We sometimes envision private, for-profit businesses keeping the American economy going. In fact, here in Pagosa Springs, most of the best paid employees are working for local governments…
Category: Opinion/Letters
OPINION: Colorado Democrats Master the Art of Dark Lawmaking
Democrats at the Colorado Legislature are increasingly hostile to open government, and they have learned that they will pay little price for drawing a curtain around their work…
OPINION: Hunters, Anglers Call for Biden to Designate Dolores River National Monument
Protecting intact habitat for mule deer, elk, and desert bighorn sheep is essential for retaining quality sporting opportunities…
EDITORIAL: Two Views of Pagosa’s Future, Part Two
“Colorado House Bill 24-1300 proposed to create a mandatory wildfire certification program. From my cheap seats, I see this as similar to the septic transfer process…”
STRONG TOWNS: The Housing Market is a Bubble Full of Fraud
Prices are artificially high due primarily to the downstream effects of financialization. Localized supply and demand dynamics are a mess…
EDITORIAL: Two Views of Pagosa’s Future, Part One
Over the past couple of decades, forestry professionals have adopted the perspective that periodic wildfire is an essential feature of healthy forests…
EDITORIAL: The Cost of Small Town Government, Part Three
“Well, I will say, although we don’t have a plan fully developed, I was talking to an East End business owner today…”
INTEL FROM THE IVORY TOWER: Do Political Conventions Help Swing a State Toward Their Party?
Four years ago, the Democrats located their convention in my birth city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which was a smart move, as they were able to retake that state that they lost in 2016…
LETTER: Thoughts About the Upcoming Artist Studio Tour, Aug. 23-25
Artists participating in the tour work in virtually every medium of art — ceramics, painting, photography, leather work, sculpture, mosaics, fabric art, glass, resin cast, metal fabrication…
LETTER: Pagosa Kindness, and Honesty
A couple of weeks ago I stopped at Sonic for a milkshake. That evening, I received a text asking if I had lost my wallet and I.D. …
EDITORIAL: The Cost of Small Town Government, Part Two
How to best use the money we have? That’s something we’ll never agree on, even among the town residents who serve on the Pagosa Springs Town Council…
A DIFFERENT POINT OF VIEW: A Quick Refresher on Freedom of Speech in America
As I’ve written before, the United States Supreme Court long ago held “that speakers are protected against all government agencies and officials”…
OPINION: The Collision of Medicaid World Views
The idea that Medicaid is welfare is not the majority view…
EDITORIAL: The Cost of Small Town Government, Part One
The Town of Pagosa Springs has a curiously privileged financial position in our community…
EDITORIAL: A Political Controversy at the County Airport, Part Five
Eighteen years ago, the County knew about fire flow problems at the airport…
OPINION: Wildlife Experts Endorse ‘Cats Aren’t Trophies’ Ballot Measure
“As an Indigenous person concerned with and raised in a framework of right relationship with the natural world, I find trophy hunting and egocentric activity upends nature’s natural balance…”
GROWING PAINS: Thoughts About the Drinking Water Challenges at Elk Park
PAWSD Board Member Gene Tautges, at the public meeting, characterized the PAWSD process as “damn the details, just growth, growth, growth”…
OPINION: Secret to a Better Town? More Places to Sit…
Recently, our city led a public input survey to understand what the public would like to see in a planned downtown redevelopment project…
EDITORIAL: A Political Controversy at the County Airport, Part Four
“So what we have to do now… we’ve got to the point that we’ve built so many hangers, that currently we have only two fire hydrants…”