Albuquerque Journal from Albuquerque, New Mexico • Page 26

C2 ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL Thursday, July 21, 1994 Wet Skies Ready To Get METRO KATTGEHl Local Atmosphere Ripe For Rainy Season By Donna Olmstead in omop Del Norte Attendance Policy Approved JOURNAL STAFF WRITER the rainy season in India, but also explains what happens in the Southwest in the late summer. In addition to the Bermuda High depositing moisture, the so-called dog days of summer also play a critical role. Hot air holds more moisture than cold air. The moisture-laden air rises from the high desert floor only to smack into cold air in the upper atmosphere, Rejba said. "The cold air can't hold all that water, so it has to go somewhere," she added.

chances for a downpour are good. Meteorologist Mendy Rejba of WeatherData in Wichita, said the weekend holds less promise for rain, down to about 20 percent. But, she said, thundershowers anytime during the next month or so shouldn't be a big surprise. The city's annual rainfall is almost on target, Rejba said. Albuquerque has recorded 3.17 inches so far this year, compared to the 3.77 inches the city normally receives by the end of July.

Albuquerque's normal total for the year is about 10 inches of precipitation. Rejba explained that the rains occur in the late summer when a high-pressure system that rests over Bermuda most of the year moves to Texas and New Mexico. "It's called the Bermuda High," she said. The high-pressure system travels in a clockwise motion and picks up moisture from the Gulf of Mexico and drops it as rain over the desert. "Just think of a map of the United States and a big circle that moves clockwise.

It's all about circles," she said. Monsoon is a Portuguese word that means seasonal change, Rejba explained. It originally described The Albuquerque school board on Wednesday approved a new atten dance policy for Del Norte High School. The policy will restrict students to seven absences before being sub ject to suspension. Current district policy allows high schools to give students up to 10 absences before being suspended.

After weeks of sweltering weather, the atmospheric conditions are finally right for the start of Albuquerque's monsoon season. Late Wednesday the wind and thunder brought only traces of rain at Albuquerque International Airport, but this afternoon and Friday Several other high schools have deviated from district policy and restrict students to fewer than the 10 absences. The change will take effect in the coming school year. Five UNM Staffers Honored for Service Five University of New Mexico staff employees Pamela C. Burkhardt, Fernando Chavez, Lawrence Roybal, Patricia A.

King and Roberto I. Espinosa have been selected as the 1994 recipients of the Solemn Moment Gerald W. May Staff Recognition Awards. Burkhardt is a student adviser for freshman engineering; Chavez is a clerical specialist in the Department of Medicine; Roybal is assistant director, Student Outreach Services; King is a teacher in the child care center; and Espinosa is a compositor in Printing Services. The five, who were chosen on the basis of outstanding service to UNM, will be honored during the second annual UNM Staff Employee Recognition Day from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.

Saturday at the Albuquerque Zoo. The award winners will receive $250 and a plaque. Every year, the UNM Staff Council Rewards and Recognition Com Sandia Senses Way To Peace Middle Eastern Nations Eye Monitoring Tools By John Fleck mittee selects from three to five employees to receive the awards. This year's winners were selected from 89 staff employees nominated by UNM faculty, staff and students. Storms, Wind Cut Off Power to 1,000 i Public Service Company of New Mexico reported about 1,000 cus "4 tomers without electricity late Wednesday because of thunderstorms and high winds damaging equipment.

Kim Trujillo, spokeswoman for PNM, said the biggest power out ages occurred in Sandia Pueblo, where about 400 households were in the dark. Taylor Ranch and Corrales, as well as smaller parts of the metropolitan area, also experienced outages, she said. JOURNAL STAFF WRITER i e-f Two Clinton Appointees From Duke City i James Sweeney of Albuquerque has been confirmed by the U.S. Sen ate as the top scientific and technical advisor to the director of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency.

.1 i I' Sweeney, who previously was chief of nuclear weapons manage ment at the Air Force's Phillips Laboratory in Albuquerque, was nominated for the post by President Clinton on June 2. JIM THOMPSON JOURNAL Pat Ledford of Albuquerque, left, and her friend Art Kameshka of Oklahoma City peer into the cemetery at the old San Ysidro Church in Corrales. Ledford and Kameshka were in Corrales to attend the Carnival of the Arts. His confirmation by the Senate was announced Tuesday by Sen. Jeff Bingaman, and Rep.

Bill Richardson, who had rec ommended Sweeney for the job. The post carries with it the rank of ambassador. Bingaman and Richardson also said Lynda Taylor of Albuquerque has been appointed to the board of directors of the Border Environment Cooperation Commission by Clinton. The commission will assist border states and local communities to Odor Solution Promised coordinate, design and finance environmental infrastructure projects 1 1 1 I a. 4.1 wiin ci oss-uoi uer impact, uiey saiu.

Taylor heads the Albuquerque Air Quality Control Board and has served in many environmental posts, including on the Governor's Task Force on WIPP. Utility Fights Rio Rancho Stench There's not much By Paul Logan JOURNAL STAFF WRITER COURTS a cops Paseo-Second Street Project On Hold A judge's order barring you can do about it. I run water down the drains and sometimes that gets rid of it." Judy West Komiske said he answered her letter July 5, saying the utility was seeking estimates for the sewer work. "I don't believe that for a minute," Miller said. Komiske said bids for the sewer project are due later this week, and work will begin in about two weeks.

A second manhole is needed; and a dip in the sewer line also needs to be realigned, he said, because sewage may be trapped in the depression. Komiske said the utility spent $8,000 in November to install a manhole on the main sewer line in an attempt to reduce or eliminate the smell. The agreement says if the utility fails or refuses to perform its obligations contained in the four-page document at any time prior to July 31, the residents may refile their complaints in Municipal Court. "I'm disappointed that what we spent last year didn't really solve the problem," Komiske said. Judy West said Wednesday she and her husband have lived at 631 Orchid Drive SW since 1985, and the odor has been noticeable since the late 1980s.

"I haven't smelled it today (Wednesday)," said West, a chronic asthmatic with a hypersensitive lung disorder. "I've only had two really bad days, one outside and, just last week, (the odor) was in the house. There's not much you can do about it. I run water down the drains and sometimes that gets rid of it." Bernalillo County from proceeding with the Paseo del NorteSecond Street project remains in effect pending a review of a bid protest ruling, lawyers in the case say. District Judge Pro Tern Edwin Felter on Tuesday asked lawyers to submit briefs on the issue by Monday and extended a temporary restraining order barring work on the project until July 28.

The order was initially issued July 8 by District Judge Steve Herrera. A District Court complaint filed by contractor A.S. Horner the apparent low bidder for the $7 million-plus project when bids were opened in May, wants the court to reverse a state purchasing agent ruling that could result in the contract being awarded to another firm. Bradbury and Stamm Construction the apparent second-lowest bidder, protested Horner's bid on grounds Horner's majority stockholders don't live in New Mexico, a requirement for resident contractor certification. Certification entitles a firm to a 5-percent bid reduction.

Bradbury and Stamm is next in line to get the project contract if Horner is denied the bid preference. Earlier this month, the state purchasing agent held that Horner did not meet the requirement for certification. Horner's complaint contends there were improper communications between Bradbury and Stamm and the state purchasing agent after the bid protest was filed. It seeks an injunction to prevent the awarding of the contract to Bradbury and Stamm and for the court to order that the contract be awarded to Horner. Teen Dies From Weekend Shooting A 13-year-old boy shot and critically wounded Saturday died late Wednesday, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Tyrone Lovato, no address available, was pronounced dead at University Hospital, a hospital spokeswoman said. RIO RANCHO The sewer odor that gagged residents along Orchid Drive last summer is back, and this time the smell is so strong some families can't keep their windows open at night. But unlike last year, this time the 55 affected homeowners have an agreement with Rio Rancho Utilities Corp. And the company will stand by its agreement, utility manager Ken Komiske said Wednesday. When representatives of the homeowners signed an agreement with the utility in January, the company promised that if the smell comes back, it will try something else to fix the problem.

"Obviously, if it was something you could put a finger on, and say, 'This is the solution and we guarantee it will we would do it," Komiske said. Residents have been noticing the sewer smell for the past two months, Mrs. Arthur Miller said Wednesday. "We can't open our windows at night anymore," said Miller, who lives at 783 Orchid Drive SW. "We woke up at 5 a.m.

(Wednesday) morning because the smell was so strong. It was awful." Miller said she sent a letter to Komiske last month, but Komiske said Wednesday that Miller's was the only complaint he has received this year. Representatives, of five Middle Eastern nations gathered at Sandia National Laboratories over the last week to look at technologies for peace. In an Albuquerque building set up to resemble an arms control monitoring center, the group of academics, diplomats and military officials sampled technologies aimed lessening tensions between potentially hostile nations. "What Sandia is doing here is creating a constituency for arms control and peace in the region," said Marvin Miller, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor who attended the five-day session at Sandia's newly formed Cooperative Monitoring Center.

An example, offered up by Arian Pregenzer, director of the Sandia research center: Country and suspicious of one another's intentions, have nevertheless signed an agreement under which each will garrison all its tanks at a storage depot, rather than send out combat troops. Each country then sets up a network of cameras, seismometers and other remote-control detectors around the others' site to make sure the tanks are not moved. The sensors give each confidence that the other is not cheating on the agreement. None of the five Middle Eastern countries participating in this week's workshop was identified, part of what Sandia spokesman Nigel Hey said was a confidentiality agreement made before the workshop began. And U.S.

participants in the workshop, who spoke to reporters after it was finished, said the world should not see immediate results. The workshop was more of a get-acquainted session, they said, to give the participating nations a chance to see what sort of technologies are available to meet their needs. As a demonstration, the building where the workshop was held, on Eubank SE in Albuquerque, just outside of Kirtland JVir Force Base, was wired with sensors. On a computer screen showing a map of the building and surrounding area, Sandia engineer Pauline Dobranich pointed to a flashing red dot as a vehicle left the parking lot, the sort of sensor that might be calibrated to watch for a tank leaving. None of the technology in use at the center is secret, Pregenzer said, and all is commercially available.

The idea behind the center is to show how the existing technology systems used, for example, in building security, or by game wardens to detect poachers can be adapted to arms control use in helping head off regional conflicts. Sandia's Cooperative Monitoring Center was set up in May in 9,000 feet of leased space in a complex of buildings just outside of Sandia's eastern gate. Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Nonproliferation Policy, its budget this year is $2.2 million. Participants in this week's session acknowledged that the technology being demonstrated there will not, in and of itself, bring peace in the troubled Middle East.

"Sensors are not going to solve the problem of Jerusalem," said MIT's Miller. "They can't solve everything." But they can, he said, provide a tool for countries seeking a way toward peace! Orchid Drive homeowners selected West, Art Miller and Cindy Schauer to represent the group last year in their negotiations with the utility. Komiske said the utility wants to work with residents. He said the sewer odor is created when sewage doesn't have enough oxygen and becomes anaerobic, triggering the growth of certain bacteria that thrive without oxygen and cause the foul smell. Air flowing into the sewer through the manhole helps change the sewage back to an aerobic state and decreases the amount of odor, he said.

Since the Cedar Hills subdivision is about 4,000 feet away and mostly downhill from the Orchid Drive sewer line, enough sewage must be collected in the lift station to kick in the pump that pushes the sewage along. Komiske said the subdivision does not have enough residents to make that happen continuously. Lovato was with a group of boys at a house on Five Points Road SW about 6:30 p.m. One boy was showing off a handgun when it went off, hitting Lovato in the head. One of the boys, 14, was booked into the Bernalillo County Juvenile Detention Center on suspicion of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and tampering with evidence.

Top Artist on Francia Case ON THE Nation's Top Physicists Gather at UNM The top quark and the future of high energy physics will be two subjects CALENDAR of discussion when the nation's top physicists gather for a meeting in August. Held at the University of New Mexico Aug. 2-6, the American Phys ical Society meetmg of the Division of Particles and Fields is expect ed to draw 1,000 scientists. Sessions will be held in the Student Union Building and the Fine Arts Center. "This is the biggest meeting of high-energy physics people in North America," says David Wolfe, chair of UNM's Department of Physics 'Unsolved Mysteries' Wants Jason Sketch By Katherine Shelley THE ASSOCIATED PRESS One of the country's leading forensic artists is working with television's "Unsolved Mysteries" to help unravel clues surrounding the death of Albuquerque teen-ager Jonathan Francia.

Jean Boylin, 40, said Wednesday that she is helping the television show develop a drawing that could help identify a man who authorities say was involved in Francia's death in January. Francia, 17, disappeared Jan. 12 with his mother's car, which was found burned IS miles north of Winslow, on the Navajo reservation a day later. DNA tests haven't confirmed that a badly burned body, inside the car was Francia's. questions in her interviews.

If victims are upset, she uses neutral topics to relax them, allowing victims to rehash painful memories that have been repressed or distorted. Boylin said she interviewed one witness in the Francia case Wednesday in Albuquerque. "The witness I met with today is a young man who shared a trailer with one of the suspects," Boylin said. "The suspects spent some time with him right after the Francia murder." "Unsolved Mysteries" brought Boylin to Albuquerque. Since Sunday, officials from the show have been filming a recreation of events leading up to Francia's disappearance.

Lynri Lawrence, director of the Francia segment, said "Unsolved Mysteries" was contacted by the FBI about the Francia case. She said she didn't know when the show would be broadcast. A suspect in the case, Paul Daniel Richardson, 27, of Winslow died Feb. 11 after hanging himself in his Flagstaff jail cell while under investigation in connection with Francia's disappearance. Authorities have been searching for another man known only as Jason, believed to be from Texas and considered a suspect in the case.

Boylin, who estimates she has drawn more than 7,000 composite sketches during her 18-year career, said her approach could lead to a sketch of Jason that is different from one released by the FBI. "The police will go in and use a catalog of facial features and ask witnesses to pick out features," Boylin said. Police forensic artists use a kit of photographs showing facial types. When asking questions, Boylin said, police unwittingly put visions in victims' heads and words in their mouths. Boylin said she uses open-ended and Astronomy.

Sally Seidel, an assistant professor in Wolfe's department, landed the prestigious meeting in stiff competition between the University of California and the University of Minnesota. Speakers include Melvyn Shochet, a physics professor at the Uni versity of Chicago and co-spokesman of the Collider Detector at Fer- milab, which recently announced discovery of the top quark; and Howard Georgi, a physics professor at Harvard University. In addition, Murray Gell-Mann, best known for proposing the exis tence of quarks, will give a public talk, "Simplicity and Complexity," Auk. 3 at Popejoy Hall at 8 p.m..