Roswell Daily Record
Winter weather slams Roswell
Vol. 120, No. 29 50¢ Daily / $1 Sunday
INSIDE NEWS
THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
February 3, 2011
THURSDAY
www.rdrnews.com
PHIL PREDICTS EARLY SPRING PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. (AP) — The country's most famous groundhog predicted an early spring Wednesday but wasn’t willing to go out on a limb to forecast whether his ... - PAGE A6
TOP 5 WEB For The Last 24 Hours
• Adair seeking to create victim fund • Traffic slows as winter storm hits • Ponce wins seat • Local man arrested for exploitation • Pearce to be in Roswell
INSIDE SPORTS
CC! LAUDS CHEER ATHLETES Character Counts! of Chaves County released the first installment of its Winter Athletes of Recognition program on Wednesday and this week’s honorees are from the sport of cheerleading ... - PAGE B1
TODAY’S OBITUARIES • J.B. Hopper • Felix Sepulveda - PAGE B3
HIGH ...21˚ LOW .....-2˚
TODAY’S FORECAST
CLASSIFIEDS..........B6 COMICS.................B4 ENTERTAINMENT.....B6 FINANCIAL .............B5 GENERAL ..............A2 HOROSCOPES ........B6 LOTTERIES ............A2 OPINION ................A4 SPORTS ................B1 WEATHER ..............A8 WORLD .................B3
INDEX
Mark Wilson Photo
A broken water main at the corner of West Bland and South Lea streets on a frigid Wednesday morning caused a river of water to flow down Lea and a disruption of service for some area residents as workers hurried to fix the break in the line.
Mark Wilson Photo
Police investigate a minor two-vehicle wreck on a bitterly cold Wednesday morning at the corner of Military Heights Dr. and North Main Street. Snowy conditions and near zero degree temperatures made for treacherous driving.
Xcel Energy to customers: Weather affects motorists Conserve your energy MATTHEW ARCO RECORD STAFF WRITER
The city’s energy provider is asking electric customers in eastern New Mexico to conserve usage in order to avoid power disruption. Xcel Energy officials issued a statement, Wednesday, that asks its customers to avoid overloading distribution lines. The company said it should produce enough power to meet demand, but warned that lines are operating at or near capacity. Xcel Energy reported no more than 200 temporary outages in Chaves County by late Wednesday. “We take our responsibility to supply energy to our customers very
seriously,” stated Riley Hill, president of Southwestern Public Service Company, an Xcel Energy company. “Our customers have helped us through similar situations in the past and we look to them today to help us maintain the integrity of their electricity system,” he said. “Turning off all lights and appliances that are not essential to health and safety will help us meet everyone’s energy needs without service interruptions.” A local energy spokesman blamed smaller scale outages that only affect a few homes at a time on an result of the increase in usage.
JESSICA PALMER RECORD STAFF WRITER
In the past two days, New Mexico State Police have investigated 228 crashes statewide. Of those, only six occurred in the Roswell area. As temperatures plummet and snows fall, people are retreating indoors and the number of accidents has decreased. “We are asking people not to travel,” said Sgt. Lance Batement of NMSP-Roswell. “Our officers have gone out and checked the highways. We’ve had a few calls for assistance, but we’ve had no crashes this morning (Wednesday) or last night in the Chaves, Eddy and Lea county area. Judging by the highway traffic, people are paying attention to the travel advisories.” The Roswell Fire Department and
Chaves County Sheriff’s Office are also reporting that things are quiet. Deputy Fire Chief Chad Hamill said, “We’ve had a few more fire alarms (false alarms) due to power surges, but generally speaking, we haven’t had anything at all.” “We’ve had a quite a few alarm calls. I don’t know much about it, but power outages will cause them to kick in,” Community Relations Officer Erica O’Bryon said. She said they had 12 accident calls. “Nothing major, just fender benders,”she said. “(Tuesday), we had an all-time high in alarms calls, of 19. One may have been caused by power outages,” City of Roswell Alarm Administrator,
Blood in Cairo: Mubarak backers, foes clash See XCEL, Page A3
CAIRO (AP) — Supporters of President Hosni Mubarak charged into Cairo’s central square on horses and camels brandishing whips while others rained firebombs from rooftops in what appeared to be an orchestrated assault against protesters trying to topple Egypt’s leader of 30 years. Three people died and 600 were injured. The protesters accused Mubarak’s regime of unleashing a force of paid thugs and plainclothes police to crush their unprecedented 9-day-old movement, a day after the 82-year -old president refused to step down. They showed off police ID badges they said were wrested from their attackers. Some government workers said their employers ordered them into the streets. Mustafa el-Fiqqi, a top of ficial from the ruling National Democratic Party, told The Associated Press that businessmen connected to the ruling party were responsible for what hap-
pened. The notion that the state may have coordinated violence against protesters, who had kept a peaceful vigil in Tahrir Square for five days, prompted a sharp rebuke from the Obama administration. “If any of the violence is instigated by the government, it should stop immediately,” said White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. The clashes marked a dangerous new phase in Egypt’s upheaval: the first significant violence between government supporters and opponents. The crisis took a sharp turn for the worse almost immediately after Mubarak rejected the calls for him to give up power or leave the country, stubbor nly proclaiming he would die on Egyptian soil. His words were a blow to the protesters. They also suggest that authorities want to turn back the clock to the tight state control enforced before the protests began. Mubarak’s supporters
EMILY RUSSO MILLER RECORD STAFF WRITER
serves on the local school board cannot work in the school district,” Guillen said. He cited state statute 22-5-5, which states, “No member of a local school board shall be employed in any capacity by a school district governed by that local school boar d during the term of office for which the member was elected or appointed.” The law was passed in 1967. Ponce, who defeated a sitting city councilor and the incumbent school board vice president for District 4 in the Feb. 1 election, said she was weighing her options on how to proceed.
See WEATHER, Page A3
AP Photo
Pro-government demonstrators, bottom, watch as cars burn during clashes with anti-government demonstrators behind barriers, in Tahrir square, the center of anti-government demonstrations, in Cairo, Egypt, early Thursday. Thousands of supporters and opponents of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak battled in Cairo's main square all day Wednesday, raining stones, bottles and firebombs on each other in scenes of uncontrolled violence as soldiers stood by without intervening.
turned up on the streets Wednesday in significant numbers for the first time. Some were hostile to journalists and foreigners. Two Associated Press corre-
spondents and several other jour nalists were roughed up in Cairo. State TV had reported that foreigners were caught distributing anti-Mubarak
leaflets, apparently trying to depict the movement as foreign-fueled.
Newly-elected Ponce caught in a conflict of interest
School teacher Pauline J. Ponce easily won a seat on the Roswell school board Tuesday, but her newly elected position may alr eady be in jeopar dy. Of ficials, and state law, say it is a conflict of interest for an employee of the school district to serve on the school board. New Mexico School Boards Association Executive Director Joe Guillen said Ponce will be forced to choose between keeping her teaching post at Sunset Elementary or keeping her school board seat. “It’s pretty clear in the law that the person who
“I’m just looking at my options and going fr om there,” she said. Ponce had pr eviously told the Daily Record that she was planning on retiring from teaching at the end of next school year in 2012, after 35 year s of working in education. She declined to say if sh e would consider retiring earlier than that. Both Roswell Independent School District Superintendent Michael Gottlieb and the school boar d’s attor ney, T ony Ortiz, declined to comment on the matter. School board member Jim Waldrip said the issue was being discussed “in-house.”
emiller@roswell-record.com
See EGYPT, Page A6
Official school board election results Magistrate Judge Eugene De Los Santos confirmed the school board election results to be accurate on Wednesday afternoon at the County Clerk’s office. According to official election results, Pauline J. Ponce won the District 4 seat for the Roswell school board. She received 94 votes, defeating George Peterson, who won 56 votes and Barry Foster, who won 39 votes. Those numbers include early voting totals and absentee ballots. In District 2, James Waldrip won a total of 163 votes, defeating G.A. Rottman, who received a total of 64 votes. Those numbers include early voting totals and absentee ballots. The total number of ballots cast for both District 2 and 4 was 416, including early voting and absentee ballots. In Lake Arthur’s uncontested races, John W. Jack-
See RESULTS, Page A3