Letters to the Editor, April 26

Cooperation might save old diner

Regarding the letter that was printed in the Boulder City Review on April 19, I had received a lot of comments about the boarded up businesses, so with other suggestions I contacted Connie Ferraro and discussed painting murals.

I contacted Charles Lawson, and he met with me about painting the murals to cover up the ugly building he had at Mel’s Diner. I agreed to pay for the paint and accessories, and Charlie Mitchell Painting would provide the labor and prime the wood. I paid for the paint and received help from passers-by and Jack Gaal. It turned out beautiful.

Lawson was good for anything. I would ask him about colors, and he said to use whatever color. It was up to us. It was beautiful.

Something went wrong, because Lawson wanted to tear the whole building down and got permission from the city. The city advised Lawson that he could not damage the murals as they belonged to the painters.

What happened? Well, Lawson put the buildings up for sale, and there are no buyers. Maybe it is the fact the price is too high.

We thought of trying something like we did for the Boulder Dam Hotel. Instead of asking for donations constantly to keep the hotel open, we came to a simple conclusion: Let’s get 100 rich guys, families or businesses and have each put up $10,000. That would buy the loan against the hotel by the Boulder Dam Credit Union. It wasn’t easy for us to collect, so we got Leslie Woodbury to take over, and that she did.

Why can’t we find some more rich folks and buy Lawson’s buildings. One reason is some of the people living here now with money don’t know how it used to be. Some are new locals compared to us old-timers. People with money don’t make bad deals, or they wouldn’t have any very long.

The fact is it belongs to Lawson, and it is up to him. You would think that (because) he has money and has already made a bad deal, he can’t get it back by another high-price deal. … Lower the price; do something for Boulder City.

I know Lawson had some difficulty with our administration, and he probably didn’t get a proper deal, but now that’s over, and on we go.

Charles “Pepper” Coombes

Time to weed out bad employees

There are bad apples in our city government. Who are they? There appears to be a culture in our city government that says it is fine to harass and try to create mischief for citizens who are only trying to hold them accountable. Our City Council and city manager should be weeding them out, but instead they seem to allow them to continue unabated.

When is it going to stop? When are we going to have a city government that is more responsive to the people than to the rich businessmen in our city? Hopefully, we will only have to wait until our next election of council members.

Elizabeth Powell