ABQJOURNAL NORTH: Around Northern New Mexico

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Around Northern New Mexico

Journal Staff and Wire Reports
      Hotel Occupancy Down in Santa Fe
Occupancy rates at Santa Fe hotels, which have suffered since the economy dived last fall, remain down in the latest industry report as the summer tourist season begins in earnest.
       The New Mexico Lodgers Association reports that Santa Fe hotels had a 62.2 percent occupancy rate in May, down from 71.2 percent for the same month in 2008. For the first five months of 2009, Santa Fe lodgers had an occupancy rate of 50.1 percent compared to 58.2 percent for the same period last year.
       The hotels' “revenue per available room,” or REVPAR, is down by more than 20 percent, from about $65 for the January-to-May period in 2008 to about $51 so far this year, according to the latest report from the Lodgers Association.
       For New Mexico overall, the occupancy rate is down for the five-month period from 68. 3 percent in 2008 to 59.5 percent this year.

       Two in Hazing Case Seeking Transfer
West Las Vegas schools superintendent Dr. Jim Abreu said Monday two former Robertson High School students who were charged in a football team rape and hazing case have expressed interest in transferring to West Las Vegas High School, but that no decision has been made.
       Abreu said the students are Santiago Armijo and Marcus Gutierrez, charged along with four other former Robertson players for allegedly sodomizing teammates with broomsticks during a preseason training camp last August.
       Armijo maintained his innocence throughout the saga but in March pleaded no contest to two counts of attempted criminal sexual penetration and one count of conspiracy to commit those crimes. He avoided jail time after a judge said his involvement in the attacks was “less” than the other accused assailants. He was sentenced to two years of supervised probation, along with community service and other conditions.
       Gutierrez is still awaiting trial in the case, along with three other defendants who haven't taken plea deals.
       Abreu said he will discuss the cases of Armijo and Gutierrez with lawyers and the West Las Vegas principal before making a decision about allowing the transfers. He'd previously rejected attempts by four of the six accused students to transfer while they remained on suspension at Robertson. That suspension ended after the 2008-09 school year.

       Man Dies After Tire Blowout Crash
A two-vehicle collision on Interstate 25 just south of Santa Fe sent two people to the hospital Monday, with one dying later that night with serious head injuries, and held up Rail Runner commuter trains, according to State Police.
       The accident happened at 5:37 p.m. when a tire on a Brinks armored truck heading south on the highway blew out, causing the driver to lose control and strike a green Toyota pickup just south of the N.M. 599 bypass at mile marker 272, according to State Police Lt. Eric Garcia.
       The pickup was forced off I-25 and came to rest on its tires against the west side of the Rail Runner tracks. The armored truck rolled across the tracks and landed on its wheels on the east side of the tracks. The front axle “was completely sheared” from the Brinks truck, Garcia said.
       A passenger riding in the back of the Brinks truck sustained “serious head injuries” and was taken to Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center in Santa Fe, where he died several hours later. The driver of that vehicle sustained “moderate” injuries and was in stable condition.
       The driver of the Toyota pickup was not injured. The identities of the people — all males — involved were unavailable Monday evening.
       The crash halted a northbound Rail Runner train about a quarter-mile south of the accident site. The train “was probably near the San Felipe or Santo Domingo (Pueblo) areas” when the crash happened after the vehicles lost control.
       Northbound passengers sat idle for about 25 minutes before they resumed their trip. A southbound train was still in Santa Fe when the crash occurred and was held up for some time after the crash.

       Copter Wreckage Recovery Thursday
Recovery of wreckage from a fatal helicopter crash in the mountains of northern New Mexico is planned for Thursday.
       A private company will use a heavy-lift helicopter to remove the wreckage of the state police helicopter, which crashed June 9 during an attempted rescue of a hiker lost in the mountains near Santa Fe. The helicopter pilot and hiker died, but another helicopter crew member survived.
       Eddy Schumacher of Beegles Aircraft Service in Greeley, Colo., said Monday that the wreckage will be airlifted to a trailer several miles from the crash site and trucked to a storage facility in Greeley, which will be used by National Transportation Safety Board investigators.
       The recovery “ranks pretty high on the difficulty level,” he said. The wreckage is on a steep slope at about 12,000 feet elevation.
       The wreckage recovery plan is awaiting U.S. Forest Service approval. The use of motorized equipment and the landing of helicopters is restricted in the federally designated wilderness area.

       City Wants Words Retracted From Suit
City government wants a judge to remove “immaterial, impertinent or scandalous material” from former City Councilor Steven Farber's recent lawsuit that seeks a judge's order requiring the release of documents connected to a mysterious FBI tape of two top Santa Fe police officers searching a hotel room in 2003.
       The city's motion says the majority of Farber's court complaint “contains malicious allegations and innuendo against Santa Fe public officials” instead of being a “simple, concise and direct” pleading required by court rules.
       Farber should be required to file an amended complaint with large portions stricken, the city's motion says.
       The FBI tape shows Eric Johnson, recently retired as police chief, and his brother Gary Johnson, now a police captain, searching the hotel room, finding a bag of cash and leaving. Mayor David Coss has said the FBI apparently was doing “an integrity check.” Both Johnsons had lower ranks at the time the surveillance tape was made.
       Farber says the city has refused to release a number of documents related to the case that his suit says are important “to assure that there is openness in government and not corruption or cover-ups.”
       Among the portions of Farber's complaint that the city wants stricken are references to a purported viewing of the tape by various city officials at Coss' house in 2007, before its existence was made public.

       Harwood Museum Names New Director
The University of New Mexico's Harwood Museum of Art in Taos has tapped a Boston museum administrator for its new director.
       Susan Longhenry, 43, who will start at the Harwood on July 1, said she believes her expertise will help the Taos museum acquire the accreditation it now lacks from the American Association of Museums.
       “I have already approached them about it,” Longhenry said in a telephone interview. “I think the Harwood warrants accreditation. It's a wonderful museum.”
       The Harwood will break ground on an expansion July 1 which will add gallery space, an auditorium and expand an art storage area that is to include a covered loading dock. Having to unload loaned art in an area unprotected from the elements may have hampered accreditation, a museum official said previously.
       Longhenry, who most recently was the Alfond Director of Museum Learning and Public Programs at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, said she was “thrilled” by her Harwood appointment.
       “It's a museum that has a rich legacy … I look forward to joining the community and continuing that legacy,” she said.
       Longhenry was chosen by the Harwood's nine-member governing board to replace Deborah McLean, who has been interim director since January 2008.
       The new director was involved in an expansion at the Boston museum, which will help in Taos, said board chair Linda Warning. “I think she has a lot of experience in programming and in developing programs that the audience wants to see.”

       Board Approves Plat For Development
The Santa Fe County Development Review Committee last week voted unanimously to approve Commonweal Conservancy's preliminary plat for the proposed Village at the Galisteo Basin Preserve.
       The plan anticipates development of 149 homes and 37,500 square feet of commercial and civic space. The initial phase would include 131 single-family lots and sites for 18 multi-family dwellings. Forty-five homes, or 30 percent of the Phase I development, will be available for moderate-income households. The plan also proposes development of a small café, an environmental center, and a post office, as well as classrooms, common areas, and administration facilities in the Village center for Charter School 37.
       The village's first phase will include hundreds of acres of parks and open space, and a five-acre “memorial landscape” for green burial purposes.
       The development of the first phase will consume a 60-acre portion of the larger 300-acre proposed village area. In its full realization, 13,000 acres of open space and 50 miles of proposed hiking, biking, and equestrian trails will surround the proposed village.
       The county committee's vote “is a profound and timely endorsement of inclusive, conservation-based, and resource-efficient community development—values that deeply inform the planning and design of the Village at the Galisteo Basin Preserve,” said Ted Harrison, president of Commonweal Conservancy, the Santa Fe-based nonprofit organization spearheading the Galisteo Basin Preserve, in a news release.
       In 2007, the Santa Fe County Commission granted the Village at the Galisteo Basin Preserve master plan approval for the development of 965 residential units; 150,000 square feet of commercial, institutional, educational, and recreational land uses; and 10,316 acres of open space, parks and trails.

You also can send comments via our comment form