New State Building Still Empty

The state’s new $6.5 million, 34,000-square-foot Center for New Mexico Archaeology remains empty entering the new year.

Construction on the center, a few miles west of Santa Fe, was essentially completed in early 2011, but the center still needs to be connected to Santa Fe County’s water system.

Funding, design and cost issues have helped delay the connection, according to Eric Blinman, director of the state Office of Archaeological Studies.

Blinman said in September that a move-in before the end of the year was possible. He said this week that it will be about three more months, at the earliest.

It’s possible the water connection could be completed this month, Blinman said. Once that’s done, it will take about 60 days to put the finishing touches on the building and conduct various tests of its heating/air conditioning and other systems, he said.

The building was supposed to have a water well but will instead be hooked up to the Buckman Direct Diversion Project on the Rio Grande.

The contemporary building was constructed on land provided by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. It is part of a corridor of development that includes the city’s Municipal Recreation Complex, the headquarters for the state Game and Fish Department and the Santa Fe Animal Shelter & Humane Society.

The center will provide a permanent home for an estimated 10 million artifacts in the state’s archaeological research collections. The building will also house the Office of Archaeological Studies and its research labs.

The state office, which has about 40 employees, conducts archaeological studies in advance of road and other construction projects.

No double dipping

In this past Saturday’s column, I mentioned that Gov. Susana Martinez could “double-dip” — that is, collect both a government pension and salary — depending upon how long she remains in the Governor’s Office.

Martinez, 52, a former state prosecutor, has been a public employee for more than two decades and will be eligible for a pension once she has 25 years of service.

In a conversation Tuesday, the governor asked me why I didn’t ask her if she would double-dip. She said that if I had asked the question, the answer would have been “no.”

I certainly didn’t mean to suggest in the column that Martinez would double-dip if able. The point was that the ban on double dipping for most public employees, enacted in 2010 under Gov. Bill Richardson, doesn’t extend to elected officials like the governor.

You may also want to know that Martinez last year signed legislation that creates a financial disincentive for retired public-school teachers to return to work and collect both a pension and a salary.

Remembering Cerletti

I first met Mike Cerletti in the early 1990s when he served as the state’s first tourism secretary during the years of Gov. Bruce King. I got to know him better when he served as State Fair manager, then tourism secretary during the years of Gov. Bill Richardson, a close Cerletti friend.

He was one of the most enthusiastic, warmest and most joyous people I have known in or out of government and politics.

I saw him a few months ago, and he had lost some weight and his hair to brain cancer. But the disease couldn’t take his trademark smile.

Cerletti, who died Tuesday at age 72, will be remembered Friday at a service at the St. Francis Cathedral Basilica in downtown Santa Fe. I’m going to get a seat early; it might get crowded.

UpFront is a daily front-page news and opinion column. Comment directly to Thom Cole at tcole@abqjournal.com or 505-992-6280 in Santa Fe. Go to www.abqjournal.com/letters/new to submit a letter to the editor.
— This article appeared on page A1 of the Albuquerque Journal