By JOYCE ANDERSONLos Alamos
In the past few days there has been a lot of uproar here in the Los Alamos Daily Post and on social media about the County Council’s efforts to move forward and fund some of the recreation projects that would have been funded had the Rec Bond passed in May.
Cries of ignoring the will of the people are hanging in the air this morning as people slug it out on social media, and members of the County Council are being excoriated for their efforts to make much needed improvements to the town. I’m as frustrated with this as the next person, so I’m asking for some help my community to help me understand this discord better.
My thoughts and questions are as follows:
- For those that voted NO on the Rec Bond, did you do this thinking your no vote meant, not funding the recreation projects at all, ever? Or did the no vote mean I don’t want to fund these projects with a bond? The latter is actually the question we voted on in the election. Members of Council are on the record stating that if the Bond failed, they would try and pursue other avenues of funding for the projects.
- If you voted NO, would you support the funding of the various projects individually?
- One of the arguments raised by the anti-bond voters was that Los Alamos County should use the $13 million in Capital Improvement Project funds to fund the various recreation projects. That is now what the Council is attempting to do. Is this were the objection lies?
- To Dr. Lisa Shin and members of the Better Way LA PAC, I ask, you’ve preached funding the recreation projects with private money and philanthropic dollars. Have you written grants to that effect, or secured those dollars? And when will you be presenting those ideas to the Council? Time to show your work, or stop stirring the pot.
Finally, I have to say that I’m disappointed at the way we’re dealing with this as a community. In the 14 years I have lived here, I have never seen an issue so divisive as funding these recreation projects. Let’s not make this a zero sum game issue. We still have live and work with each other. It would be beneficial if we all stepped up our interactions online and in the media with a lot more kindness and decorum. We can disagree, let’s not be disagreeable and ugly – we still have to be neighbors when this issue has been resolved.
