GRIT Newsletter: January 2025

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The January 2025 GRIT began with the President, Jim Stewart, announcing in his monthly letter to the SHHA membership that two issues arising in late 2023/early 2024, had been dealt with. The mandatory universal dues assessment and the imposition of monetary damages for covenant violations were both retracted from potential consideration by the Board. In a more celebratory vein, Jim Sorenson showcased Kerstin Winters’ winning photo and personal history in an interview article after Kerstin won the SHHA’s 2024 Photo Contest. Stan Davis’ article on “Name that Hewn Sculpture” was next in the January 2025 issue. This fun article contained a photo montage of several nearby rock formations with unusual shapes (for example, “Falling Dominoes” and “The Sphinx”), and a description of the nicknames they have accrued as a result. The January 2025 GRIT also contained two business-related articles: an agenda for the upcoming Annual Meeting of the Sandia Heights Homeowners Association (February 22, 2025), and Elizabeth Edgren’s description of exactly how to purchase discounted tram tickets from the SHHA front office. The Artist Next Door series also started up again this month after a short hiatus. This time, the peek into Sandia Heights’ artist scene described the lives and art of two artists: Claudia Mitchell, who is also The GRIT’s current editor, and her partner, Gerard Del Monte. Claudia paints, primarily in oil, while Gerard is a woodworker with an affinity for streamlined, elegant boxes. (Claudia also penned two requests for volunteers for the Communications and Publications committee in the January issue.) Next in the January 2025 January issue are more reminiscences by Ann List, who chronicled Sandia Heights’ doings across 40 years of Januarys. Many of those Januarys involved bad winter weather, and Ann’s stories described how the residents coped with it “back then.” Next up were two articles by Kathleen McCaughey, Chair of the Environment and Safety Committee. In the first article, she reports on Bernalillo County’s plans to address speeding near San Rafael Avenue: first, a radar feedback trailer to monitor speeders, and second, higher speed humps along the road. In the second article, Kathleen thanks the trash pickup volunteers who assisted in cleaning up Tramway on December 7. The January issue concludes with a photo essay by Stan Davis illustrating the various bizarre, unusual, delightful and captivating picnic tables on hiking trails near Sandia Heights. Throughout the January 2025 issue were sprinkled the usual monthly notices: a list of the Architectural Control Committee’s recently approved projects, a tally of recent Covenant Support Violations and their disposition, and an events notice of ongoing bridge club and dinner club membership opportunities.

Erratum: Page 7 states that children under five years old may ride the tram for free, but this is incorrect: Children under two years old may ride the tram free of charge.