Mike Smedley
Position: Staff reporter

At Durango’s rec center, gym candy is jim-dandy

The other day, I noticed the Durango Community Recreation Center now sells candy at the check-in counter. Isn’t that contradictory, having a public health and wellness facility offer product...

Will fence help free-range kids parked at Santa Rita?

We took our 2-year-old grandson to Santa Rita Park recently. I was wondering why there isn’t a fence between the park and U.S. Highway 550/160. There’s also no fence between the park and the...

Everything new is old in a roundabout way

What’s with the new directional signs at the Florida Road roundabout? Has there been a flurry of wrong-way head-on crashes lately? Did the city’s sign crew need something to do one afternoon...

Holiday train, icebergs don’t need to be polarizing

Climate change has had little or no effect on the icebergs leading to the Polar Express “North Pole” Village owned by the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. They are the same size as...

Hotel’s design is a befuddler on the roof

What’s with the new hotel with the inverted roofline that will dump snow into the middle of the structure? It’s the building under construction between Walmart and Home Depot. This has to be...

Hope springs eternal for river trail repairs

Wouldn’t it be a “no brainer” to maintain the asphalt portion of the Animas River Trail behind Durango High School? You’d think so, given so much time, money and effort is being used for the...

Addresses have a number of things wrong with them

Aren’t Durango street addresses supposed to be in numerical order? Check out the house numbers on the south side of West Park Avenue, the street between Fassbinder Park and the Animas River....

Don’t be at loggerheads with trucks lumbering through town

I bet there are a lot of Durangoans wondering about those large log trucks rolling along Camino del Rio and north Main. Where are the trees from and where are they going? Are they beetle-kil...

Installing humps ‘raises’ concerns in county

Is it appropriate for an individual subdivision to install “speed-control humps” throughout its community at a cost to the safety and well-being and financial burden of the entire county? – ...

City takes middle-of-the-road approach to safety

I’ve noticed some disturbing traffic trends at Florida Road and County Road 250 near Bread. The right-hand turn lanes bisect the pedestrian crosswalks. Drivers just blow through and ignore y...

New ADU names make an initial appearance

Many folks in our neighborhood west of the Durango Public Library are renting ADUs. In Wyoming, where they’re a bit behind with naming, some people call them Accelerated Depreciation Units. ...

Curb your enthusiasm on ‘reserved’ parking

Can Durango residents reserve parking on their streets? I saw this sign in the Riverview neighborhood near a trailhead for access to the infamous “Beach,” the area along the Animas River acr...