LTE: In Support Of New Road And Bridge

September 20, 2019

Editor,

Those of us who are new future scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory finally have leaders who have the same ideals and are willing to fight for our needs over the things that other people want.  We have been hearing about all of the plans of the new Triad management from Thom Mason and Kelly Beierschmitt and I am glad to see they are following thru rather than just talking big about ideas.  Ideas such as how to get us more affordable housing by repurposing land (I like the golf course idea) as well as what I think is the most important, how we get the things we need by connecting to better amenities outside this little town.

I have been talking to people I know about these things and I feel like someone should say the things we are all thinking and the ways that we agree with Thom and Kelly so they know they have our support.  LANL is growing and we need to be able to hire the new generation of scientist for the lab.  Like Thom and Kelly and other leaders in DOE more than half of the lab has decided that Los Alamos does not have the things we need like shopping and restaurants.  That means that we have to spend our time driving back and forth to go shopping or spend our time that could be better spent driving back and forth to work.

Even more so, we are only connected to the northern New Mexico community so we can’t get the workers we need to do things like take out the trash, build/update our roads, or even mow the weeds all around.  If we can’t find good workers to do these things then we won’t ever be able to hire the top notch scientists and their wives that demand nice roads, lots of restaurants, and shopping.  I see that Triad LANL management and the DOE are working towards fixing our problems and I am glad they are trying to point to every reason to help push the new improvements.

When it comes to a new highway to Albuquerque and Santa Fe, I say let’s use every reason we can find to point to the needs so we can actually get it. I haven’t been here long, but from where I am from I don’t think traffic is that bad and it could be improved quickly with a few simple intersection changes.  But LANL is  hiring a lot of people – 1000 people each year for the last two years. This will make traffic worse and these people need to get to restaurants and shopping quicker.  Think about it, a new highway to Albuquerque would get people like us to a decent restaurant or even Costco 20 or even 30 minutes faster.

To all of the excuses I have heard:

1. “Thousands of people enjoy the canyon every day”.  There are plenty of other canyons all around us!  Go enjoy those.
2. “The road is too expensive”. We aren’t paying for the road, there is plenty of tax money that we generate and all of the shopping we do over the years will make it worth it over time. For the biggest employer in the state we should  get whatever we want and when we want it.
3. “The birds and animals will be hurt”. They will adapt and find other places to live
4. Native American ruins might be hurt.  Please, ruins is the key word.  This stuff is everywhere around us just like our old Smith’s bags.
5. Crime will go up. We can hire more police! Having more of the outside people come up to Los Alamos will increase crime but more police will fix that problem.
6. “We like our town how it is”.  Things change, move if you don’t like it. Just think of your ability to get to restaurants or even to the airport quicker so you can go somewhere nice.

I am sure there are other excuses for not progressively thinking about ways for everyone living here forever doesn’t want change.  Like why can’t we look at using land more effectively or raising the taxes of those that should move along.  For instance putting in more restaurants, or houses in places like the golf course, in the canyons, at the airport etc.  Or even building more roads to connect Barranca Mesa to Espanola.  But those of us who are new and many others who are critical thinkers need change to be able to get our important jobs done and to be able to hire more people like us to lead our scientific work.

The new LANL management chose not to live in this small town because of all the things that we just don’t have here and they know we have to do this and are fighting for our needs to give people better connectivity to the amenities of Albuquerque and Santa Fe.  They know that this need is the most important above all the wants of the few who always want to fight change or the environmentalist who think the world is heating up too fast or whatever excuse they want to stop progressive correct thinking.

Triad is doing good for us.  The name is awesome in itself.  It makes me thing of a strong mafia that is willing to fight for our needs above all else.  What we are doing at LANL is just too important to slow down our progress by worrying about the naysayers and those that don’t want us to get our jobs done.  Go Triad! And keep fighting for our needs Thom and Kelly!

Tim Lewis
Los Alamos