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Friday letters: Riverview Drive thanks, shrink business, COVID-19 a distraction, responding to McWhorter, clarifying county funding

Riverview Drive thanks

Many thanks to Gould Construction and the city of Glenwood Springs for the excellent work on Riverview Drive. We were kept informed of what to expect and when. Gould Construction was very respectful of property, kept the dust down by watering and did an overall great job of upgrading the street. It is wonderful.

Joyce Yoder



Glenwood Springs

Business cut back



The Aspen Skiing Co. is saying it is short of employees. So are many businesses and public operations, like the schools and the bus system. The traditional reaction is to construct more affordable housing. That new housing must be subsidized with taxpayer money to stay low cost. This causes still more growth.

The smarter and more logical course is to reduce the operations of the ski areas; just like a shorthanded restaurant reduces its hours.

For example, close Buttermilk. Or close Elk Camp. The community can surely get by with a few less acres than the current total of 5,527. That could mean a few less customers all around, and therefore fewer employees required for all the supporting businesses and other operations.

A little less business could mean a little less traffic in and out of town. Less business might mean not building more housing outside town. Less business might mean less pressure on the water supplies. Reducing the skiing business could provide numerous other benefits and actually improve the quality of life for residents.

Especially with the increasing severity of climate change, the old mantra of constant growth really does not make sense. All of our government levels have now pledged to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. We can only get to those goals by reducing the activities that produce a lot of greenhouse gas.

Patrick Hunter

Carbondale

Distractions

A recent letter, “Vaccinate for others,” is based on misinformation, ignorance and fear. The vaccinated letter writer caught COVID-19 and blamed unvaccinated folks.

Being vaccinated does not make you less likely to spread COVID-19 than being unvaccinated. Being vaccinated does not prevent COVID-19 infections, either, it just makes it less likely that you’ll have a severe case of COVID-19.

The politicalization and fear mongering of COVID-19 is only being used to distract us from the miserable failures of the Biden cabal. If they really cared about American lives, hundreds of thousands of unvaccinated and diseased foreigners would not have been allowed to invade our country.

Bruno Kirchenwitz

Rifle

Writer counters

Mr. McWhorter, thank you for your reply to my letter. I was ready to answer all of your questions, but then I re-read your comments and found the answer to anything I wanted to ask were in your inquiries to me.

In your own words, people who have a delta (variant) and happen to have breakthrough infections can carry these really high levels of virus and can unwittingly spread the virus to others. You made my point for me.

Big difference between unwitting transfer and the personal decision to not vaccinate and willfully put others at risk. God blessed us all when we were born or became Americans.

Please, all of us need to act like we deserve that amazing good luck. Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas.

Alan AJ Nieman

Rifle

Responding to McWhorter

In his letter to the Post Independent on Nov. 15, Mr. McWhorter cites several articles to bolster his position. In the world of the internet, there’s an acronym, TLDR. It means, “Too Long, Didn’t Read,” which people tend to do. Thanks for the cites, I read all the articles, and a thorough reading paints a different story. The first article from Bloomberg News, “Truckers cheer vaccine mandate exemption without explicit rule” outlines a possible exemption for truckers who have no contact with others, i.e. drive alone, load and unload alone. I’m fine with that. I also know that many truckers have gladly taken the vaccine. Why jeopardize your livelihood?

As to the second article in the LA Times, called, “Study shows dramatic decline in effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines,” one only has to read a few paragraphs in to see that the effectiveness of the vaccine wanes with time, as many do. However, the article also notes this is why we have boosters of many vaccines. The article states that the boosters bring a longer, more robust immunity against COVID-19. Colorado allowed all adults boosters for COVID-19 after six months, and the CDC quickly followed suit. It’s free and very available. Get it.

Thirdly, a Nature.com article says that vaccinated people who have breakthrough infections are more contagious than unvaccinated people (Nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02187-1). For the first week of infection, one study showed that vaccinated people did carry as high a virus load as an unvaccinated individual, but the virus count drops precipitously in week two. The article states that masks and handwashing remain the most effective way to prevent transmission of COVID-19.

Mr. McWhorter, I voted for science, education and safety for all the children. So did many people. Let’s get this pandemic over with. Wear a mask, wash your hands and, most important, get vaccinated.

Gay E. Moore

Glenwood Springs

Clarifying county funding

We are members of the Garfield County Human Services Commission (HSC) Grant Allocations Committee, and co-chairs, writing in response to a letter published in support of a request made by Valley Meals for funding from the Board of County Commissioners.

Since 1980 a portion of sales tax collected in the county have been dedicated to the HSC grants program, where dollars are awarded every year to nonprofits in the county that are providing vital human services. This most recent 2022 cycle saw the commissioners granting over $550,000 to agencies and organizations.

The grant process is open to every agency that fits within the guidelines of being a 501(c)(3) in good standing with the Colorado Secretary of State and that they provide human services as outlined. The grant applications are posted to the HSC website beginning in early July, and submissions are due middle of August. Agencies do not need to be a part of the HSC to apply for these grant dollars but are asked to present before the BOCC on how the dollars were used.

We want to ensure that all agencies within Garfield County know about this program and that we are always open to helping new applicants with the process. The mission of the Human Services Commission is to bring together nonprofits and other organizations to determine the needs in our county, strengthen the services that are provided, and act as a conduit for networking and coordination. This has been especially needed during the past two years and will be as our organizations move through the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is not the responsibility of the Human Services Commission to voice an opinion on requests for funds outside the scope of the HSC Grant Program, but rather to make known that there is a process in place for all agencies in our county to seek funding for their non-profit through the county.

Mason Hohstadt

co-chair of HSC and Grants Allocation Committee

Jill Pidcock

co-chair of HSC

Pat Horwitz

Grants Allocation Committee

Samantha Freese

Grants Allocation Committee

 

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