Roswell Daily Record
INSIDE NEWS
MATTHEW ARCO RECORD STAFF WRITER
PNM UNVEILS SOLAR PLANT
ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — Without a cloud in the sky, New Mexico’s largest electric utility could not have picked a better day to unveil the first of five solar power generating stations it will build this year to meet state renewable energy requirements. Officials with Public Service Company of New Mexico and Arizona-based manufacturer First Solar joined city leaders Wednesday to dedicate the 2-megawatt photovoltaic plant. The massive collection of solar panels represents the utility’s first venture ... - PAGE B3
THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
City puts another cop on paid leave
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Another Roswell Police Department officer is on paid administrative leave, city officials said Wednesday, marking the fourth time this year a member of the department was given paid leave status. Sgt. Jon Meredith, listed as the department’s Violent Crimes Reduction supervisor, was placed on leave Tuesday afternoon, said City Manager Larry Fry.
April 21, 2011
THURSDAY
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“At this point all I can do is confirm that is his status,” said Fry, declining to give additional details citing personnel matters. Meredith is the only officer on paid leave at this time, he said. He is the fourth officer to go on paid leave this year, and less than a week after an arrest warrant was issued for a former officer, Justin Coon, who was charged with nine felonies and a petty misdemeanor. An RPD spokesman said
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he was not immediately aware of Meredith’s status, but declined to give any additional details citing personnel matters. Meredith was hired in August 1995. The city will pay roughly $210 a day on his leave, according to his base salary taken from city payroll documents as of late last year. The city of Roswell has doled out more in administrative leave with pay this year to personnel working at the RPD than in all of
2010, according to payroll documents. The city has paid more than $13,500 in paid leave this year to the three officers who were given the status prior to Meredith. Two of the officers, including Coon, were fired from the city. The other was Sgt. Eric Madsen. For mer RPD Detective Jeannie Madsen, who was placed on paid leave earlier in the year, is still employed by the city. Mayor Del Jurney said
Texas fires scorch 1M acres
TOP 5 WEB
For The Past 24 Hours
• RPD will extradite teenager • Beauty school opens in Roswell Mall • Hundreds attend antilizard rally • Easter Parade Saturday • Rockets 2nd, Coyotes 3rd at Spring Classic
INSIDE SPORTS
Mark Wilson Photo
Chris Johnson of DynaComm descends from the water tower at the Roswell International Air Center, Tuesday morning, while he and fellow workers update AT&T support systems.
Character Counts! of Chaves County released the fifth installment of its Spring Athletes of Recognition program. This week’s honorees are from the sport of girls track & field. This week’s winners are Bailey Blackwell, Stephanie Gaines, Mariana Landaverde, Ashley Medrano, Emily Nobles, Giselle Quintana and Audra Rees. - PAGE B1
TODAY’S OBITUARIES
• Helen Louise Shaw • Sharon Lee Winstead • John K. Ferguson - PAGE B3
HIGH ...95˚ LOW ....53˚
Members of a Roswell youth group, who describe themselves as tightly knit family rather than a run-ofthe-mill loosely tied organization, say that for the second time in a year they are looking for a place to call home. Since being shut out of the old airport building last year due to the condition of the structure, members of the Unity Center found a temporary reprieve in a building donated by a local doctor. However, after that building was sold, the group that mostly focuses on organizing concerts of all genres of music as a way to bring teens together, say it is fighting to find a home — again. “We’re all here for the music and we’re all here for
each other. ... We basically become a family,” said Matt Garcia, one of the group’s youth organizers. “A lot of kids from different walks of life come to the shows,” he said. “We try to get a little bit of everyone to come together.” Garcia, 24, who helps keep things running with the help of his younger brother Bobby Garcia, 21, says the kids for whom they are focused on finding activities are high school teenagers. It’s the age group he says are most vulnerable at times. “That’s an important age,” Matt Garcia said. “We try to think of alternative things for the youth of Roswell ... (and) we hope when kids go there that they can feel safe.” He says it has been that
DALLAS (AP) — Federal firefighters and officials from several U.S. agencies joined the fight against a massive wildfire burning 70 miles west of Fort Worth on Wednesday, the same day a Texas firefighter died from injuries suffered while battling a blaze earlier this month. The fire at Possum Kingdom Lake is among several that have scorched about 1 million acres across bone-dry Texas in the past two weeks. The federal team joined local personnel to help fight a blaze that has bur ned nearly 150,000 acres and destroyed See FIRES, Page A3
EMILY RUSSO MILLER RECORD STAFF WRITER
A member of the Roswell Independent School District school board announced his resignation Tuesday night, during the board’s regular monthly meeting. Milburn Dolen, who previously served as the board’s president, cited time restraints from his full-time job. “I just got so much going on at work that I’m not doing my duty, in my opinion,” Dolen said. He added, “I (have to) Courtesy Photo read 125 pages of bills, and I don’t have time to Detail of a rendering of the new Missouri Avenue Elementary School. do those things.” Dolen was first elected full term for a school “It’s not easy for me to to the board in 2005 repboard members is four leave,” he said. resenting District Three, School board president which covers the south- years. Mackenzie Hunt applaudHe says he has been western part of the city ed Dolen for his volunfrom Alameda Avenue to volunteering with the Brasher Road, and school district for 17 stretches out to Hondo. A years. See RISD, Page A3
Job Corps showcases ecofriendly initiatives at Green Expo See UNITY, Page A3
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CLASSIFIEDS..........B6 COMICS.................B4 FINANCIAL .............E4 GENERAL ..............A2 HOROSCOPES ........A8 LOTTERIES ............A2 OPINION ................A4 SPORTS ................B1 STATE ...................B3 WEATHER ..............A8
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Unity Center in Dolen resigns from board search of a home MATTHEW ARCO RECORD STAFF WRITER
CC! HONORS GIRL TRACKSTERS
the recent rash of officers being placed on paid leave should not be cause for alarm. “I look at it as being a commitment to the responsibility of the jobs we do,” Jurney said. “I’m more in tuned to the fact that we are holding employees accountable for what they’re doing, and when situations arise that need to be looked into, putting them on paid administrative leave is the proper procedure.”
INDEX
Mark Wilson Photo
Cory Erven of Krumland Auto Group, in drivers seat, explains the features of a Toyota Prius Hybrid to Michael Mayes during the Green Expo 2011, Wednesday.
EMILY RUSSO MILLER RECORD STAFF WRITER
Roswell Job Corps hosted
its second annual Green Expo to showcase ecofriendly initiatives within the vocational training program as well as local busi-
nesses in the community, at the Roswell Convention and Civic Center, Wednesday. John Merchant, Job Corps business community liaison, says the federally funded program, which helps disadvantaged youth find jobs and receive academic credit, teaches environmentally friendly practices in its seven career fields “because that might be where the jobs of the future are. It’s where a lot of things are going.” He added that students last year installed solar panels and energy-efficient light bulbs around the Job Corps center, located at the Roswell International Air Center, which has saved them an estimated $15,000
on their electric bill. Students manned informational booths on a host of environmental topics to show what they have learned about going green within their career training fields. Painting and Remodelling student Shane Hulen, 19, says he didn’t know much about green technology before he enrolled in Job Corps about two months ago, but on Wednesday he gave lectures on how to properly dispose of leftover paint and how to select environmentally friendly paint. “Green paint means that it’s a nontoxic ecofriendly, which means that it’s good for the environment,” he said. “There’s not a bunch
of toxins in it that can mess up your respiratory system and all your organs.” Students enrolled in the automotive repair field gathered around a 2011 Toyota Hybrid Prius Three to learn about the dual electric/gas battery system. “Nowadays, they’re training you for jobs that don’t exist,” Corey Erven, of Krumland Auto Group, told the students. “If you really want to maximize what you’re learning here, concentrate on the hybrid system. If you can get the hybrid system down, any make, any model, the basics are all going to be the same no matter where See GREEN, Page A3