Columns

Editor’s note: This is the fourth in a series running over several consecutive Fridays. It is written by members of the Hermit’s Peak Watershed Alliance, which seeks to foster land stewardship in the Gallinas, Sapello and Tecolote watersheds.

The city of Las Vegas and its residents depend on water in the Gallinas River for more than 90 percent of its municipal needs. Storrie Lake Water Users Association receives almost all its water from the Gallinas River. That’s a serious dependency.

Being at the top is never easy. Being at the top of a newspaper, even less so.

More often than not, you’re vilified for calling people on the things they deserve to be called on. You’re blamed for things you had little or no control over. You’re criticized for going too easy or too hard on someone. You’re accused of being biased, no matter how you handle a situation.

Such is life at the top when you’re the publisher or general manager of a newspaper.

Editor’s note: This is the third in a series running over several consecutive Fridays. It is written by members of the Hermit’s Peak Watershed Alliance, which seeks to foster land stewardship in the Gallinas, Sapello and Tecolote watersheds.

Although it has changed through the years, a deep relationship with the land has been felt by the residents and visitors of the Gallinas Canyon. The stories are rich and varied, with many of them rooted in the land, water, fish and wildlife that have been so important to those with a history in the Gallinas Watershed.

First, let’s clear up a rumor. The Optic is not going to close. That makes no sense. Since I’ve been running this newspaper, we’ve ended every year in the black, always with a positive profit margin, and I’d be willing to wager that’s been the case every year since Russell Kistler printed the first edition in 1879.

But let’s not start this farewell column there. Instead, return with me to when another esteemed newspaper did close. Oct. 18, 1991. That was the day the Gray Old Lady died.