Re: travel bans

Letter writer Gary Pax (March 4) worries about banning Texas visitors, because Texas isn’t forcing healthy people to wear masks, whose protection of the wearers is dubious at best.

Funny how liberals ignore the thousands of diseased COVID-19-carrying foreigners Tsar Joey is enticing to and releasing into our country. 

---

---

During a pandemic with millions of U.S. citizens unemployed, our benighted president opens our borders to the world. How globally conscious of him.

Of course, Joey doesn’t have any ulterior motives, like turning millions of illegal aliens into Democrat voters. Nikita Kruschev was right, we will destroy ourselves from within.

---

---

Bruno Kirchenwitz

Rifle

Applauding South Bridge decision

In the March 5 issue of your paper I was pleased to learn of the 1934 presence of the Civilian Conservation Corps in Glenwood, one of whose tasks was to improve the Glenwood Springs Municipal Airport. 

In the same issue I was glad to learn that 87 years later the City Council had decided to tunnel under the runway to accommodate a new roadway connection from Midland to Highway 82. 

I applaud the council for making the right decision. Glenwood needs both a new highway connection and the airport.

James Breasted

Carbondale

Beware of overdevelopment

When I was on council back in 2000, we felt that the South Bridge should be a “Garfield County Project,” and I still feel that way today. But that is history now. 

The developers are lining up to make the Four Mile corridor as the next big area of development. I have concerns for the overdevelopment in the valley when it comes to our water supply in the future. With the projects that are already on the drawing board, when will the city and county look into just how much supply is forecast for the future. 

This area seems to be on the “Extreme Drought Area List” in recent years. Where is the concern by the city or county that our infrastructure will not be able to handle this surge of development? The citizens of Glenwood are being asked to accept increases in their water rates to cover the cost of getting the No Name water source back in working order and improvements in our existing water system. This means that we, the citizens, will have to pay for encouraging future development.

My other question is how much of the roughly $60 million for the bridge will be borrowed money and how will it affect the city’s future borrowing power for needed projects now and in the future.

The last time I checked, tourism was our main source of revenue, not housing Aspen’s work force. This is a very narrow valley we live in, and to build on every piece of vacant land, whether it be the “Confluence Area,” West Glenwood or on the side of our mountains, will only make our traffic problems greater and an extra burden on our infrastructure. 

How long do you think it will be before more of our commuting neighbors from the west will realize from Exit 114 along Midland Avenue to the South Bridge, there are only two signal lights impeding their drive to Highway 82.

This is not a “Closing the Door Behind You” outlook but one of common sense about our way of life here that we all love and want to preserve.

Don “Hooner” Gillespie

Glenwood Springs

White elephants

Carbondale has a white elephant sitting near the roundabout. Apparently a hold-up on the money. A white elephant is a gift you don’t need. Usually you give it to somebody else. Maybe we could give this building to Rifle. 

But wait, there are more buildings that will replace the venerable Sopris Shopping Center just to the north — 70 apartments and 10,000 square feet of commercial. Behind them are more mini-
warehouses, heated and cooled to make their Aspen customers’ furniture and art comfortable.

I said I would bring up some more issues with these buildings. If you saw the rendering of the Highway 133 side elevation you would see that the roofs on the apartments are tipped in every direction accept south. You may not know it, but there is kind of a thing going on in Carbondale about trying to cut back on greenhouse gas emissions. That’s the stuff that comes out of natural gas fired boilers and water heaters. We passed a “plan” in 2017 that says we have to cut all that by 50% in 2030. Never mind that no town anywhere has ever done anything like that, at least on purpose. A south facing roof, by the way, can accept solar collectors that can be used to eliminate natural gas. Even a flat roof. Lots of buildings have flat roofs. 

Another topic is the location of 70 apartments right on Highway 133. Yes, people do that all over. But the main problem is that it is not healthy. Research shows that people are subject to everything from asthma to heart and mental problems. Especially children. Plus, you have to listen to traffic noise, which is only going to get worse. The developer could easily have pushed the buildings back where the new mini storage is planned and put the open space and parking in front. Just like almost every other building on 133. 

And, by the way again, the best way to use solar energy to save heating expenses is to face the buildings to the south, not to the west. They had plenty of room. City Market could have done the same and saved themselves a ton. And we wouldn’t have to look at that ugly building with the little dog houses on it. More to come. 

Patrick Hunter

Carbondale