Albuquerque Journal from Albuquerque, New Mexico • Page 1

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 29, 1988 Group Offers Care, Seeks Homes For Animals: See Bosque Beat on Page 3 8 I Lr LiULI Bernalillo Placitas Rio Rancho Corrales Alameda Los Ranchos de Albuquerque Paradise Hills Taylor Ranch Bosque Farms Los Lunas Belen City Council Refuses Mill Levy Support Councilor Joan Borresen said reporters should ask the city administrator their questions and only go to department heads for further information. She said department head are very busy and don't always have time to answer questions. Councilors voted 3-2 in favor of a clarification of the media policy from the city administrator. Cameron, Fine and Pacelli voted for the clarification with Borresen and Mowry opposed. Nash chaired the first half of the meeting but turned over the second half to Pacelli.

Nash has recently recovered from open heart surgery and said before the meeting that he would only preside over part of it. Black's Arroyo. Estimated cost: $4 million. In other business, the council asked acting city administrator, Hal Donovan, to formulate a policy recommending ways city department heads should answer questions from the media. The request came after Councilor Ken Cameron brought up a recent order from acting mayor Carl Zander that all questions from the media to department heads be cleared by the city administrator or mayor.

Cameron called the memo a "gag order." Councilor Calvin Mowry said he did not support withholding information from the media but said that department heads unknowingly could make libelous statements to the press. the Army Corps of Engineers. The four projects listed with the flood commissioner are: A master drainage plan for Rio Rancho to help determine other drainage projects. Estimated cost: $250,000. The construction of outlet channels from the urban center ponds, sometimes referred to as the Meadowlark and Corona-do outlets.

Estimated cost: $261,000. The construction of outlet channels to the Harvey Jones Channel (Montoyas Arroyo) from two dams. Estimated cost: $633,000. The construction of erosion control devices and slope-stabilizing materials for By Katherine Saltzstein JOURNAL CORRESPONDENT RIO RANCHO The City Council voted Wednesday to send a letter to the Sandoval County flood commissioner listing flood control projects they would like funded with a 1.5 mill tax proposed, to go into effect next year. Councilors had been asked to include a paragraph in the letter stating their support of the mill levy.

But they made it clear at Wednesday's council meeting they wanted the paragraph supporting the mill levy deleted. Mayor Grover Nash spoke in favor of the letter, saying in the past Rio Rancho has had little or no input on the priority list of projects undertaken by the county. "The county intends to levy the tax beginning November 1989. If so, let's do everything we possibly can if we're faced with it so we benefit from it," Nash said. Councilor Cory Fine said after the meeting that the council had been approached by county representatives asking for its support of the proposed mill levy, but the council refused.

However, he said the council wanted to make its priorities known to the flood commissioner in case the county decides to impose the tax. Councilors said other means of funding flood control projects should be looked at first, including the state Legislature and A -r. ffliPQ'f flirt 14 Westland's Golf Plans Draw Fire At Meeting By Steve Reynolds JOURNAL STAFF WRITER Plans by Westland Development Corp. to collaborate on a 36-hole golf course and possible resort abutting the proposed Petroglyph National Monument on the West Mesa drew fire Wednesday from monument backers. Representatives of Westland, which controls the 49,000 acres of the Atrisco land grant, and the Atrisco Land Rights Council, an advocacy group claiming to represent grant heirs, fielded questions at a forum called to discuss the monument and how Westland's plans might affect it.

Held at the First Unitarian Church in Albuquerque, the forum was sponsored by the Friends of the Albuquerque Petroglyphs, which has championed the monument effort. The planned golf course could reduce the proposed monument boundaries envisioned by supporters by 1,000 acres. Some audience members questioned why such a course, if needed at all, could not 'f, One of Lita Lopez Chavez' paintings. Artist of Placitas Captures Emotions By Donna Jones JOURNAL STAFF WRITER f-Si 1 I 1 i 4 IM faces hung at a special reception at the Department of Labor in Washington, D.C., earlier this month in celebration of Hispanic Hertiage Week. The exhibit featured Chavez's work and the carvings, embroidery, weaving and multimedia work of five other women from New Mexico.

She said the national recognition of Hispanic women was gratifying. In many ways she feels she has broken traditional roles figuratively, moving from a kitchen to a studio. "We have 400 years of women staying in their place in New Mexico," she said. "I was more discouraged than encouraged to paint." One watercolor portrait featured in Washington, "Lupita," is of a young woman who worked at the LACITAS Placitas I I I artist Lita Lopez Chavez I says she paints New Li Mexico from the faces of its citizens. Figure painting comes naturally to her, she said.

"It's a passion. It comes around to being true to yourself." "Landscapes are hard for me to do," she said. "People make a greater emotional statement." She said it is the universality of those emotions that keeps her going, although some casual observers fail to see beyond the specific face and body on the paper. "They say, 'Why would I want a portrait of someone else in my Chavez said and then laughed. "I don't know.

Why would anyone want the "Mona Lisa?" Six of Chayez's New Mexican 7 5 V-' The planned golf course could reduce the proposed monument boundaries envisioned by supporters by 1,000 acres. DEAN HANSON JOURNAL MORE: See PLACITAS on PAGE 6 Llta Lopez Chavez at work in her studio. Status of Rio Rancho Official Unknown By Katherine Saltzstein Administrator Has Moved Out of City Hall be moved outside the boundaries. JOURNAL CORRESPONDENT Mathews said Crane responded with the letter he received Tuesday. The letter "does not specifically say he's been terminated," Mathews said.

"But it demands the vehicle back or says the city will charge him with misappropriation of public property. "We were not given a chance to work out a settlement agreement," he said. "I thought MORE: See RIO RANCHO on PAGE 3 with high blood pressure since July. Negotiations between Mathews and city attorney Gloria Crane have been on-going for weeks about Snell's future with the city. Mathews said in an interview that he had recently made a proposal that included a buy-out of Snell's contract and a stipulation that the city not discuss the conditions of the agreement with the press, legally termed a non-disclosure statement.

personal use under his contract. "The letter demands the return of the car, so to me that shows he's been terminated," said Mathews. Acting mayor pro tem Henry Pacelli said Wednesday night he did not know about Snell's departure. He said that as far as he knew, Snell was only on sick leave. Snell was hired in 1986.

His contract was to expire in December. He has been at home RIO RANCHO City Administrator William Snell has removed his belongings at City Hall after his attorney received a letter from the city attorney asking Snell to return his city-owned car. Snell's attorney, David Mathews, said he thinks the city's request indicates his client's job has ended. Snell, who has been on sick leave since July, has use of the car for business and Decaying Rats Plague Senior Citizens Center Psychic Aids Officers In Search for Woman By Donna Jones Westland spokeswoman Julie Clausen said the corporation was "being more flexible than it initially was" and is negotiating with the National Park Service on that and other issues. Sen.

Pete Domenici, introduced a bill in Congress asking for the creation of the monument. Ike Eastvold, the president of the petroglyph group, said after Wednesday's forum that Westland's plans for the golf course "will be central" in discussions at a Congressional field hearing on the bill scheduled for Oct. 11 at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center. Eastvold's wife, Sharon, on Wednesday questioned whether studies justifying the need for the golf course had been done. Clausen said that if they hadn't, been done yet, they would.

She said studies of golf course in Albuquerque show they are overused. She would not disclose the names of the developers, but said one was a local golf professional, who has a feel for the need for additional courses. The "daily user, daily fee" course would at the most have 36 holes and cover 300 acres. Ground might be broken next summer, and it would be playable nine months after that. A proposed destination resort would follow the golf course by two MORE: See WESTLAND'S on PAGE 3 By Ed Pierce JOURNAL STAFF WRITER seniors at the Chamber of Commerce information bureau at the Women's Center on Camino del Pueblo.

She said the arrangement should be mutually beneficial until a new addition to the senior center can be built. Seniors will provide information to tourists in exchange for use of the facility. "Most of the seniors are residents who have lived here a long time," Tafoya said. Meanwhile, the senior citizens' committee reviewed plans Wednesday for the addition that has been approved by the state. The addition will replace two MORE: See DEAD on PAGE 6 in and around the Burris Ranch, an isolated cattle ranch off of NM 47 about eight miles south of where the woman was last reported seen by witnesses.

"I don't put much stock in psychics, but I'm more than willing to listen to anyone who may be able to help us," Romero said. Donner has assisted in investigations by other law enforcement agencies, including the Albuquerque Police Department. Romero said he was grateful for the psychic's help. "We checked the areas she felt strongly about but just didn't find anything," the sheriff said. "She tried very hard and we turned the BERNALILLO The smell of decaying rats has forced local retirees out of Bernalillo's Senior Citizens Center.

Rebecca Robles Tafoya, director of the program, said that after an exterminator came to remedy an infestation problem, the rodents apparently crawled into the walls and died. Tafoya called the rat problem "the final straw. It smelled so bad, it was a health hazard." "Who would want to eat there?" site director Mildred Chavez asked. For the rest of this week, seniors will have lunch delivered to their homes. Beginning next week, Tafoya said meals will be served to the 30 or so JOURNAL CORRESPONDENT BELEN An Albuquerque psychic on Wednesday led sheriffs officers searching for a missing Belen student to areas south of Rio Communities where she believed the woman could be found, but the effort was unsuccessful.

Joanne Donner said she volunteered to assist in the search because she wanted help the family of Tara Calico in any way she could. Calico, 19, disappeared Sept. 20 while on bicycle ride on NM 47 south of Rio Communities. Donner directed Valencia County Sheriff Lawrence Romero to centrate search efforts Wednesday Tara Calico Disappeared Sept. 20 areas she said Tara might be found inside out, but didn't find anything." Donner has been working with MORE: See PSYCHIC on PAGE 2.