Letters to the Editor

By JOSHUA MUCK
Los Alamos

Last night, County Council voted in favor of passing the Chapter 18 Nuisance Code with a 4-3 vote. Scott, Izraelevitz, Derkacs and Lepsch voted in favor, leaving Hand, Reagor and Ryti voting against adopting the new code.

It is amazing to me that the four individuals that voted to pass the code completely ignored the voices of their constituents. In my public comment at last night’s meeting, I made a challenge that anyone who supports the code as it is written get up and speak. That never happened. Instead, there were multiple citizens from all political views sounding off Read More

By ROBER D. DAY
Los Alamos

I am writing this letter to express my appreciation for all of the concerned citizens who attended the County Council meeting last night on the Chapter 18 rewrite.

Many of the attendees stated that they had never attended a Council meeting before; this demonstrates their level of concern: that they would not only show up for the meeting, but also overcome the common public speaking anxiety to let their concerns be known. I am thankful to Aaron Walker who was able to get his petition on the Council Agenda so there was opportunity for significant public debate before the Council Read More

By a group of concerned citizens
Los Alamos

Signed, in their individual and private capacity, by the following:

James Wernicke, Bruce Warren, Carrie Walker, Erin Tatge, Richard Skolnik, Eduardo Santiago, David Rutherford, Barbara Royer, Reid Priedhorsky, Josh Muck, Heather Muck, Antonio Maggiore, Anna Llobet, Cynthia Little, Terry Jones, Will Hutchison, Charlene Hutchison, Kevin Holsapple, Galen Gisler, Brandi Engeman, Margie Bruell, Katie Bruell, Chris Bruell and Susan Barns.

Now that local elections are over, we suggest that the community focus important attention on improving Read More

By MARK DEVOLDER
Los Alamos

I saw an internet article recently about Chile’s Atacama Desert (the driest desert in the world) serving as the world’s dumping ground.

For example, tons of “fast fashion” clothing and automobiles are discarded there. I don’t see an economical way to ship a used Chevy fender to the US from Chile. Locals in Chile find a way to obtain (pilfer?) clothing and sell it in various market locations. China has mountains of discarded plastic beverage bottles. Vietnamese workers sit around pots of molten solder and remove electronic components from discarded printed circuit Read More

By JOHN E. PEARSON
Los Alamos

The county is paying biobot to monitor our waste water for covid. https://biobot.io/data/#county-35028

Biobot tracks the amount of covid in the water and sequences it to track the prevalence of the circulating strains. Biobots variant prevalences are highly discrepant with the CDC’s Region 6 variant prevalences?

Indeed the primary variants circulating in Region 6 are BF and BQ, which Biobot does not appear to be tracking anywhere. At least I couldn’t find any state where Biobot reported the BF and BQ variants.

The CDC data can be seen by selecting Region 6 at Read More

Read More

By GALEN GISLER
Los Alamos

Los Alamos County is at last on the threshold of adopting a new lighting ordinance, which should make it possible for our community to join our neighbor, the Valles Caldera National Preserve, as one of 200-plus internationally recognized Dark Sky Places (see the website of the International Dark-Sky Association — www.darksy.org).

The new lighting ordinance under consideration is part of the massive rewrite of the County’s Development Code, which will be considered by the County Council in a public hearing starting at 6 p.m. this coming Wednesday, Nov. 30.

The lighting Read More

By ROBERT D. DAY  
Los Alamos

I am writing this letter to express a concern, and to alert the public to this concern, that I have with the Chapter 18 rewrite of the Los Alamos County Code.

I am a member of the Community Development Advisory Board (CDAB), but my comments in this letter are my own – I am not speaking for the Board in an official capacity.

To give some background: The Los Alamos County Code is the compilation of the legal statutes that are specific to Los Alamos County. Chapter 18 is the portion of this Code entitled “Environment” and Article II of this chapter is entitled “Nuisances.” Read More

By AARON WALKER
White Rock

There is a petition that is going in front of Council on the 29th, and I want to get the word out about it.

The petition is asking the Council to make sure that it is getting community feedback on the Chapter 18 nuisance code “final draft” before deciding on it and before deciding the fate of the Community Development Advisory Board.

The “final draft” that is up for the public to view doesn’t incorporate all the recommendations of CDAB. This leaves a large chunk of the nuisance code up in the air. How is the public supposed to understand what is going to be voted on if there is no true Read More

BY REID PRIEDHORSKY
Walnut Street

Dear citizens:

I remain disappointed by the county’s golf course planning process. It has been needlessly divisive, causing conflict between user communities that are very open to compromise.

No user community wants a fancy destination golf course, nor a fancy driving range, nor an extensive rebuild. The golf community’s priorities, from talking with them, are resolving deferred maintenance, mitigating the safety issues that are real, and minimizing downtime due to construction. The conservation community’s priority is to minimize (preferably eliminate) Read More