I, too, would like to congratulate Ron Stoner on his many years of service to Durango, and in addition, we should also remember folks such as Ruby Zink, who was very instrumental, along with the Heritage for Tomorrow group, in planting the very first trees on Main back in the 1980s. They were in many ways responsible for helping make Main Avenue great, and for Durango becoming designated a Tree City USA.

You can view the plaque just inside the Main Mall on the middle column honoring her and others involved with this effort.

The STEAM project, the site of which I have been involved with on and off since 1981 in various iterations, is a wonderful concept for Durango for a number of reasons. One major component of it, wether or not it is built at the Powerhouse Science Center site, is the long overdue construction of the pedestrian tunnel under Camino del Rio at 12th St. This would, at long last, finally provide that missing pedestrian link from the Animas River Trail at the Powerhouse Plaza to the Central Business District and Main Avenue.

I hope that, unlike the Farmington Hill intersection reconstruction, we don’t wait until someone is seriously injured or killed there to finally build it. The half-cent sales tax for trails, open space and Durango Community Recreation Center could be used for this, as it would be an extension to the trail – yet one more reason to extend this tax to the good of all area residents.

Rick Feeney

Durango