Dear Editor,When I moved from my hometown Glenwood Springs to my wonderful home in Rifle, I was sad, but it was a move that healed my broken heart. I have never felt such love and friendship. To the people of Rifle, your town is changing before our very eyes. The sleepy little town is no longer sleeping. Don’t lose your charm please! You greeted me with candy for Christmas, flowers for my garden, comfort and security. Dear neighbors, thank you for your love and welcome. Where else can you board your horse in town, attend a rodeo one block from home? Have breakfast with the cowboys at the local cafe, get help with your 100 projects for your 100-year-old home like the boys at Tim’s Tools gave me? I can get vegetables from your gardens, advice from you local ladies, smiles and a tip of the hat from the boys. To the cowboys and cowgirls who have made me family, I just can’t say “thank you” enough. Thanks for my heating repaired for free, my weeds whipped for cookies, the swamp cooler given to me from my personal “Handy Ma’am.”Rifle is booming like the old days of oil shale. I know you survived that one and I will stand by you all while we survive this one too. The new gal in town,Lori BennettRifle

Dear Editor,I am writing in regards to the letter, “Sheriff could have found experienced cavers.”I believe that the sheriff and the rest of the Garfield County law enforcement did their job right.The two people who went hiking in Hubbard Cave should have known what they were doing before they went. They had only clothes on their backs and a single flashlight.I think the things that were said should not have been said. The sheriff knew what his job was. And in the process of doing his job, he saved two people’s lives. So I give a thumbs up to the sheriff and the staff that helped on that day.Dana CanterburyRifle

Dear Editor,For those who were “insulted, repulsed and sickened” by the Peace Coalition ad for the 9-11 memorial, I would like to offer for your consideration part of a statement released on 9/11/03 by September 11th Families For Peaceful Tomorrows. (For their full message, go to http://www.notinourname.net.)”Last year at this time, President Bush used the occasion of the one year commemoration of our loved ones’ deaths to begin a marketing campaign to sell the war against Iraq. Despite the lack of a link between Saddam Hussein and the events of 9/11, the Bush administration’s insinuations of a connection played upon the public’s fears of 9/11 and led the country into an unnecessary war in Iraq, invoking our loved ones’ deaths as justification. “While the deceptions behind the stated reasons for going to war are coming to light, ordinary Iraqis and U.S. soldiers in Iraq continue to suffer, with the death toll mounting every day. “Today we pause to mourn the Iraqi dead and all the casualties of the war, and to call upon our leaders to bring our troops, who have put their lives on the line, safely home from this misguided mission and to turn control of Iraq’s rebuilding to the authority of the United Nations.”Jim Chenoweth New Castle

Dear Editor,In her Options cover story Sept. 12, Donna Daniels stated that the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad discontinued service in the Roaring Fork Valley in 1948. This is incorrect.In the summer of 1966 I worked for the Pitkin County surveyor, whose office was in the basement on the north side of the courthouse which looked out on the D&RGW Railroad yard. Every Wednesday, a D&RGW train delivered lumber to the lumberyard, which at that time was located in the railroad yard. Also, until the early 1970s the railroad hauled iron ore from the Pitkin Iron yard in Woody Creek. Then, of course, in the 1980s the coal trains ran regularly from Carbondale.Not so fast, Donna.Sincerely,Jim BreastedCarbondale