{"id":1319667,"date":"2020-04-27T23:14:24","date_gmt":"2020-04-28T05:14:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=996017"},"modified":"2020-04-27T23:14:24","modified_gmt":"2020-04-28T05:14:24","slug":"tuesday-letters-new-carbondale-chief-clean-air-and-cougars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/tuesday-letters-new-carbondale-chief-clean-air-and-cougars\/","title":{"rendered":"Tuesday letters: New Carbondale chief, clean air, and cougars"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/11\/Letters-Graphic-2.png\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/11\/Letters-Graphic-2.png 600w, https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/11\/Letters-Graphic-2-300x169.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Big shoes to fill<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m a guy who had a long, ugly relationship with law enforcement \u2013 until I moved to Carbondale. Here, I\u2019ve encountered officers who take the motto to serve and protect to heart and reject to bully and intimidate.<\/p>\n<p>Shortly after moving to Carbondale, I violated my probation for three DUI\u2019s by visiting a restaurant bar in town. I only had a couple of drinks, so I was in no way intoxicated. But on my way out, I carelessly missed a steep step and fell hard on my knee.<\/p>\n<p>I had no driver\u2019s license, so a good Samaritan drove me home. It wasn\u2019t long before two Carbondale police officers were knocking at my door.<br \/>\u201cOh boy,\u201d I thought. \u201cYou\u2019re gonna get it now. You\u2019re going to jail for violation of probation.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\" readability=\"6\">\n<div class=\"row gspi-donation gspi-donation-mobile p-0\" readability=\"7\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-4 p-2\">\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/PI-logo-white.png)\" class=\"p-0 mt-2 mb-2 h-75 text-center rocket-lazyload\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/PI-logo-white.png\" class=\"logo m-0 p-0 invisible\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><h3 class=\"d-inline mr-3\">Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p><button class=\"btn d-inline\" type=\"button\" onclick=\"handleDonationButtonClickMidArticle()\">Donate<\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The officers never even asked me if I\u2019d been drinking. They didn\u2019t stand in judgment of me. All the officers asked was if I needed any help. It turned out I did. My knee was swollen up to three times its normal size and I couldn\u2019t walk. I asked the officers to call an ambulance and they did.<\/p>\n<p>I give Police Chief Gene Schilling a lot of credit for his officers\u2019 attitude. Not only that, he\u2019s made it clear he\u2019ll not do ICE\u2019s job in rounding up undocumented immigrants. Schilling wants Carbondale\u2019s immigrant population to have no fear in reporting crimes.<\/p>\n<p>Now, Schilling is retiring and being replaced by Rifle Police Sgt. Kirk Wilson. Schilling will tutor Wilson for three months. Pay attention, Sgt. Wilson. Schilling has a lot to teach you about good sense law enforcement and he\u2019s a perfect fit for the town of Carbondale.<\/p>\n<p> Fred Malo Jr.,<br \/>Carbondale<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Garfield County commissioners value clean air<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m writing in response to Betsy Leonard\u2019s April 20 letter regarding the Garfield County Commissioners\u2019 opposition to a few of the rules recently adopted by the Air Quality Control Commission (AQCC). As a Battlement Mesa resident raising three children in an area near existing well pads, and as an environmental professional in the oil and gas industry, this is an issue I deeply care about.<\/p>\n<p>Garfield County supported almost all of the rules adopted by the AQCC because they value clean air and measures that allow us to continue to meet federal health-based air quality standards. The few opposed rules, if implemented here, actually fail to improve Garfield County\u2019s air quality yet come at a very high economic cost. At the same time, they do almost nothing to resolve Front Range ozone issues.<\/p>\n<p>Even if oil and gas emissions were reduced to zero in our area, state-commissioned modeling shows Front Range ozone would only improve by a fraction of a percent \u2014 at a high cost. The opposed rules directly impact our local economy making smaller wells uneconomic, which will terminate production. This means a projected loss of 55 to 280 full time jobs and employment income of up to $8 million every year. It also cuts off severance, ad valorem, and property taxes that provide a disproportionate share of revenues that fund schools, fire districts, libraries, community health care, and other social services.<\/p>\n<p>Elected officials are tasked with governing to enhance many aspects of our lives \u2014 from air quality to our local economy. Garfield County has invested millions of dollars to monitor and protect our air quality.<br \/>Simply put, the GarCo Commissioners are doing exactly what we elected them to do: investing in our air quality while protecting our local economy with the well-being of our community at the forefront of their minds. They\u2019re holding the state accountable for cost-effective rules that provide environmental benefit to our area and protesting misguided rules that fail to protect health while harming our economic welfare. We\u2019re fortunate to have them as leaders.<\/p>\n<p> Dwayne Knudson,<br \/>Battlement Mesa<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Save Colorado\u2019s cougars<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Wolves were eradicated from Colorado in the 1930\u2019s. Colorado Parks &amp; Wildlife, ranchers and hunters are against reintroduction now on 2020 ballot to decide the fate of these endangered predators being delisted and killed Nationwide.<\/p>\n<p>Now they are on a rampage to eradicate our beautiful Cougars. CPW is a State Agency funded by Colorado taxpayers, you have a voice. Once again wildlife are being used as a money making commodity, inhumanely slaughtered for sport, trophy, recreation and to protect&nbsp;private livestock who do not belong on our Public Lands. Hunting Cougars with up to eight dogs is inhumane, unethical nor for meat. Now they will introduce the illegal lion call and expand cougar hunting into big game season. How do you hunt big game and predators&nbsp;at the same time?<\/p>\n<p>Killing them actually increases cougar conflicts of which there are few, disrupting families and is typically juveniles where their mother was killed. Cougars need to be with their Mom\u2019s for a year or more to learn the ropes of how to survive, fend for themselves&nbsp;and avoid humans. When mothers are killed young kits will starve and die inhumanely, uneducated juveniles lost.<\/p>\n<p>Manager Matt Yamashita stated CPW has no idea how many lions live on the Western Slope and no human fatalities in Colorado. How they are basing their percentages for management and cull is unscientific. Ranchers, hunters state they never saw Cougars, now&nbsp;they do so something must be done. Seeing a lion does not denote conflict. What a rare privilege to actually see one of these magnificent big cats. They also blame predators for decline in elk and deer populations and CWD. Nothing could be further from the&nbsp;truth as predators keep herds in check and free from disease (science) Man is the culprit with further encroachment on wildlife habitat; development, recreation, hunting, livestock, fencing, drought, wildfires, fracking, predator control and loss of biodiversity.<\/p>\n<p>Big game&nbsp;and wildlife&nbsp;habitat belong to the predators&nbsp;not sportsmen or private ranchers who take up residence in&nbsp;Cougar territory.&nbsp;Predators are essential to our ecosystems.&nbsp;Please&nbsp;be their voice and make comments by April 30 at&nbsp;dnr_cpwcommission@state.co.us.<\/p>\n<p>Go to&nbsp;https:\/\/cpw.state.co.us&nbsp;to review the&nbsp;draft&nbsp;plan.<\/p>\n<p> Pamela True,<br \/>Carbondale<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/opinion\/tuesday-letters-new-carbondale-chief-clean-air-and-cougars\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Big shoes to fill I\u2019m a guy who had a long, ugly relationship with law enforcement \u2013 until I moved to Carbondale. Here, I\u2019ve encountered officers who take the motto to serve and protect to heart and reject to bully and intimidate. Shortly after moving to Carbondale, I violated my probation for three DUI\u2019s by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1319667","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-25 01:06:06","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1319667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1319667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1319667\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1319667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1319667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1319667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}