Roswell Daily Record
Commission denies several road requests Vol. 123, No. 122 75¢ Daily / $1.25 Sunday
BY JEFF TUCKER RECORD STAFF WRITER
The Chaves County Commissioners last week denied several requests for road maintenance, citing a lack of available funding. The commissioners, at their May 15 meeting, approved the county assuming maintenance of one road, while they denied four road maintenance requests from the Buena Vida Improvement Association.
The commissioners also approved one road vacation, while denying two other requests to vacate roads. The commissioners had held their annual road hearing on April 17 to receive public input on all of the 2014 road requests. The commission voted 40 last week to approve a request by Ellison Carter to maintain about 5 miles of Aleut Road, located south of U.S. Highway 380, about 20 miles east of Roswell.
Mariachi spectacular
THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
May 21, 2014
WEDNESDAY
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The Buena Vida Improvement Association submitted four requests for the county to maintain dirt roads in the subdivision, which is south of U.S. Highway 70, about 10 miles west of Roswell.
The association asked the county to maintain about 0.4 miles of Tierra Grande Boulevard, to maintain about 0.4 miles of El Rosal Street, to maintain about 0.2 miles of El Arco Way and to maintain 0.2 miles of Los Padrinos
Avenue. The commissioners said adding roads to the county’s road inventory is expensive. They denied all four requests from the association in a single unanimous vote. “Our hands are tied because of the financial constraints,” said Commissioner Kyle “Smiley” Wooton. Commissioner Greg Nibert said after the meeting the county would continue to face financial constraints
Randal Seyler Photos
Above: Mariachi instructor Jose Luis Hernandez leads a group of students at S.O.Y. Mariachi in practice Tuesday in Roswell. The students are preparing for a trip to Albuquerque in July where they will attend Mariachi Spectacular de Albuquerque, which is a mariachi conference. Right: Students practice mariachi music at S.O.Y. Mariachi on Tuesday. The students are fundraising for their trip, and are selling tickets for an Applebee’s pancake breakfast, which will be held Saturday from 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. at the Roswell Applebee’s Restaurant. Tickets are $7 each. For tickets or more information, call 6252886.
in light of the county’s $15 million jail renovation that is under way. “This year, next year, we’re going to have to ramp up in staff out there,” Nibert said. ”Ultimately, we’re going to have to have 12 new guard positions as well as support staff. Coming up with the money to pay for these additional positions is really causing the heartache the budget committee is dealing with this year.” The jail renovation is
expected to be completed next year. Nibert said the county’s purse strings would continue to be tight until the bond issue for the Chaves County Courthouse is paid off in 2019. “In 2019, we should finally see some relief,” Nibert said. “In 2019, the county can breathe a little easier because those funds will free up. At that point, there will be some extra
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon is weighing allowing some immigrants brought illegally to the country as youths to serve in the military, a unilateral step by the Obama administration as immigration legislation remains stalled in the Republican-led House. The announcement came Tuesday as House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, defended his election-year decision to rebuff a narrow measure immigration pushed by a GOP congressman to achieve a similar goal. The Pentagon consideration would apply to immigrants who arrived illegally as kids but already have received work permits and relief from deportation under a program President Barack Obama announced two years ago, called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. More than 500,000 immigrants have benefited from the program.
The Defense Department “continues to examine the laws and policies that address the eligibility of noncitizens to serve in the military in order to determine if and how our programs could be applied to DACA recipients,” Pentagon spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Nate Christensen said in a statement. Such a move by the Pentagon would be the latest example of the Obama administration taking incremental steps by executive action on immigration with comprehensive overhaul legislation stuck in the GOP-led House 11 months after passage by the Senate. Obama is coming under pressure to make broader moves on executive action as the likelihood grows that the House will not pass any immigration bill this year. Tuesday’s developments provided further evidence of the slim chances of
Phelps Anderson, owner of SunValley Energy Corp. in Roswell, was injured in a vehicle crash at 4:30 p.m. Sunday on U.S. Highway 70 near the 297 milepost, according to the New Mexico State Police. Anderson was transported from the scene by
ambulance. No further information was available from the state police. An employee at the business confirmed Anderson was involved in a wreck, but did not provide any details pending a statement on Anderson’s condition from his family.
Pentagon eyeing immigrants who arrived illegally
See ROADS, Page A3
Phelps Anderson injured in wreck
See IMMIGRANTS, Page A3
Adult Center asks Mulcahy sees county, city strengths as committee for help crucial to their economic development with dance floor BY RANDAL SEYLER RECORD STAFF WRITER
The Roswell Parks and Recreation Committee heard a request on Monday from the Roswell Adult & Senior Center Foundation for assistance in installing a dance floor in one of the center’s classrooms. Teresa Barncastle, representing the foundation, told the board that the adult center needed a room for dance classes. “We need to install a floor in one of the rooms in the new addition where we can have dance classes,” Barncastle said. “We only have the gymnasium, with the
wooden floor, as a space for dance classes now, and we are always struggling to schedule classes for everyone in the gym.” Bar ncastle said she teaches a beginning tap dancing class, and besides her class, there are other tap dancing classes, line dancing, square dancing and there have been jazz, ballet and belly dancing classes offered at the center as well. The foundation has $450,000 in seed money, which yields about $30,000 a year in interest, Barncastle said. See COMMITTEE, Page A3 TODAY’S FORECAST
HIGH 95 LOW 62
BY RANDAL SEYLER RECORD STAFF WRITER
John Mulcahy has a vision — although it took him a bit to come up with it. The for mer mayor of Truth or Consequences, Mulcahy took the reins of the Roswell Chaves County Economic Development Corporation in October. As he was getting used to his new job, Mulcahy kept hearing the question, “what is your vision of economic development?” “Heck, I just got here, for crying out loud,” Mulcahy said, jokingly. “Then, during my first meeting with the county commis-
• SENAIDA H. MADRID • MONITA T. DORRIS
sioners, they asked the same thing, so I thought I’d better figure it out.” Mulcahy said to him economic development is about going out and finding industries that need to be in Roswell, and not about sitting around waiting for the phone to ring. “In the old days, you could sit back and wait on industry to come to you, but that doesn’t cut it anymore,” Mulcahy said. “You have to go to where the jobs are and bring them here.” To that end, Mulcahy has been traveling the country telling people about his vision — which centers on the economic opportunities available in
• PETER ALBERT ROGERS • DONNA WERTZ
TODAY’S OBITUARIES PAGE B7
Roswell and in Chaves County.
The mission of the EDC of Roswell-Chaves County is to develop long-term, meaningful job opportunities for the citizens of Roswell and Chaves County, according to the website, chavescounty.net. The corporation assists local businesses to obtain their growth objectives and recruit projects, which diversifies and strengthens the regional economy. One of the biggest opportunities for economic growth at the moment is in the oil fields just See MULCAHY, Page A3
CLASSIFIEDS ........B10 COMICS .................B9 ENTERTAINMENT ...A10 FINANCIAL ..............B5
Randal Seyler Photo
John Mulcahy, president of the Roswell Chaves County Economic Development Corp., discusses economic happenings at Tuesday’s Kiwanis Club of Roswell meeting.
INDEX GENERAL ...............A2 HOROSCOPES .......A12 LOTTERIES .............A2 OPINION .................A4
SPORTS .................B1
WEATHER ............A12
WORLD ..................A9