Archive for Mountainair

Letter From Mountainair

(Editor’s note: We received this a while ago and, while we’re not clear on what’s going on in Mountainair, there are some interesting points contained in the letter. We present it here unabridged as food for thought on several obvious topics.)

by Dan Embree

Fellow Citizens of Mountainair

I’m one of the local trouble-makers – one of the many citizens who over the last couple of years have been attempting to induce the town council and the mayor to comply with New Mexico law in conducting their meetings, and I’m the guy who was famous for 15 minutes last summer for being dragged out of a council meeting by Chief Robert Chung on the orders of Mayor Chester Riley for objecting, in a parliamentary way – it’s recorded – to the council going into executive session without saying, as the law requires, what they were going to talk about.

Because I’ve discovered that my name (and that incident) is being used to frighten people into voting for incumbents Barbara Chung and George Immerwahr, as supposedly stalwart defenders of public order against outsiders and provocateurs, I would like to briefly tell a story that may illuminate my character and that of my accusers.

While I was passively refusing to leave the council meeting that night (but offering to leave quietly if handcuffed and arrested), George Immerwahr shouted “Filthy, disgusting haters!” at me and my wife, Joan (the least hateful person you will ever meet) and a half dozen others who supported us; and Barbara Chung shouted at me, “We know your history! You were one of those protesters who spit on returning Viet Nam veterans!”

“Well, actually,” I replied from the floor, where I was by that time, “I was one of those returning Viet Nam veterans.” (For the record, no one spit on me.)  I had served for a year as an infantry officer in Quang Tri Province, in the rice paddies and villages along the DMZ and on a hilltop on the Laotian border.  It was all field duty – no staff job, no general’s aide, no rear echelon – and to be fair, no heroism, no medals for valor.

So it stung a bit and it still stings to be called a spitter on veterans.  Years later, after the Kent State shootings, I did become a protester.  With two of my West Point classmates and a graduate of the Air Force Academy, I helped found Concerned Academy Graduates (surely the straightest, stodgiest, even stuffiest anti-war group of that era), and we grew to a modest 1000 members across the country, appearing on radio and TV and writing editorials and making speeches against the war.

But we never spit on anyone.  Nor did any of the protesters that we marched with, as far as I know.  We did march: in the spring of 1971 we marched in San Francisco with another 400,000 protesters, many of them veterans, all of them Americans. I pulled my two-year-old son in a red wagon; my wife, Joan (one of George’s “haters”) marched with our daughter in utero. That was one of the best days in one of most meaningful periods of our lives, and it remains beyond the reach of petty politicians to recast into some shameful narrative that suits their own purposes.

The veterans of that war have different stories and different versions of what that war meant.  And we tell one another those stories when we meet briefly – on the street or in Gustin’s or at the Alpine or at Mike’s gas station or anywhere.  And we often disagree.  But we respect one another and we call one another “Brother” and we don’t make up nonsense to blacken each other’s reputations.

So, just as I can laugh off the spectacle of  public officials making up nonsense about their achievements in an election flyer, I can see this attack on my reputation and my wife’s character for what it is: the desperate product of over-heated imaginations.

This campaign isn’t supposed to be about me, and I am sorry to have been dragged into it in this silly way. There are several good and  reasonable candidates, firmly rooted in reality,  who are looking to serve the community without glorifying themselves.  I hope you will vote for them.

Dan Embree

 

 

[Please forward this email to everyone you know.  Please print it out and hand it to your neighbors.]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas Fair In Mountainair

by John Weckerle

Checking in on our friends at Mountainair Announcements, we find that there will be a Christmas Arts and Crafts Fair in Mountainair on Saturday, November 17 from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.  For more information, see the Mountainair Announcements article.

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.

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.

PSA: Mountainair Ranger District Offering Fuelwood Permits

by Arlene Perea, U.S. Forest Service Mountainair Ranger District

Mountainair, NM – October 26, 2011:  The Mountainair Ranger District will resume selling personal fuelwood permits beginning on Monday, October 31, 2011 at 8am.  Permits will be a maximum/minimum of 4 cords for $20 and will be sold on a first come first serve basis.  Citizens who bought permits during our first round of fuelwood sales will not be eligible to buy permits for the first 3 days as the demand for first time purchasers is too high.  Permits will only be sold at the Mountainair Ranger District.  A photo ID will be necessary and the public will not be allowed to buy permits for others.  The permits will be for dead/down Ponderosa Pine within the Thunderbird Ecosystem Management Area.

If you have questions regarding personal fuelwood or any other Mountainair Ranger District questions please call 505-847-2990 or email D’Ana Riley at dlriley@fs.fed.us.  You may also check the website at www.fs.usda.gov/cibola/mountainair.

PSA: Junge Prescribed Burn Planned for Early November

by Adrian Padilla, U.S. Forest Service Mountainair Ranger District

Mountainair, NM – October 26, 2011:  Mountainair Ranger District Fire Officials are planning on continuing there Prescribed burn program. Fire Officials have been monitoring weather conditions and fuel moisture conditions. With the current moisture levels they plan to complete the Jungle Prescribed Burn in the Manzano Mountains within the next few weeks, possibly as early as next week.

The burn will be on National Forest lands located East of Forest Road #422, North of Forest Road #275 and west of the Forest Road #522.  District Fire personnel are watching weather patterns closely and hope to accomplish burning approximately 186 acres sometime during the next week to two weeks.  The purpose of the burn is to improve watershed and wildlife biodiversity as well as to reduce current fuel loadings and lessen the threat of wildfire to private property.  The burn will be conducted only if fire personnel are available and weather patterns are conducive to burning.

If you have questions regarding the planned prescribed burn or any other Mountainair Ranger District questions, please call 505-847-2990 or email Adrian Padilla at adrianpadilla@fs.fed.us or Arlene Perea at atperea@fs.fed.us.

PSA: Mountainair Community Garden Clean-Up and Planning Day

by John Weckerle

Checking in again on our friends at Mountainair Announcements, we find that there will be a clean-up and planning event for the Mountainair Community Garden on Saturday, October 29 beginning at 10:00 a.m.  For more information, see the Mountainair Announcements article and, while you’re at it, check out the Mountainair Farm & Garden Market Facebook page.

PSA: Mountainair Elementary School Fall Carnival

by John Weckerle

Checking in on our friends at Mountainair Announcements, we find that the Mountainair Elementary School will hold its Fall Carnival today, Friday October 28, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.  The carnival supports school activities and includes games, bingo, and a cakewalk.  The organizers are requesting donations of baked goods and bingo prizes.  For more information, see the Mountainair Announcements article.

USDA Summer Food Service Program

by John Weckerle

Checking in on our friends at Mountainair Announcements, we find news on the US Department of Agriculture Summer Food Service Program, which provides meals to children without charge.  According to Mountainair Announcements, the program is currently offering lunch at Mountainair Elementary School, Ernestine Garcia Park in Willard, Quarai National Monument, Manzano Convent in Manzano, The Torreon Community Building in Torreon, and the Tajique Community Building in Tajique.  For additional information and meal times, see the Mountainair Announcements articles here and here.

Public Service Announcement: Mountainair Drug Take-Back Day

by John Weckerle

Checking in once again with our friends at Mountainair Announcements, we find that there will be a drug take-back day tomorrow, April 30, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Mountainair and Moriarty.  This will provide an opportunity for people to drop off unused medications anonymously so that they can be disposed of properly.  Drop-offs are at May’s Pharmacy in Moriarty and the Salinas Pueblo Missions in Mountainair.  For more information, including drop-off addresses, see the Mountainair Announcements article.

Public Service Announcement – Mountainair Cancer Walk

by John Weckerle

Checking in on our friends at Mountainair Announcements, we find that there will be a Cancer Walk in Mountainair tomorrow, April 30.  Registration starts at 8:30 a.m. and is free; the walk starts at 9:30.  For more information, see the Mountainair Announcements Article.

Economic Development Association Gets New Web Site

Editor’s note/disclosure: The web sites referenced in this announcement were developed by your editor’s company, WeckTech, but the community web sites have since been discontinued.  While WeckTech was an investor-level member of the Estancia Basin Economic Development Association at the time this article was published, the firm has since terminated its membership in EVEDA.  

by John Weckerle

The Estancia Valley Economic Development Association (EVEDA) web site has been given a facelift, including a full redesign and short photo slideshows for each of the valley’s  communities.  Virtual tours have been given a new look and feel, as well.  Community web sites developed by WeckTech – Moriarty, New Mexico and the Surrounding Area and Edgewood, New Mexico and the Surrounding Area – have been updated to include the revised links to the EVEDA virtual tours.

Public Service Announcement – St. Vincent de Paul Society Sale

Checking in on our friends at Mountainair Announcements, we find that the Society of St. Vincent de Paul is holding a sale at their location in Mountainair (208 Broadway) from April 5 through April 9, with a number of special donations not previously available in their store for sale on April 9.  For more information, see the Mountainair Announcements article.

Mountainair Farm & Garden Market Opening

by Kristine Lauritsen

Hi Again Everyone – count down has started for the Mountainair Farm & Garden Market opening, Thursday May 5, Cinco de Mayo, so we’re planning on some Latin themed food and music to celebrate this exciting day!  We’re trying to get an approximate tally of those planning to be vendors at the opening (fresh produce, plants, home-made art/crafts, one-time event permitted prepared food, organization with an informational booth). Our headliner will be Mary Childers unveiling a new food offering from Alpine Alley! Don’t miss this opportunity to get in on the fun!

Contact me here (Kristine Lauritsen), or Rebecca Lueras by phone: 505. 847-0973

follow our own farmers market info on the web at:

http://mountainairfarmgardenmarket.blogspot.com/

http://www.facebook.com/MountainairFarmGardenMarket?sk=wall

Public Service Announcement: Mountainair Blood Drive

Checking in on our friends at Mountainair Announcements, we find that there will be a blood drive at the Dr. Saul Community Center on Tuesday, April 5 from 12 to 5 p.m.  For more information, including contacts, see the Mountainair Announcments article.