Letters to the Editor

Fund-raising youth work toward a goal, experience

Editor:

This letter is in response to Ms. Elizabeth Hanes’ letter regarding the fund-raising of the LLHS volleyball team.

My daughter was one of the girls standing at the intersection on that particular Saturday. However, she had my permission to be there, in fact I was there, as well as the mothers of the other girls.

I thank Ms. Hanes for worrying about the safety of our children.

Letting my daughter be there was my call to make. Granted, it is a dangerous intersection, and things do happen. Is it any more dangerous than putting my daughter behind the wheel of a vehicle here in Valencia County?

For that matter, sending my daughter off to high school in light of all the high school shootings in the country. Walking along the sidewalk on NM 47?

Unfortunately in this day and time, you are not safe anywhere!

I am shocked and appalled that Ms. Hanes chose to single out the volleyball team and name them in her letter. The girls now feel bad and guilty that they did something wrong!

There have been plenty of other athletic teams and organizations that have done the same thing at that intersection.

She also states that she could not contribute to the team’s cause because it put young lives at risk.

Did Ms. Hanes come down the road and buy anything from the volleyball rummage sale? Did she stop at the Sonic in Bosque Farms the next day to have her car washed by those same girls?

Ms. Hanes is a public relations expert and claims she would sit down with us to give us an alternative way of fund-raising. Is she willing to donate her time as well as her expertise?

For those of you that did contribute to the volleyball team’s cause, whether it was on the street, the rummage sale or at the car wash, we wholeheartedly thank you!

I would like to also especially thank Pete’s Carpets and the Sonic in Bosque Farms for supporting the girls! Without the support of our community, we couldn’t have reached our goal!

Monique Dereta

Bosque Farms

Chamber page a success

Editor:

The Membership Committee for the Greater Belen Chamber of Commerce wishes to thank the Valencia County News Bulletin for working together and toward the goal for producing a new-look Greater Belen Chamber Page.

First appearing in the June 12 issue, the developing goal of this revitalized project is to provide a business-community page that will consistently remain accessible and useful for community businesses to not only identify themselves as a special resource in our local communities but to also develop an awareness of other growing resources immediately available in our local business communities.

In focusing on the opportunity to have our local businesses describe their own uniqueness and the local advertising made available at a discount for the page, the effort seeks to insure that we, as local consumers and business people, know who is around us long before we begin to look to other streets in other communities for what we can provide here in the Greater Belen area.

Thank you News-Bulletin for working together with the Belen Chamber to continue promoting our local communities; local businesses; and, for helping to consistently identify the special resources growing and developing in our local business communities.

Membership Committee Belen Chamber of Commerce

Thanks for memorial

Editor:

I was in attendance at the recent memorial service for our lost youth and wish to take this opportunity to thank the many people who poured out their hearts for the lost youth in our community.

Thank you Sunshine Flowers, Romero Funeral Home, Davis Floral, Riverside Funeral Home and the Rotary Club of Belen for the beautiful floral arrangements.

Thank you goes to Rudy Espinoza and Donavin for the music and to all of the youth who spoke and to the many people who worked so hard to organize the memorial.

A special thank you to Pastor Ray Jaramillo of Calvary Chapel Rio Grande Valley for the beautiful message and to the City of Belen for the use of their facility.

Belen is a wonderful place to live, work and raise a family, and the incredible outpouring that this community shows makes it an even greater place to be able to call home.

Paul Baca

Belen

Evap coolers are better

Editor:

Congratulations to News-Bulletin editor Sandy Battin, who hit the nail on the head before the state’s largest daily paper could even find a hammer.

In a “Minute Essay,” apparently triggered by a recent Albuquerque Journal article encouraging people to change from evaporative coolers to refrigerated air, Battin notes that the effort goes against the grain of true-blue New Mexicans.

There’s a big marketing push going on right now for refrigerated air, but some of the information floating around the media about water-wasting evaporative coolers is very one-sided.

Albuquerque’s city website breaks down our average indoor residential water use like this: toilet, 26.7 percent; clothes washers, 21.7 percent; shower, 16.8 percent; faucet, 15.7 percent; leaks, 13.7 percent; and bath, dishwasher and other at around 2 percent each.

Notice that “evap cooler” doesn’t even rate separate mention as a water waster.

Often, an efficiently designed house needs neither swamp cooler nor air conditioner. Over many centuries, our local builders developed efficient cooling techniques.

Cross ventilation, thick walls of adobe or other mass materials, shading devices, adequate roof insulation and properly placed plantings can drastically reduce or eliminate the need for mechanical cooling systems.

New Mexico is lucky enough to have an average temperature drop of over 30 degrees each night. But the refrigerated-air requirement for a “sealed test tube” home ignores the great cooling benefit of this free, natural gift. And sealed houses always require additional, elaborate ventilation equipment.

Air conditioning systems are being touted as using less water, but articles ignore how much extra water is needed to generate the extra electricity required by refrigerated air, not to mention the increased output of greenhouse gases.

You can pay an estimated $4,000 to retrofit your house with refrigerated air conditioning. Or you can save an equal amount of water with a $10 low flow showerhead.

Alex and Laura Sanchez

Authors of “Adobe Houses for Today”

Los Lunas

Literacy conference great

Editor:

I just wanted to applaud the efforts of the Jaramillo Elementary School principal, her staff and Elisa Brente-Fair, the presenter from Rigby, who hosted and presented the literacy conference on June 7 and 8.

The information shared was well organized, parent-friendly and educational. The presenter was well educated in the field of literacy and allowed us to share our experiences, thoughts, feelings and questions in an open and non-threatening environment.

It is regrettable that more of the community didn’t take advantage of this wonderful opportunity to get involved and find more ways to promote literacy in the home.

Thank you again for a job well done, and the food was good, too.

Eilenn Boliver

Belen

Applaud for Los Lunas

Editor:

Yesterday, I had a most rewarding experience with public servants of the Village of Los Lunas. My daughter and I had cleared weeds out of her yard, and it was left up to Mother to make arrangements for their disposal, as daughter had to go off to work.

I called the Village office and encountered very courteous, prompt attention. Arrangements were made for me to be at the transfer station at 2 p.m. I was there, as was the gentleman who helped me with my load. He, too, was helpful, kind and courteous. I was overwhelmed by the considerate attention paid by employees of this community.

I do not live here. In fact I live a couple of hundred miles from here, out in the country near the post office of Mimbres, New Mexico. Los Lunas is part of my State Board of Education District 6, and I have visited many area schools over the years I have been a member of the Board. This, however, was my first encounter with other public servants in this community.

My daughter lived and rented in Corrales for seven years. When she decided to buy a house two years ago, she elected to buy in Los Lunas because, although the Village is growing rapidly, to her it still had a feeling of hometown folk, and she chose Los Lunas. I certainly concur, as I feel that Los Lunas is my home away from home, and I love the people.

Catherine M. Smith

Mimbres and Los Lunas

Piece of history revisited

Editor:

In 1979, after four years of preparation, something unheard of occurred in our state legislature — indeed in our whole nation, a group of members dubbed the “cowboys” elected their own state legislative speaker (Gene Samberson) by a majority vote on the floor at it’s convening session, overturning the votes of another group dubbed the “The Mama Lucy’s.”

The core members of this group were customers of a lady operating a restaurant in Las Vegas.

National press people interviewed members on both sides as to the reasons for this action, and the event will likely appear in future history books.

Some of these reasons were:

1. We 11 east-side democrats claimed policies were being changed to conform to the more liberal national party directions, funding problems without thorough identification.

2. According to the state constitution, the Speaker, once elected, has sole power to make assignments to committees, appoint the committee chairs, desk space on the assembly floor, etc.

For example, Walker Bryan of Carlsbad was given office space in the attic on the fourth floor, for a time — punished by his vote, I was told.

3. The electronic voting device now in use is a direct result of a Speaker slowing down the roll call deliberately, to allow the Sergeant at Arms to find his colleagues before declaring the vote final. Hence, the purchase and installation of the device mentioned above.

Walter Martinez was Speaker when I arrived in 1973. He was also the choice of the “Mama Lucy” group, of which he was a member.

Now deceased, I must say he was one of the finest presiding officers I’ve ever been in the presence of.

I also noticed he was a good family man, a good person.

The procedural rules of the House were adopted by their group, however. Our action in 1979 kept Raymond Sanchez out of the Speaker’s chair until 1983, the year I left, after 10 years of quite interesting service.

Having said all that above, it was a real pleasure for us to attend the second reunion of those of us from among the actual “cowboys” and some sympathizers.

This picnic was hosted by Colin McMillan and his wife, Kay, who own the 3 Rivers Ranch, west of the Sierra Blanca Mountains.

The ranch was once a part of the Tapot Dome Scandal.

His ranch manager is Barney Carbajal Jr., who told us about being raised in Belen. Ruth and I enjoyed meeting and visiting with him. He says he likes the ranch life.

Among those present were John, 93, and Millicent Mershon, Gene and Gayle Samberson, Aubrey Dunn, Jim Otts, Hoyt and Joy Pattison, John Bigbee, George Buffet and wife, Marty Lambert and husband, Cecelia Rosales and John McMullan.

My office partner for 10 years, George Fettinger, and his wife, Nell, were missed as they were attending a banker’s convention in another state.

A few of those actually involved in the “cowboy” rebellion have passed, such as Boyd Scott, Bob Moran and Walker Bryan.

Barney Barnard

Rio Communities