To the Editor

Hi All!

First, thank you for your participation in this years “CHRISTMAS TRAIN”.  We had 2,674 people come thru!! Next year look for more special additions to the display and hopefully indoor working bathrooms!!!  We still need to raise the 10k needed to install the water/sewer lines and to hook up the bathrooms. If any of you are so inclined to help, please send us a check to box 2221 Granby, Colorado 80446 or go on line at www.moffatroadrailroadmuseum.org and use Pay Pal. Please earmark for water/sewer project.

This year we plan on getting the water/sewer done plus get the visitor center ready to open. There is another matter that has come to our attention. When we moved our Steam Crane to the museum from Denver we had to hire Terry’s Crane Service to pick our crane up and set the crane on our house track so we could put the crane where we wanted on the museum grounds. The bill for that was $18,000.00. They donated $6,000.00 of the bill to the museum leaving a balance of $12,000.00. Terry contacted me yesterday and has offered us a one time deal that is good for only 2 weeks. He is willing to donate another $6,000.00 of his bill if we can raise the remaining $6,000.00 and get that to him within the 2 week window. We would be saving $6,000.00! This is a very generous offer from Terry’s Crane Service so please help us to take advantage of the offer. We have $2,000.00 of the needed $6,000.00. All we need is $4,000.00. If you are willing to help please send money per instructions in above paragraph and please earmark the donation for the crane.

Thank you for your support,

Dave Naples – Director – MOFFAT ROAD RAILROAD MUSEUM
970-281-9094
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To the Editor

Bipartisan Legislators Support Rural Access to Cheap Renewable Energy

Last year, Colorado amazed the world when Xcel’s request for proposals brought record-setting low bids for renewable energy. New renewable energy in Colorado is now the cheapest way to generate electricity, and Colorado’s biggest utilities are responding:  Xcel, which provides about half of Colorado’s retail electricity sales, will be nearly 60% renewable by 2030, and has a goal of providing 100% carbon-free electricity by 2050. During that announcement, Xcel CEO Ben Fowke stated, “When your customers are asking for this over and over, you really do listen.”  Holy Cross Energy (which supplies electricity to Eagle and Pitkin counties) committed to a 70% clean energy goal to be achieved by 2030, and more recently announced a new wind deal that will get the project done 9 years in advance of their target.  Boulder and Pueblo could be the next cities to create their own utilities in pursuit of achieving 100% renewable energy goals, joining cities like Aspen which have already achieved 100%.   Platte River Power Authority, which generates electricity for Fort Collins, Loveland, Longmont and Estes Park, announced its goal to achieve a 100% clean energy mix by 2030. These individual actions add up, as these cities and utilities supply electricity to over 60% of Colorado’s citizens. Together, their commitments mean that by 2030, over half of the electricity consumed in Colorado will come from clean and renewable energy sources.  More is likely as the costs of renewables continue to decline and Colorado ramps up clean energy efforts.  

Mountain Parks Electric is notably missing from this list, but there is reason to be optimistic that could soon change. A bipartisan group of 50 Colorado legislators—including Grand County’s—recently asked Colorado’s Public Utilities Commission to take up a case that, if successful, will enable Colorado’s electricity cooperatives to switch to alternative power suppliers without being held hostage by their current coal-heavy power supplier, Tri-State Generation & Transmission Association, by unjust and unreasonably high exit fees.  It is good to see bipartisan efforts to assure rural Coloradans don’t get left behind in our State’s transition to cleaner, more affordable electricity.

Kristen Taddonio

Fraser, CO

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To the Editor,

Looks like we made a trade – Bill Hamilton for Skinner, Miller and Lulu ! What we got is Irrational Blather, Democrat Recruiting and Misleading loving feeling!

After getting by the so called news article where the word shutdown is used at least eight times (besides the headline) without one time mentioning that it is “PARTIAL” I fine these three with their leftist

shorts in a bunch.

Skinner builds a straw horse that says members of congress want to eliminate Social Security and other “entitlement” programs. His social security will disappear ! But later in his rant he devoutly wishes the

Federal Government to balance the budget. Go figure. Asking what we the people are entitled to, he rants that; Freedom 0f Speech is somehow enemies of the people? That guns are somehow an unlimited entitlement?

(I thought he was talking about the budget? No line items in the budget for guns except in the military.) Open spaces and National Monuments and parks – someone is trying to shrink them and pave them over? Twenty six

column inches or pure irrational blather.

Then Miller is allowed seventeen column inches in a blatant plea for people to join the local Democrat party. Go figure !

Last but not least, in only eleven column inches, Lulu strongly implies that the Military is shutdown; ” . . . there is a food bank set up on the US naval base to provide sustenance to military families affected by this shutdown.” What military is shutdown? None – unless you count the Coast Guard. And who cares about drugs entering the country anyway – not the leftist?

If we lost Hamilton in the trade for these three, maybe we need to get new management.

Frank B Watts

Winter Park Highlands

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To the Editor

I was disgusted by the conduct of the students and chaperons from Covington Catholic High School (Park Hills, Kentucky) on Friday January 18.

Their actions in Washington D.C. wearing MAGA (Make America Great Again) hats spoke loudly of who they are and what they represent.  Their actions were disrespectful, hateful and intolerant, creating an “in-your-face” confrontation with a lone Native American Vietnam Veteran, as they shouted “build the wall, build the wall”.   

Nathan Phillips, the 64-year old elder of the Nebraska Omaha tribe, was exercising his First Amendment right to peacefully express himself.  He placed his life on the line to defend that right and this country. These boys acted like entitled, spoiled, privileged individuals who have given little for America, but have taken much.  Where were the adults?

Over a period of 15 years, I was a Catholic school teacher, principal and director of religious education.  Their actions should not be those of a Catholic institution; but these students and chaperons represent Covington, and the school needs to show what it really stands for.

The focus of these students and chaperons was exclusively on themselves, oblivious to the consequences of their actions.  This “MAGA mentality” and the person it represents results in insensitivity and a total lack of empathy for others. The hats they wore are only hats, but the self-absorbed mentality it promotes has given us a self-centered, autocratic president, wrapped up in his own self-serving decisions. The actions of these students and chaperons were exactly the same thing.

Ronald Fischer

Fraser CO