Letters to the Editor

Remembering Snowmass' Bill 'Shad' Mencimer

Dear Editor

Originally addressed to Steve Sewell, Aspen Skiing Company

The Mencimer family would like to thank you for refurbishing and relocating the memorial bench for Bill "Shad" Mencimer. I can't tell you the pleasure this has given us, and the delight every time we unload from the "six pack" at the top of Sam's Knob and see the bench.

I understand that Greg Keran and "Mr. Pen" Pederson were the ones who did all of the work and preservation of the bench, and we pass on our thanks to them, too. It's fun to see skiers using the bench, and having it next to the patrol shack is appropriate.

Bill was Patrol Leader on Ajax Mountain in 1965, when Darcy Brown came to our home and asked Bill to head up the Snowmass Ski Patrol. This was two years before the opening in 1967, and Bill accepted the job. The preparations were huge. He laid all the communication lines, ordered all supplies, toboggans and uniforms, built the original patrol shack, hired the first 16 patrollers (no women in those early days), set up schedules and routines, and marked boundaries and obstacles. He had a couple of young men helping him with the labor. And all of this for $3 an hour. He did not run Mencimer Construction during this development period. He said the worse part of the job was the dusty drive on Brush Creek Road each day. And he was proud of what he had accomplished.

Difficult to imagine that this was 40 years ago. Bill died in March, 2003. The inscription on the bench gives his essence: "He loved to ski best!" He started skiing in Aspen in the 1930s, and told of staying at the Hotel Jerome for a dollar including breakfast.

We're so pleased that his memory carries on.

Sally Hume Mencimer

Carbondale

Parental involvement is key to improving schools

Dear Editor,

It is with anger and sadness that I feel that I need to write this letter to help our community see that Rifle High School is not the "Columbine"-comparing, "terrorist"-raising school that some parents believe it to be. I did not attend the Re-2 School Board meeting that was held this past Tuesday night, but I did hear about the many comments and personal attacks that were made by parents and community members. Some of my students who attended this meeting were very angry and upset about the personal attacks that were made toward RHS, its teachers, the school board, and principal Todd Ellis. Many of these students ended up leaving the RHS-bash session before its completion.

What are we teaching our youth today when we can sit in a school board meeting and throw around racial slurs, make generalizations about certain ethnic groups, make comments about how we need to bring back physical violence to discipline our youth, and run away whenever life puts obstacles in front of us? These are the things that we as a staff are working very hard to eliminate from our school, but we cannot do it alone.

I want to use this opportunity to show support for my building principal, Todd Ellis. I do not understand why personal attacks were made toward him. Why is the community pointing fingers at him, when he has done nothing but work to improve RHS since he has been here, as a wonderful teacher, a very influential coach, one heck of a motivational speaker, and now a great administrator? He cares about our students and about their well being. Is our school perfect? No. But unfortunately, it never will be if parents continue to just point fingers at the school system for everything that is wrong with our children today.

The community, parents, and schools must all work together to raise our children. And unfortunately, as a teacher at Rifle High School, I do not feel that there is enough parental involvement in our school to make a change for the better.

Erin Reider

Rifle

Cooper Street parking hurts business

Dear Editor,

I know there are more important issues today, but this one is affecting my sole income, my business on Cooper Street.

The backward parking experiment has caused more problems than I ever thought it would. Every day customers walk into the store complaining about the parking. A common comment is "The parking was bad before, and it's worse now." When I hand them the list of City Council phone numbers to call, they come back and say they were disappointed after talking to them.

Sales have dropped at the For You Shoppe. Many of my regulars don't come in as much as before, and will only park across the street, which is parallel parking.

I have started taking pictures of many of the bizarre situations I've seen on Cooper Street.

My question to City Council is this, "What is your measure?" When there is an experiment, there needs to be a measure to see if it is failing or succeeding. Public opinion would be one measure, I would think. Parking tickets could be another way of measuring how this new parking is going.

When I talk to city employees, many have stated that they are not allowed to complain about it. Does that give you a true measure of failing or succeeding? By listening to only the people who like it, this gives a false measure. Study what an experiment is. Then take a survey of people on the street, locals, and tourists and then you can get the true measure.

I can't believe I am spending time on this issue when people are dying in Iran and other countries. It must be like that quote, "Think Globally, act Locally."

Rachael Windh, M.S.W.

For You Shoppe owner