Colorful east-side charmer A mixed message on young with history on the market Inside voters and marijuana Opinions, B-1
4 Aug ust 201
Locally owned and independent
Sunday, August 3, 2014
www.santafenewmexican.com $1.25
Thriving Children’s Museum eyes future After narrowly avoiding financial collapse with support from the community, “castle” forges ahead.
Descent into the depths of
Snowy River
Hundreds vie in Gladiator Dash
PAGE C-1
Touring teams lure Las Vegas All-Stars Robertson softball players have reservations about joining the Lady Cardinals. SPORTS, D-1
More than 900 participate in 5-kilomteter race that featured water hazards, 9-foot-tall ramps and several mud pits. LOCAL NEWS, C-1
Mayor seeks bus service to help boost S.F. nightlife
Report calls for costly changes in recycling and trash services
Gonzales targets college students with free shuttle to downtown area
Firm recommends 33.5 percent rate hike over four years to pay for plan, cover operational costs
By Daniel J. Chacón The New Mexican
By Daniel J. Chacón
Being a college student without a car makes going out at night difficult, especially in a city like Santa Fe, where public transportation grinds to a halt at 10 o’clock. Just ask Fernanda Esquivel, a 22-year-old student from Mexico City who attends the Santa Fe University of Art and Design. “I guess because of the lack of transportation, not including cabs, I didn’t go as often as I wanted to to downtown,” Esquivel said via Facebook on Thursday. Esquivel and other university students, as well as the general public, may have a new transportation option starting Aug. 28. Mayor Javier Gonzales is proposing a pilot project to provide free shuttle service between the university on St. Michael’s Drive and downtown and the Santa Fe Railyard from Aug. 28 to Dec. 20. “By opening up transportation to our downtown area and events, we are inviting an often under-served section of our population to safely take advantage of Santa Fe in a whole
Please see BUS, Page A-4
Today A p.m. shower or thunderstorm. High 76, low 55. PAGE D-6
Obituaries Janine Anton, 57, Santa Fe, July 24 Jose O. Atilano Karole Elaine Felts, Jan. 14 Maxine S. Goad, 83, July 28 Joseph L. Griego, July 27 Melissa D. WoodruffTometichHardee, June 7 Richard George Higgins, 64, Santa Fe, July 29 Jonathan Mark
Index
North, June 30 Lorenzo Padilla, 82, July 28 Yvonne J. Romero, July 24 Helenn (Johnson) Rumpel, June 17 Staff Sgt. (E6) James A. Sweeney, retired, 63, Santa Fe, July 29 John Tull Jr., June 25 David E. Wunker, 62, Santa Fe, July 2
The New Mexican
A caver peers down a new passage discovered this summer in the Fort Stanton-Snowy River cave complex. Cavers have mapped more than 10 miles of the Snowy River passage and some of its side tunnels since 2001. COURTESY DEREK BRISTOL/BLM
Team of explorers mapping mineral-lined passage deep inside Fort Stanton Cave By Staci Matlock The New Mexican
FINDING SNOWY RIVER
Rio Grande
I
n 2001, a team of cavers following a small flow of air hand-dug a narrow passage through a dirt wall deep in the Fort Stanton Cave in south-central New Mexico. When they finally squirmed through the cramped tunnel, they popped out into a new passage carpeted with a brilliant white river of minerals. They named the passage Snowy River. “It was astounding,” Albuquerque building contractor and dig team leader Lloyd Swartz said four years after the find. “We weren’t expecting it. We sat on a slope nearby and just stared at it for about five minutes.” Since then, cavers have mapped more than 10 miles of the Snowy River passage and some of its side tunnels. Together with the Fort Stanton Cave, the mapped complex — at 31.5 miles — is longer than Carlsbad Caverns, said explorer John Lyles. There is no end in sight to the unusual passage, which sometimes flows with water from an unknown source. One room of Snowy River features stalactites that hum back to cavers. Teams of volunteer expert cavers, including seven from Los Alamos and Santa Fe, make a few trips a year to the cave to survey and
Please see SNOWY, Page A-4
Santa Fe 40
Albuquerque Fort Stanton Cave 25
Roswell Alamogordo
Las Cruces 10
The New Mexican
Reaching the entrance to Snowy River requires a mile hike through Fort Stanton Cave near Ruidoso in south-central New Mexico.
If you live in Santa Fe, you might soon be paying more to get rid of your trash. And if you are one of the environmentally conscious residents who recycle as much as possible, you could be in for some other changes, as well. A consultant’s recommendations for improving waste-disposal and recycling operations in both the city of Santa Fe and Santa Fe County would affect area residents if decision-makers embrace the proposals. A firm hired to study how local governments collect and dispose of solid waste and to evaluate the community’s struggling recycling efforts recommends new approaches that would come with steep initial costs. The firm’s advice includes a 33.5 percent increase in residential rates in the city over four years — atop already authorized rate hikes — to pay for the plan and to cover current operating costs. “At present, the city’s residential fee of $12.96 [a month] for fiscal year 2014, which escalates annually at 3.2 percent, is not sufficient to recover costs for residential refuse and recycling services,” Leidos Engineering LLC said in its report to the city, made public last week. The report shows an increasing deficit in the city’s waste-disposal costs starting next fiscal year under the current fee structure. The consultant also recommends changes to the city’s curbside recycling program that would require an upfront investment of $2.5 million, including spending for new trucks, containers and other equipment.
Please see SERVICES, Page A-7
Back to school means returning to sleep routine How to get your children to rise and shine for the upcoming school year. FAMILY, C-7
Pasapick www.pasatiempomagazine.com
‘Sylvia’ at Santa Fe Playhouse
Cavers Ian McMillan and John Lyles check out the No Cave for Old Men room along the Snowy River passage. COURTESY SEAN LEWIS/BLM
The New Mexico Actors Lab presents A.R. Gurney’s comedy, 4 p.m., Santa Fe Playhouse, 142 E. De Vargas St., 988-4262, $20, discounts available, santafeplayhouse.org, Thursdays through Sundays through Aug. 17. More events in Calendar, A-2 and Fridays in Pasatiempo
PAGES C-2, C-3
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