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City to mull plan for new rentals A BV-234 Chinook helicopter, commissioned from Columbia Helicopters Inc. of Aurora, Ore., to fight the Thompson Ridge Fire, refuels at the Santa Fe Municipal Airport as another helicopter returns to base. ANDREW WILDER/THE NEW MEXICAN
Outside contractors take to the skies to fight Northern New Mexico wildfires
Columbia Helicopters pilot Mike Meadows waits at the Santa Fe Municipal Airport to be called out to the Thompson Ridge Fire on Friday. The capacity of the helicopter’s powerfill bucket, which fills from the bottom with a pump, is 2,600 gallons. JANE PHILLIPS/THE NEW MEXICAN
By Andrew Wilder The New Mexican
A
part from the billowing clouds of smoke that loom on the horizon and the smell of campfires, the clearest evidence that fire season has arrived is the sudden increase in air-traffic over Santa Fe. Helicopters towing tanks of water and fireretardant chemicals constantly crisscross the city’s airspace, providing air support to the ground crews fighting the fires on foot. “We can fly pretty much at sunrise to sun-
set,” said Galen Young, Helibase Manager with the New Mexico Incident Management Team. Young is in charge of a team of three helicopters based at the Santa Fe Municipal Airport to fight the Tres Lagunas Fire. Another team of three helicopters, including a twin-engine Boeing BV-234 Chinook, is also stationed at the airport to combat the Thompson Ridge Fire. The helibase at Sierra Aviation’s offices on Aviation Drive covers a large portion of runway, where fuel trucks and long hoses delineate the individual launch pads where the massive helicopters refuel, take off and land.
“We’re kind of unique here, and this is what we call a ‘heavy’ helibase, the heavy just indicating the size of the helicopter,” Young said. “And these helicopters have one function: They drop water or retardant. You can’t use them to move personnel, you can’t use them to haul cargo, you don’t use them to go on recons. They have one mission.” Though dumping tanks of flame-retardant chemicals sounds like it should be enough to stop a fire altogether, it’s far from a panacea.
Latino poverty raises concerns Population experts eye earnings divide in nation’s breadbasket
Santa Fe Opera Backstage Tours Visit SFO’s production areas, costume shop and prop shop at 9 a.m. Mondays-Fridays, 301 Opera Drive, $10, 986-5900. More events in Calendar, A-2 and Fridays in Pasatiempo
The Associated Press
Index
Calendar A-2
Pasapick www.pasatiempomagazine.com
By Gosia Wozniacka
FRESNO, Calif. — On a warm spring day, farmworker Cristina Melendez was bedridden and unable to make her way back into the asparagus fields of central California for the kind of backbreaking work she’s done since childhood. The 36-year-old mother of seven was desperate. Her bank account had been at zero for months, the refrigerator was nearly empty, and she didn’t have enough to cover the rent. Lacking health insurance, Melendez couldn’t see a doctor or afford medication, so her illness dragged on — and another day came and went without work or pay. A native of Mexico who was
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Farmworker Cristina Melendez, 36, and her mother Maria Rosales, 60, tend to the vegetable garden outside Rosales’ apartment in Fresno, Calif., on June 1. The elder woman brought her daughter to the U.S. when she was 13, but the family has yet to break out of the cycle of poverty. GOSIA WOZNIACKA/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
smuggled into the United States as a child, Melendez had once dreamed big: to be a bilingual secretary, to own a house and a car, to become a U.S. citizen. Agriculture, she hoped, would be the spring-
Classifieds B-5
Comics B-12
Lotteries A-2
Obituaries Edward J. Frei Jr., 69, Santa Fe, June 5 PAgE A-10
Today
board to a better life — for her and her U.S.-born children, the next generation of a family whose past and future are deeply rooted in the
Sunshine mixed with clouds. High 95, low 59.
Please see POVERTY, Page A-5
El Nuevo A-8
Opinions A-11
Editor: Rob Dean, 986-3033, rdean@sfnewmexican.com Design and headlines: Kristina Dunham, kdunham@sfnewmexican.com
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Groups seek to rezone Siringo Road property, build 22 apartments By David J. Salazar
The New Mexican
The Santa Fe Civic Housing Authority, along with developer Casas de Buena Venturas, is planning on rezoning, purchasing and developing a tract of land on Siringo Road by Yucca Street. The rezoning and general plan for development were approved by the Planning Commission on May 2, and the rezoning proposal is set to go before the City Council on July 31. According to Ed Romero, director of the Santa Fe Civic Housing Authority, one of the conditions for the purchase of the 3.44-acre tract of land from Thomas Properties is having it rezoned from R-1 (residential, one dwelling unit per acre of land) to R-9 in order to accommodate 22 planned apartments. “This would be a big improvement to that neighborhood,” Romero said. The single-story, two-bedroom, mostly market-rate apartments that the authority plans to build on the land will be built in two phases. Initially, Romero said, a 14-unit batch of homes on the western part of the land will be built, followed by another eight units on the eastern portion. Romero said recently that the plan is for the authority to purchase the land and then lease it to Casas de Buena Venturas, which will obtain financing and build the apartments on the land. Once they’re built, the housing authority will manage the property and collect rents. Casas De Buena Ventura, Romero said, has been around about 20 years
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Grads try quick-study programs to boost job prospects By Bonnie Miller Rubin
Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO — In 2010, Jessica Underwood graduated from Carthage College in Kenosha, Wis., with a stellar academic record, a can-do attitude and a newly minted business degree. But it’s been a rough entry into the real world. Like many of her peers, the 24-year-old has acutely felt the stress of a sluggish economy, landing in low-wage jobs, such as telemarketing and retail. “I applied to anything I could find … sometimes filling out 10 applications a day,” said the Downers Grove, Ill., resident. “But it was just like a ticket to nowhere.” Three years after graduation, Underwood decided that she needed to reboot — and fast. At the College of DuPage, she enrolled in the paralegal certification program, which offered a robust hiring outlook, but also the chance to reinvent herself in only 18 months. While community colleges have long been known for their affordability, they are now touting speed
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Two sections, 24 pages 164th year, No. 161 Publication No. 596-440