Archive for November, 2008
Goings-On In Mountainair This Weekend
by John Weckerle
Our friend Vanessa Vaile at the Mountainair Arts Blog has given us the heads-up that there are things to do in Mountainair this Saturday, including a fundraiser for the Mountainair Shelter Project, a sidwalk sale, and the first anniversary party for Alpine Alley – a coffee house that, according to Vanessa, “has become the popular hangout among resettlers and visitors.” For more information, check out Mountainair Announcements. Weather forecasts are for a beautiful day Saturday, and there’s plenty of daylight to visit both the Mountainar events and Wildlife West’s Community Appreciation Day.  Better get out and about, readers; winter’s coming!
Community Appreciation Day At Wildlife West This Saturday
by John Weckerle
This Saturday, November 15th, Wildlife West Nature Park in Edgewood will be holding a day of appreciation for the support shown by the regional community. From 12 to 4 p.m., admission will be free, as will be hot dogs and drinks. Any business that wants a free 1/2 table booth space in the bean barn (heated!) should call 281-7655. NM-Central will be sharing a booth space with your editor’s commercial enterprise, WeckTech. Both I and Senior Staff Writer Chuck Ring plan to attend and hope to see you there!
First, Do No Harm (Part One)
by Chuck Ring (GadAbout-BlogAlot ©2008)
Quote Freely From The Article — Leave The Pseudonym Alone
This Is Part One Of A Two Part Article
“First, do no harm.” A phrase many believe to be a part of the Hippocratic Oath taken by physicians. Actually, it has been adopted by some in the medical field, particularly in emergency medical services, as a credo of sorts, but it is not in the Hippocratic Oath. Perhaps though, some of our elected representatives, whether state, county or local might consider adopting the same or similar sentiments as they go about passing legislation.
There is a history of the New Mexico State Legislature (legislature) passing statutes that allow counties to place taxation issues on a county wide referendum. It appears that such legislation has been passed as a result of strong lobbying by the Association Of Counties (AOC), larger municipalities within those counties and influential individuals. These referendums are allowed with seemingly little thought and certainly no thorough consideration by many of the involved parties as to the impact that such legislation has on small municipalities in counties where such legislation is allowed. That is, unless the consensus among legislators is that other entities are more important than small villages, towns and cities. In any case, it is unlikely that a small town can prevent the passing of a county wide referendum, no matter the effort or monies expended by its governing body and citizens.
Edgewood, New Mexico has experienced the impact of two such gross receipts tax referendums and the taking of taxes from Edgewood as a result, has served to dampen economic development, infrastructure development and citizen services for Edgewood citizens and area residents. By far the most egregious of taxes passed through an almost bilateral process by Santa Fe County and its partner, the City of Santa Fe (county and city), is the ¼ of one cent tax passed as Santa Fe County Ordinance 2002-5 or the Santa Fe County Capital Gross Receipts Tax. Posted below are some of the more telling portions of the ordinance. Notice how the county and city have crafted the ordinance so that benefits from the tax fall heavily on the county and city … not only in total money dedicated to them, but also in percentage of the overall proceeds: »» First, Do No Harm (Part One)
Support Your Local Mayor
By Bob Steiner
  It has now been more than six months since Bob Stearley took over the reins  of local government in Edgewood. Under his leadership the town continues to move  forward and prosper.  The Mayor is devoted to our community and handles his duties in a positive manner. Unfortunately, the town has been without a town administrator since a few days after he began his term of office. While the mayor has tried to hire a person to fill that position,  he has thus far been unable to find an applicant who is qualified and could gain the approval of the town council . Consequently, while passing off some of the “administrator”duties to other members of the town staff, he has taken on most of the work, himself. In all fairness, while he doesn’t complain, he is faced with a very heavy workload and still tries to maintain a “can do”attitude. With other members of the community, as well as staff, trying to assist him, there may, at times, be some duplication of effort in getting the business of the town done. Regrettably, this results in confusion for all parties involved. An example of such disorder came to light last Wednesday night during the most recent town council meeting.
Apparently, the town of Edgewood has few, if any, guidelines governing the purchase of goods and services for the community. There also seems to be no designated employee charged with the responsibility of performing the duties of “purchasing agent”. This is evidenced by the fact that several “well-meaning persons “associated with the town have contacted “East Mountain Flooring” at different times regarding carpet for the new Library location. While it appears that these parties were only seeking information and did not enter into any sales contract, the fact that multiple persons were making contact with the merchant has created some confusion regarding this matter. It would seem that no promises of purchase were made to the firm but they were left with the impression that they would at least be allowed to bid on the project. In view of this, “East Mountain Flooring”,  an Edgewood Business, did expend several hours of effort taking measurements of the location and answering many questions presented by these”well-meaning” persons. It is further noted that Mr.Giovenco, the owner, even brought rug samples to the council meeting to address any additional questions town staff or councilors might have had. »» Support Your Local Mayor
Good On You, Edgewood Councilors
by Chuck Ring (GadAbout-BlogAlot ©2008)
Quote freely From the Article — Leave The Pseudonym Alone
The Edgewood Town Council meetings have been conspicuous with the absence of the town attorney for several meetings. This, after at least one citizen and some council members have pointed out the foolishness of not having legal representation for the governing body during quasi-judicial hearings and legislative deliberations. Ostensibly, according to the initial reason first posited by Mayor Robert Stearley, the reason the mayor did not favor the attorney’s attendance was budgetary in nature.
Mayor Stearley, during the town council meeting of Wednesday, November 5, 2008, repeated that his concern was for monetary reasons. When further discussion, initiated by Councilor Brad Hill and supported by Councilor Rita-Loy Simmons pursued the issue, the Mayor opined that when attorneys appear at town meetings they tend to act like council persons and ask too many questions. This observation or statement coming from the mayor might cause one to wonder what is underneath the surface that may have caused him to make such an unusual statement. Whatever the reason, as a former Edgewood councilman of almost nine years who sometimes did not completely concur with a town attorney’s advice, I can’t recall ever believing that any of the four I observed, rendered advice that was entirely inappropriate. One can only speculate that perhaps the mayor has not agreed with opinions or advice given by the town attorney and unilaterally decided not to have the attorney present during governing body meetings.
The mayor’s statement served to open up the issue for discussion of the matter by the remaining councilmen (Abrams and Felton) and they too, expressed their concern for the lack of an attorney during quasi-judicial hearings and legislative deliberations. The mayor, to his credit, finally acquiesced and the governing body came to the consensus that a system will be worked out to have the attorney present during the aforementioned proceedings and at other times when it is determined such attendance is necessary.
This was a wise decision on the part of the governing body. The town, whether through the mayor acting alone or with the consent of the council, should never act as its own attorney. It has been said that a person (read town) that act’s as their/its own lawyer has a fool for a client and an idiot for an attorney. Hopefully, it is settled that Edgewood doesn’t and isn’t. Sometimes we have to spend money to save money. Money spent on legal representation happens to be one of those times.
GadAbout-BlogAlot ©2008
Quote freely From the Article — Leave The Pseudonym Alone
Yes, They Have No Bananas — No Lemons Either (Not From New Mexico)
 by Chuck Ring (GadAbout-BlogAlot ©2008)
Quote freely From the Article — Leave The Pseudonym Alone
Yes, We Got No Bananas (click to hear)
Some might ask if I have turned daft, or as others might ask, more daft. What the heck is the significance of the song. Fair question and the answer will come in due time.
I picked up the most recent issue of The Independent (The I) and became enthralled by an article which I assumed to be satire until I realized that The I doesn’t do satire, but they are good at silly and
inane. And, inside their boiling vats of criticism floats the Edgewood Wal-Mart; the target of repeated slam articles and diatribes at the dripping pens of The I. The article turns out to be sour and nonsensical to the extreme. How? Let us see the ways.
The title of the article is, Wal-Mart fails to keep local buying pledge by Robert Raffone and if the reader did not read past the title, he or she might be inclined to negatively shake their head or tsk-tsk at the very least. Mr. Raffone tells us that on a “recent” walk-through of the Edgewood Wal-Mart and more particularly, the produce section, not a single item of produce from East Mountain growers poked their leafy little heads, eyes or ears from the produce bins. Mr. Raffone enumerates a list of produce and fruits that he did find. His list included strawberries, pumpkins, corn and grapes from California along with lemons from Chile and apples from Washington. Mr. Raffone goes on to list oranges from South Africa, as well as bell peppers from Canada and tomatoes from Mexico as being present among the United Nations of produce. But, all locally grown produce was absent without leave from Edgewood’s Wal-Mart. »» Yes, They Have No Bananas — No Lemons Either (Not From New Mexico)
Not Quite Over For The Political Junkies
by Chuck Ring
For those who are political junkies or just feel like a junk heap after the election, here’s something you can play with to see trends and results statewide and countywide.
After you arrive at the page you will see that you are on the results page for Santa Fe County. If you wish to dig down to individual precincts you will find a precinct select window next to the county window in the upper left corner of the page. Of course you can also select another county to examine if you want to spend all day and night on the site.
In Santa Fe County precincts 15, 16, 18, 73, 84 and 85 the transit tax was voted down. The total vote was 2755 against to 1515 for, which seems to verify that most folks in those precincts (which is mostly Edgewood do not see a train track or any other real overall transportation benefit to the citizens in our future. But, the bad news is that the rest of the Santa Fe County portion of transit district citizens felt differently and voted for the tax, so that the totals were 34934 for to 28,501 opposed.
So, what will happen as a result of the transit tax passing? On January 1, 2009, you will see the gross receipts tax for the incorporated area of Edgewood (inside Santa Fe County) rise from 7.625 to 7.750. This tax, joins other taxes that have been foisted on us because we cannot overcome the votes from the rest of the county when it comes to tax referendums. One answer to the perpetual problem is the possibility of forming a county out of portions of Santa Fe, Bernalillo and perhaps Torrance counties. This is not the first time that this possibility has been mentioned, but it might be more viable now, because it is difficult to walk much less run, with Santa Fe County’s hand in our back pocket.
It could be worse. Santa Fe City joins Española, and Taos to have gross receipts tax rates above eight cents on the dollar.
It Ain’t Over ‘Till It’s Over – And It’s Over.
by John Weckerle
We wake up today to a very different world than that in which we lived yesterday. Despite the clouds currently scudding over our region, and the blustery winds buffeting us, we can all breathe a little easier, step a little lighter, and look forward to a better time.
The political ads are gone.
They will be replaced quickly, of course, with the usual barrage of holiday advertisements seeking to entice us into borrowing money and sending it to foreign factories as a way of showing our friends and families that we’re thinking of them. For once, this will be a relief (although it probably won’t seem so after a week or so). Target, Walmart, Kmart, and Sears will not likely be lying about each others’ philosophy, ancestry, or upbringing, and I’m betting that Hasbro and Mattel will not be showing grainy and unflattering pictures of each other’s products. Tickle Me Elmo will not be attempting to link Ken to the Cookie Monster, and nobody is going to be attacking Barbie over the price of her wardrobe. Toys will be toys (which, in this day and age, means most of them will probably break before Valentine’s day), and come January, we will all be back to wondering just how we’re going to make ends meet in what promises to be – from an economic standpoint – a very difficult year for many of us.
Now that this is all over, I’d like to thank our correspondents for not dragging NM-Central into the mess, as we agreed that this was not the place for the seasonal diatribes. Only one slip occurred, and it was minor enough that the only likely repercussions might be having one’s head Photoshopped onto a scantily-clad Madonna and posted on YouTube.  It is my hope that the intense emotions of the election season will quickly give way to some of the better sentiments associated with our upcoming holidays, and that we will all remember that – while we may disagree strongly on some things – we really agree on most things. After being reminded of our differences every six minutes for the past year and a half, I look forward to all of us remembering what we have in common.
Public Service Announcement – Veterans and Military Appreciation Day
by John Weckerle
The Estancia Masonic Lodge (#33) will hold their annual Veterans and Military Appreciation Day on Sunday, November 9, 2008. A Thanksgiving Dinner will be held at 2:00 p.m. (Veterans eat free; other guests pay $5.00) and a veterans’ program will be held at 4:00 p.m., with dessert to follow. For more information or to RSVP, contact:
- Tommy Crosswhite: 384-2579
- Steve Balke: 730-7189
- Kim Hoggat: 263- 2787
What? A 36″ Giant Sucking Sound!
by Chuck Ring
Just when you thought that the City Different, AKA Santa Fe or Disneyland, was through being outrageous, comes the story that they want to add to their water supply. Maybe not bad on the surface, but this deal involves sucking or pushing water through a 36″ pipeline from Ft. Sumner. Such sucking and/or pushing would be over a distance of 145 miles and a lift in elevation from 4049 feet altitude to an elevation of 7320 feet altitude. A lift of 3271 feet through a 36 inch pipeline will require enormous energy, materials and “mucho dinero.” Similar problems did not deter Santa Fe City several years ago when they hatched a similar scheme to import water from the Estancia Basin in Torrance County to Santa Fe. A very vocal Estancia Basin contingency and a well-attended Santa Fe City Council meeting put a dam up to halt that particular project.
I am preparing a series of articles that will shed light on some of the two Santa Fes’ (The Twins) water deals and gimmicks. The articles will be published here and will be utilized elsewhere in an attempt to halt the craziness of The Twins and their like, especially as their actions apply to taxing entities that will not see benefit of such taxation and similar actions. Until I post the first article in the series, you can slake your thirst by accessing and reading an article on the subject which appears in today’s (Sunday, November 2, 2008) Santa Fe New Mexican:
http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Local%20News/Private-water-pipeline-proposed-for-S-F-
That’s it for now.
GadAbout-BlogAlot