Los Alamos freshman strives to fill sister’s shoes with tourney medal Sports, B-1
Locally owned and independent
Saturday, May 3, 2014
www.santafenewmexican.com 75¢
Proposed Plaza traffic ban stalls
Mayor parks resolution while city devises ways to make downtown area more vibrant By Daniel J. Chacón
The New Mexican
Mayor Javier Gonzales is putting the brakes on his proposal to close all streets around the Santa Fe Plaza to vehicular traffic.
Gonzales announced Friday that the proposal is on pause while the city develops a detailed plan to “enhance the vibrancy” of the historic square. “When I started this process, in my mind, I envisioned a process
Tanker fleet incomplete as wildfire worries rise
that after the council approved limiting vehicle traffic, that we would then talk about how to program the Plaza to enhance the experience with the available streets that were now free of any type of vehicle use,” Gonzales said. The traffic-blocking idea, which the city has experimented with in the past, has run into some public opposition since Gonzales
Heritage Hotels set to acquire Eldorado
The Associated Press
Please see WILDFIRe, Page A-4
Today Sunny and pleasant. High 78, low 45. PAge A-12
Obituaries
Please see PLAZA, Page A-4
Property would be New Mexico company’s 4th site near Plaza
By Michael R. Blood
LOS ANGELES — With a vast swath of the West primed for wildfires, federal foresters are preparing for the worst with a budget that might run dry and a fleet of air tankers that in some cases aren’t ready for takeoff. A combination of extended drought, warming weather and an abundance of withered trees and grasses have created ideal conditions for fire — more than 22 million acres were blackened by wildfires from 2011 to 2013, primarily across the West. “It looks like it’s going to be a serious enough season to where we run out of money again,” Tom Harbour, director of fire and aviation management for the U.S. Forest Service, warned in an interview with The Associated Press. “I’m really concerned, there is no question,” Harbour said. “I think we are going to have a lot of fire.” The agency is doing what it can to prepare for wildfire season by burning sections of forest in high-risk areas to remove dead or dry vegetation that could fuel a fire. In another step, crews will launch a major forestthinning project on Lake Tahoe’s north shore. In no place is the situation more worrisome than in California, where several years of stingy rainfall have turned forests and scrub into matchsticks and tens of thousands of homes are perched along fire-prone areas.
announced the plan about a month after he took office. “I had not mentioned that in the announcement, but it was clearly the second phase that I was going to move to,” he said. “We just needed to know whether there’d be support by the council to limit vehicle traffic before we could
Would safety gates help bicyclists at train tracks? Some say they might have saved Suzanne LeBeau, who was fatally struck by a Rail Runner Express train last month. PAge A-5
Second arrest made following teen’s rape Another male juvenile was taken into custody Tuesday in connection with an attack that seriously injured a Pojoaque High School student April 26. PAge A-5
Lawyers begin talks on GM settlements General Motors has begun talks that could lead to cash payments for victims of accidents involving cars recalled for a faulty ignition switch. PAge A-3
Feds suspend LANL waste shipments to Texas facility Investigators probe possible reactions within containers By Staci Matlock The New Mexican
proud of New Mexico culture and strives to get tourists and visitors to embrace “the steep cultural history of New Mexico.” Thompson said Long strives to celebrate the state traditions through his hotel designs. One example, she said, is when the company purchased what was the Hotel Plaza Real on Washington Avenue and converted it into the Hotel Chimayó, which showcases a Northern New Mexico theme. And last month, Heritage opened its Taos property, formerly Casa de las Chimeneas. The hotel features eight individual guest rooms that tell the stories of famous Taos women,
Federal regulators say they have temporarily halted shipments of low-level radioactive waste from Los Alamos National Laboratory to a Texas storage facility while investigators check to see if a chemical reaction in similar containers from the lab caused a radiation leak that shut down the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad. The lab had been sending the containers, which hold lab coats, lab equipment and other materials used in nuclear research, to Waste Control Specialists near Andrews, Texas, for temporary storage following the Feb. 14 closing of WIPP. The massive underground plant has remained closed while investigators try to determine what caused a leak, the first in the site’s 15-year history, in a salt bed panel where the containers were stored. “As part of the ongoing efforts to identify the cause of the event at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, we are evaluating all possible causes including the waste packages themselves,” said a statement issued Friday afternoon by the U.S. Department of Energy. “All possible scenarios will be thoroughly investigated until the cause of the event has been determined.” The agency added that investigators are “looking at the possibility that a chemical reaction may have occurred within a drum, causing a potential release.” Watchdog groups have pointed to a chemical reaction as one of the possible causes of the leak. In 2013, the New Mexico Environment Department approved changes to the requirements for analyzing the lab container contents before they were shipped to WIPP,
Please see HOTeL, Page A-4
Please see WIPP, Page A-4
The company that owns the Eldorado Hotel & Spa, 309 W. San Francisco St., has an agreement to sell the property to Heritage Hotels and Resorts, a New Mexico-based chain that owns other historical properties in state. The hotel is the largest in Santa Fe. PHOTOS BY JANE PHILLIPS/THE NEW MEXICAN
By Bruce Krasnow
The New Mexican
T
he Eldorado Hotel & Spa, Santa Fe’s largest hotel, which was originally developed by the late Manhattan real estate scion Bill Zeckendorf Jr., is under contract to be sold to Heritage Hotels and Resorts, a New Mexico-based company that prides itself on owning properties that promote local culture and history. Based in Albuquerque, Heritage Hotels and Resorts opened Hotel Albuquerque, originally called Sheraton Uptown, in 2005. It has since taken over The Lodge at Santa Fe, formerly the Radisson, as well as Hotel Chimayó
and Hotel St. Francis, both near the Santa Fe Plaza. James M. Long, the founder and CEO, also has assumed ownership of the Garduño’s restaurant chain and the Keva Juice franchises in the Duke City. Heritage President Adrian Perez is originally from Peñasco. He graduated from The University of New Mexico and started with Long as a company intern, according to Maresa Thompson, corporate marketing and creative director for Heritage Hotels. “Many, many of our employees are from New Mexico and have a long history of family roots in New Mexico and want to see New Mexico thrive,” Thompson said. She said the hotel chain is
Georgia Torres Bueno, 96, April 29 Julianna Mikhailovna Ossorgin, 83, May 1 PAge A-10
Pasapick www.pasatiempomagazine.com
Free Comic Book Day Celebrated locally at Big Adventure Comics, 801 Cerrillos Road, and Hastings Entertainment, 542 N. Guadalupe St., DeVargas Center. Visit www. freecomicbookday.com for details. More events in Calendar, A-2 and Fridays in Pasatiempo
Index
Calendar A-2
Classifieds B-6
At least 350 dead, 20K missing in Afghanistan slide Mud levels more than 300 homes in its path By Amir Shah and Rahim Faiez
The Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan — A landslide triggered by heavy rain buried large sections of a remote northeastern Afghan village on Friday, killing at least 350 people and leaving more than 2,000 missing. Villagers looked on helplessly and the governor appealed for shovels to help dig through the mass of mud that flattened every home in its path.
Comics B-12
Main office: 983-3303 Late paper: 986-3010 News tips: 983-3035
Crosswords B-7, B-11
The mountainous area in Badakhshan province has experienced days of heavy rain and flooding, and the side of a cliff collapsed onto the village of Hobo Barik around midday. Landslides and avalanches are frequent in Afghanistan, but Friday’s was one of the deadliest. Gov. Shah Waliullah Adeeb said more than 2,000 people were missing after the landslide buried some 300 homes — about a third of all the houses in the area. At least 350 people were confirmed dead, according to Ari Gaitanis, a spokesman from the United Nations Assistance Mis-
Lotteries A-2
Opinions A-11
sion in Afghanistan. He said the U.N. was working with authorities on the ground to rescue people still trapped. The governor said rescue crews were working but didn’t have enough equipment. “It’s physically impossible right now,” Adeeb said. “We don’t have enough shovels; we need more machinery.” Badakhshan provincial police chief, Maj. Gen. Faziluddin Hayar said rescuers had pulled seven survivors and three bodies from the mounds of mud and earth but
Please see SLIDe, Page A-4
Sports B-1
Time Out B-11
Family A-9
BREAKING NEWS AT WWW.SANTAFENEWMEXICAN.COM
Afghans search for survivors Friday after a massive landslide buried a village in Badakhshan province, northeastern Afghanistan. AHMAD ZUBAIR/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Two sections, 24 pages TV Book, 32 pages 165th year, No. 123 Publication No. 596-440