Cyprus: a current worker’s view

To the editor,

In regards to a recent article that was published in your periodical, I believe an important viewpoint was missing. As an employee of Alison Dance’s for over three years and a current member of the Cyprus Café family, this is what I have to say.

Alison has always been a generous employer. Just to point out a few of her more generous moments: in 2013, she helped to finance a trip to Spain and Portugal for any of her staff that requested to be part of the adventure. Four of us were able to make the time. She paid for part of our plane tickets and 100 percent of food, lodging and transportation while in Europe.

That year she also invested for her managers to travel to San Diego to get their sommelier certification. All expenses paid by her. For over a decade, if you worked for Alison, you were given a free meal and beverage on every shift you worked. Those free meals and drinks totaled about $50,000 last year! I ask myself and others, “Does that sound like the actions of an employer that would be shaving minutes off of an employee’s clock out to save a few bucks?” I know Alison made mistakes in editing times, but I am confident that none of this was done with malicious intent.

 The letter that Kristin Harmon received does prove that times were edited. As far as I know, not just Alison, but also her managers and employees (myself included) edited the times of workers who didn’t clock out, either by forgetting or by a more premeditated decision to milk the clock. As far as I know, not one employee was ever denied being paid the hours they claimed they worked if they left a paper trail for 4 Alison. That means, if you forgot to clock out, as an employee it is your responsibility to inform your employer what your actual work hours were and an explanation of them and the missed clock out. If not, it is reasonable as an employer to think your shift was over at 9:30 if the restaurant closes at 9. I personally witnessed some of the so-called whistleblowers milk the clock by sitting around after shift before clocking out or even as brazen as running errands and then coming back to clock out. 

 Anyone who has worked in the restaurant industry knows that restaurants and their owners are often taken advantage of and Cyprus Café was no exception. I can attest that over the years there were instances of employees helping themselves to steaks from the freezer to knocking back a few drinks after their shift without paying for them and everything in between. About a month ago, one of the ex-employees came in for a drink, her comment, “The only difference now is Alison isn’t buying my drinks for me anymore.” Wink* Wink*

To put this into a monetary perspective, if five employees a day give away one drink a piece, or have one drink apiece without paying for it, or forget to clock out for one hour after their shift is over, it costs the business an average of $12,000 to $15,000 a year.   

I see this issue as a personal one. I believe that some of the ex-employees had personality conflicts with Alison and what is most hurtful is the impact these conflicts have had on the Cyprus Café family, not just Alison Dance. I believe, the Durango Herald article and trash talking in this small community may have had a negative impact on business and usually where that hurts is in the pocket … again … not just Alison’s.

The Cyprus Café is a community of employees, from those working in her restaurants to those who grow greens and vegetables for her kitchens, with children and families of their own to take care of.  I am hoping that as a community we can put these conflicts to rest and move forward. Alison Dance made mistakes she didn’t mean to. I am asking you as members of the community not to make the mistake of buying into the sensationalism of small town gossip and continue to be part of our family, the Cyprus Café family.

– Thank you for your time, Dawn Adams, bartender

Let sun set on half-cent tax

To the editor,

In 1999, there was a citizen-driven effort to build a community recreation center and the Animas River Trail with a one-half cent sales tax. At the time, one of the main factors in passing this tax was the promise of the sun setting of the tax and, of course, the specific nature of how the tax would be used.

To the best of my knowledge, the proponents and the City of Durango got what they wanted. Now, the city government wants to extend this unfair tax for no specific purpose but a suggested list of administrative and wish list projects. (“Something for everyone,” says the mayor.)

Since 1999, we who do not live in the City of Durango have helped the City reach its goal. At the same time, we have been paying for our satellite community recreation facilities through homeowners fees and assessments. Developments that have built and maintain recreation facilities such as trails, club houses, playgrounds, parks, tennis courts, fishery maintenance, and lake community, with no assistance from the sales tax we have paid every day when shopping in the city limits. We did not get to vote on this issue at the time, so it is time for us to stop paying for something that the majority do not use – the Recreation Center and the River Trail.

The City of Durango has the resources to manage and operate their existing facilities and programs. They have demonstrated their ability to acquire grants from Great Outdoors Colorado to fund their recreation and open space wish list.

The City should let this tax sunset and leave the county consumers who buy locally out of the picture, just like the communities of Bayfield, Ignacio and the Southern Utes do.

This tax should not be continued, Amen!

– Dolph Kuss, La Plata County

Critic, cartoonist on same page

To the editor,

Being an occasional critic in this paper of Shan Wells over the years, it was good to see his cartoon in the Telegraph and Herald expressing his thoughts about his fellow satirical cartoonists who were slaughtered at the Charlie Hebdo office in Paris. Slaughtered for the sole reason of expressing their opinions. We must always be there for people who wish to stand up to evil forces. Those forces that are compelled to take from us our treasured freedoms. Cartoons are one of the best vehicles to show (and ridicule) the true face of terror. Nice going, Shan.

On another note, please say a prayer for those four Jewish shoppers who were murdered by a Jihadist terrorist at the kosher market in Paris. Their crime? Just being Jews!

And a big hug goes to Lassana Bathily, a young Muslim man. His quick thinking at that kosher market in Paris saved over a dozen people including seven Jews. For that he was awarded French nationality and the Legion d’honneur, France’s highest honor. Saving one life is like saving the world. Bathily did more than that. He saved hope in humanity.

– Shelly Perlmutter, Durango