Roswell Daily Record
Operation School Bell helping local children
Vol. 123, No. 258 75¢ Daily / $1.25 Sunday
BY JEFF TUCKER RECORD STAFF WRITER
Hundreds of Chaves County children are donning new gear in school thanks to Operation School Bell. For the 54th year, the Assistance League of Chaves County is donating clothing and books to local children from kindergarten through eighth grade. “Each fall, we receive referrals from schools in Roswell, Hagerman, Dexter
and Lake Arthur for children who need help with proper school clothing,” explained Assistance League of Chaves County marketing/communications chair man Jean Maley. “Every Saturday in the fall, children come in for appointments.”
Each child receives a jacket, two pairs of pants, two shirts, three pairs of underwear, three pairs of socks, a hygiene kit and three books.
The Assistance League
THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
October 26, 2014
www.rdrnews.com
had served 463 local children before Saturday morning, when the count climbed to 480. The annual event runs August through October. “We typically dress about 600 children a year, and we’re approaching that now,” Maley said. Saturday was Make a Difference Day in the United States. Assistance League chapters across the United States donated extra books for Make a Difference Day.
“We find that when we give a child a book, it might be their very first book of their own,” Maley said. “Some ask if they can take a book home to a brother or sister.” Proceeds for Operation School Bell come from the Assistance League of Chaves County’s Thrift Shop at 100 N. Union Ave. “All the proceeds pay for about 90 percent of the costs of Operation School See LEAGUE, Page A2
Max Scally Photos
A horde of the undead straggled around downtown Roswell Saturday during the Thrill the World Roswell/Zombie Walk. The events acted as a fundraiser, along with other “Paint the Town Pink” events, to benefit the Chaves County Cancer Fund. Above: Miss New Mexico Jessica Burson leads a pack of zombies.
Death becomes them
SUNDAY
Behavioral health provider sues NM agency Jeff Tucker Photo
Miss New Mexico Jessica Burson of Roswell helps 7-year-old Alfredo Najera try on a new coat he received Saturday as part of Operation School Bell.
LAS CRUCES (AP) — A Las Cruces behavioral health care provider that closed last year filed a lawsuit Friday against state health officials over suspended Medicaid payments. Southwest Counseling Center Inc. names the New Mexico Human Services Department in its suit, the Las Cruces Sun-News reported. The nonprofit argues in court documents that its due process rights were violated when the state indefinitely froze payments in June 2013 without a hearing. Attorneys argue Human Services didn’t follow its own internal guidelines for Medicaid fraud investigations and improperly hid records related to the allegations. The provider went on to lose more than $1.3 million in funding and had to shutter. Southwest Counseling is also naming the state Attorney General’s Office in the suit. The provider says the office’s investigation also violates its due process.
The nonprofit is seeking unspecified damages, costs and attorney fees.
Human Services Department officials said Friday that they had yet to be served with the lawsuit.
In June 2013, the department halted payments to 15 nonprofits that provide mental health and substance abuse services after an audit found what the agency said was a high rate of billing problems and possible mismanagement.
The agency decided last year to shift $7.5 million within its budget to cover startup costs of Arizona companies assigned to take over New Mexico behavioral health providers under investigation. The agency moved money from another part of its budget that pays for a broad range of expenses, including medical and behavioral health care for Medicaid recipients and some administrative costs of the program. Medicaid provides health care for a fourth of the state’s population.
Roswell by design Local architect has 35 city projects to his credit
Top right: Roswell Chaves County Economic Development Corporation Executive Director John Mulcahy and his wife pose with zombified event organizer Juliana Halvorson. Far left, left and bottom left: Tony Gage, Kristy Hernandez and Shera Griffin show off their faces of death. Bottom right: The crowd watches during the costume contest.
TODAY’S FORECAST
HIGH 88 LOW 54
• ED LOUDAT • ROBERT ARMSTRONG
• DONALD WAYNE CRUSE • ROBBIE HAUSE
TODAY’S OBITUARIES PAGE A7
BY BILL MOFFITT RECORD CORRESPONDENT
Roswell would not look the same without Dick Waggoner. With some 35 projects spread all over town, Roswell residents, no doubt, pass at least one of his buildings every day on the way to work or school. Born in Albuquerque in 1932, retired architect Richard Walter “Dick” Waggoner turned 82 on Saturday. Sixty of those years were spent in Roswell, where he decided to open his own architect business 1968. He had been in Roswell before when he attended New Mexico Military Institute, where he graduated from high school in 1950. “I said (to myself) at the time: ‘Well, this is it. I’ll never see that town again,” Waggoner said. “After leaving Roswell I did not realize that I would live here. It’s a great town.” He then went to the University of New Mexico where he spent the first four years working towards a degree in business administration before switching to architecture. “I spent nine years in colCLASSIFIEDS ..........D1
COMICS .................C5
ENTERTAINMENT .....C6
Waggoner
lege,” Waggoner said. “I did not get a degree in business administration … I almost did, (then) I got my degree in architecture. I had a fellow tell me that if I’d stayed in college one more year they would have named something after me,” he added with a chuckle. On tax day, April 15, 1954, he married his longtime friend Lynn Trigg, the daughter of John and Pauline T rigg in AlbuSee WAGGONER, Page A3
INDEX GENERAL ...............A2
HOROSCOPES .........B7 LOTTERIES .............A2
OPINION .................A4
SPORTS .................B1
WEATHER ..............A8