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| 7/3/2008 10:31:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article | It ain't over?
As every Leadvillite knows, there are really only two places in the world, Leadville and somewhere else.
For the past week, I've been somewhere else. For the past week, I've been to grocery stores where I didn't see a person I knew. For the past week, no one beeped his horn as I walked down the sidewalk or stopped to engage me in either idle or adversarial conversation.
During the past week, I did meet new people, enjoyed visits with relatives and had a lengthy lunch, talking with journalists with whom I once worked - somewhere else.
And Leadville did come up in these conversations, especially with my fellow journalists. They asked what it was like having all the media descend on town when the mine tunnel disaster was declared. Were the locals starstruck when they were quoted by CNN and in the New York Times? Did the local politicians handle themselves well?
Nonjournalists were less specific.
"I heard about Leadville," they said. "Didn't you have some big mountain full of water that was going to break and flood the town? Whatever happened with that?"
Sensing that they really didn't want the whole story, I kept my responses succinct.
But this left me thinking about the state of emergency that was declared in February by the county commissioners.
Since that time, states of emergency have been declared in many places including tornado-ravaged areas in Colorado, flooded areas in Iowa, earthquake-devastated parts of China.
But what happens when the state of emergency is over? Will the county commissioners get together in their regular meeting (we doubt a "special" meeting is necessary) and say, "The emergency is over."
Are emergencies officially undeclared? Or will the BOCC, instead, declare a state of normalcy? A state of contentment? A state of business as usual?
For those of you out there who long for good news, wouldn't this be the perfect time for a celebration? A time to ring the church bells? A time to blow the sirens (excepting the siren on the BOR treatment plant, of course). A time for dancing in the streets?
Well, we're going to have to wait. I checked with Commissioner Ken Olsen Monday and he said the emergency is not over - not yet. (According to the BOR, there never was an emergency.) Olsen was frustrated because updated groundwater levels are not being made available by the EPA and BOR. There are signs, however, that water levels are not going down. He said that the sanitation district is processing more water than ever before, and the Canterbury Tunnel is bleeding out.
As Yogi Berra would say, "It ain't over till it's over."
But when it is over, we hope someone will let us know. We can't speak for CNN or the New York Times, but if we can get a photo of a county commissioner dancing in the streets, we'll publish it.
Marcia Martinek, Herald Editor
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