Republican David Reagor has thrown his hat in the race for a seat on Los Alamos County Council. Photo by Maire O’Neill/losalamosreporter.com
BY MAIRE O’NEILL
maire@losalamosreporter.com
David Reagor came to Los Alamos to work at Los Alamos National Laboratory where he spent 32 years as a researcher.
“The community has been a wonderful place to live and raise children. Here, we have a community full of parks and are surrounded by public land, much of it available for recreation. Like many other retirees, my wife and I find it to be such a pleasant community that we do not want to move elsewhere,” Reagor told the Los Alamos Reporter in a recent interview.
Now that he has retired, Reagor, a Republican, has thrown his hat in the race for a seat on the Los Alamos County Council saying he is concerned about some of the things the Council is doing. One of those things is the decision by the County Council to enter into a carbon-free energy plan.
“Many communities have tried a carbon-free plan and found that it’s a very expensive way to go. They have encountered endlessly escalating costs and/or unreliable power. A lot of people have walked away from it. Usually they’re not taking into account the cost of storing the electricity. With a reliable plan, you need a warehouse full of batteries. And if you don’t count the cost of that, then it looks competitive,” Reagor said.
He also said the green energy plan is based on alarmist climate models that do not describe nature accurately.
“Instead, the County Council should focus on providing efficient, reliable low-cost electricity to the residents of Los Alamos,” Reagor said. “Energy costs are a really important part of people’s budgets. The County is taking a strange direction with this which is of little benefit to the people.”
He said one of the reasons Los Alamos County is good place to live is a history of conservative management by previous County Councils. Many retired people want to stay in the community and Reagor feels the Council should maintain that. He said progressives on the Council have really grandiose ideas, but the job of the Council is to do “pragmatic and practical things that provide substantive benefits to the public.”
“We don’t really need to get involved in the grand issues,” Reagor said.
Reagor noted that in some of the County Council meetings he has observed people who are having terrible problems with County government that speak during the public comment period at the beginning of each Council meeting.
“And then the whole rest of the meeting doesn’t address any of the public comment. The council never follows up in the next meeting. Some of these people are almost being run out of business by the County government that doesn’t seem to be plugged into helping everyone,” he said. “County government has to be an advocate for local businesses. They already have the problem of being in a very tight real estate market. They have high rents and struggle to stay in business anyway. County government can’t be an additional barrier to their success.”
Reagor said one thing that has always made Los Alamos County nice is having pretty good services.
“We’ve had our own hospital and it’s variable, but there’s always some nice restaurants open. The town is very tough on small businesses. You have service providers and healthcare people, barbers and restaurants and small stores. They’ve always had a very difficult time because of this island type economy,” he said. “We’re not really on an island, but we’re surrounded by land that’s not available for use by our residents. It’s very hard on small businesses and we see constant pressure on them. County government has to be their friend. You need to promote those smaller businesses that are already here for people who want to live here and who are already here.”
Reagor also wants to see a high level of medical care maintained in the County.
“Los Alamos is a small population center and many communities of similar size are struggling to maintain a complete health care center. Maintaining a high level of care should be a top priority of the council even if it means using capital funds and partnerships to secure these services,” he said.