Email
Men Pled Guilty To Illegal Logging
Two Pecos men have pleaded guilty to unlawful logging in New Mexico’s Santa Fe National Forest. Prosecutors say 27-year-old Kevin J. Quintana and 28-year-old Kevin C. Vigil both pleaded guilty Wednesday to the misdemeanor offense of unlawfully cutting and destroying trees growing on federal public lands. Both men were sentenced to one year of probation and ordered to pay almost $1,500 in restitution to the U.S. Forest Service. Authorities say the money will be used for reforestation projects and community awareness to deter future timber crimes. Quintana and Vigil also are required to forfeit the chain saws they used in last year’s incident. The two men admitted to cutting and harvesting 15 spruce pine trees from the forest in San Miguel County on Nov. 3 without the proper permits.
20 Acres To Be Burned Today
About 20 acres of brush piles are scheduled to be burned today in the Santa Fe Watershed, about six miles east of the city.
The pile burn is expected to take place, if conditions permit, while snow is on the ground, which will help keep smoke levels low. Smoke may settle into lower elevations and in drainage areas, but is expected to lift by mid-morning.
To mitigate smoke impacts, fire managers will burn smaller blocks of fuel, as well as work closely with meteorologists and air quality regulators so smoke disperses effectively.
$35K Will Help SFCC Kids Campus
The GROW Santa Fe Community College Foundation has received a gift of $35,000 from the Brindle Foundation to provide scholarships for students’ children to attend Kids Campus, a child development center for children 8 weeks to 5 years old.
SFCC President Ana “Cha” Guzmán said in a news release, “Supporting those students’ children with tuition assistance at Kids Campus really helps single and/or working parents to focus on completing a degree and getting a good job.”
Brindle Foundation is a small family foundation based in Santa Fe that focuses on early childhood development. GROW Santa Fe Community College supports the mission of SFCC to help students succeed through advocacy and fundraising.
State Cautions On Boiling Water
The New Mexico Environment Department’s Drinking Water Bureau has issued a “precautionary boil water advisory” for the Arroyo del Agua Mutual Domestic Water Consumers Association (MDWCA).
Wednesday’s advisory follows a major water outage caused by leaking and frozen water. The affected area is some 20 miles southwest of Abiquiu, serving about 75 people in Rio Arriba County.
This advisory only applies to drinking water for the Arroyo del Agua MDWCA and does not extend to any of the other surrounding water systems.
Affected customers are advised to seek an alternate source of drinking water, such as bottled water, or to boil the water for five minutes before drinking, cooking and dishwashing. This is a precautionary advisory only — no contamination has been detected at this time.
The Drinking Water Bureau will require the water be tested to ensure no contamination has occurred during the outage.
