No double voting
The Carbondale Historical Society received an email from local octogenarian Pauline Bowles who wished to explain the reason Martha Witchey was holding a needle in the 1974 election photo printed on page 24 of the April 11th issue of The Sopris Sun. Bowles said she was a Basalt election official around that time and that the method of verifying votes and preventing double voting was to string together a piece of paper received from each voter. At the end of the day, the ballots were counted and had to match the number of pieces of paper on the string.
Sue Gray
Carbondale Historical Society
SANA gives thanks
On behalf of the Safe and Abundant Nutrition Alliance (SANA), we’d like to extend our sincerest gratitude for the continued support of this newspaper and initiatives that promote equity and combat food insecurity in our community.
The work of introducing these important causes is crucial for us, and for that, on this occasion, we wish to spotlight an essential aspect of our community work: our volunteers. With their dedication and commitment, they have been pillars in our fight against food insecurity, demonstrating that positive change is possible when we work together.
In recognition of their invaluable contribution, we’d like to share with you the names of those whose generosity and effort have made a significant difference toward our mission.
They are: (from Parachute) Aurelia Romero, Martha Ruiz, Gloria Munoz, Rosalba Rodriguez, (from Rifle) Norma Alvarez, Gabriel Torres, Blanca Lopez, Lourdes Villalpando, Rosy Merino, Elena Alfaro, Martha Cruz, Alejandra Sandoval, Leonardo Silva, Barbarita SanPedro, Miriam Avalos, Gerardo Osorio, (from Glenwood Springs) Armando Rangel, Pilar Lopez, Isabel Almedia, Bismar Lopez, Dora Vivían, Vicente Andrés Hernández, Ivonne Martínez, Dora Elizabeth Berber, Verenice Castillo, Yanelith Rojas, Gloria Valeria Guevara, Olegaria Barrera, Celina Hernández, Feliz E. Alvarado, Maricela Molina, Wilfredo Brunet, Rosario Alvarez, Karla Alvarez, Ana Flores, Martina Ramirez, Cecilia Magana, Julia Flores, Gabriel Cordoba, Katy Wren, Emilce Cordoba, (from El Jebel) Isabel Ayala, Kem Carroll, Oscar Abello, Juan Baltazar, Flor Ibarra, Lucia Ibarra, Jackie Chenoweth, Melanie Doskoc, y Ana Perez.
Each has given their time, energy and passion to helping those who are most in need, and we believe it is important to celebrate their commitment to community. By sharing their names, we hope not only to give them the recognition they deserve, but also to inspire more people to join our cause.
We’d like to reiterate our gratitude for the opportunity to spotlight the work of our volunteers in your newspaper and for continuing to cover community initiatives. We’re convinced that together we can continue to bring about positive change for our community.
We remain available for any additional information you require and hope to continue collaborating to share these stories of hope and solidarity.
With gratitude,
Maria Judith Alvarez Quiroz
Safe and Abundant Nutrition Alliance (SANA)
Corporate postage
I am furious at the Trump appointee, United States Postal Service Director Louis DeJoy. He has done everything that he can to sabotage the postal service while making millions on contracts for trucking the mail around and pushing business to private corporations he’s invested in.
His latest ruse is raising mailing prices, on top of understaffing and complicating mail delivery to discourage voters. Having turned large swaths of the country into postal deserts by taking away suburban mail pickup boxes, removing sorting machines from post offices and defunding, understaffing and demoralizing our selfless, hardworking post people, he has taken a 250 years old proud and efficient service that delivers to every inch of American soil and tried to turn it into the postal corporation.
They are forced to deliver mail in poor-running ancient vans, with open windows sucking in foul fumes. The most efficient way for the country to vote is by mail using the postal service and DeJoy works vigorously to undermine that. Please reverse the changes he has set in motion and give us back a postal service that doesn’t take three times as long to deliver while making our service people work till 10pm and on Sundays too!
John Hoffmann
Carbondale
It’s happening!
For the past 24 months, English In Action has been quietly fundraising for our new Center for Communication. We are now beginning construction on a first-of-its kind building for immigrants who live and work in the Roaring Fork Valley.
We are building a home that will honor and celebrate the immeasurable contributions that immigrants give to the quality of life in the Roaring Fork Valley. Learning English is challenging. This new center will provide the space where English In Action volunteer tutors and staff can support our adult students to participate more fully in the community and learn to speak English with confidence.
English In Action served over 380 individuals in 2023. Imagine what we can do when we move from a 30 years old double wide trailer to a new 6,000 square foot energy efficient building.
We are inviting our community to join in “raising the roof” to raise the final $700,000 of our $5 million campaign goal.
Please join me by giving to our campaign and be part of a community that understands and shows up for each other. Every donation is truly a gift that will keep on giving, www.englishinaction.org/welcome-home
Lynn Nichols
English In Action Tutor
Killer 82
Since I moved to Pitkin County in 1976, guess what topic is written about the most on a daily basis in the letters to the editor?
You guessed it right.
Highway 82 … Otherwise known as Killer Highway 82, with its many Pitkin County hidden minefields: from the Emma Curves, through the Basalt traffic lights, Lazy Glen, Snowmass Canyon, Smith Hill Road, Brush Creek Road, the Airport bottleneck, Buttermilk, Aspen Roundabout, Cemetery Lane, Castle Creek Bridge and the S-curves into the entrance to Aspen.
Why — with so much public outcry, distress, time lost commuting and solutions offered — have no real-time solutions been implemented? It’s obvious people are tired of sitting in idling cars.
After reading Scott Condon’s Aspen Daily News article on April 17, “PitCo seeks solutions for deadly intersection on 82,” and with a long history of advocating for public projects, I decided to run for Pitkin County Commissioner this election year.
We can do better than increasing the speed limit through the deadly Smith Hill Road intersection or adding a stoplight to a steep hill. Bringing the community together to support real-time solutions is the easy part. Over the years, convincing elected officials to do something has been the tough part.
If elected to the Board of Pitkin County Commissioners, I promise we will come together on solutions which will get us home alive, sane and on deadline to pick up our children. It won’t happen overnight, but I do have hope as well as the experience to know that real-time solutions have to happen.
Keep those letters to the editor pouring in. We can come up with real-time solutions and get those solutions implemented with a Pitkin County Board that designates Highway 82 as their number one priority.
Toni Kronberg
PitCo Commissioner Candidate
Vote for Kronberg
Bravo! It was a wonderful and significant political and governmental moment when Toni Kronberg threw her bonnet into the ring to seriously run for Pitkin County’s Board of County Commissioners, as “Incumbent Commissioner Jacober [was] forced into primary with two challengers,” as read a Aspen Daily News headline on April 24.
Lady Toni Kronberg walked into Pitkin County at 21 years old, and for the past 48 years has been most active in the politics, culture and socioeconomics of Aspen, Snowmass Village, Pitkin County and all else with this polity.
As a courageous independent visionary and a practical young woman who has gracefully matured in wisdom and stature, she has the insight into the business, economic, financial, luxury brand markets and special events promotions which keep the entire Pitkin County dynamics humming, even when it coughs and is stuck in construction fiascos.
I encourage you, the voter, whether Democrat, Republican, unaffiliated or whatever, to make Lady Toni Kronberg your historical independent/unaffiliated female sitting Pitkin County commissioner.
Let’s make history! You vote en masse for Lady Toni Kronberg, and I shall personally introduce her to the Beverly Hills (California) City Council, the Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce, the Rodeo Drive Committee and the Beverly Hills citizenry for your happiness and satisfaction in a more promising tomorrow for you during the Kronberg era in Pitkin County.
Emzy Veazy III
Aspen
Letters policy: The Sopris Sun welcomes local letters to the editor. Shorter letters stand a better chance of being printed. Letters exclusive to The Sopris Sun (not appearing in other papers) are particularly welcome. Please cite your facts and include your name and place of residence or association. Letters are due to news@soprissun.com by noon on the Monday before we go to print.