It does take a lot to be heard, and to alter the course of things…
Category: Opinion/Letters
EDITORIAL: County Clarifies the Gravel Pit Rules and Public Hearing Protocols, Part Two
According to a search on the County Assessor’s website, all of the (rather large) properties immediately adjacent to the Oakbrush Hill site are zoned ‘Agricultural Ranching’… except for one property zoned “Agricultural Estate”…
EDITORIAL: Steep Drop in Pagosa COVID Cases Since Mid-January
As we see, the peak of confirmed infections on a single day took place on January 12, 2022, when SJBPH reported 54 cases in Archuleta County…
OPINION: Prescribed Burning a Second-Class Option
According to wildfire forensics reported for hundreds of wildfires at InciWeb, the predominant fuel in a majority of western wildfires is grass and brush, which is now overgrown virtually everywhere in western states…
EDITORIAL: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly… Housing Solutions… Part Four
Fortunately, Rose Mountain is nothing like the monstrous, crime-ridden ‘public housing projects’ that were constructed in urban areas during the 1950s and 1960s…
LETTER: Another Hill We Climb
I’m also a proud veteran, but regardless of veteran status, I consider most Americans to be humble, patriotic and anti-war…
EDITORIAL: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly… Housing Solutions… Part Three
“We did this because we care. Despite our community knowing for many years that this is a community-wide problem, nothing has materialized as a solution….”
HMPRESENTLY: ‘A Harmonious Effect’
About that problem on the planet he’d mentioned, and his hopes for the future…
EDITORIAL: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly… Housing Solutions… Part Two
The Archuleta Board of County Commissioners had a number of real estate decisions on their agenda on Tuesday. Three of them were tucked into the so-called ‘consent agenda’…
LETTER: Fixing a Broken Housing Market
The funds raised by Ballot Question A would augment the workforce housing fund the Town has already put in place…
EDITORIAL: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly… Housing Solutions… Part One
“It’s a sobering moment, and it’s not something that I ever thought we would do, but I believe we’re almost delaying the inevitable…”
HMPRESENTLY: Owies… and the Fog and Folly of War
But soldiers are supposed to be tough, you know…
LETTER: Party of ‘We the People’ Discriminates Against Us, the People
Earlier this summer, before I decided to run for Sheriff, Marilyn Harris invited me to attend a meeting, one of many happening throughout the state…
OPINION: The Court of Ecological Awareness
The suit, which seeks not money but a court ruling declaring the state’s relationship with the fossil fuel industry to be unconstitutional, points out: “Children are uniquely vulnerable to the consequences of the climate crisis…”
EDITORIAL: The Gravel Pit, and the Pendulum, Part Four
When I spoke with members of the ‘Stop the Rocks’ citizen group last week, some of them were not aware that the pending gravel pit decision by the Planning Commission, on February 23, is merely advisory…
EDITORIAL: Public Notices on Valentine’s Day
It’s been challenging for our 600 hotel and motel rooms to compete with the 3,000 ‘vacation rental’ bedrooms in Archuleta County…
HMPRESENTLY: Love in a Sometimes Opprobrious World
One thing that isn’t getting stigmatized, right around Valentine’s Day, is candy…
OPINION: USDA Now Requires Some Bioengineered Foods to be Labeled
More than 90% of U.S.-grown corn, soybeans and sugar beets are genetically modified…
EDITORIAL: The Gravel Pit, and the Pendulum, Part Three
In his short story from 1843, Edgar Allan Poe’s hero was strapped to a table in a rat-infested dungeon… beneath a massive, razor-sharp blade that swung back and forth like a pendulum…