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Glenwood Springs, Colorado CO

Residents of Carbondale are being presented with the opportunity to select for positions on Carbondale’s Town Board those individuals who will listen, learn, review, study, consider alternatives and unintended consequences, incorporate needs and plans with those not only of our community but of the communities and lands that surround us, seek balance, and make decisions that will respect both the town’s needs and our dreams and plans for the future.

Demographers tell us that we, in our planning, must consider the impacts of expected growth in our communities and in our wild places that surround us. If we wish to maintain the uniqueness of each community and the values of the lands that surround us, we need elected officials who understand our special cultures and who understand the value of planning for current protection and for future needs.

Bill Lamont has the training, education, experience, values, skill, knowledge and ability to work with all to seek balance and to direct our actions in a positive way that benefits the entire community.



Carbondale and the Crystal River Valley have a special hold on those of us who have a strong sense of place, who choose to live here, who want to preserve and protect those values we share. We need elected officials who understand the vision and who listen, consider and act appropriately. We need Bill Lamont.

Dorothea Farris



Carbondale

I just read Jim Klein’s letter of March 22 about Sandra Fluke’s testimony to Congress, and I want to respond.

I read the whole testimony from start to finish, and nowhere did Ms. Fluke say that she needs contraception so she can have more sex. Nowhere. She talked predominately about the denial of contraception to women who have serious medical problems that are being treated by contraception medication, such as polycystic ovaries and other hormonal issues.

She talked about married couples in law school who could not afford their birth control pills.

Nowhere in the testimony did she ever talk about having so much sex that she couldn’t afford her pills. Birth control is not like Viagra. It does not increase your sexual appetite because you take it. It prevents the uterus from accepting a fertilized cell, allowing planning of a family.

It can help when a woman has polycystic ovaries or fibroids; these are critical medical problems treated often by hormonal therapy. Lack of treatment often results in a serious endocrine problems, hysterectomy, ovarian cancer, bursting ovarian cysts, premature menopause, and death in some cases.

Rush Limbaugh was wrong not only in the treatment of Ms. Fluke, but because he gave out bogus information to a gullible, misinformed public. And as a promoted spokesperson of the Republican Party, which of the Democratic Party Bill Maher is not, Mr. Limbaugh should be held accountable.

Alice Gustafson

Glenwood Springs

We are writing to encourage the citizens of Carbondale to vote for Pam Zentmyer in the upcoming Carbondale trustee election.

Ms. Zentmyer has a proven track record of integrity, intelligence and balance in addressing the issues that have faced the trustees in recent years.

Her views toward future growth are moderate, sustainable and centered around the actual needs of the community. As a trustee, Ms. Zentmyer is responsive to the community as a whole.

So many of us have worked hard for decades to make Carbondale a town known for its volunteer spirit, grassroots community organizing, its many non-profits, green energy building and resources, environmentally friendly practices, and an outstanding town in its support and fostering of the arts and humanities.

Ms. Zentmyer understands all of this and she is committed to preserving and fostering all that makes Carbondale this unique and special place.

She is actively involved and visibly present at many community, nonprofit events and happenings around town. She is tuned in to the spirit and the rhythms of Carbondale. She also understands finance and budgets. Ms. Zentmyer supports and is ready to expand upon existing efforts to promote Carbondale as a tourist destination as a source of economic stability.

Ms. Zentmyer grew up in Carbondale and has many deep-rooted connections to this community. We are all very fortunate that she is on the Board of Trustees and willing to run again. Anyone who has sat through some of the Tuesday trustee meetings knows that everyone on that board is making a very big sacrifice and generous commitment to contribute that service to our community.

Ms. Zentmyer has done a great job as a trustee, and she will continue to do so.

Diane Kenney and John McCormick

Carbondale

We have the opportunity to elect a talented man to the Carbondale Board of Trustees. Bill Lamont has proven that he is a leader, a hard worker and a team player. He is committed to work for our community, our future, our schools, and our children. He knows that working together gets positive results for our community.

As a member of the Re-1 School Board, Mr. Lamont was deeply involved in getting the affordable teacher housing PUD approved by the town. In addition, he worked with others in Re-1 to get the mill levy override approved last November. Mr. Lamont worked to create the development of the joint Carbondale-Re-1 school district ball field plan to create additional soccer and softball fields.

He has been a member of the Garfield County Library Board for 11 years and served on the facilities committee, working with all six towns to design and approve their new libraries. During the last five years he worked on the negotiations and approval for our new $4.8 million library.

He has expertise in the areas of growth, planning and economic stimulation. Professionally he was a planning director for the city of Boulder and the City of Denver. In addition he has been a consultant for a variety of projects in Colorado and other states.

He is committed to Carbondale. He is very approachable, and he will be a willing listener to concerns of the citizens. Mr. Lamont has integrity. Vote for Bill Lamont.

Charlotte Vanderhurst

Carbondale

That’s the title on my fishing license, Colorado State Game and Fish. At Canyon Creek is one of the few decent fishing holes that disabled sportsmen and women used to be able to fish at without killing themselves to get to it. For the older, disabled, crippled or blind, that’s no longer possible to enjoy.

It’s a disgrace that now it’s a very long walk to get to the fishing spot. Someone, with an agenda, has gated off the Canyon Creek fishing holes that Colorado residents have used since dirt roads were there. Who decided the state’s five-ton dividers or gravel pile needed protection?

One would wonder if maybe the new wildlife building may have something to do with this. Yes, it’s railroad right of way. Yes, it’s state property. No, it does not need gated off.

I know of no problems that have ever developed at that site. I even voluntarily pick up trash, as do others. Can anyone give a logical reason for such an action?

If we want to hinder someone, let’s make it the healthy and younger, for the most part. We’ve spent in excess of $2.5 billion that could be better spent elsewhere building bike trails to nowhere, as a health program, I assume. Not one of the thousands who’ve used those trails pays one damned red cent for use.

Fishermen pay $40-plus for a license to access the same areas.

Let’s work toward a bicycle license of $45 a year, to use any bike path, and then gate that sucker off, so it’s unusable. Would that work? If it’s the Colorado River and not a park, why gate it? For the bicycle fans, never have so many paid for so few and received so little in return.

Come on now, fair’s fair. Get that gate down, work on access for the poor people who need help and pay for the privilege. The disabled, aged, and sightless, we too pay and deserve.

Randy Smith

Glenwood Springs

A systematic 10-year effort to acquire Crystal River historic rail parcels and access by the Pitkin County Open Space and Trails (OST) was slowed just a little March 20 by the Carbondale Trustees’ attention to propriety.

The request by the OST and Carbondale biking committee was an attempt to coerce trail access up the Crystal by asking the trustees to reverse their votes of support for the Wexner land exchange, in order to force access from the Wexners. Even a Pitkin County county commissioner registered disapproval of the back-room tactic by open letter.

A Colorado Parks and Wildlife manager, a wildlife biologist, and the Crystal River Caucus presented testimony opposing the OST effort to intrude upon critical wildlife habitat along the rail grade up the east side of the Crystal to Filoha Meadows. The outstanding recreation benefits to the Carbondale community afforded by the generous Wexner land exchange were reviewed, and a majority of the trustees rejected the attempt to undermine their support for the exchange.

It is apparent that the Pitkin County OST effort to acquire land parcels and access along the historic grade are an attempt to dictate the trail alignment prior to wildlife habitat reviews and vetting. Pitkin County OST may have to live with just open space without the impact and intrusion of trail development.

Crystal Valley residents believe that the trail may be appropriately aligned without the loss of watchable wildlife or the view plane of the scenic by-way, through shared decision making.

The Carbondale Trustees and Mayor Stacey Bernot should be extended thanks for their time, patience, and handling of the two-hour ordeal.

Bill Hanks

Redstone

I write concerning the Glenwood Springs Center for the Arts and its high costs of production.

It is my understanding that the city of Glenwood Springs not only backs the center but only charges a few dollars each year for the building, leaving little overhead for the daily programs that are offered, such as the dance program.

So I understand where Suzenne Horwich is coming from in her March 18 letter, wondering why the fees of the dance program are so high.

Now, as far as the dance recital held at the Jeannie Miller Theatre is concerned, I understand this is an added expense. However, doesn’t Glenwood Springs High School waive its fee or give the Arts Center a nonprofit rate for use of the theatre?

Of course, teachers’ salaries need to be paid, and these costs are – what? Are we the public, who have donated money and whose taxes help support the art center, entitled to see the books of the center?

Who in the city oversees the operations for the Center for the Arts? I have called human resources and asked this question and nobody seems to have an answer.

Also, isn’t the Center for the Arts supposed to help and promote artists in the valley? I don’t see them promoting any artists except for the few who work within their inner circle. So it would seem the center has become its own business and supports no one else but itself, which is fine. But let the center reinstate its status from a nonprofit to a for-profit and pay taxes as any other small business has to pay. Just a thought.

GC Snider

Glenwood Springs

I am witnessing what I can only call environmental fatigue in my community. Exhausted debates and stressors have left our community diminished to evaluate a new proposal for environmental destruction in the name of development.

Perhaps the issue is too small for us to fight. There are five living spruce trees located on Third Street in Carbondale that are headed for the chopping block out of sheer short-sighted thinking. These trees represent our cultural and biological heritage.

It is irresponsible for their value to be dismissed because they are trees. Only intelligent planning is needed for them to live. They are among the oldest and largest trees in our town, and in themselves hold hundreds of pounds of carbon dioxide, and provide a number of environmental services to our community.

We face severe deforestation thanks to the little pine beetle, so our senseless sawing of these trees adds insult to injury on our declining arboreal community.

I call for protection of these trees as local heritage treasures to be preserved for future generations. The developer must be called upon to use their extraordinary design skills to find a way for them to be protected. As the Lorax says: I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues.

Sincerely,

Katrina Byars

Carbondale


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