Roswell Daily Record THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
Vol. 124, No. 22 75¢ Daily / $1.25 Sunday
January 25, 2015
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SUNDAY
Trujillo to face Gutierrez for ENMU-R District I seat STAFF REPORT
Editor’s note: Due to an apparent incorrect email address, Mireya P. Trujillo never received the candidate questionnaire via email as did the other four candidates. She said after seeing the article in Saturday’s paper in which responses from the other four candidates were published, she asked one of the other candidates to forward the questions to her and emailed her answers to the newspaper on Saturday in time for pub-
lication in Sunday’s paper. Her responses follow. The Roswell Daily Record apologizes for the mix-up and wishes T rujillo and the other four candidates the best of luck as the run for these important local offices. Mireya P. Trujillo is running for reelection to the District I seat on the Eastern New Mexico UniversityRoswell College Community Board. T rujillo is being challenged by Leandro Gutierrez. If elected, she will serve a
four-year term on the fivemember ENMU-R board. All board members serve without compensation. The College Community Board has total authority over taxing and bonding and other fiscal issues relating to the Roswell campus. It also serves as an advisory board to the ENMU Board of Regents, which has the authority over curriculum and administrative issues. The governance arrangement is accomplished through an operating
agreement that is reviewed, revised if necessary, and approved every two years. Elections for the College Community Board are Feb. 3. Voters may cast ballots from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Feb. 3 at any of eight voting convenience centers. Early voting continues until Jan. 30 at the Chaves County Clerk’s Office in Area D. All five College Community Board candidates were asked to respond to a questionnaire compiled by the Daily Record.
1. Have you been involved with ENMU-R in the past, either as a parent, student, educator or volunteer? I have been on the community college board for ENMU-R since 2007, currently serving at CCB Secretary, seeking a third term. I have attended classes at ENMU-R, as have my family members, including one daughter that graduated and one that is currently a student. As an educator, I have been a guest speaker See TRUJILLO, Page A3
Trujillo
RHS teacher Peek endures the hard road to recovery BY BILL MOFFITT RECORD CORRESPONDENT
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Bill Moffitt Photos
Above: RHS instructor David Peek, right, gets a checkup at his home from physical therapist Mark Laurel, DT, DPT, Saturday. Peek faces at least 12 weeks of therapy before he can return to work in the school's auto shop classes. Left: David Peek and his 4-year-old boxer, Beethoven, share a moment as he heals at home after a horrific accident in December. "I'm so glad he made it," Peek said. "I had gotten him up in the yard so I knew he was going to be safe. That's the last thing I remember asking anybody before I left (in the ambulance) is 'where's Beethoven?'"
e warms his feet by the potbellied stove in his twobedroom house and talks about his accident and his work. The cold affects him more now that he has metal plates in both shins. Still, he smiles because his “kids” — the students in the Roswell High School auto shop classes — have brought him the wood for his stove. RHS instructor David Peek is recovering at his home after being struck by a car driven by a man who apparently targeted him after Peek tried to get him to slow down the day before. Peek believes the attack was deliberate.
Peek’s face hit the windshield of the car and he was thrown into the air by the impact. Now, after two operations, he’s looking at some 12 weeks of rehab. He hopes to retur n to work, full or part time, in April. He’s hoping that Monday’s trip to the University Medical Center in Lubbock will give him a clearer picture of what he can expect. “This has literally blown my world apart,” Peek said. “It’s been total destruction, just total destruction.” Peek said that he had just taken his boxer, Beethoven, for a walk to get the mail when he heard the car’s engine revving. He got his dog up onto his lawn and then went back
State may release Permit approved on SunZia transmission line more information on Pearce: Project will permanently damage nat’l security health services audit
SANTA FE (AP) — State Attorney General Hector Balderas on Friday said he’s researching the possibility of releasing more information from a 2013 audit of 15 nonprofits that provided behavioral health services for needy New Mexicans. Balderas told lawmakers during a House committee meeting that a decision was expected within a matter of days. The New Mexico Foundation for Open Government sued last September after former Attorney General Gary King’s office and the Human Services Department refused to release the audit. King had defended the secrecy of the audit, saying it was evidence related to an open investigation. A state district judge ruled last month that most
of the document would remain under wraps and that only a portion related to Presbyterian Medical Services would be released.
The 355-page audit alleged $36 million in state Medicaid funding was mishandled by the 15 nonprofit behavioral health services providers. That prompted Republican Gov. Susana Martinez’s administration to freeze Medicaid payments to the providers while the attorney general launched an investigation.
The Human Services Department eventually replaced the nonprofits with companies from Arizona despite protests that the due-process rights of the nonprofit providers were violated when the state froze payments without hearings.
Courtesy Photo
In a statement, U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce said, “Greenlighting the completion of SunZia along the chosen route is a reckless rush to judgment without thorough examination.”
for the economy, Jewell said.
“This is a sustainable industry that will create jobs,” she said. “It’s an opportunity really for the state to make an invest-
ment in a future that is not tied to commodity prices, the vagaries of oil and gas prices and the boom-and-bust cycle that is so prevalent in that industry.” U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, a Republican whose congressional district includes the area where the transmission line would be, said the project will permanently damage national security. “Green-lighting the completion of SunZia along the chosen route is a reckless rush to judgment without thorough examination,” Pearce said in a statement. The federal Bureau of Land Management also granted a key federal permit for the project Saturday. SunZia received a “Record of Decision,” which marks the end of an effort that started in May 2009.
SunZia is one of seven pilot projects the Obama administration put on a fast track in hopes of boosting renewable energy development mainly across the West. The projects cover a dozen states and span thousands of miles, from Wyoming to Oregon and south to Nevada, and from central New Mexico to southern Arizona. Disagreement over a portion of SunZia’s 515mile route landed the project in limbo in 2013. A series of letters followed from a bipartisan contingent that included New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, congressional delegates and the heads of the U.S. Defense and Interior departments. In November, the Bureau of Land Management released its environmental
got a calling from God and enrolled in the Deacon Formation Program. Three years later, he was ordained a deacon for the Dioceses of Las Cruces, where he serves the less fortunate, visits the sick and “extends a hand to help the foreigner.”
in the dioceses, Our Lady of Guadalupe in Lake Arthur, St. Catherine Church in Hagerman and Immaculate Conception Parish in Dexter, for which they have served for the past 15 years. Eight years ago, Herrera said he met some people from a human rights group called Somos Un Pueblo Unido and decided to join forces. Somos Un Pueblo
A call to serve others: Local Catholic deacon receives 2014 Sin Fronteras Award for his work on immigrant rights BY TIMOTHY P. HOWSARE RECORD EDITOR
Herrera
ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — A proposed $2 billion transmission line that would carry electricity generated by renewable resources in New Mexico and Arizona to markets across the West is one step closer to being in service after clearing its final federal hurdle. U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell was joined Saturday by members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation and other federal of ficials to announce the gover nment’s approval of the SunZia project. Jewell told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that New Mexico is blessed with sunshine and wind, but those resources will remain stranded unless investments are made in transmission infrastructure. SunZia represents a win for the environment and
See PEEK, Page A3
Roswell resident Jesus Herrera came to the United States as an immigrant from Durango, Mexico, in 1968. He soon met the love of his life, Emma, in Farmington and the two were soon married. His wife, an American citizen, filed a request for a Green Card on behalf of her husband and he got it. He learned to work in the
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roofing business, and still does today as the owner of his own business. In 1978, Herrera’s dream of U.S. citizenship became a reality. Herrera said he was grateful to become an American citizen, because it led to the opportunity for him to start his company, Herrera Roofing, which has employed many people over the past 20 years. “I’m more free now because I have realized my
• MARY JUANITA TORREZ • LYDIA PAULINE MADDOX DACY • VINCENT J. TALIERCIO JR.
dream to be in this country,” he said. The couple has three children: Jaime, Christina and Juan. In the 1980s, Herrera and a group of friends started an organization that has helped the less fortunate in Roswell with home repairs, at times repairing the entire house. But Herrera’s desire to help others did not stop there. In 1996, Herrera said he
• VERA MAE TACKETT • ALICE “LISA” GAMBOA
After his ordination, Bishop Ricardo Ramirez, now Bishop Emeritus of the Las Cruces Dioceses, asked Herrera and his wife to administer three parishes
• THOMAS EDWARD LATHAM • DANIEL “DANNY” JOHN VIGIL
TODAY’S OBITUARIES PAGES A2 & A7
See SUNZIA, Page A2
See HERRERA, Page A3
INDEX CLASSIFIEDS ..........D1 OPINION .................A4 COMICS .................C5 SPORTS .................B1 HOROSCOPES .........B8 LOTTERIES .............A2 WEATHER ..............A8