All Entries in the "Letters to the Editor" Category
Letter to the Editor: The State Erased Our Town, Took Our Taxes, and Left Us Thirsty
To the Editor, The media narrative surrounding Hartman’s abandonment has focused heavily on local “infighting.” As a resident trapped in this crisis, I want the public to see how our elected officials used sensationalized headlines to strip away our democratic rights and desert their constituents. Hartman’s governance collapse was engineered by non-certified individuals who spent […]
Letter to the Editor: “Statutory Gap Concerning Hartman Deserves Examination”
Letter to the Editor I appreciate Representative Ty Winter’s explanation regarding the Town of Hartman and the creation of SB26-157. The legislation addressed an immediate crisis, but Hartman also revealed a larger issue that deserves continued attention: the statutory gap in how Colorado addresses communities that are struggling before they reach the point of collapse. […]
Letter to the Editor – Signatures being collected to get Proposition 195 on November state ballot
Hello, Prowers County! As many of you know, for the last few weeks I have been collecting petition signatures to get Proposition 195 on the November state ballot. A LOT of you have patiently listened to me talk about how this small change to the Colorado income tax rate, slightly increasing the percentage for those […]
Letter to the Editor – “Speaking Up Should Never Be the Problem”
Letter to the Editor I appreciate Mayor Kirk Crespin’s recent letter discussing the importance of community involvement, volunteerism, and citizens stepping forward to help build stronger rural communities. I agree that communities are built by people who care enough to serve. Volunteers, elected officials, nonprofit leaders, first responders, and citizens all have an important role […]
Letter to the Editor: “The Future of Rural Communities Depends on Those Willing to Serve”
Letter To The Editor: July 10th , 2026 – Lamar, Colorado Over the past few weeks, I’ve had a lot of conversations with people in our area. Some have called about the challenges facing the Town of Hartman. Others have asked about the closure of the Domestic Safety Resource Center. I’ve heard various opinions about […]
Letter to the Editor – “The Missing Agency in Hartman’s Dissolution – USDA’s Silence is the Real Story”
To the Editor: As the State of Colorado moves forward with dissolving the Town of Hartman, the public has been told a simple story: Hartman was “dysfunctional,” unable to hire a water operator, and unwilling to meet drinking water compliance requirements. That narrative is convenient, but it is not true. It leaves out the one […]
Letter to the Editor – ” The water isn’t the only thing dirty in Hartman’s story”
To the Editor, The water isn’t the only thing dirty in Hartman’s story. While state and local politicians play a legal waiting game until the Secretary of State hearing this July 13th, residents in Hartman are paying the price with their health. Our town’s water system has been completely unchlorinated since early May with full […]
Letter to the Editor – “Hartman Deserves Transparency, not a Pre‑Written Outcome”
The recent “Hartman Update” from the Colorado Department of Local Affairs is not an update at all. It is a coordinated sales pitch for abandoning the Town of Hartman, written to make a state‑engineered process look like a resident‑initiated choice. The letter uses soft, reassuring language — “Hartman would still be Hartman,” “nothing else would […]
Letter to the Editor – “Public health assistance is conditioned on dissolution”
To the Editor: On March 21, 2026, Representative Ty Winter sent an email regarding Hartman’s water crisis. In that message, he stated that he and Senator Rod Pelton had formally urged the Governor to intervene using the Colorado Disaster Emergency Act (CDEA), CRS 24‑33.5‑701. This is significant because it shows that our legislators acknowledged—months ago—that […]
Letter to the Editor – “Unsafe Water, Broken Promises, and No Path Forward”
LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Hartman is in a condition that Colorado law does not have a name for. We are a statutory town with no statutory function, a municipality with no municipal authority, and a community left without governance, protection, or recourse. This is collapse, not dissolution. It is legal limbo, not legal closure. It […]
SB26‑157 Solves the State’s Problem, Not Hartman’s Water Crisis Hartman —A Public Health Failure With No One Showing Up
Here it is, May 6th, and Hartman residents are facing unsafe water. The chlorine has run out, the water smells of bacteria, and no one from the state has responded. This is happening even though residents were pressured to “agree” to abandonment under the claim that doing so would protect water service. This is exactly […]
Letter to the Editor – “Family farms and ranches are not going to be saved by SB26-121”
To the Editor: I grew up working on the Donnely Ranch and Armstrong Ranch in Beulah, Colorado. I bucked bales, fixed fence, branded calves, and learned a lot. Before the crash of 2008 and a drought, I had a few horses. I’m not a farmer or a rancher, but I know how to talk with […]
Letter to the Editor – The Narrative That Protects the State, Not the People
The story being told publicly about Hartman is one of infighting, resignations, and “keyboard warriors.” The story that is missing is the one that actually matters. Hartman’s water system did not collapse because we lacked a water operator or because our board resigned. It collapsed because the USDA‑financed water tank was deemed irreparable more than […]
Letter to the Editor – “Rural Colorado Deserves Better Than Legislative Abandonment”
To The Editor: Subject: Rural Colorado Deserves Better Than Legislative Abandonment Colorado’s small towns are facing a crisis that no one in state leadership seems willing to name: our statutory system for municipal governance is failing, and instead of fixing it, the state is preparing to abandon the communities caught in that failure. Senate Bill […]
Letter to the Editor – Part Two “Tommy Dunagan went against the wishes of myself and family”
TO THE EDITOR: Prowers County Coroner, Tommy Dunagan, went against the wishes of myself and my family, went behind our back and ordered an autopsy to be done on my father, out of “[his] own curiosity.” Tommy Dunagan came to my house a few hours after I attempted to save my fathers life, unsuccessfully. When […]
