Roswell Daily Record THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
Vol. 123, No. 214 75¢ Daily / $1.25 Sunday
September 5, 2014
Mayor announces choice for new city manager Council will meet to vote on nomination Tuesday BY RANDAL SEYLER RECORD CITY EDITOR
Mayor Dennis Kintigh announced on Thursday that Steven Polasek, the city manager of Keller, Texas, would be his nominee for the Roswell city manager position. “He blew everybody’s socks off,” Kintigh said of Polasek, who was in Roswell interviewing for the position on Aug. 25 and Aug. 26. “He was incredibly
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impressive.” Polasek was one of five candidates who interviewed for the job of city manager, a position being vacated by current City Manager Larry Fry. Polasek was the only candidate currently employed as a city manager, Kintigh said. He serves as the chief administrative officer for Keller, Texas, a city with a population of about 42,000 located in northeast Tarrant County
Waiting on the sun
in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metropolitan area. Keller has a $74 million annual budget and 345 full-time employees, Kintigh said. Polasek began working for the city of Keller as assistant city manager in 2008, and became city manager in 2012. Prior to that, he was director of community services for the city of Southlake, Texas, See NOMINEE, Page A3
Governor: NM competitive for Tesla factory Randal Seyler Photo
Mayor Dennis Kintigh announced Thursday at City Hall that Steven Polasek, the city manager of Keller, Texas, would be his nominee for the Roswell city manager position.
Randal Seyler Photo
This bronze statue
of a young girl, in of
memory Lewis
Dora
McKnight,
enjoys the sun on Wednesday. The
artwork
is
located in front of the Historical Foundation for Southeast New Mexico’s
museum
archives building.
McKnight was the
founder
Roswell
of
the
Morning
Garden Club and the
first president of New Mexico Garden Clubs Inc.
SANTA FE (AP) — New Mexico offered a competitive economic development package to Tesla Motors, but the company gave a priority to locating a planned $5 billion battery factory in a state close to Tesla’s electric-car manufacturing factory in California, Gov. Susana Martinez said Thursday. Martinez made her comments Thursday not long before a formal announcement in Nevada that Tesla had selected that state for a factory that could eventually employ up to 6,500 workers. The governor of Nevada said he’ll ask legislators to approve tax breaks and other incentives worth up to $1.3 billion over 20 years to secure the Tesla plant. Martinez and Economic Development Secretary Jon Barela declined to pro-
vide details or a total value of the incentive package offered by New Mexico. The governor said it was premature to reveal that information because published reports indicate Tesla might look to develop a second site in case Nevada can’t deliver its promised incentives.
“Why would you show your cards if there might be a second location?” Martinez said. “For us to lay out the economic package is to tell the rest of the competitors what we had out there, and that isn’t really playing poker very smart.” However, T esla CEO Elon Musk told reporters in Nevada the company would no longer look for another state because “Nevada is it.”
Texas group to open City PR boss Roach arrested for DUI abortion clinic in NM LAS CRUCES (AP) — A Texas company announced Wednesday that it’s opening an abortion clinic in souther n New Mexico to help increase access near West Texas amid a restrictive new law. Whole Women’s Health confirmed that it’s opening a clinic in the Las Cruces area on Sept. 15, but declined to give details on the exact location, the Las Cruces Sun-News reported. The clinic would be the second in Dona Ana County to provide abortion services; Hill Top Women’s Reproductive Clinic oper-
ates in Santa Teresa. The new clinic also would boost abortion care around Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Hill Top also operates a clinic in El Paso that remains open for now.
A federal judge on Friday ruled against a Texas law requiring clinics in the state to maintain hospitallevel operating standards, a requirement that had shuttered many centers. The judge also exempted clinics in El Paso and McAllen from a requirement that See CLINIC, Page A3
AP Photo
U.S. President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron, right, speak before taking their seats at the start of a NATO-Afghanistan round table meeting during a NATO summit at the Celtic Manor Resort in Newport, Wales, on Thursday.
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TODAY’S FORECAST
BY JEFF TUCKER RECORD STAFF WRITER
The city of Roswell’s public relations and marketing director for the past nine years has been arrested on a charge of drunken driving. Renee L. Roach, 41, of 2700 Gaye Drive, was arrested by state police late Tuesday on the south side of Roswell on a charge of aggravated driving under the influence of intoxicating liquor or drugs. State Trooper Marcus Gonzales said Roach had
File Photo
Roswell’s public relations and marketing director Renee Roach is shown in June 2012, kicking off the Cosmicon and Roswell Film Festival.
blood-alcohol concentrations of 0.19 and 0.18 percent, more than twice
the legal limit of 0.08, making the DUI charge an aggravated offense. It was
NEWPORT, Wales (AP) — President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron pressed fellow NATO leaders Thursday to confront the “brutal and poisonous” Islamic State militant group that is wreaking havoc in Iraq and Syria — and urged regional partners like Jordan and Turkey to join the effort as well. As leaders of the Western alliance gathered for a twoday summit, Obama and Cameron worked to begin forming a coalition of nations that could combat
the extremists through military power, diplomatic pressure and economic penalties. “Those who want to adopt an isolationist approach misunderstand the nature of security in the 21st century,” they wrote in a joint editorial published as the meetings began. “Developments in other parts of the world, particularly in Iraq and Syria, threaten our security at home.” While some NATO leaders talked tough about the threat posed by the Islamic State group, the alliance
made no specific pledges of action. NATO SecretaryGeneral Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he believed the broader international community “has an obligation to stop the Islamic State from advancing further” and would seriously consider requests for assistance, particularly from the Iraqi government. The Islamic State group moved up the list of international priorities as the militants pressed through Iraq with lighting speed earlier this year. The group, which seeks to create a
• ALFRED (PAT) CROW
• JO ANN MAREK MALONEY
CLASSIFIEDS ..........B6 COMICS .................B5 ENTERTAINMENT .....B6 FINANCIAL ..............B4
her first DUI arrest, according to court records. A first DUI conviction in New Mexico carries a maximum possible penalty of up to 90 days in jail, or up to one year of probation, and a $500 fine. A first DUI conviction also carries fines and fees, at least 24 hours of community service, and other mandatory penalties, such as the installation of an ignition interlock device by the offender for one year.
See ROACH, Page A3
US, UK seek partners to go after Islamic State
TODAY’S OBITUARIES PAGE A6
caliphate, or Islamist nation-state, in the Mideast, is considered even more merciless toward its enemies than the al-Qaida terror network, and intelligence officials across the world warn that with hundreds of Westerners fighting for them, it may soon seek to seed its violence beyond its declared borders. The U.S. began launching airstrikes against militant targets in Iraq last month, with Britain joining AmeriSee PARTNERS, Page A3
INDEX GENERAL ...............A2
HOROSCOPES .........B6 LOTTERIES .............A2
OPINION .................A4
SPORTS .................B1
WEATHER ..............A8