The Santa Fe New Mexican from Santa Fe, New Mexico • 7

I INSIDE fl DIARK) B2 TV B-3 CLASSIFIED ANUARYttQ1993 gnmiii I Pecos voters to decide bond issue along with other parts of the building after being condemned by a state inspector Today Pecos voters will decide whether to pass a $13 million bond issue that district officials hope to use to cover at least part of the costs of rebuilding Elementary According to district figures a homeowner with property valued at $90000 would see a property tax increase of $750 per month or about $90 per year Last September a similar bond request failed by only 27 votes would hate to see the same thing happen again" said Principal Solomon Padilla Jr "I By AARON BACA The New Mexican IVcos Elementary students found themselves out in the cold for lunch last week after several Indies of snow fell in I'ecos The students bundled into their heavy coats and stood in line in a still thick layer of the snow to get a bite to eat in their new makeshift cafeteria Friday It's not that the students wanted to give their new dining facilities a try They simply no longer have a real cafeteria in which to cat The old one was torn down last month understandable" he said "But a lot of misinformation and a lot of rumors still circulating about the bond issue" But during demolition workers discovered that the buckling occurring in the building was at least partly due to faulty construction Demolition was necessary because the building was beyond repair Dominguez said If passed the sale of bonds would enable the district to ask the state for various matching funds to renovate the elementary school The renovation estimated to cost about $25 million would cost more than the $13 million bond issue were built The process which progressed rapidly during the last year had buckled the roof nails and floors in the two wings The September bond issue which was for $12 million would have partially financed the renovation of the building in addition to the remodeling of the district's middle school The issue failed however after loose opposition to the bond organized during the final weeks leading to the election said Pecos Superintendent Hank Dominguez "Some of their concerns like increasing property taxes were think people really understood just what impact the bond was going to have And as you can see now with the inclement weather the students and teachers who are paying the price" Demolition ended last month on the school's north and south wings which include the cafeteria librury nurse's and administrative offices The wings were condemned last fall by the state Construction Industries Division which is responsible for enforcing construction safety codes For the past several years the two wings had been sliding down the embankment on which they death row inmates as well as to the families of murder victims Stanton said Prejean chairs the National Coalition To Abolish the Death Penalty headquartered in Washington DC The celebration is scheduled to run from 1:30 pm pm Jan In brief Official: Water rates rise The city of Santa Fc likely won't have to raise water rates for the next five years if it takes over the system that serves the city said Joe Gonzales a rate specialist with the city The Public Utility Commis-ston began a hearing on the proposed sale of Sangre de C'risto Water Co to the city of Santa Fe last week and ended the hearing Monday All parties seem confident that the sale will be approved No one voiced a formal opposition at the hearing In coming months the parties must submit briefs to the hearing officer ho will make a recommendation to the commission Barbara Fix who represented herself in the hearing said Monday that the record is clear that the city giving up its right to sue any responsible party to recover costs of cleaning up the Baca Street Well The well provided about 3 percent of water to the system that serves the city before gasoline contamination forced its closure a few years ago An official with the state Environment Department testified last week that the pollution came from neighboring property owned by Public Service Company of New Mexico parent company to Sangre de Cristo Court considers settling gas cases The state Supreme Court agreed Monday to consider a request by Attorney General Tom Udall for help in resolv- ing a series of legal fights over gasoline pricing information The court announced it would hold a hearing Jan 25 to hear arguments in the case Udall asked the court last week to consider taking over and deciding several lawsuits brought by more than 30 gasoline distributors statewide The distributors are challenging efforts to force disclosure of information on how they set prices Udall wants the information for his investigation into why gasoline prices are higher in New Mexico than in other states The Supreme Court while it considers request issued an order halting all pending proceedings in gasoline pricing cases around the state Udall contends that the lawr suits brought by the gasoline distributors raise nearly identical legal issues and that his pricing investigation will be stalled for years if all the through the usual district court proceedings and appeals Home-rule group elects chairman Santa Home Rule Commission on Monday elected attorney Karl Sommer to serve as chairman and set its next meeting for later this month At the next meeting sched- uled for 5 pm Jan 18 the commission plans to hear presentations from former Santa Fe City Councilor Ouida MacGregor who was instrumental in supporting the creation of a home rule charter for the city and from Judy Olean a lawyer with the New Mexico Municipal League The group established a location for its next meeting The commission appointed last month by the City Council and others is charged with drafting a charter establishing the future form of government The group talked Monday about hiring clerical help and retaining an attorney to help with the task The commission has until early this summer to submit its proposal to the City Council and the voters must ultimately approve any new charter Members of the commission emphasized they want to hear from the public as work progresses Staff and wire reports Navajos sue over student numbers Lawsuit says state Education Department is helping Gallup siphon away funding BySHARYNOBSATZ The New Mexican Navajo officials in Ramah NM claim the state Education Department is helping another school district steal Navajo students and federal funding from the Ramah Navajo community school The Ramah Navajo Chapter and the Ramah Navajo School Board filed a lawsuit in First District Court in Santa Fe last week against the department and the Gallup-McKinley County School District The Ramah Navajo reservation is located about an drive south of Gallup The Gallup school district operates a high school in nearby Ramah village and both schools compete for students and funding according to the lawsuit The lawsuit states that 460 Ramah Navajo students attend the Pine Hill Schools while 80 students attend Gallup schools The state education department directed the Gallup district to start using a bus stop closer to Navajo homes this month the lawsuit alleges By extending its bus routes further into the Ramah Navajo reservation the Gallup district is drawing more students into its schools and away from the Ramah Navajo Pine Hill schools according to the lawsuit In doing so the Gallup district broke an agreement forged this summer between the Ramah Navajo School Board and the school boards of McKinley and Cibola counties the lawsuit alleges Fewer Navajo students means less federal funding for the Pine Hill schools according to the lawsuit Ramon Vigil the Gallup-McK-inley County School Superintendent said parents complained that the bus stop they had previously agreed upon was unsafe So the district got state approval to move the stop to another site which happened to be closer to homes Vigil said He said Gallup schools have been serving Ramah Navajos for 20 years and thinks they ought to have an option of which school they want to attend are not forcing any kids to attend (Gallup district Vigil said students and parents made a conscious decision to send their kids to a public He said the majority of the Gallup enrollment was Navajos including students from the larger eastern portion of the main Navajoreservation Ramah Navajo School Board directors and the state Education attorney could not be reached for comment Swift feet hurried hands Above Tasio Hernandez left and Daryl Sment spar In the foreground while Elisa Alvarez and Ann Maez far right work together near the windows Monday during a green-belt tae kwon do class at the Tae Kwon Do Institute on St Drive Tae kwon do is a self-defense system similar to karate At right training the hand to be quicker than the eye 7-year-old Andrew Serrano looks up at Instructor Ed Didlsse while doing a reflex exercise in which students try to catch each other's hands to develop their sense of timing and distance Photos by Susan LathamThe New Mexican Celebration of peace to honor King The message we want to send to young children is that you don't have to play with war toys to have fun SHERRY TIPPETT gun-control activist explaining toy-guns-for-books trade The New Mexican Santa Fe will honor Martin Luther King Jr next Monday with a community celebration featuring speeches music dance and a program in which youngsters can exchange toy guns for books Sister Helen Prejean a nun from Louisiana who is nationally known for her work against the death penalty is scheduled to speak Bill Stanton of Santa Fe a member of the New Mexico Committee To Stop Executions said his and a number of other groups are sponsoring trip 16 at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church at 417 Agua Fria St Other scheduled speakers include Santa Fe Mayor Debbie Jaramillo Victor LaCerva of the New Mexico Department of Health Lynda Kellahin president of the Santa Fe School Board and Tom Johnson of the Santa Fe Branch of thq National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Stanton said the celebration at the church will follow a gathering sponsored by the NAACPat noon Monday in the Capitol Rotunda Sherry Tippett of the gun-con-Please see KING Page B-3 here believe and Dr King believed that violence is wrong whether done on an individ-uafbasis or whether its done by the people the Stanton said Prejean has ministered to Locals vs locals: Pub plan dogged by think there were at least as many dogs around Santa Old Barrio de Guadalupe in the early 1900s as there are today Beer and dogs seemed to have gotten along fine back then I checked because today dogs figure into opposition against the plans of a couple of local lads who say they want to brew a little beer to serve with unpretentious inexpensive dishes to friends and family in the heart of the old barrio The City Council on Wednesday will hear from Joaquin Sanchez 29 and Jeff Branch' Tesuque Bitter They say they want to run a place where locals treated like foreigners or charged like patrons who just left their Range Rovers outside the front door to be parked by valets just a couple of homeboys frying to do good in our Sanchez told a reporter recently Sanchez and Branch say tired of the Disneyland flavor that has been thrust Please see ROYBAL Page B-3 David Roybal Marble floors Homespun truths 31 about their new business plans for the corner of Agua Frfa and Romero streets Along with serving sandwiches and pizza Sanchez and Branch say like to con- coct European-style brews to carry names like Old Madrid Gold Pecos Pale Ale and Big.