Roswell Daily Record
Vol. 123, No. 307 75¢ Daily / $1.25 Sunday
THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
December 23, 2014
TUESDAY
www.rdrnews.com
Udall, Heinrich announce $324M for WIPP cleanup, recovery WASHINGTON — Today, U.S. Senators Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich announced that the president has signed legislation providing $324 million for recovery and operations at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in Carlsbad. Earlier this year, Udall, a member of the Appropriations Committee, and Heinrich had requested the funding to ensure recovery efforts can continue so the facility can safely resume operation and accept waste
from Los Alamos National Laboratory. The funding was included in the socalled “omnibus” appropriations bill, which funds the government through the end of the fiscal year, and was signed into law by President Obama last week. WIPP has been closed since February following two separate accidents, a fire and a radiation release. The Department of Energy released a recovery plan for the plant on Sept. 30, and it is currently finalizing a
report on the cause of the radiation release. “This is critical funding that is absolutely necessary to move forward with cleanup and recovery at WIPP and so we can resume shipments of waste from Los Alamos,” Udall said. “These funds will help us move toward a safe reopening of WIPP, which not only provides jobs in the state, but is pivotal to both our national security and our energy security. WIPP is our nation's only
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permanent repository for transuranic waste, and I will continue to work with the state and the Department of Energy to ensure we get the facility up and running safely and soon.” “Our nation’s security relies heavily on the important work being done at WIPP. Not only is the facility an integral part of the environmental cleanup of Cold War programs at Department of Energy defense sites around the country, including Los
Alamos, it also supports many jobs in New Mexico,” said Heinrich. “This extra funding will help ensure that WIPP maintains the highest level of safety and transparency to protect the workers and community, and keep the recovery efforts moving forward so that safe operations can be restored.” In June, Sen. Udall worked to ensure the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations bill provided full funding for WIPP,
including more than $100 million for WIPP cleanup. The final appropriations bill, which was approved by the Senate and signed into law last Tuesday, provided both the administration’s original funding request of $220 million, plus an additional $104 million that was designated for recovery from the radiological accident.
Man wanted in shooting incident arrested Friday SUBMITTED BY RPD
Roswell Police arrested a man wanted in connection to a recent shooting incident in southeast Rowell on Friday. Thomas Olivas, 32, of Roswell was arrested in the 1100 block of South Avenida del Sombre shortly before 5 p.m. He was wanted on a warrant for shooting at a dwelling or occupied building or from a motor vehicle. He was booked into the Chaves County Detention Center on a $25,000 cashonly bond. Investigators believe Olivas was one of two people in a vehicle from which shots were fired at another vehicle on Dec. 9 at the intersection of Southeast Main and Buena Vista streets. Max Scally Photo
Mike Moore, general manager of Roswell Nissan, presented Carrie-Leigh Cloutier, executive director of Chaves County CASA, a check in the amount of $1,296 on Saturday. Roswell Nissan hosted "Small Miracles on Second Street" this December to help raise funds for Chaves County CASA. There was no charge for children to visit with Santa and each child got a free toy. For $5, the child could be photographed with Santa. All proceeds from the photos went to the fundraiser. Roswell Nissan raised $648 over the past few Saturdays. Moore matched the donation of $648, which gave Chaves County CASA a grand total of $1,296. Standing at far left is Staci Vandewart, marketing director for the dealership.
Students with autism bring special challenges to education
(Editor’s Note: This is the first article in a series on education and autism.) BY RANDAL SEYLER RECORD CITY EDITOR
Education is the key to improved learning for students with autism, says special education expert Leah Lucier. Lucier, deputy director of the Special Services Occupational Training Program at Eastern New Mexico University–Roswell, has a master’s degree in special education and 15 years of experience as a special education teacher. Teachers, administrators and parents all need to be educated in what is the best way to teach students with autism, Lucier said on Thursday. Autism Spectrum Disorder is a neurobiological disorder that interferes with the development of communication and social interaction skills, according to the New Mexico Autism Society website. It is a lifelong disorder that may result in impaired development of life skills. “It is such a wide spectrum of abilities, ranging from the profound autism to high functioning students,” Lucier says, “that every student is different, and has different abilities.” The only scientifically proven method for teaching students with autism is Applied Behavior Analysis, Lucier said, stressing the
“scientifically proven” part of her statement. “There are a lot of different types of therapies, but ABA is the only scientifically proven methodology.” Lucier, who worked for more than a decade at The New England Center for Children before coming to Roswell in 2013, has a master’s degree in special education and has a lot of experience dealing with autistic children. “ABA looks at functional communication,” Lucier said. “People with autism have difficulty in communicating their wants and needs. If they can express themselves, then it puts them in a position to be more successful in the classroom and more successful in life.” ABA also allows students to learn at their own individualized pace through the use of discrete trial and task analysis, Lucier said. These techniques break down curriculum into smaller steps. Students with autism must also have the opportunity to generalize curriculum across various people and environments. This will tell us if a student has truly mastered material. Communication is cen-
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Submitted Photo
Leah Lucier, deputy director of Special Services at Eastern New Mexico University-Roswell, and her son, 10-year-old Brady. Lucier became a special education specialist after her son was diagnosed with Down Syndrome, and now she helps oversee the Special Services Occupational Training Program at the university.
tral to success for students with autism, and communication includes more than just speech. “Speech, gestures, eye contact, and written communication, picture exchange systems — all these things are important and students with autism need to learn these skills so they can interact, not only in an academic setting but also in social settings,” Lucier said. Board certified behavior analysts are specialized teachers who have been trained to apply the ABA curriculum and teach children with special needs, and the program is successful in dealing with not
only autism, but all types of developmental disabilities. Emilea Palmer, an education specialist with the Behavior Change Institute in Roswell, also serves on the board of directors for the New Mexico Autism Society. She says her company provides ABA services for schools and clients via internet education. ABA is used in the public schools in the Valley — Dexter, Hager man and Lake Arthur — through a cooperative arrangement, Palmer said. But Roswell Independent School DisSee AUTISM, Page A2
• HAZEL HOOPER HUTCHINS • L.E. WALLS • ALVIN EUGENE SPARKS
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Olivas
The other person believed to be in the same vehicle, Fabian M. Ward Sr., was arrested Dec. 10. The man who was allegedly the target of the shooting was not struck by any shots.
Valles Caldera looks to future as national park ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — The management experiment at Valles Caldera National Preserve is coming to an end as the National Park Service prepares to take over the 140-square-mile property in norther n New Mexico. The transition is among dozens of public land measures squeezed into the half-trillion-dollar defense bill signed by President Barack Obama on Friday, but details about how things will change at the preserve remain unclear. The Park Service is taking on Valles Caldera and numerous other properties at a time when the agency is struggling with more than $11 billion in deferred maintenance at existing parks and monuments and is looking to boost entrance fees at parks across the nation to generate more revenue in advance of the agency’s centennial. Can the agency afford what amounts to its largest expansion in nearly four decades? U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn says no. The Oklahoma Republican said Friday on the Senate floor that expanding the park system was “a disastrous idea” and that the nation’s existing parks were falling apart. Since Congress already authorized the new parks, Park Service spokesman Jeff Olson said Monday the agency’s job now is to find money within its existing budget as it
investigates what resources will be needed to get the parks up and running. Those needs will be reflected in next year’s budget request. Olson said the challenge of adding seven new parks in eight different states is “part of what we do. We’re in the business of preserving special places for people to enjoy.” At Valles Caldera, the transition is expected to take six months. An interim budget is due in 90 days. The preserve is home to vast grasslands, the remnants of one of North America’s few super volcanoes and one of New Mexico’s most famous elk herds. It’s also held sacred by Jemez Pueblo, a Native American community fighting in federal court to reclaim the land. The federal gover nment bought the property from land grant heirs in 2000 with the goal of operating it as a working ranch while developing recreational opportunities for the public. It was something conservationists and members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation worked decades to secure. After 10 years of management by a presidentially-appointed board of trustees, the gover nment’s management experiment failed to become financially selfsufficient, and supporters began pushing for the Park Service to take See PARKS, Page A3
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