Roswell Daily Record
Vol. 124, No. 90 75¢ Daily / $1.25 Sunday
THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
April 15, 2015
Wednesday
www.rdrnews.com
Roswell close to hiring PR director
By Jeff Jackson Record City Editor
Two candidates remain in the running to be the city of Roswell’s director of public relations, and the winner is expected to be named this week. While the names of those two people remain undisclosed, the Roswell Daily Record did obtain through a public records request the names of five finalists a panel interviewed in person. The five finalists include: • Joan Arnold, the dean
of liberal arts at Eastern New Mexico University-Roswell • DeAnna Beseda, formerly the director of economic development for the city of Keller, Texas • Carol Everly, the area manager for itsQuest, an employment agency in Roswell • Clarissa Gonzalez-Adams, a Roswell-based sales representative for KOBRTV and president of Tower Select Inc. • Juanita Jennings, the digital content director for American General Media in
Bakersfield, California Roswell City Manager Steve Polasek said he has been given two recommendations from the interviewing committee and he will offer the job this week to the first choice. All five candidates were interviewed at city hall and asked the same set of questions, said Polasek, who was not part of the committee. “I don’t conduct my business in a vacuum,” Polasek said, adding he gathered input from the interviewing committee as well as from
city staffers and planners. The committee consisted of Dorrie Faubus-McCarty, executive director of the Roswell Chamber of Commerce; John Mulcahy, president of the Roswell Chaves County Economic Development Corp.; and three high-level city employees: Human Resources Director Jetta Miles, City Engineer Louis Najar and Special Services Administrator Mike Mathews. According to the job listing posted by the city on March 13, the director of
public relations position will pay between $79,282 and $97,506 and the job holder will oversee communications, marketing, legislative affairs, coordinate with the Roswell Chaves County EDC, coordinate press conferences and assist other city departments with public relations. A bachelor’s degree is required, but a master’s is preferred, the job posting states. Many of those responsibilities were held by the city’s former marketing director, Renee Roach, who
resigned Sept. 5 after being charged with drunken driving three days before. Her case is pending in Chaves County District Court. Roach earned a $63,000 salary from the city. The five finalists were pared down from an original pool of 13 people who submitted applications, many of whom are from Roswell. All five of the finalists have high qualifications, four members of the interviewing committee said last week. See PR, Page A3
Not so nuts about onion rings
Bill Moffitt Photos
Above, left: A squirrel hangs on to a tree and his nut during a drizzly day at Cahoon Park Monday afternoon. Above, right: The squirrel stops to check on an onion ring on one of the walls near the bike path Monday. The critter moved on, without a bite, apparently content with the food he already had. Roswell’s current squirrel population started with two squirrels that were brought into the state decades ago by a family for their backyard, according to the district office of the State Game and Fish Department.
Bridge work to continue through November Another Arizona-based mental health provider to depart New Mexico
By Jeff Tucker Record Staff Writer Rehabilitation work on the Berrendo Creek Bridges will continue through the fall as traffic on the four-lane portion of U.S. 285 will continue to be squeezed onto two lanes. The project’s contractor, Interstate Highway Construction, is currently performing a rehabilitation of the southbound bridge. Work on the southbound bridge should be completed by July, said Roswell-based bridge inspector Frank Martinez of the New Mexico Department of Transportation. “As soon as that’s complete, we’ll start construction on the northbound one,” See BRIDGE, Page A2
Jeff Tucker Photo
Workers from Interstate Highway Construction on Tuesday continue rehabilitation work on the Berrendo Creek Bridges. Only two lanes of traffic will be open along U.S. Highway 285 until the project is completed by Nov. 1.
LAS CRUCES (AP) — Another Arizona-based nonprofit has confirmed it plans to cease providing Medicaid-funded mental health services in southern New Mexico. Tucson-based La Frontera plans a staggered transition to phase out its operations in Dona Ana and several other counties, casting uncertainty on services for nearly 3,800 clients. La Frontera had said in February it would provide a 90-day notice to withdraw from New Mexico. CEO Dan Ranieri said recent talks didn’t change that course.
Ranieri said it’s unclear when the company will wrap up its operations since replacement providers need to be identified for its clients. The goal is to make the process smooth for clients and employees, he said. “You don’t want to interrupt the care for people receiving the care, and you don’t want to interrupt the paychecks” of the employees, he said. The state Human Services Department said it’s working with managed care See PROVIDER, Page A3
Four men including employee arrested in Chisum Travel Center robbery Staff Report Three men, including a former employee, and one juvenile were arrested early Tuesday in connection with a robbery at the Chisum Travel Center on North Main Street. Upon our arrival around 3 a.m., Chaves County Sheriff’s deputies were told that two masked men wielding large knives were found to have entered the
west doors of the store and were seen trying to get into the cash register at the rear fuel counter. As the clerk approached them and saw they were wearing masks and armed with knives, she retreated to another area of the store and called 911. Upon being seen by the clerk, the two suspects grabbed several packs of cigarettes and fled out the west doors. The knives used were described as a
Sanchez
Romero
Peralta
large butcher knife and a sword-looking knife. The clerks later deter-
mined the robbers were not successful in opening the register, but believed one of
the robbers seemed to have knowledge of how to use the registers and may have been
Today’s Forecast
Today’s Obituaries Page A6
HIGH 80 LOW 47
• Isidore Gutierrez Jr. • Brett Leach
a previous employee of the travel center. The clerks also reported having some customers in the store earlier in the morning they believed were suspicious and noted the type and color of the vehicle they were driving. Deputies checked a residence nearby in the 5500 block of North Gramma Road, thought to belong to the previous employee, See ROBBERY, Page A3
Index Classifieds...........B6 Comics..................B5 Entertainment. ....B8 Financial..............B3
General...............A2 Horoscopes.........A8 Lotteries. ............A2 Nation..................A6
Opinion.................A4 Sports. ................B1 Weather...............A8