Friday, April 30, 2010

EDITORIAL: Time To Take Care Of Those Who Take Care of Us

By John Severance, Editor
and Gary Jaramillo, Publisher

It’s hard to understand why here in Socorro, the ones we call on first to save our lives, struggle to make ends meet in their personal family lives every day because of deplorable overall compensation for the work they do.
Emergency personnel are expected to continue rigorous update training, perform numerous other taxing duties each shift, then pile the liability of mandatory added medical knowledge on their shoulders in the back of a moving ambulance or in the middle of a super dangerous fire situation, and then be expected to stay quiet and content with minimum wage salaries that add insult to their own injury. Unfortunately, it’s a long time common problem within the City of Socorro system – and every department within that system is facing the same problem.
What is the answer to city employee’s insurance rates climbing even higher, which drags their salaries even lower, while at the same time, some elected officials insist on healthy raises for themselves.
Are things upside down and backward in city hall? Should full time city employees from every department be struggling? Has the same statewide double-dipping plague infiltrated our city, causing a bottleneck effect and kept other employees from moving up to the positions they now deserve?
Could this be why Socorro loses experienced employees to other city governments and agencies? Is the economic downturn just a great excuse for what just might be bad management? Have some elected officials forgotten that they work for city employees and all of us out here?
We’ll look into why so many full time employees easily qualify, and are forced to seek out government assistance in an upcoming issue, ”Is Socorro broken?”

The High Road?

The Socorro Electric Cooperative Board of Trustees still have an opportunity to do right by its members.
The tone of Friday night’s meeting was anything but that as attorney Dennis Francish said there was no hurry to implement the reduction of trustees or redistricting because state law trumps Robert’s Rules Of Order.
The members, though, have spoken. And their wishes should be granted.
The co-op board should do everything it can to take the high road. Unfortunately, that might be too much to ask.

Tough Task

The Sun Zia Southwest Transmission Project held a scoping meeting in Socorro Tuesday and it displayed the different routes it was contemplating to the public for a line that started near Corona in Lincoln County and weaved its way through Socorro County and then eventually ended up at Casa Grande, Ariz.
Routes being considered included northern routes that would go through the Sevilleta Wildlife Refuge, another that would go near San Antonio, another that bordered that White Sands Missile Range and even another that goes by the City of Socorro.
The project managers and the environmental groups have a tough task because whatever they decide, somebody is not going to be happy.
The Fish and Wildlife people have a beef, so does the military and so does the general public. In fact, so does everybody.
It’s going to be another six months or so until a decision is made but the BLM still is soliciting public comment on the study area but that ends on June 10. Check the BLM website for more details.
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