Time to Move Forward

by Jeannette Wallace

The time to make the decision to lease the Trinity Site properties to the Boyer Company is nearly here. That decision takes a County Ordinance, and I do sincerely hope we can move forward.

We are all involved with our community, at the same time it seems to take forever to make our decisions. It is great that we all have a voice, but sometimes we must make our decisions and move forward. You, know, we have had a comprehensive plan for longer than many of you have been here. Lets look and say Yes!, we can begin to work together.

We, the citizens are in charge of making our community the place we want it to be. We do worry about the uncertainty at LANL and some would argue that we should postpone our decisions because of it. Folks, uncertainty is part of our life, our neighbor’s life, our world’s life. The lab is not in charge of our community, we the citizens are. If uncertainty becomes the main consideration, we will likely postpone our decisions forever. The uncertainty comes and goes. The town will remain and get better if we all work together to make it the comfortable town we all envision. I’m speaking of making a pleasant entry into town. I’m speaking of taking away a pile of ugly metal buildings that the federal government left us replacing them with some nice looking buildings with stores, shops, maybe a few offices, some residences and some landscaping. I am talking about being proud of our town. I will be supporting our County Council on this one.

There are other big steps right now. Transfer of land for developing Entrada (finally maybe) and the Cliff’s at White Rock, master planning of the White Rock commercial area, and other potential redevelopment projects downtown such as Bradbury Row and Los Alamos Plaza are all working through the public processes. While we are working on the Trinity Site project, let us take the time to support our county boards and commissions, get involved, see how the decisions are made.

As we look at our future, accept the fact that mistakes are made once in a while. We need to learn from those mistakes — not use them as excuses to never move forward again. We are a town that has developed into a community over many decades despite the occasional mistake and the uncertainty that comes and goes. I am confident that we will be here as a community for many decades to come and that we can keep improving if we try (maybe slower than some would like). I encourage you to listen to your Council, your School Board, your Chamber. Thanks for listening.