Letters to the Editor

By LYNN HANRAHAN
Los Alamos

The problem with letting trees grow, open spaces remain just that, and not trying to become Moab is that no one has anything to do.

Councilors who have served several terms don’t have much to write on their life achievement lists. Various committees start to get bored and cranky. County departments don’t spend enough money on surveys, private consultants, wreaking havoc and so forth meaning they might ultimately face budget cuts. They did nothing.

Insisting we are an under resourced backwater is how to get heard. We need this, that, and the other thing to be relevant, Read More

By KATIE BRUELL
Los Alamos

People in Los Alamos love our trails and open space. This has been confirmed in survey after survey—most recently in the Community Services Department’s Integrated Community Services Master Plan survey.

Ninety-three percent of respondents use our trails. Ninety-six percent use our parks and open spaces (it would have been nice to have those separated in the survey, since open space is different from developed parks). Notably, only 31 percent use the golf course.

Overall, trails got a 4.6 out of 5 rating on the question “How important are the following facilities Read More

By Ganapathy Subramaniam Gopinathan
Los Alamos

Mailboxes with house numbers outside houses on the road to be served by postal vans seem to be the normal order in the USA postal system, which is a laudable one indeed.

However as a newcomer I find in some streets in Los Alamos plenty of houses DO NOT have such mailbox necessitating postal delivery personnel to drive their vehicle, stop at every few seconds, get down and walk further to deliver mail, thereby spending extra labor and time and getting them physically tired also.

As a humane gesture why cannot it be made mandatory for every house to have Read More

By KIRA BUDGE
White Rock

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, the disability community has known that death is not the only risk people face. Viral and bacterial infections can cause lasting and sometimes permanent symptoms. I myself developed life-changing chronic pain from the 2009 H1N1 swine flu when I was a teen.

Today, medical research recognizes “long COVID” as a serious problem. Estimates vary, but the CDC found that about 20% of infections lead to long-term symptoms—and people are getting infected over and over because of the virus mutating. These symptoms can be nightmarish and include Read More

By DENNIS LITTLE 
Los Alamos

In letters from Wendy Ann Kreutz Clayton (Letter) and Daren Savage (Letter), complaints were made about a new law requiring businesses to provide sick leave for employees working at least 30 hours per week.

My question to you is why should this even need to be mandated? EVERY person gets sick occasionally. For those not making that much money (and this is who is affected most by this law), they frequently come in sick and spread it around to their co-workers and your customers. 

Had it not been for my father being retired military before he passed away (I was 1.5 years old Read More

By DAREN SAVAGE
Los Alamos

Thought Covid was bad for local private businesses? Chris Chandler has taken a page out of Commifornia’s playbook to drive another stake through the heart of local businesses. Talk about a self-inflicted wound! Remember Los Alamos, you re-elected Chandler.

The Healthy Workplaces Act (House Bill 20 link).

In a nutshell, the law requires all private employers, regardless of size, to allow New Mexico employees to accrue 1 paid hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked. Guess who pays for it? The same person you see in the mirror every morning private employers.

Choices Read More

By MARK DEVOLDER
Los Alamos

1. I was pleased to hear that LAPD is putting more police officers in the field.  Unfortunately, more police officers in the field is a mitigative control and is not a preventive control. Constant monitoring of Los Alamos County driver behavior, reporting of adverse driver behavior, and periodic retesting / retraining of drivers is the only path forward to an improvement in driver behavior. Reducing distractions while driving would help too (for example, cell phone / iphone use, scolding the kids in the back seat of the minivan, combing one’s hair, using map features