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VALENCIA
COUNTY
La Vida 1B
News-Bulletin
Vol. 105, No. 6
SERVING VALENCIA COUNTY SINCE 1910
WEEK OF
FEBRUARY 5, 2015
Copyright © 2015, Valencia County News-Bulletin
50¢
Cordova wins in Belen; Otero beats Tabet in LL
Lindberg re-elected; Wisneski and Garley win seats Smith elected to first term; C’Moya ran unopposed
By Julia M. Dendinger
NEWS-BULLETIN ASSISTANT EDITOR
[email protected]
Belen
Three of the four seats on the ballot for the
Belen Board of Education were unopposed.
The only opposed race in the Belen District
was between incumbent Lorraine Espinosa and
Max Cordova for the District 1 seat. Espinosa
lost her bid for a second term with 153 votes to
Cordova’s 278.
Cordova, a retired Belen Schools administrator, thanked everyone who supported him in the
election, saying he intended to do his best to
represent the district.
“Education for our students will be the No.
1 priority,” Cordova said. “I intend to be open
minded when making decisions that impact our
school district.”
Espinosa, a client service agent with CYFD,
said as a past employee
of the district, her heart
has always been there
for the students, parents,
staff and community.
“No matter what, I
want what is best for our
schools. I want to see Max Cordova
our students and fami- Newly elected
lies succeed,” Espinosa
said.
Tom Wisneski, a territorial manager at
Blueline Rental, who represents District 2,
received 53 votes. He was appointed to the board
last year when Sam Chavez resigned.
By Deborah Fox
NEWS-BULLETIN STAFF WRITER
[email protected]
Los Lunas
The newly elected Los Lunas Board of
Education members, Frank Otero and Bryan
Smith, will be sworn in on Tuesday, March 3.
Sonya C’Moya, in District 2, ran unopposed
and received 42 votes. Board chairman Charles
Tabet lost his re-election bid for his District 1 seat
with 144 votes compared to Otero’s 182 votes.
Bryan Smith was elected Tuesday to serve
District 4, which is currently served by Sean
Gibson, who did not seek re-election. Smith
received 206 votes, while his challengers, Michael
Doyle took home 114 votes, Joseph Byers got 18
votes and Ray Gray garnered 12 votes.
See Belen, Page 8A
Otero, who previously served on the Los
Frank Otero
Bryan Smith
Newly elected
Newly elected
Lunas Board of Education from 2007 to 2011,
said he was excited to be able to return to the
board.
“Thank you to everyone who took the time to
support education,” Otero said. “I look forward
See Los Lunas, Page 8A
Plans in the
works for new
charter school
LL planning
to enhance
Route 66
By Julia M. Dendinger
By Deborah Fox
Belen
Los Lunas
There might be a new charter school
in Valencia County next year.
Founders of the School of Dreams
Academy gave a brief presentation
of their plans for an industrial artsfocused charter school in Belen to the
Belen Board of Education last week.
Kenneth Griego, SODA’s governing council president, and Mike Ogas,
SODA principal, told members the
school board they are preparing to file
a charter application with the state’s
Public Education Department Charter
Schools Division.
Belen Board President Larry
Lindberg asked how they envisioned
the Belen school board interacting with
a new charter school.
“You even asking that is a positive
note in terms of potential relationships
between the charter and the local district,” Ogas responded.
He continued, saying the relationship between a new charter school and
the district could be almost anything,
provided it is written into the application.
“A lot of things are possible,” the
principal said.
Ogas said the school would work
in conjunction with manufacturing
businesses in the community, such as
Sisneros Bros., Cemco and Aristech
Acrylics, to create a manufacturing
About a dozen residents added their
voices to a discussion on the Los Lunas
Route 66 Scenic Byway Corridor
project at a recent meeting at the
Transportation Center.
Although the number of people was
small, there was a lot of enthusiastic
idea-sharing.
“It’s really up to the community, up to
the village to establish priorities before
it’s enacted,” said Troy Ainsworth,
executive director of the Camino
Real Trail de Tierra Adentro Trail
Association.
“These ideas and conversations need
to keep happening,” added Nathaniel
Feddes, the village’s planning technician. “Whether they are at public meetings or whether you stop by the village
offices and continue to work with us
because quite honestly, the residents of
Los Lunas have more pull than any of
the staff members. If this becomes a
priority for the residents, then we can
really gain momentum for a project like
this.”
There are several historic buildings
along the route in the village, and there
are a variety of funding programs for
public and private property owners to
assist with restoration and preservation, said Jeff Fredine, an environmental planner with the firm Parsons
Brinckerhoff, which was hired by
NEWS-BULLETIN ASSISTANT EDITOR
[email protected]
See Charter, Page 5A
NEWS-BULLETIN STAFF WRITER
[email protected]
Clara Garcia-News-Bulletin photo
ROBERT CHAVEZ, center, takes his oath of office last week as the newest Rio Communities city councilor. Also pictured are his wife, Corby Lynne, left, and Rio Communities Municipal Judge Heather Benavidez.
Robert Chavez appointed to RC Council
By Clara Garcia
NEWS-BULLETIN EDITOR
[email protected]
Rio Communities
A retired Belen Schools administrator and educator is
hoping his experience and vision will help the newest city
in Valencia County become a prosperous and viable community.
Robert Chavez, who moved to Rio Communities 2 1/2
years ago, was nominated by Mayor Mark Gwinn and
appointed by the city council last week as the newest city
councilor.
Chavez replaces Cyndi Sluder, who was first elected to
office in the spring of 2013, and re-elected in 2014. She
resigned from her position last month when her husband’s
company transferred his job to Las Cruces.
Chavez, who was born and raised in Jarales, said he
hadn’t “fully” moved to Rio Communities to be able to
vote for incorporation, but did vote in the city’s first election.
“Even though I couldn’t vote in the incorporation election, I did support it,” said Chavez. “I think that this place
has needed an identity for a long time. We were always
See Chavez, Page 3A
See Route 66, Page 8A
Solar overlay zone now allowed in unincorporated Valencia County
By Julia M. Dendinger
NEWS-BULLETIN ASSISTANT EDITOR
[email protected]
After several months of planning and discussion, a new solar overlay zoning ordinance was
voted into law by the county commissioners.
Commissioner Alicia Aguilar called the ordinance very important, saying it would “put teeth
into our intention and help avoid a lawsuit.”
Prior to the overlay zone, if a developer
wanted to build a solar energy generating station, the property needed an Industrial 3 zoning,
the heaviest industrial use allowed in Valencia
County. The quandary was the idea that solar
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wasn’t as detrimental a land use as something
like a coal fired power plant.
“(The) planning and zoning (commissioners) established there is value to renewable
energy projects, however their concern was the
creation of an I-3 zone,” said Jacobo Martinez,
the county’s community planner. “As an energygeneration facility, they do not have as great an
impact. When the ordinance was written, we
were looking at sources like coal or nuclear.”
Several solar power facilities have been built
in Valencia County, mostly developed by PNM
to meet its renewable energy mandates, and
those have been granted I-3 zone changes under
the condition that if and when the property
ceases to be a solar field, it reverts to the previ-
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INDEX
ous zoning.
Industrial 3 zones in the county can be the
home of power plants, slaughter houses, fuel
depots and other industrial facilities. As the solar
plants were built, and it looked like more were
coming, the commission and planning and zoning commissioners asked that a zoning ordinance
specifically for solar be developed, instead of
granting I-3 zones at random throughout the
county.
Martinez said the ordinance went through two
public hearings — one before the planning and
zoning commission and a second with the county
commission — and there was no opposition.
He met with PNM and large landowners in the
county to get input on the ordinance.
Classified ...... 4B
Editorial .........4A
Databank .......2A
News Digest ...2A
Deaths............6A
La Vida .......... 1B
“This is essentially a holding zone that will
overlay on a current zone specifically for solar
use,” Martinez said. “If the use changes, it
reverts back to the underlying zone.”
For example, someone who owns property
zoned Rural Residential 2 could go through a
process similar to a zone change and request that
the solar overlay zone be applied to the property.
The request would go to the planning and
zoning commission for a hearing and recommendation, Martinez said, and then on to the
county commission for another hearing and final
decision.
The ordinance requires that a request for an
See Solar, Page 6A
Noticias ......... 3B
Record ............8A
Sports.............7A