Letters to the Editor

By EVAN ROSE
Los Alamos

Los Alamos County offers compost to “residents and non-residents”. The “compost is comprised of 25% bio solids (waste sludge from Los Alamos County Wastewater Treatment Plant), 25% stable waste (horse manure from the LAC stables), and 50% yard trimmings (tree trimmings, leaves, grass clippings, etc. collected at the Eco Station).”

I have read a couple of articles indicating that waste sludge spreads PFA’s and that PFA’s are dangerous to the environment and health. New York Times, 31 August 2024, “Something’s Poisoning America’s Land. Farmers Fear ‘Forever’ Chemicals.” Read More

By JOHN PAWLAK
Member
UNM-LA Advisory Board

I really love this town. When I moved to Los Alamos County twenty years ago, I was awe-struck by a myriad of wonders. The hypnotic blue sky. Distant mesas painting the horizon with organic colors. Incredible desert flora blanketing the landscape. For an escapee from New Jersey, it was nothing short of magical.

Oh, and of course, the seductive aroma of roasting green chile in late summer!

As a fervent follower of the rigors of mathematical order, I was equally impressed by our community’s sense of pride in its educational  structure. A friend introduced Read More

By RANDALL RYTI
Los Alamos

I watched the local premiere of the documentary film “First We Bombed New Mexico” as part of the Oppenheimer Film Festival at the SALA Event Center on Aug. 17, 2024. This documentary tells the powerful story of the impacts of the Trinity Site atomic weapon blast on the people living in the Tularosa Basin.

If you are not familiar with this history, I encourage attending one of the showings of this film over the next two weekends – Aug. 22-24 or Aug. 29-31. You can also visit the website for the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium (www.trinitydownwinders.com). 

There has Read More

By DENISE DERKACS
Chair
Los Alamos County Council

Mr. Schmiedicke:

On behalf of Council, I thank you for sharing your comments on the Metropolitan Redevelopment Area (MRA) public commission proposed in the petition presented by Lisa Shin (link).

In addition to the information shared by County Manager Laurent (link), let me add the following:

First, Council values and always seeks public input in its decision-making. All decisions on collaborative developments within either MRA will be made in public meetings with ample opportunities for public input and deliberative consideration. Read More

Dear Mr. Schmiedicke,

I am not responding to your letter for Council, but here are a few facts about our MRA Districts that may be helpful.

• • • • • Except for public roads/sidewalk, the County does not currently have ownership of properties within either the White Rock MRA or the Downtown Los Alamos East MRA areas. Any timelines of development are not within the County’s control.
        • MRAs can help define how public dollars could be considered to be used in a private development, but any allocation requires a public process for approval that allows for the public to weigh in. Just owning land within a MRA District

Read More

By ALLEN SCHMIEDICKE
Los Alamos

I was disappointed that the county council made the decision not to accept Lisa Shin’s petition to create a separate MRA (Metropolitan Redevelopment Area) commission.

This is what I took away from this meeting:

1. 1. 1. 1. 1. You do not want to listen to your constituents.
            2. You certainly do not want to listen to small business owners.
            3. You want to keep the MRA under your thumb so that you can keep control on all aspects of the MRA.

1. 1. 1. 1. 4. You want to be able to move fast on any decision, good or bad, without having to listen to outside voices.

I think the County Council needs to reconsider their Read More

By TERRY GOLDMAN
Los Alamos

I’m no movie reviewer but I saw the Richland documentary at The Lodge and recommend it to all. The film maker spared no effort to represent the patriotism, ignorance, narrow-mindedness and self-centered features of all those involved, from those who worked at Hanford, lived and grew up in Richland, the displaced indigenous people to the Japanese visitor. It was appalling to learn how little historical knowledge as well as the lack of depth or breadth of thought and understanding was displayed by the various people recorded.

The brightest spot was the historical clip Read More

By TERRY GOLDMAN
Los Alamos

The underlying theme that I extracted from reading Barbara Smith’s Op-Ed (link) is that things are great here in Los Alamos, so why should we do even minor things that contribute to the benefit of Americans living elsewhere in the country? (Let alone the world!)

I know that many Americans view themselves as strictly individuals rather than citizens of a nation who benefit from government and its restraints on crime including fraud and many other things such as a reliable and safe monetary system. Hence they see no reason to be required to contribute to the general welfare. Read More

By TERRY GOLDMAN
Los Alamos

John Buchser inadvertently makes a strong argument FOR “the proposed new power line connecting to the Norton substation just west of Santa Fe” (link).

If the new line uses the new design conductors, the electrical delivery capacity to LANL (and Los Alamos) will not only be more than doubled, at comparable or modestly higher cost to the reconductoring that he proposes, it will also provide much needed redundancy to our power supply.

While I am sympathetic to the desire to preserve pristine landscapes, this seems like an opportunity for the County that should not be passed Read More

By KATHLEENE PARKER
White Rock

Strange. A Daily Post article mentions Los Alamos County Council approving a revised animal-code ordinance. Why did I suddenly have a feeling of dread?

The words, the ordinance “modifies…sterilization requirements,” were most concerning. Also, why passage of this ordinance as a citizen’s advisory committee recommendation of a few years ago—that the shelter be removed from police-department authority—remains ignored, or perhaps just swept under the rug? Perhaps that continued police paradigm in shelter management—rather than national shelter standards Read More