Archive for Announcements
Bernalillo County Asks Residents ‘What Projects are Needed?’ – New Feature Available for Online Project Requests
by Catherine Lopez, Bernalillo County Public Information Department
Bernalillo County – Bernalillo County is seeking input from the community about future capital improvement projects through a series of public meetings and a new online feature.
“Beginning Monday, March 26, the county will offer its newest feature in this important information gathering process,” says County Manager Tom Zdunek. “Residents will be able to follow-up on their project request. Every project request submitted will receive a confirmation number. If a resident provides an email address, a confirmation number and email will be sent back to them.”
The confirmation number allows residents to access information about how their project was evaluated, as well as where it ranks among projects of its same type.
Residents have until May 17 to submit a project request.
The online request form is available at www.bernco.gov/request. Residents who do not wish to submit requests electronically can still fill out hardcopy forms. The county will have forms available at its Capital Improvement Plan public meetings, starting Monday night, March 26.
The public meetings will allow the county to gather project ideas from citizens and neighborhood groups. The county’s Capital Improvement Plan provides a link between the needs and visions of the public and the county’s capital expenditure budgets.
“Every two years, residents have the chance to make a direct impact on the county’s future,” says Commission Chair Art De La Cruz. “I encourage everyone to take advantage of this opportunity by attending a public meeting and sharing the vision they have for the community with us.”
After hearing from the community, the county will evaluate and prioritize potential projects. During the general election in November, the public will vote on whether to approve the general obligation bonds that fund the projects.
A “capital improvement” is defined as a substantial, physical asset with a useful life of 10 years or greater. Capital improvement projects from past bond cycles include the Deputy James McGrane Public Safety Complex in the East Mountains, the Bachechi Open Space in the North Valley and the Eubank Boulevard road construction project in the northeast heights.
The community is invited to attend any of the scheduled meetings:
Monday, March 26 | District 1
6:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Don Newton Community Center
490 Kachina Street NW
Thursday, March 29 | District 5
6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Los Vecinos Community Center
478 1/2 Old Hwy 66, Tijeras NM
Monday, April 2 | District 1
6:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Raymond G. Sanchez Community Center
9800 4th Street NW
Tuesday, April 17 | District 3
6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Hiland Theater, Studio A or B
4800 Central Avenue SE
A tour of the historic Hiland Theater will be conducted at 5:15 p.m. for interested parties
Thursday, April 19 | District 4
6:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Lt. William Sibrava Memorial Substation
10401 Holly Ave NE
Monday, April 23 | District 2
6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Westside Community Center
1250 Isleta Blvd SW
For more information about the capital improvement process, please visit www.bernco.gov/CIP.
Relay for Life Kickoff and Planning Meeting
by John Weckerle
Checking in on our friends at Mountainair Announcements, we find that the Relay for Life of Estancia Valley will be holding a Kick-Off Celebration at the Estancia Community Center on March 31, 2012 from 10 a.m to noon. For more information see the Mountainair Announcements article or call Brenda (704-5445), Cassandra (974-9627) or Erica (705-5123).
Bernalillo County Encourages Youth Groups to Apply for Spring Cleanup Grants
by Andy Lenderman, Bernalillo County Public Information Department
Bernalillo County – School clubs, sports teams and other youth groups can earn $200 while helping to clean up their neighborhoods and other littered areas around Bernalillo County.
Nonprofit youth groups are encouraged to apply for $200 grants as part of Bernalillo County’s participation in the New Mexico Clean and Beautiful program.
The deadline to apply is March 30.
“Spring is here and this is a good opportunity for youth groups to participate in hands-on community service while earning money for their team or school club,” Commissioner Wayne Johnson says.
Supplies such as trash bags and T-shirts will be provided by the county.
Visit www.bernco.gov/fun or click here to access the application. Applicants can also contact the county’s Parks and Recreation Department at 505.314.0416 or parks@bernco.gov for more information.
East Mountain Transfer Station To Accept E-Waste
by John Weckerle
We have received a press release from Cathy Lopez at the Bernalillo County Public Information Department that the East Mountain Transfer Station is now accepting e-waste for recycling. The “E” in “e-waste” stands for electronics. Such wastes can contain a variety of metals, some harmful and some valuable, and recycling is a great way to avoid potential problems and reapply useful resources. As an added benefit, we can all now recycle electronic devices – computers, cell phones, gaming systems, etc. – without driving into Albuquerque.
We provide directions correcting those issued by Bernalillo County, which appear to assume that only residents living west of the Zuzax exit dispose of such materials (grin):
- From the Zuzax exit, regardless of which direction from which you arrive, go approximately 2 miles west on Old Route 66 (also known as NM 333).
- From the NM-14 and Old Route 66 (also known as NM 333), go approximately 2.25 miles east on Route 66.
The press release indicates that the transfer station is open seven days a week from 7:00 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. Hats off to Bernalillo County for providing this service!
PSA: Today’s EBWPC Meeting Canceled
From Cheri Lujan at the Estancia Basin Water Planning Committee:
Please note that the EBWPC meeting scheduled for Thursday, January 19, 2012 in Moriarty has been CANCELED.. Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you.
PSA: Teachers Needed for Mountainair Elementary After School Art Program
by John Weckerle
Checking in again on our friends at Mountainair Arts, we find that the Mountainair Elementary After School Art Program is seeking instructors for its next 10-week session. Instructors can teach in their art area of interest/expertise, but the Program is looking for help in several specific areas as well. For more information, see the Mountainair Announcements article.
News Release – Fire Season Equipment Vendor Meetings
by Sis Peterson, Cibola National Forest and Grasslands
Albuquerque, NM – January 13, 2012. The USDA Forest Service Southwestern Region is hosting a meeting for vendors interested in providing resources to support wildfires and other emergency incidents. The meeting will be held on Thursday, January 26, from 1:00p.m. to 3:00 p.m. at Forest Service offices throughout New Mexico.
The meeting will discuss a variety of topics including:
- How to become a government vendor
- How to locate and respond to solicitations through the Virtual Incident Procurement (VIPR) system
- How to read and understand contract requirements for specific equipment
The Southwestern Region will be seeking competitive solicitation for the following items for FY2012:
PSA: Bernalillo County Offices Closed Monday
by Tia Bland, Bernalillo County Public Information Department
Bernalillo County – Bernalillo County government offices will be closed Monday, Jan. 16–with the exception of emergency and public safety services.
Mountainair Mentor Program Seeks Volunteers
by John Weckerle
Checking in on our friends at Mountainair Announcements, we find that the Mountainair Elementary School mentor program is seeking volunteer mentors to spend about 40 minutes a week with the school’s young people. For more information, see the Mountainair Announcements article.
Forest Service Waives Recreation Fees
by Karen Takai, Fire Information and Public Affairs, U.S. Forest Service Sandia Ranger District
ALBUQUERQUE, NM – January 11, 2012 – The Cibola National Forest and Grasslands will join other federal agencies in hosting four fee waiver events in 2012. “We encourage the public to get outdoors in America’s vast and dynamic playground,” said Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell. “We hope that visiting your beautiful national forests and grasslands will help people gain a deep appreciation for natural resources, and create lifelong memories.”
On the fee waiver dates, there is no charge to use most of the Cibola’s day use and camp sites. The only exception is for reservations made through the National Recreation Reservation Service due to the difficulties of refunding reservation payments.
This year’s fee waiver dates are:
• January 14-16 — Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend
• June 9 — Get Outdoors Day
• September 29 — National Public Lands Day
• November 10-12 — Veterans Day weekend
All recreation fees at day use sites on the Sandia Ranger District will be waived. Fees will also be waived at all open campgrounds throughout the Cibola National Forest. Because of changing weather conditions, please contact the appropriate ranger district to see if the site is open.
For more information, go to the Cibola’s web site: http://www.fs.usda.gov/cibola
or call the Cibola National Forest Supervisor’s Office, 505.346.3900.
Employment Opportunity: Nurse-Family Partnership
by John Weckerle
Checking in on our friends at Mountainair Announcements, we find employment opportunities in the Nurse-Family Partnership, in which Bachelors-prepared nurses work in-home with low-income, first time mothers. For more information, see the Mountainair Announcements article.
It is certainly nice to be able to post an employment opportunity. As a reminder, if you’re hiring, please feel free to send us an announcement and we’ll post it under our Employment category.
Public Service Announcement: Capulin Snow Play Area
by Karen Takai
Update: Clarification:: The closure of Capulin is due to the dangerous icy conditions on the slope not the roads. Thanks KT
Due to dangerous icy conditions Capulin Snow Play Area on the Sandia Ranger District will be closed this weekend. We will continue to monitor the conditions and keep you updated. Thanks!
Karen Takai
Fire Information & Public Affairs
Sandia Ranger District
11776 Hwy 337
Tijeras, NM 87059
505-281-3304 ex 120
Press Release: Bernalillo County Offices Closed Tomorrow for Holiday Observance
by Tia Bland, Bernalillo County Public Information Department
Bernalillo County – Bernalillo County government offices will be closed Monday, Jan. 2–with the exception of emergency and public safety services.
Happy New Year!
by John Weckerle
It is January 1, and we find ourselves looking eagerly forward to 2012. With some positive life changes having occurred during the latter months of 2011, the denizens of New Mexico Central Headquarters find themselves more optimistic about the coming year’s prospects. We hope that our readers do, also.
Over the last few days, your editor has been giving some thought to how the year is looking and what it may mean for New Mexico Central. A few thoughts:
- Photography may play a more important, or at least a more routine, role in NM-Central’s content. This is in part because your editor is planning an equipment upgrade, and will be feverishly snapping away at everything in sight in order to learn the nuances of the new camera. We may also be introducing some video; in fact, we have the first one put together but need to make a decision on rendering software so we can post it. We used Adobe Premiere Elements to compile it, but the outputs are inadequate and Premiere Elements 9 was widely panned. If any of our readers have suggestions, we could use them.
- Digital art may also start showing up from time to time, possibly a little later in the year. Fractal and 3D art are a couple of your editor’s occasional hobbies, and designing fractal-art Kindle sleeves (these can be seen at your editor’s Cafe Press site under the Digital Worlds collection) as part of this year’s Christmas present inventory has perhaps reinstated the itch. We’ll see.
- We are excited that our gardening experiments have been successful – successful, that is, in demonstrating that 1/2-inch PVC is not sufficient to withstand heavy winter snows if used for a hoop house. The recent barrage of winter storms provided us with a great “test case” and, despite the fact that we didn’t have the plastic on, the snow on the bird netting was still enough to crush the frame. We’ll repair, redesign, and rebuild with thicker pipe when the weather gets a little nicer.
- We’ve given it some thought and we find ourselves even more fed up than in the past with people dressing up intolerance and dishonesty as patriotism. We’re also sick and tired of people in certain quarters constantly tearing down our government. No government is perfect, including ours, and we think the focus should be on making what we have run as effectively as possible as opposed to rather than cripple it or tear it down. We’re tired of intransigent idealogues monopolizing the discussion and gumming up the works. There’s probably not much we can do about it other than continue to “write the wrongs,” as it were, and we’ll continue to try and do so. However, we may be a bit more pointed in some of our critiques, and may also be looking at the backgrounds of those whose writings we are reviewing, as this puts some perspective on the situation and gives an insight into just how much these people actually know about the subjects upon which they are expostulating.
- The recent omission of the Capulin Snow Play hours was a little embarrassing, and we’re going to try to do a better job at posting the public service announcements and press releases the various agencies send us.
With those thoughts in mind, we’ll move forward into the New Year with a sense of adventure and at least a couple of goals. We wish our readers, and everybody else, a happy and prosperous New Year!
We Missed The Boat On The Snow (Play)
Editor’s note: In the holiday hustle and bustle, we neglected to post the holiday hours for the Capulin Snow Play Area, which will be open today and tomorrow from noon to 3:30 p.m. Note that the Saturday AND Sunday openings represent an expansion of hours compared to the pre-holiday season “Saturdays only” schedule.
by Karen Takai, USFWS Sandia Ranger District Information Officer
Tijeras, NM – December 16, 2011. The Sandia Ranger District Capulin Snow Play Area will be open for the following times during the Holiday Season, weather and conditions permitting from 12 noon to 3:30 p.m.
- December 17, 18
- December 22, 23, 24
- December 29, 30, 31
Starting January 7, 2012, the area will be open from noon to 3:30 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. The area will stay open until the area closes for the season in March when the snow melts.
“We’re really pleased that we’ve been able to expand the hours so people can come out and enjoy winter activities on the Sandia Ranger District,” said District Ranger Cid Morgan. In addition to the Capulin Snow Play Area, we have a variety of other winter activities on the District including snowshoeing and cross-country ski trails,” she added. Because conditions on the mountain changes, there may be days that the area will closed because of bad weather or poor snow conditions.
Tips for Enjoying the Snow Play Area
- Visitors need to bring their own inner tubes or soft sliding devices that have no metal or wood components.
- We want you to be safe while you’re at the Capulin Snow Play Area. The following are activities are not allowed. Please do not:
- Use skis, sleds (with wood, metal or other hard materials) or snowboards
- Be careless, reckless sliding , creating jumps or altering any sliding area
- Have more than 2 persons per sliding device or linking sliding devices
- Bring or drink any alcoholic beverages to the area
- Bring any glass or metal containers to the area
For additional information contact the Sandia Ranger District at 505-281-3304