Letters to the Editor

By ANNA DILLANE
Former CDAB member (2 years)
Homeowner (15 years)
Business owner (20 years)

County Council of Los Alamos, community members and neighbors,

As you probably know, a rewrite of the ordinances that deal with weeds, outdoor storage, property maintenance and “nuisance” is happening right now in our town. A consultant has been hired for this task. Part of the consultant’s job is to gather community input about the code to assess what WE might like changed. One mechanism they have chosen is a community survey.

I took this survey and I am APPALLED. The survey contains questions that are Read More

By BRANDI ENGEMAN
White Rock

Today, Dec. 20, the Community Development Advisory Board will meet and continue discussions on updating the County’s nuisance code. The county recently sent out a survey to gather community feedback on the code.

There were several pictures used to gather feedback in the survey. Whoever gathered these pictures for comparison did so in a completely useless manner. Some were zoomed in photos of “clutter” with no context in regards to where the photos were taken from, while others were zoomed out photos of manicured lawns, driveways, etc. The photos were not obscured Read More

By MELISSA BARTLETT
Los Alamos

I would like to thank Cathy, Ken and all the good folks at Village Arts who helped me do a bunch of framing in the nick of time.

They showed great patience with my requests for “another piece of glass because I broke the first one”, “another backing board because I mis-measured the first one” and the infamous “Help! this painting is warped!”.

They were helpful, skilled, and knowledgeable.

It’s wonderful to have framing help and art supplies available here without having to go to Santa Fe.

Thank you so much, you guys rock! Read More

By DAREN SAVAGE
Los Alamos

This letter is in response to Mike Dempsey’s letter dated Dec. 11, 2021, “Private Home Weed Sales In Los Alamos An Insane Recipe For Disaster” (link). 

Mr. Dempsey mentions all retail cannabis locations in Colorado must have a Sally Port. Most do, but not all because it’s not a legal requirement in Colorado. Sally Ports typically don’t have X-Ray capabilities to see if one has a pistol shoved down one’s pants, nor can they detect one’s intent to rob. I’ve never seen a bank with double steel doors and a guard to judge their customers’ intentions, so I’m not sure what Mr. Dempsey’s Read More

By Dina Pesenson
Vice Chair
Environmental Sustainability Board

Last night (Friday, Dec. 10) the Parks and Recreation Board (PRB) voted to support the ESB motion mentioned in this article.

The ESB passed the motion unanimously at their October meeting and the County Council has graciously chosen to consider it at their meeting next Tuesday Dec 14th. 

Both boards received over 50 individual comments via email and public comment since October, all but two of them in strong support of the motion.

Courtesy photo

Additionally, the League of Women Voters and Pajarito Group of the Sierra Club representing Read More

By DOUGLAS REILLY
Los Alamos

Benjamin Franklin, one of our Founding Fathers, once said “there never was a good war or a bad peace”. General and President Dwight David Eisenhower added, “the people of the world want peace, they want it so bad that someday governments must stand aside and let them have it”.

We could follow a foreign policy such as I’m describing here. Much is being said these days regarding DIVERSITY; this is related to creating a society where everyone has equal opportunities regardless of gender, color, race, ethnicity, faith, or politics. Why not apply this also to our foreign Read More

By ZHEN HUANG
Los Alamos

Since our state legislatures have legalized recreational cannabis as a strategic move to compete for government revenues against other states, it is also necessary to learn some hard lessons from other states.

One must-learn lesson is related to DWI consequences, a serious public safety issue in New Mexico.

According to an AAA research in the case of Washington state, the average number of cannabis-related fatal crashes were more than doubled, a jump from 56 per year to 130 after the legalization. We can expect to see much more fatal crashes in New Mexico as a result of Read More

By Nicolas Bock, PhD
Jasmina Demirovic, PharmD
Los Alamos

To whom it may concern,

We, Nicolas Bock and Jasmina Demirovic, fully support the ESB motion on the restriction of glyphosate use on County land:

• Require pesticide application information (including area to be sprayed and product) to be posted in one designated county website location 72 hours in advance whenever possible or within 24 hours of application for each application and for at least 6 months after the application including the Department of Agriculture Pesticide Application Record for the particular application;
• Stop

Read More

By DAVID HAMPTON
Los Alamos

Dear County Council,

In 2019, Council voted to use a LEDA Grant to give six lots of County-owned land to a developer to create a privately-owned convention center, cafe, and hotel under the Marriott brand at Trinity and 20th.

The contractual deadline for the developer to submit site plans for all aspects of the development is about to expire, and Council must decide how to handle this upcoming crossroads.

While we disagree on many issues, the undersigned members of the Republican Party of Los Alamos, the Democratic Party of Los Alamos, and the Libertarian Party of Read More