Albuquerque Journal from Albuquerque, New Mexico • 23

Albuquerque journal CONSULTANT WANTED Racing Commission seeks evaluation of applicants for new Hobbs track 3 mm Mexico-. mm Siroerinteedents Get6'Raise Road Warrior et Li cent raise for teachers. "I donl see this district doing a good enough job to justify a 6 percent increase," said Lucero, also elected in February. Board president Mary Lee Martin could not be reached for comment Vice president Paula Maes, who was on the board last All other employees will get a 3 percent raise, spokesman Rigo Chavez Board member Miguel Acosta, who was elected in February, said the current board should have been able to discuss the raises. He said the contracts put the board in an "awkward position." The contracts expire on Increases for Four Irk School Board By Andrea Schoellkopf Journal Staff Writer Some Albuquerque school board members aren't happy with an automatic 6 percent raise the superintendent team will get this year.

The contracts, signed by the board in October, give the four superintendents the same percentage increase as teachers. Lawmakers mandated 6 percent teacher raises, starting in December. Superintendents Joseph Vigil, Elizabeth Everitt and Michael Vigil's salaries will increase from $125,000 to $132,500. The salary of Tom Garrity, superintendent for advancement, will increase from $105,000 to $111300. The total amount increases from $480,000 to $508,800.

The' superintendents earlier eliminated a controversial contract provision that allotted them up to $30,000 extra if the district met specific goals. Garrity said the raise provision on page three of the 11-page contract is not new. "This is the first time' that if come up," Garrity We're not hiding anything." The raise was news to heads of teacher and principal organizations on Monday. "You mean every time I negotiate for the teacher raise, I'm negotiating for superintendents?" asked Albuquerque Teachers Federation president Ellen Bernstein. Patricia Gilberto, president of the APS Principals Association, called the raise "fair" but wishes principals had gotten the same.

VIGIL: Said wanted salaries to stay In line wUfi teachers' June 2004. "We're told by people there's no money to give (educational assistants) or other employees more money," Acosta said. Board member Robert Lucero, who wants a single superintendent, said a 6 percent raise for superintendents amounts to much more than a 6 per- 50 Rent Hike Plan Upsets D'VAL WESTPHAL Of the Journal Blind Eye Stops Traffic DETECTING A PROBLEM AT ATRISCO AND LADERA: Beulah Woodfin e-mails that "at night, the traffic signal at Atrisco and Ladera does not respond to traffic. When northbound on Atrisco (recently), I waited three minutes for the light to change to green, and I don't know how long the light had been red before I got there. Assuming that the light was stuck, I crossed the intersection." A few days later, Beulah "stopped at the intersection behind another vehicle.

After about two minutes, there were five or six vehicles behind mine, and the lead vehicle crossed the intersection when there was no cross traffic. Shortly after this, the light changed and I proceeded through the intersection. At this point, cross traffic on Ladera reached the intersection and, as I could see in the rear-view mirror, the light changed back to red for Atrisco before all of the waiting vehicles got through." Thanks for the heads-up, Beulah. While the signals are working, the northbound detectors that tell them vehicles are waiting aren't. City traffic engineer in charge of traffic operations Dave Harmon says those "will be fixed in the near future.

Both the eastwest and the northsouth phases of the traffic signal are set to 'recall' and will serve these phases every signal cycle. Eastwest serves 36 seconds every cycle and northsouth serves between 20 seconds and 36 seconds. This means that a three-minute wait shouldn't be happening." WAITING FOR NOTHING ON COMANCHE: Claudia Kelly asks "why are the lights on Comanche, especially at Pennsylvania and Louisiana, so long?" Her e-mail says "there is not that much traffic on Comanche to warrant the length of time that people sit going north and south and the lines really pile up." Harmon says it's not so much those individual intersections as how they interact with all the others in the area to keep traffic moving, Claudia. "As with all major street corridors, to have progression on a street andor sections of a network, the intersections need to have a common cycle length," he explains. "These cycle lengths must be used throughout the corridor to maintain the progression.

Likewise, the major intersections are the ones that control the length of the cycle. This is because the major intersections are where the greatest delays and bottlenecks occur and need to operate efficiently to keep from causing excessive delays throughout an area. At an intersection where the traffic volumes are considerably less than these major intersections, the traffic is typically served more efficiently through fewer signal phases and can seem to be incorrectly timed. If there are specific times of the day where delays seem to be excessive, these can be checked." Traffic Engineering's number is 857-8680. TOP 10 DRIVING MISTAKES: Courtesy of The National Safe Driving Test and Initiative.

Failing to pay attention "zoning out" Driving while drowsy HUD Subsidized Former Owner By Barbara Chavez Journal Staff Writer Disabled veterans and others living in a subsidized housing complex on East Central say they will be looking for new homes if the owner follows througji with a rent increase of more than 50 percent on Aug. 1. Some of the nine tenants are especially angry because the owner is St Martin's Hospitality Center a private nonprofit agency that helps people who cannot qualify for traditional housing. "What they are doing to us is contrary to their mission statement," said Steve De Wolf, a disabled veteran who has lived in the complex for five years. St.

Martin's officials have said they do not want to put their tenants out on the street and, in fact, are trying to work with them. Monthly rent for the one-bedroom units has been $265, and it will increase to $410 on Aug. 1. "We have to receive a rent that covers the operating expenses of running that property," said Chris Fogel, executive director of St. Martin's.

"We have a mortgage on the property, and we pay the utilities. Even at $410, which includes utilities, that is still a very affordable rent." Fogel said the previous owner, Rural Housing accepted HUD subsidies to help tenants pay their rent. But Fogel said those subsidies no longer exist. He also said most of the tenants are on a month-to-month lease agreement. However, De Wolf said he and at least one other tenant, Marvin Ward, signed leases with the previous owners, and believe the rent "should remain the same until the leases expire.

De Wolfs lease expires Nov. 1, and Ward's is up in December. "I've been here for almost 10 years," said Ward, a veteran who suffers health problems, including osteoporosis, which keeps him mostly confined to his apartment. "If I have to leave, I'll leave, and I'll have to find someplace. But it sure as hell is not going to be easy." St.

Martin's bought the complex at HANNAH VAN ZUTPHEN-KANNJOURNAL HE'S GOT A LEASE: Marvin Ward said he will have to move If his rent Increases on Aug. 1. But he said he has a lease that does not expire until December. ACOSTA: Said contracts put board In "awkward position" year, said she didn't recall the item being in the contract, although she remembered a conversation about it. Michael Vigil, superintendent for business, said the team wanted its salaries to stay in line with what teachers got "We felt in the past the superintendents had a different salary," he said.

Fogel said tenants were sent letters from RHI informing them that the property changed ownership. He said his concern is that Rural Housing Inc. extended De Wolfs and Ward's leases knowing that the HUD On TV "America's Next Top Model" airs tonight at 8 on UPN, Channel 50, KASY-TV Can the press tour be taken as a sign she won the competition, which was taped six months ago? "I can't tell you," Sewell said bluntly. Bluntness has been Sewell' trademark during the show's seven-week run. In a now famous on-air rant, she proclaimed modeling "irrelevant" and dismissed her fellow contestants (with whom, in true reality TV style, she was sharing an apartment) as vapid airheads.

On last week's episode Sewell lit into a rival contestant who hinted that the 115-pound Sewell had an eating disorder. "Robin, you're an idiot, and frankly, you're starting to act like a (expletive), too." Sewell, who graduated from La Cue- TV 3, Tenants subsidies no longer existed and that the property was headed to bankruptcy court "Why they did that is just incomprehensible to me," Fogel said. Donald Becker, attorney for Rural Housing said St. Martin's agreed to abide by conditions of the leases and that it's news to him the subsidies no longer exist. "There is nothing that I can see that RHI has done incorrectly," Becker said.

"We will help try to resolve any issues that come about." Meanwhile, some of the tenants are preparing to leave. "I've been told that it's a 14-month waiting list to get Section 8 (government housing subsidy)," said De Wolf. "Our point is that these owners have to honor, the leases that we signed with the previous owners. That would give us all time to find another place to live or to get subsidy information straightened out." Fogel said he is talking to the Veteran's Administration and HUD to find out if there is any subsidy to help the tenants. to the Top va High School a semester early in 1999 and then earned two college degrees in three years, doesn't mind being known as the brainy, abrasive member of the show's cast.

"I don't have any problem with not being well-liked," Sewell said. "It's definitely true that I'm arrogant. It's just an aspect of my personality." Sewell said she tried out for the show last fall because she "didn't have anything better to do." Her only previous modeling experience had been a fashion show at Cottonwood Mall, she said. "I went into (the TV show) so ill-prepared that I didn't know what to expect," she said. Sewell was born in Carlsbad and moved to Albuquerque when she was 7.

Her parents', Susan and Everest Sewell III, and her younger brother, Everest IV, think her appearance on the show is "pretty funny," she said. "They've all been watching the show," she said. RENT TO DOUBLE: This East Central complex Is owned by St. Martin's Hospitality Center, a private nonprofit agency that helps people who cannot qualify for traditional housing. Local Brain's Beauty May Take Her 8915 Central NE in a bankruptcy court sale in January.

Rural Housing a nonprofit company that provides low-income housing, had owned the apartments since 1995, but it went bankrupt in March 2002. UNM Grad Is Among Final 3 in Model Show By Leanne Potts Journal Staff Writer An Albuquerque woman is one of three finalists competing for a million-dollar modeling contract tonight on the final episode of the UPN reality series "America's Next Top Model" Elyse Sewell, a 21-year-old University of New Mexico graduate, survived seven catty weeks of the televised modeling competition in which a panel of judges votes off a contestant each week. Tonight, America learns 1 which woman wins. "If I win, I'll go for it and work as a model. I'll use the money to pay my medical school tuition," Sewell said by telephone Monday from Los Angeles, where she was making the rounds of radio and talk shows.

Becoming distracted inside the car radio, cell phone, children, etc. Failing to adjust to adverse weather conditions Driving aggressively tailgating, running red lights and stop signs, etc. Making assumptions about other drivers' intentions Speeding Changing lanes without checking blind spots and mirrors Driving while upset Ignoring essential auto maintenance brake lights, bald tires, etc. Be honest. How many have you done? D'Val Westphal, the Journal's news editor, writes about commuter issues Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Reach her at 823-3858 (phone), 823-3994 (fax), road abqJoumal.com (e-mall) or P.O. Drawer Albuquerque, NM 87103. I r- i in I. I ml SUPERMODEL? Albuquerque's Elyse Sewell Is among three finalists on "America's Next Top Model," concluding tonight..