Santa Fe New Mexican, Aug. 3, 2013

Page 1

New Mexico takes bite out of Louisiana in Little League tourney Sports, B-1

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Saturday, August 3, 2013

www.santafenewmexican.com 75¢

Judge blocks horse slaughter in N.M.

Clare Maraist Developer wants a zoning change to allow conversion of old school on Canyon Road into a mixed-use facility.

Temporary restraining order bars Roswell plant from processing meat for human consumption

MANDERFIELD SCHOOL

Council to review plan sans panel’s blessing

By Jeri Clausing

The Associated Press

ALBUQUERQUE — A federal judge on Friday temporarily halted plans by companies in New Mexico and Iowa to start slaughtering horses next week. U.S. District Judge Christina Armijo issued a restraining order in

a lawsuit brought by The Humane Society of the United States and other groups in a case that has sparked an emotional national debate about how best to deal with the tens of thousands of unwanted and abandoned horses across the country. The move stops what would have been the resumption of horse slaugh-

By Julie Ann Grimm

A proposal to renovate a former school on Canyon Road into a coffee shop and dwellings is headed to the Santa Fe City Council after members of the city Planning Commission debated into the wee hours Friday before narrowly recommending denial of the plan. The commission heard public testimony for more than an hour during a hearing Thursday night and took its 4-3 vote after midnight. Clare Maraist and her father, Michael Maraist, are seeking a change in the zoning to allow conversion of the Manderfield School property into a mixed-use facility with a commercial area and six apartments, and for construction of four detached casitas. The case represents a clash affecting older neighborhoods. Should the community allow changes to traditional uses in order to preserve significant historic structures? If not, will historic buildings decay into uselessness? The 1928 school building is at the top of Canyon Road next door to the Cristo Rey Church, an area that is different from the gallery-clogged lower section of the road. Although the school land has institutional zoning, applicants seek a new zoning designation that would allow “adaptive reuse” of classrooms as artist studios and other commercial development, such as a restaurant. City staff recommended approval

Rains ease drought conditions, but reservoirs still low By Staci Matlock The New Mexican

J

uly brought plenty of rain to thirsty New Mexico, enough to improve the state’s dire drought condition a little. Santa Fe received above normal moisture and recorded about average temperatures for the month, measured at two weather stations. The Santa Fe River has flowed with flash floods more than a foot deep

Obituaries

Partly cloudy. High 90, low 61. PAge A-12

PAge C-2

By Karl F. Moffat

For The New Mexican

www.pasatiempomagazine.com

Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival

The drought has severely impacted the water level at Elephant Butte Reservoir, now at its lowest in 40 years. Pictured on top is the reservoir as seen via satellite on July 8. The same area had noticeably more water on June 2, 1994, bottom. IMAGES COURTESY NASA EARTH OBSERVATORY

Index

Calendar A-2

Classifieds B-6

past the Frenchy’s Field Park bridge several times in the last month. The good precipitation news should last through the end of August, according to National Weather Service meteorologists in Albuquerque. Widespread rainstorms in the past four weeks were enough to reduce the state’s exceptional drought status and bring a tiny sliver of southern Eddy County completely out of the drought. It is the first

time since April 2 that any portion of the state was not listed under some level of drought. Despite the rain, many of the state’s reservoirs remain critically below normal and are likely to only be helped by a deep snowpack in the coming winter and a mild spring. New Mexico enjoyed regular rainstorms beginning July 2, with storms coming out of the north and east. One of the

Please see RAINS, Page A-4

Drought takes long-term toll on state’s fishing waters

Pasapick Bach recital, including cellist Joseph Johnson and flutist Joshua Smith, 5 p.m., St. Francis Auditorium, New Mexico Museum of Art, 107 W. Palace Ave., tickets available at santafechambermusic. com, 982-1890, or 988-1234, ticketssantafe.org. More events in Calendar, A-2 and Fridays in Pasatiempo

Please see HORSe, Page A-4

Lightning lights the Eldorado sky prior to a rainstorm Friday night. CLYDE MUELLER/THE NEW MEXICAN

Please see SCHOOL, Page A-4

Today

to open horse slaughterhouses. The companies had said they wanted to open as soon as Monday. The horse meat would be exported for human consumption and for use as zoo and other animal food. Valley Meat Co. of Roswell has been at the fore of the fight, pushing for more than a year for permission to convert its cattle plant into a horse slaughterhouse. The Department of Agriculture

Storms strong, but not enough

The New Mexican

William Chalmers Agnew, 65, Pojoaque, July 28 Ynacio (Joe) M. Alvarez, 85, July 31 Norman L. Smith, 79, Feb. 2

ter for the first time in seven years in the U.S. The plaintiffs’ lawyer, Bruce Wagman, said his clients were overjoyed with the ruling and had been “extremely distressed that horse slaughter was going to start up again in America.” The groups contend the Department of Agriculture failed to do the proper environmental studies before issuing permits that allowed companies in Iowa and New Mexico

Comics B-12

Lotteries A-2

Opinions A-11

Despite heavy monsoon rains, many of New Mexico’s prime fishing lakes are still in dire condition and could take years to recover from the damaging effects of a third straight year of extreme drought. In recent years, reservoirs such as Santa Rosa Lake on the Pecos River were producing trophy class walleye — to the delight of many anglers. But now the walleye population there has been decimated by the drought. The reservoir is down to about 5 percent of capacity and covers only 560 acres, compared with 3,000 acres during a wetter year, when the reservoir is at about 65 percent of capacity, said Shank Cribbs, manager of Santa Rosa Lake State Park.

Police notes A-6

Interim Editor: Bruce Krasnow, 986-3034, bkrasnow@sfnewmexican.com Design and headlines: Kristina Dunham, kdunham@sfnewmexican.com

Sports B-1

Time Out B-11

Santa Rosa Lake was a trophy walleye fishery before the drought decimated the population of the sport fish. COURTESY KARL F. MOFFATT

“It’s sure going to take more than a month of good rain,” Shank said, adding that recent storms have helped raise the

Life & Science A-9

Main office: 983-3303 Late paper: 986-3010

lake level by about 10 feet. “What we’re really going to need is snowpack, and plenty of it.” If reservoirs like Santa Rosa are replenished, the walleye fishery will rebound only with plenty of stocking, said Eric Frey, Sport Fish Program manager for the state Department of Game and Fish. “The walleye population there has essentially crashed, and the prey base is gone, too,” Frey said. “If it gets water and we stocked next year, it’d take three to four years for them to grow to catchable size.” A walleye must measure 14 inches in length or greater for an angler to keep it. Frey said one of the biggest problems with the walleye

Please see FISHINg, Page A-4

Two sections, 24 pages TV Book, 32 pages 164th year, No. 215 Publication No. 596-440


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