OP/ED

Op-Ed: Response To Gurule And Ryti Letters

by

By ELLEN WALTON
Los Alamos

In response to Nov. 14 letters from Robin Gurule (link) and Randall Ryti (link) on state of public properties in Los Alamos:

First, I hope that everyone will attend the public hearing on Wednesday, Nov. 30 at 6 p.m. in Council Chambers to voice their concerns regarding the rezoning and plans for a developer-based comprehensive plan in our County.

Second, Robin Gurule is correct in her statements from Nov. 14, and I am in agreement with her letter about the lack of maintenance and poor planning for the growth of our communities. I can personally refute Council Chair Ryti’s Read More

Op-Ed: Thank You Los Alamos Interfaith & Community

by

By FARID SHARIFI
Albuquerque

I hope this letter finds you all well. My name is Farid Sharifi and I am the programs director for Albuquerque office. With the recent burglary of our storage facility, we were devastated to learn that the perpetrators had taken so many items from our storage unit.

The items that were stolen included winter coats, jackets, hats, gloves and beddings amongst other things. The loss of winter clothing was especially hard to bear knowing the winter weather was upon us and so many families that had recently arrived would be left without this vital support.

Upon communicating Read More

Op-Ed: LANL Potentially Jeopardizes Local Childcare Businesses

by

By Los Alamos And White Rock Site Childcare Providers

In late September, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) officials met with local childcare owners and directors to announce that the University of California, one of the Triad National Security parent organizations, has committed $500,000 in initial funding for the planning of a potential off-site child care facility in Los Alamos for Triad employees.

A lack of adequate childcare resources was identified as a key challenge facing the Laboratory in attracting and retaining talented staff. They also announced that a possible location Read More

Op-Ed: As Small Business Owners In Los Alamos, We Are Voting Democrat

by

By DAVID SAYRE
CTO/Cofounder Attack Research LLC

By TADEUSZ RAVEN
CEO/Cofounder Attack Research LLC

As small business owners, we support the current Democratic platform over the Republican platform for the reasons discussed below:

Healthcare

The current healthcare system favors big business over small or single owner business. Big business gets extremely favorable group pricing, custom group plans, and have dedicated healthcare representatives. One in six people are staying in jobs solely on the fear of losing and being unable to obtain healthcare coverage. When the founding partners Read More

DeVolder: Los Alamos Bus Service – Evenings & Weekends

by

By MARK DEVOLDER
Los Alamos

I can understand when an infant cries they might want a bottle of milk. However, a little more homework (analysis) is needed when someone living in Los Alamos County submits a proposal for bus service on evenings and weekends.

A simple analysis is not beyond the capability of an average high school student. Of course, it is always easier to sit around and say “give me this and give me that.”

The following is a simple framework for analysis purposes.

Bus Service Description – A description of the requested bus service needs to address the capacity / size of the bus, potential Read More

Op-Ed: Higher Density Housing Is Water-Wise

by

By STEPHANIE NAKHLEH
Los Alamos

For a lot of reasons, proposals to increase the stock of high-density, affordable housing in any town are always met with opposition by some residents. Some of the reasons are terrible, and I just wrote a letter about that. But some opposition follows much more reasonable lines, such as this worry about water resources.

Before we tackle water, let’s examine the implicit, possibly unconscious argument behind all opposition, which is that Los Alamos shouldn’t increase its population or its stock of housing, but should stay the same or shrink. That’s a perfectly Read More

Hanrahan: The Most Beautiful House In The World

by

By LYNN HANRAHAN
Los Alamos

I grew up in the most beautiful house in the world. It was built in the latter part of the nineteenth century as a lodge for the Ancient Hibernian Society — I always mean to look them up. Anyhow, for a long time it served as shelter for the Irish new to America.

A century and a half came and went and in the summer of 2002, I found myself alone with two toddlers there for the month of April trying to think what to keep. It was a gorgeous month filled with trips to the lake, endless tornado warnings, and all the blossoms which make Southern Ohio lovely. I got practically nothing Read More

McKerley: A Golden Opportunity

by

By BILL MCKERLEY
Chair
Republican Party of Los Alamos

We are blessed to live in a great community with many opportunities and resources. We also have a number of challenges that require steady, focused and conservative leadership. We are fortunate to have three outstanding, conservative candidates running for County Council.

Sharon Dry, Reggie Page and Gary Stradling will provide strong leadership and practical solutions to issues facing Los Alamos County. They are longtime residents who have reared families here. They love the community and know its strengths and problems.

The next County Read More

Chandler: Best Practices…

by

By GEORGE CHANDLER
Los Alamos

The takeaways from this article are three:

(1) The parking requirements in the new development code appear woefully short of Los Alamos on-the-ground reality, and unsupported by any relevant evidence;

(2) The character of many Los Alamos single-family neighborhoods is now vulnerable to an uncontrolled proliferation of Accessory Dwelling Units (ADU); and

(3) otherwise the new code is pretty good and a long overdue replacement for the previous hodge-podge that was Chapter 16 of the County Code.

The last year-and-a-half I have met every week or two with a “Steering Read More

Op-Ed: To Revitalize Our Town, Update The Code

by

By STEPHANIE NAKLEH
Planning & Zoning Commissioner
Los Alamos County

This week the Los Alamos County Council and the Los Alamos County Planning & Zoning Commission have had the amazing opportunity to give our input into the long-anticipated update of the Los Alamos County Chapter 16 Development Code. Does it sound boring? It’s not. These decisions have a direct impact on questions like “What the heck is going on with the old Smith’s” and “What the heck will go up where the Hilltop House is coming down” and “Why the heck don’t we have anyone to staff anything around here” and “Where the heck Read More