‘Veterans deserve a nice park’

by John Larson

SOCORRO – Nineteen year old Isidro Baca was killed in action while serving with the U.S. Marine Corps in Vietnam August 21,1967. Less than three months later, on Veterans Day, Isidro Baca Memorial Park, between Center and Court streets, was dedicated to all servicemen who died in the line of duty.
Monday night, the Socorro City Council approved a Memorandum of Agreement between the city and Socorro County to begin renovating the park.
Ann Baca, Isidro’s sister, publicly thanked the city and the county governments for making the agreement. She said the park would honor veterans of five military branches.
“It is a long time coming. Veterans do deserve a nice park,” Baca said of the renovations. “Without them we would not have our freedoms today.”
Councilor Chuck Zimmerly said veterans coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan were also being recognized.
“It helps to have a nice place for a gathering to honor all those people,” he said.
In an interview, Ann Baca remembered her brother as a good older brother.
“I was 14 years old when he was killed in action, so there was a five year difference in our ages,” she said. “Isidro was a typical older brother, always playing jokes on me. One time while I had braces on my teeth he told me if I went outside I would be electrocuted.”
She said she went to her first rock concert because of Isidro.
“He was a huge fan of the Dave Clark Five, and they were coming to the Civic Auditorium in Albuquerque,” Baca said. “He wanted to go and our Mom said, ‘you can go if you take Ann.’ That was my first concert.”
Isidro Baca was studying to be an X-Ray technician when he enlisted in the Marine Corps. He was in Vietnam six months when his squad was ambushed by Viet Cong near Ca Lu in Quang Tri province.
When the park was dedicated, the memorial was a simple brick memorial.
“In 1993 my dad got together with committee members and came up with the pyramid. And to add all the names on the pyramid,” Baca said. “It was wonderful how the community came together and dedicated the park so soon after Isidro was killed.”
In addition to Isidro Baca, the dedication plaque honors Socorrans David R. Alexander, Willie B. Lee, Florentino Tafoya Jr., George Eloy Tafoya, and John V. Tafoya.
Baca said she was invited to a Marine Corps reunion to be held in Arlington, Virginia in August, 2010.
According to County Manager Delilah Walsh, the county commission approved the agreement at its Oct. 27 meeting.
“A few changes will be made, including removing the coastal artillery cannon,” Walsh said. “The look of the park will be similar to that in front of City Hall, with a central walkway surrounded by landscaping, and five towers with plaques dedicated to each branch of the military - Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard.”

‘Veterans deserve a nice park’

Tech gets $23 million grant

By John Larson
reporter@ourmountainmail.com

SOCORRO – New Mexico Tech has been awarded a $23 million federal grant to continue its first responder program for the Department of Homeland Security.
John Meason, Director of Tech’s Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center, told the Mountain Mail the first responder program has become the nation’s top training center for law enforcement officers, firefighters, EMTs, and military personnel.
“We serve as the training facility for all 50 states and U.S. territories,” Meason said. “The appropriation will fund the first responder program through next fiscal year. Like any other agency with the government, the money is appropriated on a yearly basis.
The main courses offered are Incident Response to Terrorist Bombing (IRTB), and Incident response to Suicide Bombing (IRSB).
“The terrorist bombing courses are held here in Socorro, and the suicide bombing is covered down at Playas,” Meason said.
Tech Vice President of Research Van Romero said the first responder program has continued to grow since its inception in 1998.
“This program brings first responders from all 50 states and U.S. territories to Socorro for an advanced training for any situation involving explosives,” Romero said. “We’ve been focusing on terrorist acts, but we probably will start to evolve beyond that into other situations, to all hazards.”
Continued on Page 3
Romero said “up to 50,000 people have come to EMRTC for the training [since 1998],”
“This week we have a big program for bomb squads,” he said. “It’s v very rigorous weeklong program. We train in all kinds of explosive devices up to, and including, car bombs.”
During this type of training Socorrans are used to hearing booms from ‘M’ Mountain.
In the recent past, during certain atmospheric conditions, the loudest booms were from the diamond shots at the base of Strawberry Peak.
The diamond shots were moved to EMRTC’s facilities in Playas last year.
Romero said he was surprised to learn that residents in Deming, 70 miles from Playas, heard the shots.
“It was a surprise to us. Since the Playas facility is so far from Deming we didn’t think it was necessary to check the atmospheric conditions, but apparently the sound carried one day,” he said.
Romero said he was scheduling to attend an upcoming Deming City Council meeting to explain the program – and the sounds.

Tech gets $23 million grant

Contreras man treasures 102-year-old lifetime of memories

First Person
By Gary Jaramillo

Sometimes in life you get the chance to get and feel a real win in your life. Wins come in many different ways, shapes and forms. Most of the time the wins in life are few and far between, but this is one that I’ll treasure for the rest of my life. My win had absolutely nothing to do with money but everything to do with good fortune.
Early Wednesday morning, I drove out about 30 miles north to the village of Contreras and met Abenecio S. Tafoya who recently celebrated his 102nd birthday.
My father, Tony Jaramillo, and I made the trip to talk with Mr. Tafoya and his daughter Anna at their longtime home.
We were met by their two feisty dogs in the drive way and then by Abenecio’s wonderful daughter Anna. I wasn’t sure what I should expect when I finally met Mr. Tafoya and I guess my thoughts were that he would be a frail, slow moving, slow talking gentleman who could no longer understand much around him. I was very surprised when I had my first look and heard the first words from Abenecio.
He was watching television and smiling when his daughter began to introduce us to him. She told him that we were from the Mountain Mail newspaper and that we had come to talk about his latest birthday and his lifetime of memories. He immediately stood up and invited us into his front living room where we could sit and talk more comfortably. As he rose from his chair my father (81) and I (55) automatically reached out to help him up, but by that time he has scurried around the chair and left us well behind as he headed toward his living room.
He waved his hand behind his back and said, “this way.”
We sat, and he was ready to talk - and man could he talk and tell a story - making us laugh and feel really good about the whole interview idea. He told of his lifetime living pretty much in the same small area all of his life. He pointed out the front window to the west and said he lived in Ranchitos de La Joya earlier in his life but always in the same small area. The only five year break he got from farming the land in and around Contreras was his time in the Army during World War II.
He traveled just about everywhere in Europe and did just about everything for our country that he possibly could. He saw action in Africa, Italy, Spain and other countries during his time at war. He was sent home only after both knees were destroyed in an explosion.
As he lifted his pant leg over his scared knees to show that he no longer had knee caps I asked him what he thought about making it back home and he said, “I came back to work again.”
He talked a lot about where he had been in the war but never mentioned the European African Middle Eastern Service Medal Award, WWII Victory Medal or American Theatre Service Medals that he received for his courageous service to our country. It seemed the only important part to him was that he did what our country asked him to do and he made it back to the place he loved, home.
When I asked him why he thought he’s had such a long life he replied, “God said, you’re now born and you won’t know when I’ll be back to get you, so here I am, 102.”
“Who knows?”
Abenecio loves beans and chili and eggs. He told me he’d been eating them all his life and he really like them. One of his favorite sweets is pie. He enjoys a little wine from time to time and told us a story of a man who used to make the wine by stepping on grapes in a tub all day and always had a very good finished product for everyone to try. I asked him where people went to get food and supplies when he was a child and he said there were little tienditas (neighborhood stores) scattered about the land. Some were far and some were a little closer. Different stores hand different things. The only way to travel then was by horse or mule, or by foot. He said the “wind up cars” came later.
When asked about what people did in the early 1900’s about doctors, he said they “either traveled for days to find one” or “did their very best to self medicate and get better on their own.”
Many didn’t and some did.
“Those who found a doctor paid cash, and cash was so very hard to come by 100 years ago,” he said. “They only paid 50 cents a day and you worked from sun up to sun down every day. He said he couldn’t believe that they pay up to eight dollars an hour now just for one hour, and shook his head.”
He told us the story of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s CCC camps coming to the area and paying one dollar per day. It saved many peoples family’s and lives.
Then out of nowhere, he begin to sing the CCC Camp song that everyone sang in those days. It was about the President bringing jobs and money to everyone who was willing to put in a decent days work for a decent days wage. He smiled and sang the song like it was just yesterday.
The Mountain Mail will have his song clip on www.mountainmail.blogspot.com for everyone to hear and see.
He showed me photos of his family and kept that smile going the whole time. His memory was absolutely remarkable, and as he and my father reminisced about people and friends they both may have known, his eyes were bright and full of excitement. He reeled off name after name of people who had walked through his life and were all now gone. He talked of the banditos of the Manzano Mountains that in their day were some pretty bad people.
“Everyone took care of themselves any way they could back then,” he said. “Banditos tried robbing and stealing and anything else they could get away with. But we all protected each other when we had to.”
Benny had eight siblings and was married to his wife Mary for 55 years. They had three daughters and six grandchildren of which he is very proud. Daughter Emilia passed away in 1952 and his wife Mary passed in 2006. Abenecio’s daughters Anna and Antoinette stay with him and keep him company as well as care for his daily needs.
He’s still active enough to keep a little garden where he grows his tomatoes and chile. He has always been an avid horseman, farmer and rancher.
I’ve had never met or even talked to someone who has lived more than a century. Like he said, “you won’t know how long you’ll be here until God comes for you.”
We can all hope that he forgets to come for us for a really long time.
It was an absolute pleasure to shake hands with a man who lived through all of the history that I could only read about in books. He’s no worse for the wear for living over one hundred years and I’ve got a feeling that he’s going to be walking and fixing fences around his property for many more years to come.
Congratulations from everyone in Socorro, Valencia and Catron Counties to Mr. Abenecio “Benny” Tafoya on his 102nd birthday.
This was such a special opportunity and story for the Mountain Mail Newspaper staff and myself. Perhaps a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Contreras man treasures 102-year-old lifetime of memories

Contreras has some high hopes in state X-country

by John Severance
editor@ourmountainmail.com

DamiAna Contreras missed the Socorro girls soccer team’s game against Santa Fe Prep on Oct. 30.
But she had a pretty good excuse.
The freshman was the top finisher in the district meet and led the Socorro girls cross country team to a second-place finish in the district championship at Bataan Park in Albuquerque.
On Nov. 7, Contreras and the Lady Warriors will run in the state cross country meet at 9 a.m. at Rio Rancho High School.
“I am hoping DamiAna can run into the top ten and that would be considered all state,” Socorro cross country coach Steven Montoya said.
It just so happens if the Socorro girls soccer team reaches the state final, it will play at 10 a.m. in north Albuquerque. The AAA girls state meet starts at 9:25 a.m.
When asked if she would try and make the soccer game, Contreras said: “Probably yeah.”
Contreras admitted it was tough to miss the soccer game last week.
“It was hard but I knew they needed me more in cross country than in soccer,” she said.
Contreras, backup midfielder on the soccer team, said she is going to do the best she can on Saturday in the state meet.
“I am just going to run as fast I can,” she said.
She also has the blessing of Socorro soccer coach Mitch Carrejo.
“I don’t blame her at all,” Carrejo said. “It was great for her to win a district championship.’’
Montoya said Contreras is in excellent shape.
“She has not done a lot of training with us,” Montoya said. “It’s just fitness from being an active girl. She is in real good shape.”
Three other members of the Socorro soccer team are eligible to run in the state meet. They include Contreras’ sister, JeriAna, Zoe Howell and Victoria Lopez. But if the Lady Warriors are in the state title game for soccer, those three will play soccer.
Even though JeriAna Contreras, Howell and Lopez did not run in the district meet, they are eligible to run in the state meet because they competed in 25 percent of the cross country team’s competitions.

Contreras has some high hopes in state X-country

OBITUARY: Lonnie Zamora

Dionicio E.(Lonnie) Zamora, 76, passed away on Monday, Nov. 2, in Socorro.
Lonnie was born in Magdalena on Sept. 7,1933 to Domingo and Rafelita (Gomez) Zamora. He is survived by his wife of 55 years, Mary (Baca) Zamora of Socorro; sons, Michael Zamora; and Dennis Valdez, both of Albuquerque; daughter, Diana Martinez and husband, Roland of Albuquerque; Sisters Manuelita Sedillo of Socorro; and Marcella Sisneros of Albuquerque; granddaughter,Theresa Recio of Albuquerque; Grandson, Anthony Recio of Albuquerque; great granddaughters, Adrianna Recio- Hernandez; and Kassy Recio, both of Albuquerque.
Lonnie was a Socorro Police officer for 15 years and worked as Landfill Supervisor for the City of Socorro until he retired. He retired from the T6 New Mexico National Guard after 23 years of service. Lonnie was an avid Dallas Cowboys fan.
Lonnie is preceded in death by brothers, Luis Zamora; Tom Zamora; Frank Zamora; and sisters, Mary Chavez; Benita Sedillo; and Sofia Chavez.
A Visitation will be held at Steadman-Hall Funeral Home on Friday, Nov. 6, from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. A Rosary will be recited on Friday, Nov. 6, at 7 p.m. at San Miguel Catholic Church in Socorro. A Mass of Ressurection will be celebrated on Saturday, Nov. 7, at 9 a.m., at San Miguel Catholic Church with Father Andy Pavlak as Celebrant.
Burial will take place in the San Miguel Cemetery. Pallbearers are Michael Gonzales, Raymond Gonzales, Albert Chavez, Johnny Sedillo, Anthony Recio, and Frank McQuerry. Honorary Pallbearers are Damascus Smith, and Santos Hernandez.
Arrangements are under the care of Steadman-Hall Funeral Home, 309 Garfield, in Socorro. (575)835-1530.

OBITUARY: Lonnie Zamora

LETTER: Finley Gym Location A Secret

To the editor:
In dragging my name into the fray, Mr. Gonzales appears to be making one of his little “points”, but it sounds to me like a tired old propaganda trick -- if you can’t prove what you want to, just demonstrate something else and pretend it’s the same thing.
And the context is entirely missing. The 2004 election to which he refers was a shootout between Vicente Torres and David Wade.
My candidacy counts more as comic relief (I got four votes) than a statement about SEC politics. It certainly is not relevant to current issues.
As for the potshot about people not knowing where Finley Gym is, we can thank him for airing a long-standing problem, in spite of his intention to use it like a club against his enemies. I have long wondered why the city wants to keep the whereabouts of the gym a secret.
The legal ramifications of this are questionable validity of all meetings held there for which notice is required, at least when the notice contains only the name “Finley Gym” and no clear directions.
Bear Albrecht
San Antonio

LETTER: Finley Gym Location A Secret

LETTER: Thank You To Walmart Employees

To the editor:
Many years ago I read about the origins of Socorro, and how it came to have its name. I was quite impressed to know that the foundation of this town rested on kindness and caring for others.
Recently, I had what could have been a bad experience in our local Walmart, but instead, the incident is recalled as a positive event.
In the early afternoon, I hurried around the store trying to find a couple of items, when I suddenly began to feel weak and shaky. I hadn't eaten any lunch, and only a small amount for breakfast, and I think what happened was that I simply ran out of fuel.
Knowing that I had better sit down, I did exactly that --- on the floor. A young female employee saw me and came to be of assistance.
When I asked for water, she suggested a soft drink. I agreed, and she hurried off to get it. Then a woman who I assume to be a supervisor came over and offered help, asking if I was diabetic. I'm not, but a person with diabetes could have the same symptoms. She suggested that I drink some orange juice, but the younger woman arrived, bringing me a 7-Up.
After drinking some of it (and feeling quite stupid sitting on the floor), I made it to the check stand, but then felt too weak to sign my name for the credit card. I had to sit on the edge of the check stand until I was a bit better, then signed and got to a chair which had been pointed out to me. The same supervisor came to check on me, and suggested I call my husband to come and get me. She borrowed a phone for me to use, and I made the call.
After my husband had arrived, we had walked almost to our vehicle when a young male store employee came running after us. He handed me a pint of orange juice and said "You're supposed to drink this".
I drank it on the way home and it helped a lot.
Aside from saying a very public "Thank you" to the Walmart employees, I'd like for the rest of you to know that the spirit of caring and kindness is still alive in Socorro. These were young persons who helped me, so that means that those of you who are their parents have done a fine job of passing on the tradition.
My sincere thanks to all of you.
Audrie Clifford
Socorro

LETTER: Thank You To Walmart Employees

Sometimes it takes a while to determine your politics

Commentary
by Paul Krza

I didn’t know about him then, but back in the 1950s, when I was fine-tuning my ABCs in an isolated, Socorro-size Wyoming coal town, another, slightly older, kid lived across town, also growing up, and he says, getting pummeled by local toughs. Now, he’s in the U.S. Senate, filling the committee chair left vacant by Sen. Ted Kennedy, and himself becoming a key player on health care reform.
In the same decade, TV arrived – but because of the town’s remoteness, via “cable,” with the lines carrying not Wyoming but Utah stations. Along with Howdy Dowdy and Ed Sullivan, I also remember seeing stuff on the news about a Salt Lake City guy named Cleon Skousen, who now, it turns out, is the idol of Fox’s Glenn Beck.
The place was Rock Springs, Wyoming, a grimy, deserty industrial town whose greatest redeeming social value was its crazy-quilt nationalities stew, including Balkans, Italians and Irish, a sprinkling of Mexicans and Asians, and yes, even a few African-Americans.
If early influences determine your politics, I guess I could have gone either way. Wyoming has always been conservative and solidly Republican, but Rock Springs was an anomaly, the down-and-dirty working-class bastion of the Democrats. And that Salt Lake City TV also tempted our young brains with Utah’s then-weird brand of religious politics.
That older kid across town, I learned later, was Sen. Tom Harkin, who has represented Iowa in the U.S. Senate since 1984. He mentioned his Rock Springs experience in a 1992 interview, when he was a presidential candidate, saying when his mother died and he was age 11, his father sent him to live with relatives there.
I heard more about Harkin the other day, in an article by Reuters news, in which he gave his no-nonsense prediction of where health care reform would end up: “I’m convinced we’re going to have a bill on the president’s desk before we go home for Christmas … with some form of a public option … we’re not going to accept defeat.”
Maybe it was poverty and depravation in his little Iowa hometown that influenced Harkin’s politics, or perhaps it was the hard edge of Wyoming. Whatever, he’s now an unabashed liberal, Kennedy’s successor on the Senate Health Committee and, I’m happy to report, a hard-charging leader on the top issue of our day when a lot of other Democrats have gotten cold feet.
Back to Skousen, whose name leaked into my consciousness from Utah TV, I guess because he was at the time in the news as police chief in Salt Lake City.
Then, a month or so ago, I got a mind-opening refresher course on the guy, courtesy of an article I ran across on Salon.com: “A once-famous anti-communist ‘historian,’ Skousen was too extreme even for the conservative activists of the Goldwater era,” a “right-wing crank,” fired as police chief because he ran the department “like the Gestapo.”
Gosh, I thought, recalling that as I maneuvered in youth to find my political legs, I had once embraced Barry Goldwater. My Goldwater-ese curiosity also led me to subscribe to a monthly politics pamphlet called “The Freeman,” I think mainly because it was free, and as kid I liked to get mail.
Turns out, the pamphlet came from Skousen, who also wrote several books, attacking communists, socialists, the new world order and arguing that the U.S. is a “Christian nation.” Not long ago, Beck rediscovered Skousen, and gave new life to his writings, some of which, according to the Salon article, notes had “echoes of the original Nazi 25-point plan.”
That hasn’t stopped Beck’s “9/12 project” and its followers from adopting one of his books, “The 5,000 Year Leap,” as its “bible,” and made it a modern bestseller. Meanwhile, Beck has gone primetime, his face even recently landing on the cover of Time, and his backers show up at town-hall meetings, berating health-care reformers as “socialists," and worse.
So when it comes to politics, I could have gone either way. A juvenile flirt with Glenn Beck’s idol might have landed me in a teabagger’s shoes.
But I think my roots in raucous but honest and tolerant Rock Springs, where, like Socorro, reality simmers close to the surface, re-set my leftish (and perhaps naively optimistic) compass direction, on the same course set by Tom Harkin.
And, it seems, both hope and hate can spring from the heartland. Remember, while change may be on the horizon, the hate-mongers are still lurking in the shadows.

Sometimes it takes a while to determine your politics

From The Editor

By John Severance
editor@ourmountainmail.com

This is a plea.
I received a call from a gentleman who said he lived in Catron County and he wanted to know why the Mountain Mail does not publish any columns from the right or conservative viewpoint.
I told him I have been making calls and sending out emails to Republican Party affiliates but my pleas have fallen on deaf ears. If there is anybody out there, who wants to present the right point of view on a consistent basis, get in touch with the Mountain Mail. Email me at mountainmaileditor@yahoo.com or call 575 838-5555.
Sorry, but I already have a full stable of left-handers in my bullpen.
Fast meetings
I am not sure what’s going on with the council meetings in Socorro. After covering an hour-long county commission meeting last week, I went to the City Council Monday night as a spectator. From gavel to gavel, the meeting lasted 30 minutes. I am sure it was just an aberration.
Big weekend
It should be an exciting couple of weeks of high school sports this weekend.
It all starts Thursday Nov. 5 when the Socorro girls soccer team travels to Albuquerque for the AAA state quarterfinals and it will face Hope Christian in a 2 p.m. clash. Then at 7 p.m., the Socorro girls volleyball team will play what amounts to a district semifinal game when it travels to Truth or Consequences to meet Hot Springs.
On Nov. 6, the Socorro girls soccer team will play at 10 a.m. in the state semifinals if they can get past Hope Christian. It will be senior night back in Socorro for the football team as it looks to improve its state seeding when it meets Cobre at 7 p.m.
Reserve, meanwhile, will make the trek over to Mountainair for a first-round state eight-man matchup. That game also starts at 7 p.m.
Friday is a busy night because over in Magdalena, the Lady Steers will take on Quemado in a first-round Class A matchup with the winner advancing to the state tournament in Rio Rancho next weekend.
And then on Saturday Nov. 7, the Socorro cross country teams will take part in the state championships at Rio Rancho.
And if the Lady Warriors soccer team keeps winning, it will play for the state championship at 10 a.m. in Albuquerque.
The Mountain Mail will be there to cover all the events.
Fair warning
Everybody, please be careful out there. There are hackers out there just waiting to steal your bank information or even your identity. It happened to me this week and it’s a HUGE pain to get everything rectified.
Correcting the editor
Well, the bleeding has stopped for at least a week. With the exception of a couple of dropped words, the Oct. 29 issue of the Mountain Mail turned out all right. Remember, though, if you see
anything that needs to be corrected or clarified, email me at
editor@ourmountainmal.com or call 575 838-5555.

From The Editor

Saving a small place in the world for our beloved children

Magdalena Potluck
by Don Wiltshire

It was a joy, seeing all the trick-or-treaters at our door last week. Some were first-timers while others were experienced veterans. Some were even costumed parents enjoying the night as much as their ghoulish brood. Margaret and I have lived in Magdalena now for ten years and remember some of the teens as toddlers: wide-eyed, behind their masks, not knowing quite what to expect.
All Hallow’s Eve always reminds me of just how precious our neighborhood children really are and how quickly they grow into young adults. It makes me wonder what kind of world they will inherit. What problems and/or solutions are we creating now that they will have to live with?
One problem we will be facing very soon is the preservation of access to water in this region. We are the first community in New Mexico to face a water grab of this magnitude.
It started back in October of 2007 when an innocent legal notice appeared in the Mountain Mail, an application with the State Engineer’s Office to drill 37 water wells, 2,500 feet deep and to pump 54,000 acre feet of water a year. This notice raised some eyebrows and 382 individuals and groups filed official protest letters to the NM Office of the State Engineer.
In August of 2008 the application was amended to increase the depth of the wells to 3,000 feet. This opened the window of opportunity to protest again and another 500 letters were filed. In itself, this was a noble effort by our community members. It has taken two years for the State Engineer’s Office to sort out this massive protest and to prepare for a hearing.
Some of the Datil protestors, with the help of Carol and Ray Pittman organized the San Augustin Water Coalition in May of 2008. SAWC will represent many of the protestors at the upcoming hearing. Legal expertise will be provided by Bruce Frederick, attorney with the New Mexico Environmental Law Center. SAWC is also dedicated to educating members of the surrounding communities about this very real threat to our survival.
Several of the Magdalena protestors to this obscene water grab, with the help of SAWC, are organizing an informational meeting at the Magdalena Public Library on Tuesday, November 10th at 7:00 PM. Featured speakers will be Bruce Frederick to discuss the legal battle ahead of us and Frank Titus, Hydrologist, to answer questions about the physical realities of this massive pumping operation. Coffee and munchies will be provided. (Sorry; no potluck this time).
Well, this lumbering beast, the San Augustin Ranch LLC and the 900 or so protestors is about to take off. All of the official protestors should have received a Docket Request from the OSE last week. (That’s Legaleeze for “we’re putting the case on the calendar and we’ll get back to you”). The next item of business will be a request for the official protestors to cough up $25 to the OSE to reserve our “spot at the table” (and what a large table it will be)! There is a lot of money and/or Political Muscle behind this water grab so we are looking to raise funds for a Hydrologist to represent us.
This “Water Grab,” should it proceed, would be the death of our little corner of the world. It may not die in our lifetime, but our children and their children would inherit a desolate, parched wasteland. Get involved; learn what you can about our precious ground water, help out in any way you can. Do it for our children.
As always, if you have any Comments? Problems? Solutions? Up coming Events? Contact me at mtn_don@ yahoo.com or (575) 854-3370.

Saving a small place in the world for our beloved children