Today's Opinions

Will the last Mora County Resident to leave please turn out the lights.

Just about the time we think things cannot get any worse for our zero growth, high unemployment neighbors to the north, it does, get worse that is. The body of county folks in charge must have several closets of shoes with holes in them from the ready, fire, aim approach for which they are so famous. If it is not the county complex fiasco it is the anti-fracking ordinance.

In its 134-year history, the Optic has changed ownership 10 times, though three of those owners held the newspaper for less than two years. After Hub Kane died of a sudden heart attack in 1947, the Optic was run by a board of trustees headed by attorney Louis C. Ilfeld (Charles Ilfeld’s son), and included Kane’s widow, Helen Kelly Kane. The trustees and Mrs. Kane ran the paper for a brief period, but less than a year after Hub Kane’s death, the Optic was sold to Orville E. Priestly.

Most lawns around town are either yellow, or else the grass is completely gone. Our dreary yards are a testament to the severe drought this area has suffered over the last several years.

The city has been in Stage IV water restrictions for more than two years, meaning that use of potable water to irrigate lawns and outdoor plants is prohibited. Those restrictions have paid off. According to the city, we currently use 1.4 million gallons of water a day, about a million gallons less than we were using in 2011.