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Letters

  • Helicopters needed

    On Aug. 6, the U.S. lost 30 special forces troops, including 22 Navy SEALS in a helicopter shot down over Afghanistan. These people were the elite of our military who have trained for these missions over many years.
    We have suffered similar losses in prior missions where helicopters loaded with military personnel have been shot down or crashed due to equipment problems.  
    Helicopters are relatively slow moving vehicles, especially the large Chinook helicopters, which operate in close proximity to the ground.  
    They make easy targets for rocket propelled grenades and hand held missile systems. We need missile and RPG counter measure defensive systems to protect our vulnerable helicopters.

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  • Keep an eye on decision process

    Robert Gibson’s Sunday column provides an important frame to view our county’s governance as major decisions are and continue to be made.
    Would that it had wider distribution.
    Prospectively the issue remains to be one of accountability, Of course, the county council is subject to the ballot, but that is really all.
    It strikes me the issue also effects county staff, boards and commissions and even charter review.
    In general, most of these do well most of the time, but the (putative) leadership/public service tension  seems to rise up when “leaders” may hear but don’t seem to listen.

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  • Seven quick comments

    • What is behind this dreadful traffic-circle idea? Leave Trinity Drive alone.
    •The new pavements on the truck route and parts of Rover Boulevard are beautifully done: such skill and care!
    •Again, we thank the folks in the Los Alamos Fire Department, the Los Alamos Police Department and all who serve and protect.
    •The dog-poo-cleanup stations on walking paths in Pajarito Acres are really appreciated: thanks much.
    • The wonderful, huge “gear collage” attached to the new Transfer (eco) Building is terrific: it moves, too.
    •The flower baskets on Central Avenue are really lovely: the trees are too dry.
    •Please reread #1.

    Jody Shepard
    Los Alamos

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  • Let's stop going around in circles

    While attending a local function, I noticed quite a number of people gathered around wanting to sign a petition. I was pleased for the opportunity to participate myself, when I heard it was in opposition to the proposed “Traffic Circles/Roundabouts” on Trinity Drive.
    I personally did not hear anyone coming forward with praise for their excellent past experiences with traffic circles. At that function and since however, I have heard and read numerous astute insights into why “If It Ain’t Broke Don’t Fix It” illustrated.
    I then began thinking back myself to when I grew up in southern California and found myself and my car pool buddy commuting from the South Bay Area to Long Beach State College.

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  • Find your voice

    I would like to recount for you my most recent medical circumstances that prompted me to write this letter, so here goes ... I started feeling like I was coming down with something on Sunday, Aug. 7 … nothing dramatic, just tired, and headachy. I came to work on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday still felling a little puny.
    Wednesday just before 5 p.m. I really started to feel bad, added to my already feeling of puny, I developed a severe pain going from my chest to my back — straight through.
    Thursday morning I awoke to pain from the top of my head to soles of my feet. I decided to take my temperature and it registered 101.7.

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  • Put safety above all else

    Recently I read in the Los Alamos Monitor where the county is spending even more money than it already has on the issue of studying the “need” of narrowing Trinity Drive and adding roundabouts.  
    Recently, I also read in the Los Alamos Monitor an article about human stupidity by John Pawlak. In the past 11 years, Los Alamos has had to evacuate twice because of forest fires. The  fire of 2000 started because of lack of logic/common sense. What happens if another disaster should hit Los Alamos and the need for evacuation.  Right now Trinity Drive is the only town street that has four lanes leading directly out of Los Alamos.  

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  • Abandon the plan to tear up Trinity Drive

    Roundabouts or not, the tearing up and rebuilding of Trinity Drive for a multi-year project will destroy those few small businesses, which still exist downtown, because the lab traffic will migrate to the truck route and Pajarito Road, bypassing the downtown business district altogether.   
    Choking Trinity to two lanes to make room for a bicycle lane may be politically correct, but it will be the economic death for the struggling Los Alamos retail community. We’ve already lost one of our favorite local stores, Cook’n in Style, and several other small businesses are on the ropes.

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  • Stop sensationalizing family tragedy

    Freedom of the press is very important. Freedom of the press used to sensationalize a family tragedy to sell papers cannot be prevented, but I strongly object.
    The front-page headline and story in Wednesday’s Los Alamos Monitor compels me to object for these good people, friends, whose families have been in Los Alamos for generations, object in compassion for the mentally ill, object over endless rehashing of the story.
    Others feel the same, as well they should. Enough already.  

    Sue King
    Los Alamos

     

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  • Not willing to let Trinity endanger kids

    As a biker, I am more than willing to avoid Trinity Drive during rush hours. As a taxpayer, I am appalled at the money we are throwing at this proposed redesign. As a parent, I would NOT allow my precious young children to cross this road at any time.
    There is nothing they need on that side of the road. Older children have the crosswalks. The hidden agenda of this redesign appears to be to make Trinity Drive so slow that morning and evening traffic will use the truck route or Pajarito Road.

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  • Seeing regular folks become heroes

    On June 27, normal life stopped for all of us in Los Alamos because of the Las Conchas Fire.  
    As residents abandoned their homes to escape the fire, the firefighters of Los Alamos, including my daughter’s fiance, left their families to rush into harm’s way.  
    During the first hours of the fire, the men and women who make up the Los Alamos Fire Department provided a protective barrier between Los Alamos and the fast moving fire.
    There were no Hot Shots, helicopters with water buckets or planes with slurry, just the firefighters and personnel from Los Alamos County, making their stand by downing trees and making a barrier in order to try to get control of the direction of the fire.

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