one of the many great parks in Los Alamos, go to the Reservoir, go hiking in the Jemez, go hiking around town as we have some really great trails, take them to the Genoveva Chavez Community Center in Santa Fe, take them to the Kids Museum in Santa Fe, try the rock wall at the YMCA, or the Rock wall in Santa Fe.

I have seen people put inflatable slides (some hook up the garden hose to it) in their backyard. Pack a lunch, take some snacks, or go out to lunch, spend some time with your kids. The car trip is a great time for your kids to talk to you, or even talk at you about the latest video game or whatever. Do we need a rec center in Los Alamos … not really. Would it be nice to have a rec center, yeah it would be nice.

Here is the rub about raising taxes or passing bonds in Los Alamos for a new rec center. First the timing could not be more inappropriate. We are about to go through a contract change, which has unforeseen consequences for the town. It would be financially responsible to wait till after the contract change to vote on this issue. There is the potential that more people could move to town, but there is the same potential that many people could be leaving town.

Making a big financial commitment right now is not fiscally responsible. Another rub is that other sources of funding have not been utilized. There is a notion in this town that getting sponsors to build/renovate facilities is unacceptable. Los Angeles has the Staples Center, but Los Alamos cannot have the Enterprise EA Sports Gatorade Ice Rink. With that same mindset grants are completely off the table. The reality of the situations is that grants are more than helping the disadvantaged, grants are there to improve all communities. There are alternative solutions to this problem but nobody wants to hear them, and nobody wants to put in the effort to obtain them.

You cannot call for another vote because you did not get the answer you wanted. If we are going to force the rec bond issue because it was “nearly” a tie, then I am calling for the issue of the Sheriff to be called to vote again. By the same token the Sheriff barely won, and I didn’t like that result. But fair is fair, the rec bond was defeated, and the Sheriff won, it is what it is.

Now that we are where we are it is time to utilize alternative funding sources, and not approach those solutions with utter contempt.