Letters to the Editor

By JAMES RICKMAN
Los Alamos

I would like to echo the sentiments of another letter and publicly thank the New Mexico Legislature and our governor for outlawing the use of traps, snares and similar devices on public lands in our state.

Senate Bill 32, The Wildlife Conservation and Public Safety Act, had four committed sponsors, including Sen. Roberto “Bobby” Gonzales and Rep. Christine Chandler, both of whom represent Los Alamos; as well as Sens. Brenda McKenna and Matthew McQueen.

Forty-five years ago my family came upon a trapped animal during a Christmas tree outing in the Jemez mountains.

By TERRY DUBOIS
Los Alamos

On April 5, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed into law, Senate Bill 32, Roxy’s Law. This Wildlife Conservation and Public Safety Act, prohibits commercial and recreational trapping on public lands in New Mexico. 

It took nearly a decade for this to be achieved thanks to some wonderful politicians and citizens of this state. Special thanks to our own Rep. Christine Chandler who was one of the sponsors of the bill. We are fortunate to have such forward thinking and progressive law makers making these decisions. 

New Mexico now joins Colorado and Arizona in boasting trap

By OLIVIA KOO
Los Alamos

Growing up in Los Alamos is often seen as a blessing and as a curse. Having grown up and having attended the Los Alamos Public Schools since I was in kindergarten, I would wholly agree with this statement.

There’s a certain charm and comfort in the familiarity of your classmates as you grow up with each other from elementary school to middle school to high school. But then again, the awkwardness I feel seeing my teachers shopping at Smith’s hasn’t ever really gone away, even though I’m a high school junior. You’d think I would’ve gotten used to it by now.

However, there’s another

By ANDREW M. FRASER
Los Alamos

Broadband will be on the agenda for the County Council meeting April 6, 2021.

Living with the ongoing pandemic we find both that our broad band connections are inadequate and that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) available in the County offer various combinations of high prices, hostile customer service and low data rates. 

I believe the best way to address the problem is to have a County owned communication utility that operates fiber optic infrastructure throughout the County.

I encourage all residents who want the County to help address the inadequate broadband

By The Rev. Christopher Adams
Trinity on the Hill Episcopal Church

Painful words from the Vatican were recently offered to all the world: priests cannot bless same-sex marriage because ‘God can’t bless sin’.

Which is, on the surface, a hilariously flawed argument, given that the history of Christianity and large elements of the Hebrew Scriptures evince belief in a God who seemed to bless a great many things we would rightly call sin today: genocide, slavery, and incest just to name a few. I had thought here to provide Scriptural references to the above-mentioned ills, but really, that’s not the

By DAVID TUBBS
Los Alamos

On the 8th of March, thousands of us received a message from NMDOH, which began: “New Mexico is the most efficient state in the country for vaccine distribution …”

What self-congratulatory twaddle, I thought at the time; and nothing since has changed my mind. I certainly did not accept the assertion as truth.

The chorus of public letters from angry, frustrated New Mexicans spoke truth. So did the voices of frustrated local friends, still waiting to be vaccinated, who told me of their friends who drove to Texas or Colorado for vaccine. So, too, did weekly media reports of

By DAVE FOX
Los Alamos

Richard Skolnik, in his logical March 7 letter to the Los Alamos Daily Post (link), asked on what basis I expressed approval of the County Council’s proposal to purchase the CB Fox and Reel Deal buildings with the stated purpose of being able to provide, by legal means, for redevelopment by a developer willing and able to (1) contract with the County to alter the structure or the site, in order to make the most of the opportunity to fill unmet community needs.

Mr. Skolnik wondered, in effect, whether I had data “the rest of us haven’t seen”; and why I was “so approving” of the County

By JIM HALL
Los Alamos

To County Council:

I suggest extending the due diligence period.

CB Fox

I was surprised and disappointed by a recent study estimating the cost of replacing the CB Fox building.   Building costs seem high, but I have no experience with a multistory commercial building. However, resulting costs for someone to own a part of it seem REALLY high. 

Maybe think about a different approach? Perhaps LAC could remodel the building into business condos: primarily shopfronts and offices. Since the building is more than 10 years old, it may not run afoul of current difficulties with

By LYNN HANRAHAN
Los Alamos

I got him out of the garage this past weekend because the weather screamed springtime – a giant plastic plug-in rabbit with a vicious little smile. I carried him home to Gold Street years ago from the TG&Y going out of business sale. Sometimes the garage feels like a museum of a lost Los Alamos.

We have ancient canteens from the Sports Bag. Shelves of books from R-Books and Otowi Station. Everything reminds me of something. The Hunger Games series brings back a particular summer day when Ms. Durbin convinced us we really needed a book about a bunch of teenagers killing

By RICHARD SKOLNIK
Los Alamos

As Mr. Dave Fox stated in his March 6 letter to the editor (link), I also very much appreciate the work of the County Council and the many exceptional assets of Los Alamos. However, unless Mr. Fox has data the rest of us have not seen, I don’t know on what basis he is so approving of the County proposal to purchase the CB Fox and Reel Deal buildings.

Before making an individual purchase, we would generally consider:

• What benefits will I get from the purchase, over what period of time?
• How much will it cost me, over what period of time?
• How do the benefits compare to the costs?
• How

By DAVE FOX
Los Alamos

Councilors,

It may seem presumptuous for a single citizen … but I’m doing it anyway … to offer high compliments to County leadership for the decision to purchase the CB Fox and Reel Deal buildings for the purpose of using lawful tools that assure development of a renewed central core that can be counted on to be built in a manner that serves the folks who live here, and who want to be able to buy locally, as well as to serve those who visit this wonderful place for business, be it LANL-oriented or for private business purposes, or recreation and exploration.

When I arrived in

By JAMES RICKMAN
Los Alamos

The recent Op-Ed by County Councilors David Izraelevitz and Sara Scott on possible purchase of the Reel Deal and CB Fox properties did present one factual piece of information: The County Council’s role is, indeed, to provide for the needs of the community in a responsible manner.

But it doesn’t take a scientist—rocket or otherwise—to understand that ignoring the opinion of the County Attorney and entering into an agreement that potentially violates the New Mexico Constitution is, at the very least, irresponsible.

For those who have been unsuccessful in wading

By GEORGE KYRALA
Los Alamos

In the article published this morning in the Los Alamos Daily Post (link) about the installation of an Advanced Metering Infrastructure, DPU mentioned “Rather than sending data in monthly increments required under IPRA, DPU may be required to send data in 15- and 60-minute increments to the IPRA request”.

This is a ridiculous method to invade an owner’s privacy and should have been discussed and disclosed before implementation or approval.

A foul player can then easily investigate if an owner is home or not, and can plan to invade the home, steal or cause mayhem by just

By EVAN ROSE
Los Alamos

I read the letter by Paul J. Gessing, President of Rio Grande Foundation, with some interest (link).

How can an interest rate of 175% per annum be justified? 

• First, write a letter that does not mention the 175% per annum interest rate. 
• Second, blame the proposed legislation on elite legislators and members of the public. 
• Third, provide an example of a situation where a predatory loan might be better than an alternative. 

For a detailed analysis of predatory loans, please consult the website of Think New Mexico (link).

By LAURA A. CROTZER
Los Alamos

I read with interest, and then horror, the recent LA Daily Post article summarizing County Council’s response to Councilor David Reagor’s proposed resolution intended to provide encouragement to the governor and state health officials to end the lockdown in our community.

Given that no other councilor was willing to support Mr. Reagor’s resolution, I have some questions that I hope Council will answer for the benefit of every citizen in our community:

(1) Is Council now depending on the governor and various state health officials to make

By R. WAYNE HARDIE
Los Alamos

Kudos to Los Alamos County Councilors Sean Williams, James Robinson, David Reagor and Council Chair Randy Ryti for voting Feb. 23, 2021 to waive attorney-client privilege on a Dec. 14, 2020 memorandum-of-opinion by County Attorney Alvin Leaphart regarding the proposed purchase of the CB Fox building.

As a result of this 4-3 vote, this memorandum, which pointed out some very serious legal issues with the proposed purchase of the CB Fox building, was finally made public to the citizens of Los Alamos County (LAC).

It seems like tax-paying citizens of Los Alamos County

By ROBERT GIBSON
Los Alamos

It has been decades since we saw many bills in the state Legislature targeted at Los Alamos. Most of those were aimed at the Lab. Our state representatives worked hard to keep them at bay.

A bill advancing through this year’s legislative session would impact the whole state, but would have by far its most adverse effect on the citizens of Los Alamos. One of its three sponsors is our own state representative, Christine Chandler.

House Bill 291 would raise taxes in several ways. It would increase taxes by up to 1.6% on earned income (salaries, wages, Social Security and other

By AARON WALKER
White Rock

Alarm bells are blasting in my ears right now.

Any time politicians have to resort to a media campaign to foster support for their plan, those alarms start blaring. The most recent letter from Councilors Izraelevitz and Scott did just that (link).

The letter offers a lot of rhetoric and scare tactics, and delivers very little in the realm of reality and facts (I’ve said that before). Lines such as “…there will be consequences if we let outside decision-makers choose our future, especially if we are left with even more empty properties, while they wait for a better economic

By BARBARA F. SMITH
Los Alamos

The “New Mexico Civil Rights Act” bill going through the legislature appears not to be the flowery description that it portrays (“New Mexico’s Bill of Rights protects New Mexicans’ freedom to the rights of life and liberty, safety and happiness, free elections, freedom of religion, speech and press, equal rights for men and women, and victims’ rights”).

By focusing on Victims’ Rights, which it proposes to do, in reality it allows and promotes “bad behavior” of public employee. Because it would remove accountability of the Public employee, whether city, county