“And the seasons they go round and round, the painted ponies go up and down, We’re captive on the carousel of time.”

The 1970s song by Joni Mitchell captures what it feels like to watch Alpine city council use personal grievances to try and steer our lovely town of Alpine. After reading last week’s letter by Dale Christophersen, I join him in the hope that our newly configured city council would use integrity, clear facts, and hard work. As I write this for the Avalanche deadline of noon Tuesday, I have no idea how the Tuesday council meeting will turn out. But I do have a copy of the agenda and it states:

Discuss, consider, and take appropriate action regarding the employment contract for (a) City Manager Erik Zimmer, and (b) City Secretary Cynthia Salas.

Discuss, consider, and take appropriate action regarding the employment contract and most recent evaluation of City Attorney Sandy Wilson.

All of these agenda items are brought to the council by newly elected councilwoman Judy Stokes, and these at her first official meeting.

It is so disheartening to see the important and looming challenges before Alpine and Brewster County be tossed aside in order to play small town politics.

Alpine is no longer a small town. With over 475,000 visitors in 2019 coming through our town, we can’t afford to pretend we are the small ranching community we were back in the 1970s. And yes, I was here then.

Alpine has grown to now face bigger issues like limited housing, understaffed medical facilities, scarce daycare opportunities, limited venues for our visitors, and the list goes on.

Please, council members, let’s not waste valuable time playing divisive politics. We can leave that to the federal government.

Jan Woodward

Alpine