Albuquerque Journal from Albuquerque, New Mexico • Page 15

METROPOLITAN Tuesday, July 14, 1987 Albuquerque Journal Page 1, Section I Tainted Well Discovered In Tijeras limm-a i-rfifflaBari-tfnff-- 4. 4 ihjiu ii i i iii mm i i .1 Rough Road Aliead It appears that motorists on Fourth to travel down the street. Actually, 7M 'it the 10-foot pile of dirt near Paseo del million bridge is slated for completion Center Expansion Set for July of '88 IT 1 1 1 I JOURNAL PHOTO GREG SORBER Norte bridge construction. The $6 by year's end. Signing a contract that "will give the hotel in BetaWest's project exclusive food and liquor catering concessions at the Convention Center for three years.

Currently, The Regent has the catering contract, which includes a clause allowing the city to cancel it on short notice. Exempting BetaWest from paying city property taxes on the hotel for seven years. In return, BetaWest's obligations to the city will include: Paying the city annual royalties of 10 percent on catered food sales and 15 percent on liquor revenues at the Convention Center. The Regent hotel pays the city 9 percent on food and 12.5 percent on liquor under the current catering contract. Agreeing to follow hiring guidelines laid out in the UDAG agreement.

These include creating 1,582 permanent jobs, of which 1,234 must be filled by people qualifying as having low or moderate incomes. Employing an operator for a "first-class convention hotel" within 180 days after the development agreement is signed. BetaWest must hire an operator from a list approved by the city that consists of Westin, Sheraton, Hilton, Hyatt and Omni. Baca said he failed to properly register as a lobbyist and did not cooperate with a police internal affairs investigation of the incident. Williams served his suspension from June 22 to July 9 and Nunez was off without pay the week of June 22.

Heshley, Williams and Nunez will appear separately before a city hearing officer in August to appeal the suspensions, officials said. If the appeals are denied, the officers may take the cases to District Court, Tryon said. 1 By Jim Martin JOURNAL STAFF WRITER Construction of the city's Convention Center expansion and Beta West Properties downtown hotel-office complex must begin by next July 1 under terms of a development agreement made public Monday. The agreement ties the city and Beta West to a parallel timetable that targets both projects for completion by March 31, 1990. The City Council took no vote on the agreement Monday, since it was sitting as a committee to review the pact and allow public input.

The agreement is expected to be approved by a 7-to-l vote when the council meets next Monday. Councilor Pete Dinelli has consistently opposed the expansion project, and is expected to vote against the agreement. Councilor Steve Gallegos said he will abstain from voting because he works for Mountain Bell, BetaWest's sister company. The inch-thick contract is the result of nearly a year's negotiations between the city and the Denver-based developer. Mayor Ken Schultz said the agreement's presentation "marks a historic day that will would need a four-wheel-drive vehicle work crews have built a detour around taKe Albuquerque into the 21st century." Of the fewer than 10 members of the public who spoke, about half were for the agreement and half against.

Members of Concerned Citizens pointed out that the city will still be paying for the $48.6 million Convention Center expansion well into the next century. "I really question your method of asking for public input," the group's spokeswoman, Elizabeth Cook, told councilors. "These public hearings should have been held before the city reached an agreement with BetaWest." Ms. Cook's group maintains the steering committee meetings during which the city and BetaWest worked out the agreement should have been open to the public and news media. "I'm an advocate of open government, but you can't negotiate something this complicated on the front pages of newspapers and on television," said Councilor Tom Hoover, who served on the steering committee appointed by Schultz.

Representatives of the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce and the Hispano Chamber of Commerce spoke in favor of the agreement, saying it will be a spur to economic development. clear his name, said William Tryon, attorney for the Albuquerque Police Officers' Association. Officer Greg Williams, handed a 14-day suspension, wanted to serve the suspension by giving up vacation time, but did not have enough time due him and took the entire time off unpaid. He said Monday if he could have worked during his vacation or other time off instead of serving the suspension he would not be appealing the punishment, which he estimated cost him about $1,600 in salary and benefits. "I just hope you same people are behind the council if we have to raise taxes to subsidize the enlarged Convention Center," Dinelli told the agreement's proponents.

In addition to setting construction deadlines, the agreement outlines what the city will do to help BetaWest build a $100 million project known as Albuquerque Plaza at the corner of Fourth and Copper one block from the Convention Center. Albuquerque Plaza's components are a 450-room hotel, 18-story office tower and 41,000 square feet of retail space. The city's obligations include: Loaning BetaWest $10 million the city will receive in the form of a federal Urban Development Action Grant. Providing $3 million in public improvements to qualify for the UDAG money. Proposals include building a "skybridge" connecting BetaWest's project with the city's Fifth and Copper parking garage, and a tunnel linking the hotel with the Convention Center.

Renting BetaWest 300 parking spaces in the Fifth and Copper sructure and the city's garage beneath Civic Plaza. BetaWest will pay the going monthly rate for the city slots, and build 493 parking spaces in two levels beneath its project. Williams, who will be eligible to retire with full benefits this year, said because he took the time off unpaid his retirement benefits will be affected. Heshley and Williams were ordered suspended for sending a black rose and a drawing of a man stabbed in the back to state Rep. Cisco McSorley, D-Bernalillo, who voted against several police-backed bills.

A third officer, Sgt. Henry' Nunez, was suspended for five days because Chief Sam By Rene Kimball JOURNAL STAFF WRITER State officials have discovered gasoline and chemical compounds used in explosives in an abandoned well in Tijeras Canyon, but a water specialist said it is doubtful the well is a source of South Valley water pollution. "It may be an entirely different contamination problem altogether," state hyd-rogeologist Dennis McQuillan said Monday. "We do not have gasoline or gasoline constituents in the Mountainview area water." The well was sampled in a search by the 'state Environmental Improvement Division for sources of nitrates in private Mountainview area wells. The well is located at a closed landfill west of Dead-man's Curve on old Highway 66.

"The vapors coming off this water were so noxious that I wore a respirator when we sampled it, and I suited up," McQuillan said. Water samples revealed the well has high levels of gasoline, both floating and dissolved. Benzene was found at a level of 900 micrograms per liter, he said. The state's health standard is 10 micrograms per liter. A common constituent of gasoline, benzene is known to increase the risk of leukemia in humans, he said.

Another component of gasoline, measured 200 micrograms per liter, compared with a health standard of 10, McQuillan said. "On a hunch and because of the peculiar odor of the water it didn't just smell like gasoline I had it tested for explosives. It came out positive," McQuillan said. Several compounds known as nitro-aromatics, including tetryl and dinitroto-luene (DNT), were detected in levels that exceed recommended health standards, he said. EID tests have shown DNT is present in several Mountainview area wells.

Total dissolved solids the sum of all the minerals in the landfill well's water are low in contrast to Mountainview, where they are "extremely high," McQuillan said. "That's a major dissimilarity with the chemical fingerprint of the Mountainview contamination," he said. The water specialist also said the landfill and well were opened long after the Mountainview pollution was established, he said. Earlier this year, McQuillan said he suspected toxic compounds found in Mountainview water may have entered wells after being transported down Tijeras Arroyo by surface water. The EID is looking at several sites east of the city to see if it can pinpoint pollution sources.

McQuillan said he sampled water from two private drinking wells in use near the landfill well, but results are not in yet. Water from those wells does not give off an odor. "If the private wells are contaminated, then they'e at much lower levels than the landfill well," he added. The EID is attempting to find owners of the landfill, the well and a defunct gas station in the area in order to take action on cleanup. That could be difficult, McQuillan said, because there have been a series of owners, possibly including some people from out-of-state.

"It'll take some work to figure all that out," he said. bemoaned the need for a proposed replacement of the heating-cooling system, noting that "it seems rather inconsistent to continue to spend money on this building when it's at capacity and deteriorating faster than we can do upkeep." Valdez said the county has spent $18,000 on the cooling system in the last two months "just to keep it working." Voters in 1984 approved a bond issue to buy downtown land for a new court building but in 19S6 rejected a bond issue that would have funded the first construction phase. A consultant recently recommended replacement of the heating-cooling system in the existing building, an overhaul of the electrical system and other work. Assistant County Manager Terri Sanchez last week refused to disclose the estimated cost, but Ruiz said Monday the county can't spend more than $2 million initially because that's the amount allocated in its 1987-88 budget. Ruiz said he hasn't seen the consultant's report.

The courthouse, at 5th and Tijeras NW, is owned by the county and occupied by the state District Court, District Attorney's Office and related agencies. Marit Tully, presiding Judge Phil-jp Ashby's law clerk, alerted county officials after discovering the water Sunday afternoon. Valdez said he and maintenance employees then worked about two hours to clean up the mess. 'Black Rose' Officers Plan Discipline Appeals By John Yaeger JOURNAL STAFF WRITER The three Albuquerque police officers handed suspensions for their roles in the "black rose" incident and for their lobbying practices will appeal the punishments, their attorney said Monday. One of the officers, David Heshley, retired days before his 20-day suspension was to take effect and served no punishment.

He will still appeal in an effort to Cooler's Drain Line Soaks Courthouse Rio Zoo Tiger on Loan Killed hi Salt Lake City Big Cat Sent Into Shock by Anesthetizing Dart By Susanne Burks JOURNAL STAFF WRITER A populations. Trying to knock the cat out "was a normal procedure," Farnsworth said. "An animal like that is one which you wouldn't want to waste any time with," he said. "You have to realize that there is no safe knockdown drug for every animal." Farnsworth said an investigation into the incident would begin Monday. Security arrangements at the zoo's big-cat house include safety holding pens between the cage where the public views the animal, and a secure "alley" behind the cage which is used by zoo personnel.

The keeper, who was not identified, apparently left the outside door leading into the alley open and then opened a gate leading to the cage, giving the tiger access to the alley. The cat never left its cage, but zoo officials didn't want to send a keeper in to close the door while there was any chance it could escape. "We have to take the safest way," Farnsworth said. "We always lean in favor of the person. If there is any chance of someone getting hurt, the animal would take the brunt of it." The tiger had been determined to be inbred and had been declared "surplus" from the breeding FROM JOURNAL STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS A Siberian tiger on loan from Albuquerque's Rio Grande Zoo went into shock and died at Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City after it was shot with an anesthetizing dart, zoo officials said.

The incident occurred Saturday morning before the zoo opened after a keeper left the female tiger's cage door open. Zoo Director A. Lamar Farnsworth said there was never any danger the cat would escape into public areas. Farnsworth said Sunday the 200-pound tiger was still inside its cage when a zoo veterinarian shot it with an anesthetizing dart so the keeper could close the cage door. Rio Grande Zoo General Curator Ingrid Schmidt said Monday the tiger had been sent to Salt Lake City about two months ago.

She said its death would not be a setback for the Albuquerque zoo's big cat program. "We still have a pair here," she said. The cat, which was 6 to 8 years old, was the sister of the male Siberian tiger currently at the Rio Grande Zoo, she said. Kent Newton, curator of mammals at the Rio Grande Zoo, said zoos around the country typically buy, sell, trade and loan animals for breeding purposes to increase The aging Bernalillo County Courthouse sustained up to $10,000 in damage over the weekend when water from a loose air conditioning drain line drenched portions of the fourth floor. Courthouse -maintenance chief Rocky Valdez said the fourth-floor flood occurred Sunday when a major drain line in the rooftop "penthouse" that houses some heating and cooling equipment vibrated loose and drained to the penthouse floor.

Water seeped through to the ceiling, loosened tiles and drained to the fourth floor. Portions of a hall, Judge Frederick Mowrer's quarters and a conference room were damaged. Rick Rexrode, Mowrer's court monitor, said ceiling tiles and water landed on his desk, where files on two criminal cases were damaged, and water saturated carpeting there and in the jury room. Ruiz estimated the cost of repairing the damage at $8,000 to $10,000. In an apparently unrelated mishap, an overloaded pump shut off, leaving the building without air conditioning.

The system was reactivated Monday morning, but -courthouse employees and visitors sweltered throughout the day. The mishaps were just the latest of many that have plagued the building, built in 1926, for years. Court Administrator Thomas Ruiz JOURNAL PHOTO ALEXANDRIA KING Time for Lunch A hummingbird hovers near a feeder at a North Valley home on a hot summer day. Temperatures are expected to be slightly cooler during the next few days. The high today Is expected to be In the lower 90s, with lows In the 60s..