Roswell Daily Record
Vol. 124, No. 48 75¢ Daily / $1.25 Sunday
THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
February 25, 2015
WEDNESDAY
www.rdrnews.com
Panel to review street-name ordinance next month
By Jeff Jackson Record City Editor A movement to have two streets in Roswell named after a pair of iconic American leaders has turned a corner and gained speed. The city engineering department has written a first-draft naming ordinance for streets and buildings and presented the paperwork to the streets and alleys committee, which met Monday afternoon in a packed city hall conference room. Now the public has two weeks to comment on the proposal before a secondary draft is presented to the committee March 31, paving the way to potentially name streets after civil rights leader Mar-
tin Luther King Jr. and farm workers labor patriarch Cesar Chavez. “I think that we have a need for this policy ... and I think that we should go forward with this policy and come up with something that’s final,” said Councilor Elena Velasquez, who represents Ward 5 and attended the meeting but is not a member of the streets committee. She presented her plan of naming streets for King and Chavez at a Jan. 27 committee meeting. Velasquez said Monday she does not have any specific street identified, but still wants her proposal to proceed. Two other councilors, who do sit on the streets committee, want to put
brakes on the concept, however. Steve Henderson of Ward 2 thinks the plan needs caution, while Ward 3’s Jeanine Best is cost-conscious and believes the city has higher financial priorities. Citizen groups first should agree on a street and gather a required portion, currently an adjustable 75 percent, of residents on such street for their approval before the city takes action, Henderson said. “I think we can do this in tandem. That is, we can be working on the ordinance and your organizational group can be meeting and deciding which street you might want to identify and then move forward with
that in testing the water to see how acceptable that name change might be to the residents along the street,” Henderson said. “What’s going to happen to us as council members is we’re going to be accused of cramming a name down the citizens’ throats and the people that live on the suggested street they’re going to have a criticism because they didn’t have an opportunity to act. So we’re kind of in a chickenand-egg-type deal.” Best was more pragmatic and took a cost-analysis approach in her hesitation to accept a plan of renaming streets, while suggesting the King and Chavez names be applied to newly constructed streets.
“The naming of streets are not main priorities,” Best said. “I think maybe we should put those two names on a list of the next streets that need to be built and be named Cesar Chavez and Martin Luther King. They may not be in the part of the community that you choose them to be in but we don’t have to change signs, we don’t have to change all this infrastructure and take that income that needs to go to our sewers, our plumbing which are 25, 30 years behind. … If we don’t fix our infrastructure right now and start working on that there’s no need in naming streets or anything else. “At this point we’ve got
to choose in our business which is the most important — to have water and sewer to your houses or to name a street that’s already named. I mean you can name a street anywhere in this town that’s not named yet — and this town is growing by leaps and bounds and there’s plenty of new streets — and then we would have a Cesar Chavez Street and we would have a Martin Luther King Street or Boulevard or Court or whatever. I don’t know what the rush is,” she said. One new street sign would cost the city about $150, and a mile-long work See STREETS, Page A3
Candidates appointed to Hagerman board
Exploring opportunities
By Dylanne Petros Record Staff Writer
Bill Moffitt Photo
Arriving in style aboard a medical helicopter owned by Air Methods, Carter Patterson, 10, left, gets a hand down by Medic Chris Croyle after landing at a vacant lot across from the Roswell Convention and Civic Center Tuesday night. Patterson is a Webelos Scout in pack 25 and was part of a full house for Career Explorer Night at the center. The Boy Scouts of America Explorer Program matches high-school age young adults with mentors in various fields for hands-on experience in an intern-type environment. Information about starting an Explorer Post at a local business is available by calling Fred Guzman at 956-867-3104 or 575-622-3461.
All three school board uncontested candidates have been appointed to the Hagerman school board as of Monday. During Monday night’s school board meeting, Heidi Gray was appointed to the District 2 position. Gray was the last member to be appointed to the board as Lois Wilson Stephens, District 1, and Destry Moss, District 3, were appointed to the board Wednesday night, said Ricky Williams, superintendent of Hagerman Municipal Schools. All three candidates who ran, Wilson Stephens, Moss and Gray, will serve on the school board until 2017. The three candidates were appointed because not a single vote was cast in the Feb. 3 school board election. To win in the election, each candidate needed at least one vote. No polling site in Hag-
erman Feb. 3 contributed to the zero-turnout. Ads placed by Eastern New Mexico University-Roswell in the Daily Record’s classified section stated Hagerman Town Hall would be used as one of the voting convenience centers on the Election Day. The ads placed by ENMU-R were incorrect, said Cindy Fuller, bureau of elections chief for the Chaves County Clerk’s Office. “The college kept doing their own thing publishing things,” Fuller said earlier this month. “All of the school districts left that up to us, to publish in the newspaper forum, except the college, and their’s was continually wrong.” Other classified ads were placed by the Chaves County Clerk’s Office. The Chaves County Clerk’s Office published a legal ad twice stating there would not be a voting conSee HAGERMAN, Page A3
Roswell man pleads Pecos students rewarded for being healthy guilty to federal drug trafficking charges By Jeff Jackson Record City Editor
Submitted by U.S. Justice Department ALBUQUERQUE — Simon Nicholas Sais, 44, of Roswell, pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court in Las Cruces to methamphetamine and cocaine trafficking charges. The guilty plea was entered without the benefit of a plea agreement. Sais was arrested on Oct. 22 on a criminal complaint charging him with distribution of methamphetamine and cocaine. According to the complaint, between June 2013 and August 2013, Sais sold approximately 359.4 grams of pure methamphetamine and approximately 43.5 grams of cocaine to an undercover agent working with the Lea County Drug Task Force in Roswell and Hobbs. Sais subsequently was charged on Jan. 14, in a six-count indictment charging him with distributing methamphetamine on five occasions between June 2013 and Aug. 2013, and distributing cocaine in June 2013. During Tuesday’s proceedings, Sais pled
guilty to the indictment, admitting that between June 26 and August 13, 2013, he distributed methamphetamine and cocaine throughout Lea County and Chaves County. Sais has been in federal custody since his arrest and remains detained pending his sentencing hearing, which has yet to be scheduled. At sentencing, Sais faces a mandatory minimum of ten years and a maximum of life in prison. This case was investigated by the Roswell office of the FBI and the Lea County Drug Task Force, and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Marisa A. Lizarraga of the U.S. Attorney’s Las Cruces Branch Office. The Lea County Drug Task Force is comprised of officers from the Lea County Sheriff’s Office, Hobbs Police Department, Lovington Police Department, Eunice Police Department the Tatum Police Department and the Jal Police Department, and is part of the HIDTA Region VI Drug Task Force. Today’s Forecast
HIGH 63 LOW 30
Because they met a challenge to be healthy, 61 third-graders at Pecos Elementary School received awards Tuesday from Chaves County and the state of New Mexico. The third-grade class at the east-side school was the only school in the Roswell Independent School District to have 100 percent participation in the “5210” Challenge that is in its fourth year organized by Healthy Kids Chaves County and the state department of health. The numerals relate to a challenge for kids to eat at least five fruit-and-vegetable snacks a day, have no more than two hours a day of screen time, exercise or be active for at least one hour a day and, for 0, drink plenty of H2O. “The students are really participating and it’s making an impact on what they’re doing,” said Paula Camp, coordinator of the Healthy Kids Chaves County. With the program drawing 100 percent participation among third-graders, 69 percent, or 41, students completed the program and received medals in Tuesday’s ceremony.
Jeff Jackson Photo
Third-grade students at Pecos Elementary School participate in a healthy cheer routine after receiving their medals and certificates Tuesday from the Healthy Kids Chaves County program. The remaining 20 students earned certificates. For the district as a whole, 36 percent of the students participated, an increase from 11 percent during the 2013-14 school year, Camp said. Representing the state at Tuesday’s program were Jeff Lara and Julie Morrow of the department of health southeast region and Pat Lujan, director of instruction for the RISD. Similar ceremonies and programs are being conducted at Dexter, Lake Arthur and Hagerman schools, Camp said. In addition to the ceremony at Pecos Elementary, the Healthy Kids Chaves County program
Submitted Photo Sunset Elementary student Sarah Prag received a new bicycle through the “5210” Challenge and is pictured with, from left, Sunset P.E. teacher Curt Tarter, Shannon Wooton of the extension office and RISD administrator Pat Lujan.
awarded a new bicycle to Sarah Prag, a Sunset Elementary School student, through the “5210” mayor’s challenge. Sarah’s name was selected from among the 288 RISD students who completed the challenge,
Index
Today’s Obituaries Page A6
• Leonor R. Baca • Lott W. Porter
• Billy “Bill” Callaway Sr. • Francis “Mike” Thomas
and the bicycle was donated by Shannon Wooton of the Chaves County Extension Office. City Editor Jeff Jackson can be contacted at 575622-7710, ext. 311, or reporter02@rdrnews.com.
Classifieds...........B6
General...............A 2
Opinion.................A4
Comics..................B5
Horoscopes.........A 3
Sports. ................B1
Financial..............B3
Lotteries. ............A2
Weather...............A8