Re: C.A.R.E.
Thank you Cathi Basler for your opinion piece on stray or unwanted animals. I am 82 years old and have recently adopted a cat from C.A.R.E. who is an equivalent age in cat years. In a way, it is a hospice situation for the cat. She needs a special diet and needs two medications. She limps a little from her arthritis. These are conditions I can personally relate to. She is otherwise a normal cat, watching birds from the window, sleeping curled up on my lap to watch TV, and helping me with my puzzles. I support a “Seniors for Seniors” kind of program like they have in other communities, where aging cats are matched with seniors who can care for them. In those programs, vet bills and medications are provided by the program and the seniors provide food, kitty litter, etc. Love is provided by both the seniors and the cats. I thank you for helping me get started with my new companion. It would be nice to set up a “Seniors for Seniors” program here.
Carolyn Jemison
Carbondale
RFHS
UNBELIEVABLE: the first word out of my mouth after hearing that once again Roaring Fork High School is starting over with a new administrator. This will be the fourth new principal in nine years. Rob Stein has chosen, once again, not to move a very capable vice principal into the principal position. Zoe Stern has earned the staff’s trust because she has been the de facto principal for the last three years.
I felt this chaos again and again in my twenty-year career at RFHS and it was one of the key factors in my leaving last year. Another key factor for me was the superintendent’s blatant disregard for the knowledge and opinions of the staff at Roaring Fork. We know our kids, our traditions and culture, and we know what works for our school. Six years ago, the community, staff and students were begging at the board meeting for Rob to hire one of our most beloved and gifted administrators, Kelsie Goodman. Rob did not waver in his unilateral decision to hire from outside the district, and our school has been in flux ever since. Why is there even an interview committee when it is one man’s decision?
Zoe Stern has been the assistant principal at RFHS for three years and her strong, supportive and competent presence has been a gift to her staff and students. Her teachers, having had a significantly difficult year dealing with the stress of the pandemic, and all the changes to instruction, are now supposed to welcome another unknown “leader” and start over? Why would this be in the best interest of the students and staff? This decision is wrong on so many levels. For years at Roaring Fork, many teachers have hidden the sadness, the anger and the frustration that resulted from new leadership. The teachers; nevertheless, have powered on, always open and willing to accept the decisions that were made, despite their voices being unheard. But I am telling you – constant change, without listening to the will of the staff, will break the best of teachers. Rob Stein has delivered a telling blow to the RFHS staff. We do not count. Our voice is irrelevant.
Cathleen McCourt
Carbondale
Forgiveness?
I hunger for an apology, for the signal that we have learned a lesson from our humiliating, hurtful actions against Michael Francisco, so our community, hurt and humiliated by our actions, can be forgiven by him. I would feel safer in a community of managers and police that look for God in the people set before us. For then we can all glimpse the god that we are an indivisible part of.
John Hoffmann
Carbondale
Re: Unparalleled Universe
In your inkblot, I see the face of Will Grandbois after a long pandemic camping trip. Psychoanalyze me, please!
Gavin Dahl
Montrose
Splish splash
“Splish Splash, I was takin’ a bath” was the introduction to a hit song in 1958 by pop singer Bobby Darin. Well, Carbondale taxpayers might be taking a bath on the so-called “aquatic facility” planned to replace the existing swimming pool. But then, given the expected rising temperatures and water shortage, a few new pools might be a place to cool off and wash up.
Six to eight million taxpayer bucks is the estimated cost. What else might that money be used for? Could a new water tank or two on a hill nearby help? Or maybe a new well to pull some more water out of the ground? Or, what about a new pump on the waterline coming into town that doubles as a hydro-electric producer. Or maybe Just some good old solar panels with big batteries to help out in a power shortage? Plus, solar energy replaces natural gas burning which reduces greenhouse gas emissions. That helps fight global warming.
That’s not the only big-ticket item on the schedule. There is a $680,000 budget to change the existing sidewalks on a few blocks of north 8th Street. This will make the street narrower and remove existing parking spaces. Then they paint those cute little bicycle pictures on the concrete. I drove over there recently. At one point, I was the only car on the road and a bicycle rider went by me.
The town of Carbondale has a Climate and Energy Action Plan from 2017, that replaced a similar plan from 2006. The main point of the plan is to reduce the greenhouse gas carbon emissions of the town. A skeptic might say: Carbondale is just a speck in the world, is this really going to matter in the big picture? Or for that matter, why the heck bother with recycling or composting or spending more on a car that doesn’t burn gasoline? Well, apparently we do care because a lot of us do those things. It is a moral choice.
Pat Hunter
Carbondale
Haiku
Cabbage in salt water
Addition of condiments
Waiting for Kim Chi
Jampa
Carbondale