Albuquerque Journal from Albuquerque, New Mexico • Page 1

nn FRIDAY JULY 26, 1991 New Coach Inherits Losing Program: See Sports on Page 5 Bernalillo a Placitas a Rio Rancho a Corrales Alameda Los Ranchos de Albuquerque a Paradise Hills a Taylor Ranch Bosque Farms a Los Lunas a Belen Man at Shooting Scene Was Wanted on Warrant By Arley Sanchez JOURNAL STAFF WRITER after Romero Jr. was found shot dead in his mother's mobile home west of Belen. He has not been charged in connection with the death. Chavez has told the Journal he didn't kill Romero whom he described as his friend. He said Romero Jr.

liked to play with guns and accidentally shot himself, apparently while playing Russian roulette. MORE: See MAN on PAGE 4 for failure to appear. A $1,200 cash only bond is listed on the warrant. Romero Sr. said this week that he told Valencia County investigating officers about a week after his son's death that a warrant was in force for Chavez.

Romero Sr. said the detective failed to verify the existence of the warrant, which he added could have resulted in the arrest of Chavez. Romero Sr. said his private investigation turned up the information about the warrant. Chavez was questioned as a witness and then released a few hours son's death and asked the Attorney General's Office to look into it Romero Sr.

described th'e investigation by the Valencia County Sheriffs Department as "inadequate, improper and incomplete" and contends his own investigation has turned up evidence and witnesses which point to a "clear case of homicide." Sheriff Anthony Ortega, who defeated Romero's re-election bid, said his office is still investigating, but that preliminary findings show Romero Jr. shot himself acci Detention Center, given breath tests and blew over a 0.10-percent level, and was booked, Metro court records show. He was scheduled for a criminal trial on Nov. 19, 1990, before Metro Court Judge Mark Macaron, but the trial was continued. The trial was reset on Jan.

29, 1991, again before Macaron, and Chavez failed to appear, the court records show. Chavez is wanted on charges of assaulting a police officer, resisting arrest, negligent use of a deadly weapon, eluding a police officer and dentally. A warrant was issued on Feb. 1 for Lawrence R. Chavez, 22, of 10109 Jenaro SW, after he failed to appear on several charges stemming from an Aug.

12, 1990, incident in which he allegedly ran from an Albuquerque police officer and tried to. assault another officer. Chavez was found with a loaded concealed handgun during a search, the arrest warrant affidavit reads. He was arrested that day in connection with the incident, transported to the Bernalillo County LOS LUNAS An Albuquerque man who was at the mobile home where Lawrence Romero Jr. died of a gunshot wound May 19 was wanted at the time on a warrant for assaulting an Albuquerque police officer, Metro Court records in Albuquerque show.

Romero 21, was the son of former Valencia County Sheriff Lawrence Romero who has criticized the investigation into his i i Promised Loan To Fix Dam Falls Short of Request By Glen Rosales i). i.i. i I JOURNAL STAFF WRITER Losack Appointed Flood Commissioner By Glen Rosales JOURNAL STAFF WRITER RIO RANCHO Corrales resident Johnnie Losack on Thursday was named the Sandoval County flood commissioner by Gov. Bruce King. Losack, 66, replaces Alan Wylie of I SN( Albuquerque, who was named to the post in May 1988.

Losack said Thursday' appointment came as a surprise and he isn't even certain exactly what his SANTA FE Although a state agency Wednesday agreed to loan Sandoval County flood officials $50,000 to pay for emergency repair work on a dam in Rio Rancho, newly appointed county Flood Commissioner Johnny Losack said he doesn't know if it's worth it to accept the money. Officials had been seeking a $1 million loan from the State Streams Commission to build a drainage pipe from Rio Rancho dams 1 and 4 outside of Corrales Heights. According to a February 1988 study, more than 8,000 feet of pipe would be used to take water runoff from the two dams to a newly completed, concrete-lined drainage ditch in Corrales. The cost of the project then was estimated at $750,000. But the commission wanted more information about the project, commission Chairman Albert Utton said Thursday in a telephone interview.

"We asked them to come back with details to take care of the situation," Utton said. "We tried to encourage them to come back and talk to us some more." The money would have come from an irrigation works construction fund, said Bill Miller, streams commission engineer. The fund will have about $12 million in it by the MORE: See LOAN on PAGE 6 duties will be. Losack ALEXANDRIA KING JOURNAL Ed Paschich stands on the unfinished floor of his living room. His adobe home features passive solar heating.

A spokesman for the governor's office confirmed the appointment but said additional details about the change of commissioners were not available Thursday evening. Wylie could not be reached for comment Thursday evening. Losack is chairman of the Cuidad Soil and Water Conservation District, which recently changed its name from the Central Rio Grande Soil and Water and Conservation District. Preservation of the earth and its MORE: See LOSACK on PAGE 6 Doors, Gates Open Sunday For Touring By VeUnda Trujillo JOURNAL STAFF WRITER 1 fi i Belen Employees Want Investigation ST4 ORRALES An unusual tour of seven village homes and gardens II Sunday will give visitors a chance to learn about landscaping, gardening and energy-saving techniques particular to the area's climate. Holly Cobb, a member of the Corrales Environmental Education Committee, the group sponsoring the Corrales House and Garden Tour: Designing with Nature, A Varie ty of Possibilities, said members felt more educational, environmental-related events cottonwoods Marcia Newren enjoys the morning sun sand sage and young at her corrales home.

Natural grasses, cover the sandy lana. should be held throughout the year. Cobb said the free tour is being held to responsibility of enrolling the employees and making the deductions during that time period. Some who worked under Lopez have said he told them the city did not have enough money to make the matching donations to the employee fund. Repeated attempts to reach Lopez for comment about the PERA issue have been unsuccessful in the past.

In a petition delivered to the city two weeks ago, the 31 employees claimed they were "discriminated" against when the city "would not allow" them to sign up for PERA, but had enrolled others in the plan. Also in the petition, the employees protested the city's plans to make the employees pay the $170,000 not deducted for PERA, saying the city is "legally and MORE: See BELEN on PAGE 2 By Tracy Dingmann JOURNAL STAFF WRITER BELEN A group of city employees says it will send a letter today asking Attorney General Tom Udall to look into city government's failure to deduct $170,000 worth of Public Employee Retirement Account benefits from their paychecks from 1980 to 1990. Thirty-one of the 35 employees excluded from participation in PERA during the 1980s signed the letter. City officials have said that although state law mandates public employee participation in the retirement program, 35 employees were never enrolled during the 1980s. Officials have said former City Manager Bonnie Lopez had the The Corrales House and Garden Tour: Designing with Nature, A Variety of Possibilities, will be held Sunday from 2 p.m.

to 7 p.m. However, Steve and Holly Baer's home can only be visited from 2 to 5 p.m. The self-guided tour is free and open to the public. be held next year. Red chile windsocks will be posted at the seven homes on the tour to make it easier for tour participants to find the sites.

To make it even easier, here's a description of the seven homes on the tour: 1. Audrey and Woody Rosenblatt, 309 Davey Road (drive north on Corrales Road .9 miles beyond Rancho de Corrales, turn west on Davey, cross the acequia and follow the fence. When you leave please exit via the acequia road, south .2 miles to Sagebrush Drive or on south to Tenorio). The Rosenblatts grow demonstrate some environmentally-sound techniques being used in the community. She said many residents are working with the environment instead of against it.

Cobb said the tour will give participants a chance to chat with the homeowners and find out what kjnd of environmentally friendly techniques were used in planting and maintaining gardens and what can be done to conserve energy in the home. "It's an educational event," she said. "It gives people an opportunity to see how others have worked with water, land, air and sunshine to make a garden. There are special local problems so we tried to get a variety of places that illustrated the problems people have to work with." Cobb said although the tour is free, donations will be accepted. Refreshments will be provided at many of the sites.

She said if the tour is a success, another may MORE: See TOURS on PAGE 3 Engineer Gives Dam High Marks Son Enters Innocent Plea To Charge He Killed Father flood control structures are By Glen Rosales JOURNAL STAFF WRITER 1 i functioning properly. He said there was some severe bank erosion last weekend in the San Antonio Arroyo near the La Luz subdivision east of Coors and north of the St. Pius campus. "We've backfilled that and put in 100 cubic yards of gabion (wire basket filled with rocks)," he said. Kelly said the arroyo is in line for permanent improvements from Coors to the river, probably in the fall 1992.

Each of the 15 dams in the Ladera system the bottom dam is at the Ladera Golf Course have had water in them this week and are draining, he said. He said some temporary work performed by the city last year on north of the IrvingLyon boulevard intersection and was formally dedicated July 16. A storm the following night created a 5-foot-deep pool behind the dam, which then flowed on through the spillway and eventually to the Rio Grande. This past Wednesday night, he said, there was a flow through the arroyo, but not enough to form a pool. The Swinburne Dam was built to control flows in the massive Calaba-cillas, which originates in Sandoval County, and to protect downstream road crossings at Golf Course and Coors roads.

It also contains sediment which could plug the Rio Grande. The dam will also have another function, serving as a bridge over the arroyo for the future Unser Boulevard. Kelly f'id most other West-Side Heavy Rainfall Tests Arroyo Flood Control By Michael Hartranft JOURNAL STAFF WRITER PARADISE HILLS The new Swinburne Dam has been performing as it was designed to during the past week's heavy storms, an Albuquerque flood control engineer said Thursday. "We've had two good flows through it and it's trapped some sediment like "it was supposed to," said John Kelly, a field engineer for the Albuquerque Metropolitan Arroyo Flood Control Authority. "We've teen getting a lot of water on the reseeding and the slopes are looking real good." The dam lies just had been shot twice in the head.

Police investigating the case discovered two notes, which McComas admitted writing. One of the notes was a list, which read, "window, screen, footprints, gate wear gloves long shirt, hide gun, shoes, garage, blanket, shell cases gloves change." The first several words were scratched through. Steven Clark, an attorney appointed to represent McComas, asked Brown to reduce bail for McComas from $250,000 to $50,000 because he is indigent. But Armando Torres, chief deputy district attorney, said, "The state feels its evidence in this case is fairly strong." Torres argued that BERNALILLO A Rio Rancho man accused of shooting his father to death pleaded innocent Thursday to the charge. Donald McComas, 22, was arraigned Thursday before District Judge Kenneth Wilson on an open count of murder and tampering with evidence.

McComas also pleaded innocent to the tampering charge. McComas was charged In connection with the June 18 fatal shooting of his father, Dale McComas, 48, of Wagon Train Drive. Father and son had been living together when Dale McComas was found shot to death ji his bed. He Donald McComas McComas posed a danger to the community. Wilson agreed to continue the bond at $250,000.

Late Thursday night, McComas remained in custody at the Sandoval County Detention Center. ENGINEER on PAGE 2 MORE: Sea.