Manhunt Freezes Placitas Village As Hummer Burns, Ammo Explodes

SANDOVAL PLACITAS PRSRT-STD U.S. Postage Paid BERNALILLO Placitas, NM Permit #3 CORRALES SANDOVAL Postal Customer or Current Resident COUNTY ECRWSS NEW MEXICO SignA N INDEPENDENT PLOCALO NEWSPAPERSt S INCE 1988 • VOL. 31 / NO .7 • JULY 2020 • FREE IVEN

Branding campaign aids D ILL B BY businesses stung by PHOTOS U.S. 550 construction

~SIGNPOST STAFF TORY

The double hit of a major highway project and a worldwide —S pandemic hit Bernalillo business owners Jose Morales and Tony Griffin differently. Both may benefit, however, from a marketing effort launched to create a regional brand and draw customers to the town and nearby businesses. Dubbed “Crossroads @ 550,” the program by the Town of Bernalillo and the Santa Ana Pueblo business subsidiary Tamaya Enterprises, with backing from the New Mexico Department of Transporta- tion, began in June with a website, Facebook page, and mer- chant discount coupons. Morales opened his Fresh for Less produce and Mexican- import market at 240 Highway 550 in June, 2019. By late October, a five-hundred-day project to widen the highway to Two days after two criminal suspects fleeing the law were pursued into Placitas village, the Hummer six lanes was underway, focused first on the new southside they torched and abandoned remained among scorched cottonwoods and trails of melted aluminum. lane before shifting last month to the north just outside Residents reported hearing an explosion believed to be ammunition left in the vehicle. Morales’s front door. “We had a good couple of months before construction started, especially when chile season started,” Morales told the Signpost. Tourists, passersby, and chile helped sustain the Manhunt freezes Placitas village as business while local shoppers began discovering the business, he added. Hummer burns, ammo explodes The location of Plinkers Sporting Goods at 348 South Camino del Pueblo put Griffin outside the U.S. 550 construc- ~BILL DIVEN tion zone, but it didn’t help. Traffic backing up half a mile or Two suspects in a restaurant robbery and ing the identities of the wanted man and more from the U.S. 550 stoplight blocked access to the store other crimes eluded capture on June 25, but woman, and how a confrontation in Placitas That, along with now-finished work upgrading curbs, side- left in their wake a burning vehicle with escalated, have not been released. What is walks, and street lights on Bernalillo’s main street scared off exploding ammunition and a manhunt that known is that events that day spread from customers. Under pressure from the town, NMDOT restored locked down Placitas for hours. southern Sandoval County to Albuquerque’s the second left-turn lane at U.S. 550, but the damage lingered At Signpost deadline, some details, includ- East Mountains and then down through the as Plinkers’ lines of sporting goods shrank to guns and —continued on page 5 ammo. And then COVID-19 hit, with emergency public-health orders closing Plinkers completely until the recent loosing allowed customers to return by appointment. A mini-surge of business followed. “With the whole COVID thing, people are kind of freaking Primary voters flood polls, Bureau of out,” Griffin said. “Some are buying guns; some want to get rid of them… That gave us a little boost. We’re seeing some of our old customers coming back.” Elections mailbox Morales never closed, as food vendors are considered ~SIGNPOST STAFF essential services under the emergency orders. That even Even with the surge of mail-in absentee bal- “We had 42 percent for the primary, which brought new customers. lots, Sandoval Country completed its counts we’ve never had before,” Bernice Garcia, “With the virus, people started coming here—maybe in the June 2 Democrat, Republican, and Lib- manager of the Sandoval County Bureau of because the big stores were too crowded,” Morales said. ertarian primaries before dawn. Elections, said. That included more than Business took another dip with the construction shift, “The staff worked many, many hours to 22,000 absentee ballots mailed or delivered although an access sign points to an opening in the project, get this done,” County Clerk Eileen in person and about 10,000 in-person voters and drivers have become more attuned to letting shoppers Garbagni said during the June 12 canvass of on primary day. back into traffic. election results. “They are a blessing. Recent primary turnouts were 12.8 percent “People are complaining about the construction but are “We didn’t leave election night until 3:45 in 2018, when the governor’s job was on the willing to help a small local business,” Morales continued. in the morning to make sure that everything ballot, and 32.5 percent in 2016, a presiden- “They are very supportive… I’m really grateful for the peo- in our books was balanced and to a T.” tial year. The statewide turnout this year was ple here.” Two other counties—Taos and Santa Fe— 42 percent of the nearly one million eligible Griffin shares a similar sentiment as his customers adapt to won court orders for extra days to complete voters. the current reality of masks and tape on the floor, marking their counts. Adding to the volume of votes When the secretary of state failed to win social distancing. was heavy turnout locally and statewide. state Supreme Court approval for mailing “People are pretty cool,” he said. “It’s moving along. America is a bounce-back country.” —continued on page 3 —continued on page 6

Find the Signpost online at www.sandovalsignpost.com • Mailed subscriptions are available PAGE 2 • JULY 2020 • SANDOVAL SIGNPOST • SERVING THE COMMUNITY SINCE 1988 CONTENTS from page 1——— Elections Up Front—1 Health-16 actual ballots to all primary voters, Business-7 Sandoval Arts—20 the court did authorize mailing ballot Around Town-8 Calendar—22 applications. Among other security Real People-10 Senior Center—23 measures, Garcia said the combina- tion of bar codes tracking ballot Public Safety-11 Gauntlet-24 requests and unopened returns, a Night Sky-12 Animal News—25 locked ballot box in the clerk’s vault, and a sheriff’s escort to the vote- Eco-Beat-13 Youth-25 counting location protected the bal- 4400%% OOFFFF Time Off-14 Classified Ads—29 ALL NON-PRESCRIPTION lots. SUNGLASSES Garcia said 321 people who Cannot be combined with showed up at the polls were given any other offers, promotions, or insurance benefits. provisional ballots because their Coupon expires 8/31/2020 MAIL: names were not found on voter rolls. Signpost, P. O. Box 889 All but five were not registered with Placitas, NM 87043 one of the three major political par- PHONE: (505) 867-3810 ties, and those five did qualify but WEBSITE: www.sandovalsignpost.com had been missed because their names EMAIL: [email protected] were hyphenated. CALENDAR: [email protected]

One of the main lessons for the IVEN ADVERTISING: [email protected]

November 3 general election is to try D DEADLINE: ILL The 20th of each month, prior to month of to find more polling locations, Garcia interest said. The COVID-19 pandemic cut —B DROP BOX: into poll workers, and two pueblos On the wall inside The Merc, at Homestead declined to allow early voting days Village, 221 Highway 165, Placitas, Two miles or open a polling place for primary east off I-25 Exit 242. day. SIGNPOST STAFF: Additionally, the clerk’s office, PUBLISHERS: Barb and Ty Belknap which in the past hasn’t budgeted EDITOR / BUSINESS MANAGER: Ty Belknap separately for the back-and-forth EDITOR / CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Barb Belknap postage on absentee ballots, tapped NEWS EDITOR: Bill Diven the county for $45,000, most or all of COPY EDITOR / PROOFREADER: Evan Belknap which will be reimbursed by the sec- NIGHT SKY FEATURE WRITER: Charlie Christmann retary of state. MASTHEAD & DESIGN SUPPORT: Gary Priester The State Canvassing Board met on CARTOONIST: Rudi Klimpert (in memorium) June 23 to certify candidates for the AD SALES: Office Staff November general election. The fol- WEBMASTER: Bunny Bowen lowing are official totals listed by The surge of absentee ballots from voters in the June 2 party primaries didn’t all DISTRIBUTION: Office Staff vote totals for countywide offices and state House and Senate offices affect- arrive by mail. Lined up outside the Placitas Community Library that day (from Sandoval Signpost is published monthly by ing Placitas, Bernalillo, and nearby front) Margaret McHenney, John Ghahate, and Susan Lashbrook line up to Belknap Publishing, Inc, P. O. Box areas. deliver their ballots in person while Rick Kossow waits his turn to vote. 889, Placitas, NM 87043. Bulk postage is paid at Placitas, New Mexico. As a local newspaper State Senate District 9 of general circulation for Plac- (Corrales, Bernalillo, Placitas, Algodones) itas, Bernalillo, Corrales, Rio Rancho and Democratic: other areas of southeastern Sandoval County, Brenda Grace McKenna, 4,177 State House District 65 (Multiple pueblos, Bernalillo, we invite readers to submit stories, ideas, Kevin David Lucero, 2,049 San Ysidro, Cochiti Lake, western Rio Arriba County) articles, letters, poetry, and photographs of Ben Rodefer, 2,151 Democratic artwork for publishing consideration. We wel- Derek Lente, incumbent, 2,386 come advertising of interest to our reader- Republican: James Roger Madalena, 1,088 ship area. Ad and submission deadline is the John Stahlman Clark, 2,833 twentieth of the month prior to the publication month. Bridget E. Condon, 1,646 Republican This issue of the Sandoval Signpost has Tania Arletha Dennis, 659 Phillip D. Salazar, 486 been mailed to every home in Placitas (2,700 direct-mail), some direct-mail to Bernalillo, State House District 22 13th Judicial District Attorney and delivered for free pickup at over forty (Placitas, Albuquerque East Mountains, south Santa Fe (succeeding Lemuel Martinez, retiring) locations in the Placitas-Bernalillo-Corrales County) Democratic and southeastern Sandoval County area, Democratic Barbara Romo, 19,444 totalling about 5,400 copies. Jessica Velasquez, 4,412 Mandana Shoushtari, 8,160 Copyright © 2020, by Belknap Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction Republican Republican without permission is prohibited. The opin- Stefani Lord, 3,902 Joshua Joe Jimenez, 17,963 ions expressed in articles appearing in the Sandoval Signpost are those of the State House District 44 County Clerk individual authors and do not necessarily (Corrales, Bernalillo, Rio Rancho) (succeeding Eileen Garbagni, term limited) reflect those of the publishers. The Sandoval Democratic Democratic Signpost is printed with soy ink on recycled Gary J. Tripp, 4,154 Anne S. Brady-Romero, 8,914 newsprint. Bob Perls, 6,080 Republican Ignacio Pedro “Pete” Salazar, 3,029 SUBSCRIPTIONS—--$35/YEAR, 12 ISSUES: Jane Powdrell-Culbert, incumbent, 3,706 Mail address and check to: Signpost, P. O. Republican Box 889, Placitas, NM 87043. Or call the Libertarian Lawrence D. Griego, 11,038 office at 505-867-3810 Jeremy B. Myers, 35 to pay over the phone with a credit/debit —continued on page 5 card or for further information.

Sandoval Signpost • Serving the community since 1988 • JULY 2020 • Page 3 FILL YOUR CART WITH: Boar’s Head Deli Meats Artisanal Cheeses Over 800+ Fine Wines Cold Beer, Growlers, Spirits Fresh Produce and Fresh Meat Sage Bakery Bread Bakery Desserts and other Groceries

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PAGE 4 • JULY 2020 • SANDOVAL SIGNPOST • SERVING THE COMMUNITY SINCE 1988 from page 3——— UP Elections FRONT County Treasurer (succeeding Laura Montoya, term limited) Democratic County Commissioner District 4 Jennifer A. Taylor, 11,179 (Rio Rancho) We Are Ronnie Sisneros, 6,649 Democratic Alexandria C. Piland, 2,348 Finally Republican Benay P. Ward, 6,727 Republican Open! Carlos Sanchez, 4,978 David J. Heil, incumbent, 2.002

County Commissioner District 2 County Commissioner District 5 Stop in (Corrales, Rio Rancho) (Cuba and area) for Democratic Democratic Leah Michelle Ahkee-Baczkiewicz, F. Kenneth Eichwald, incumbent, 1,684 Local 3,791 Taylor Pinto, 1,542 Treasures!

Republican Republican Jay C. Block, incumbent, 2,668 No Republican candidate The Galleria Tamaya uniquely New Mexican gallery features handcrafted jewelry, copper-work, alabaster sculpture, Zuni fetish carvings, authentic Pueblo pottery, paintings from local artists and much more! Find gifts and collectibles that are truly special and exclusive to this area. Galleria Tamaya Located at the Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort and Spa 1300 Tuyuna Trail, Santa Ana Pueblo, NM 87004 Every day 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. or call for private appt.: 505-250-2478 (505) 771-6081 • [email protected]

During the manhunt for two suspects believed to be armed and dangerous, a Sandoval County sheriff’s deputy returns to his patrol car after searching the arroyo running beside Camino del Camposanto in Placitas. The village was locked down and State Road 165 closed for hours, although the suspects managed to avoid capture. from page 1——— Manhunt Two days after two criminal suspects fleeing the law were pursued into national forest into Placitas Village. An attempt to arrest the couple near Placitas village, the Hummer they torched and abandoned remained among It was several days earlier when the State Road 313 and the county line scorched brush and cottonwood trees. Residents reported hearing an sheriff’s Street Crimes and Intelli- failed, as the driver of the Hummer explosion believed to be ammunition left in the vehicle. gence Unit connected at least one of crashed into two unmarked vehicles, the suspects using a stolen credit card missing an officer on foot. Sometime to auto burglaries at the Algodones later, the crew of the Bernalillo trees off Camino los Altos near Paseo de San Antonio. Then came an explo- Spillway, a popular parking area for County Sheriff’s Office helicopter sion believed to be burning ammunition. people canoeing, kayaking, or just spotted the Hummer in the Sandia Around 6:00 p.m., telephone alerts advised residents to shelter in place. visiting the Rio Grande. One of the Mountains near State Road 165, the With the helicopter circling overhead, dozens of officers from multiple agen- credit card purchases involved a large rugged and unpaved portion of the cies swarmed the village, searching until after midnight without locating quantity of ammunition. road from near Sandia Crest to Plac- either suspect. County firefighters kept a safe distance, monitoring the Hum- Street Unit officers were tracking itas. mer as it, brush, and cottonwoods burned and then smoldered. the couple traveling in a stolen Hum- The first sign of trouble for some During the manhunt, NM 165 was closed at mile marker 4 near the Placitas mer when the suspects became aware Placitas residents came before 5:30 Community Library for about six hours. County investigators, working with of the surveillance, according to a p.m., as black smoke rose from a state and federal agencies, are following several leads as the hunt for the pair news release from the sheriff’s office. Hummer burning among cottonwood continues, according to the news release.

Sandoval Signpost • Serving the community since 1988 • JULY 2020 • Page 5 WWW.SODECOWATER.COM

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~CONTINUED —B from page 1——— Businesses

The Crossroad @ 550 program can be found online at www.CrossroadsAt550.com. Beyond boosting business during the highway project, a longer-term goal is creating a regional identity of history, tourism, culture, recreation, and commerce. State transportation Secretary Michael Sandoval, whose personal experience included being caught in near-gridlock during the early days of the project, also met with business owners, some of whom reported revenue drops of forty percent. And that was before the pandemic hit. “This is just one of the ways the NMDOT is going Fresh for Less owner José Morales (right) and employee César Olivas posed behind one of the produce bins above and beyond our commitment to business at the store on U.S. Highway 550 in Bernalillo. The business is one of many weathering the twin crises owners affected by construction,” Sandoval said in of a public health emergency and highway construction outside its front door. the program announcement. Bernalillo Mayor Jack Torres said the program 9691/[email protected].) room to do the work, according to NMDOT. name was chosen because the town, pueblo, Plac- While the program website offers driving tips for The job, intended to handle increased storm itas, and Rio Rancho are a crossroads and a gate- navigating the construction zone, additional infor- runoff from the widened road, will be scheduled way to northern New Mexico. Money spent at local mation, a signup for email updates and alerts and later in the project. businesses helps the town and pueblo provide serv- links to traffic cameras are available on the project And, on June 18, the project shut down entirely ices to the community, he added. website KeepMoving550.com. for several days due to a potential exposure to The free program will expand as more businesses Meanwhile, a planned disruption of up to ten COVID-19. The work resumed after people who reopen. Interested owners and operators can obtain days to install large piping for a storm drain at may have been exposed were tested for the disease more information by contacting representatives of Camino Don Tomas and U.S. 550 in early June was and equipment and facilities were cleaned and sani- the state contractor CWA Strategic Communica- cancelled. That came after the contractor deter- tized following state and federal guidance. tions: Dana Bloomquist (245-3136/ mined that even with turn restrictions, and block- [email protected]) or Patti Watson (269- ing through traffic on Don Tomas, there wasn’t

PAGE 6 • JULY 2020 • SANDOVAL SIGNPOST • SERVING THE COMMUNITY SINCE 1988 ® Commission BUSINESS Phil Messuri, MS, CFP Certified Financial Planner® Professional rejects residences Lt. Col. USAF (Ret.) in Placitas commercial zone INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT—RETIREMENT SOLUTIONS ~BILL DIVEN WE START WITH A PLAN Sandoval County commissioners in would be. Arrange a complimentary, thorough June expressed sympathy for a pro- At a previous meeting Short said discussion. The agenda is up to you! posed multifamily residential project her contract with the McCallisters lim- in Placitas but voted down the zoning its her to 14 townhomes on the site. • The US and World Economies? amendment needed to make it hap- McCallister also contended a zoning Gladly share my thoughts and investment ideas pen. court case in Bernalillo County made Pending any court challenge, that clear that area plans do not have the • Investing Concerns for the Upcoming Months and Years? ends, for now, building a cluster of force of law and can be ignored to How can you prepare for market volatility? townhouses on the vacant 4.7 acres amend zoning. However, County immediately west of the Homestead Attorney Robin Hammer advised • CARES Act (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, Village Shopping Center at the inter- commissioners that Sandoval and Economic Security Act) Issues section of State Road 165 and Tierra County’s ordinances are different. Distribution and Loan rules for accessing your IRA or 401k Madre Road. The county Planning The proper way to change the spe- Required Minimum Distributions (RMD) rule changes and Zoning Commission recom- cial-use zoning on the McCallisters’ mended the denial after a staff report property would be by amending the • Late 2018 Tax Law Changes Impacted Stretching IRAs in part cited the Placitas Area Plan as Placitas Area Plan, she said. Commis- Laws changed regarding non-spouse inherited IRA stretching not allowing multifamily housing. sion Chair David Heil of Rio Rancho Currently, a special-use zoning des- agreed with McCallister that amend- Call my assistant Marcia Smith at ignation limits to commercial uses the ing an area plan is an arduous 798-6941 overall eight-acre Homestead site, process. encompassing the shopping center Commissioner Katherine Bruch of Our Website Has Current Information and two office buildings east of it. Placitas said she’s open to a discus- CORONAVIRUS COVID-19 RESOURCES Orville and Judy McCallister, who sion about how the Placitas Area Plan developed the property and own the applies to future growth and WWW.NMFINANCIALSOLUTIONS.COM shopping center, applied to amend the resources—particularly water. This zoning to allow multifamily residen- comes after hearing from people on Phil Messuri is a Certified Financial Planner offering securities and advisory services through Cetera Advisor Networks LLC, Member FINRA/SIPC, a broker/dealer and a Registered Investment tial in addition to commercial uses, both sides of the zoning question and Adviser. Cetera is under separate ownership from any other named entity. Registered Branch: creating what is known as mixed-use reports of 146 vacant lots changing 6100 Uptown Blvd NE Ste 610B, Albuquerque, NM 87110. For a comprehensive review of your personal situation, always consult with a tax or legal advisor. Neither Cetera Advisor Networks development. hands in Placitas in the last three LLC nor any of its representatives may give legal or tax advice. During two hearings before the years, she said. planning board and the June 18 com- A motion to approve the zone mission meeting, Orville McCallister amendment failed on a 0-4 vote, with argued that the Placitas Area Plan Commissioner Kenneth Eichwald of NM awards Cochiti Pueblo approved in 2009 mistakenly left out Cuba absent. multifamily housing. At the time, an “Mr. McCallister, I’m hoping we can eight-unit complex had stood about find a way for you to move forward, $2.9 million for broadband half a mile west of the Homestead site but this just wasn’t the right approach ~RENEE NARVAIZ since 1985. to it,” Heil said after the vote. Additionally, zoning philosophy In other County Commission action The state of New Mexico awarded need for social distancing. when his property was zoned in 1988 in June, commissioners: the Pueblo of Cochiti nearly $2.9 “This emergency funding will favored separating commercial and • Amended the Comprehensive million in emergency funding to help protect Pueblo of Cochiti resi- residential development, he said. Zoning Ordinance to make short-term bring high-speed Internet to the dents by assuring they have access “That has since changed over the rentals, often called Airbnb rentals, a pueblo to promote social distancing to basic quality of life resources via years, and many mixed-use develop- permissive use in Rural Residential during the COVID-19 pandemic. internet at home without exposing ments are now being put together,” Agricultural zones. A change in state The Inter-Governmental Agree- themselves to unnecessary health McCallister added by telephone, since law last year removed an exemption ment, announced this month by the risks,” Gov. Naranjo said in the public access to county meetings dur- from the state lodger’s tax for those Department of Information Tech- request. ing the COVID-19 pandemic is by rentals. nology, was signed by Pueblo of New Mexico ranks 49th out of the video stream. “Obviously, in 32 years, • Heard their first monthly report Cochiti Gov. Charles D. Naranjo fifty states and District of Columbia conditions and demographics have from UNM Sandoval Regional Med- and New Mexico Gov. Michelle for broadband connectivity, accord- changed in the Placitas area.” ical since voting in May to temporar- Lujan Grisham, who also signed an ing to a March study by Broadband Older supporters of the project have ily divert voter-approved tax revenue executive order to release the Now, a website that helps con- said they want the option to downsize to help cover hospital losses due to funds. sumers find and compare Internet from their homes while staying in the pandemic. Even with federal aid “It’s past time to end the digital service providers in their area. Placitas within walking distance of and the county’s $2.9 million from divide that separates communities “We look forward to hearing the grocery store, restaurants, and behavioral health programs and a yet- in New Mexico and across the about the development of this proj- other Homestead services. Deb Short to-open trauma unit, SRMC projected country into haves and have-nots,” ect and learning that Cochiti Pueblo of Placitas, owner of Vineyard Homes, a $2.4 million loss for the fiscal year Gov. Lujan Grisham said. “The cur- will have the fiber connectivity said it’s her intent to develop an that ended on June 30. rent world health crisis has made it needed to remain safe and prosper attractive and environmentally • Extended the county’s coron- clearer than ever that high-speed well into the future,” said John friendly project with 12 townhomes avirus emergency declaration from internet is no longer a luxury; it is Salazar, secretary for the Depart- priced around $390,000. June 30 to December 31 to remain cur- essential to the health, welfare, and ment of Information Technology. However, if the zone change were rent with state and federal programs. education of our people, and I look Over the 12-month project, work- approved, actual development would • Learned that the overhaul of the forward to seeing more partner- ers will install nearly 41,000 feet of require a separate public process Sandoval County Detention Center ships like this with more rural New underground fiber optic cable and under the county subdivision ordi- may be completed in December, six Mexico communities.” almost 32,000 feet of fiber laterals, nance, not the zoning ordinance. Crit- months ahead of schedule. Among the In his written request for the reaching 260 endpoint locations— ics of the zone change said, through upgrades, after years of neglect and funding, Gov. Naranjo noted that homes, anchor institutions, and emailed comments, that the lack of a security lapses, are 142 cameras to pueblo residents tend to congregate tribal administration in the Pueblo site plan left them concerned as to monitor the facility. at the tribal library to use the out- of Cochiti. what the final development actually side WiFi connection despite the

Sandoval Signpost • Serving the community since 1988 • JULY 2020 • Page 7 - EN

Placitas paleontologist C strikes evolutionary gold USEUM M ~BILL DIVEN More than twenty years after his discovery, a Placitas paleontologist has a ICKINSON

second dinosaur named for him that is helping to shake up established D ideas on how a particular horned plant-eater evolved. Both discoveries came on the same day in 1997 when Paul Sealey as a member of a permitted expedition trekked three miles into a remote Four OURTESY

Corners area known for its fossils. —C “I knew what I was doing looking for dinosaurs and where I was looking,” Sealey told the Signpost. “I knew what it was… Sometimes you can get it confused with a turtle; there are a lot of turtles out there.” Sealey’s target for that day, however, was further on, so he kept walking. “So then, when I found the Bisti Beast, now I have two dinosaurs named after me all from the same day,” he said. “That was pretty excit- (Above) These newly named horned dinosaurs discovered in separate New Mexico ing.” searches bridge an evolutionary gap showing how the frill, the boney structure rising This being science and not Hollywood, the previously unknown tyran- from the head, narrowed over time. The older one (left) is named Navajoceratops sulli- nosaurus nicknamed Bisti Beast is technically Bistahieversor sealeyi com- vani for expedition leader Robert Sullivan, Ph.D. while the younger one, Terminocavus bining Greek and Navajo words to mean “Sealey’s Destroyer of the sealeyi, carries the name of its discoverer, paleontologist Paul Sealey of Placitas. Badlands,” according to the New Mexico Natural History Museum. Sealey, a longtime research assistant at the museum, at the time was part of a field project headed by Thomas Williams, Ph. D., a curator of paleontology at the museum. The next year it took a New Mexico Army National Guard helicopter to remove the nearly complete tyrannosaurus from the roadless Bureau of ELKNAP B Land Management territory and place it on a flatbed trailer. It took longer for the significance of Sealey’s other discovery to be rec- VAN E BY

ognized in recent research and be acknowledged in a paper published in June. The work by Denver Fowler and Elizabeth Freedman Fowler, both Ph. D. paleontologists associated with institutions in North Dakota, identi- PHOTOS fied Sealey’s fossil, and a second New Mexico discovery, as two new species. TORY The species are considered missing links in a five-million-year gap in —S the lineage of two known horned dinosaurs about seventy million years ago. The Fowlers also used that connection to argue that an inland sea, covering much of the West, earlier split the evolutionary path of this cer- atops family into distinct northern and southern branches. Many dinosaur fans are more familiar with triceratops, one of the last dinosaurs. It featured three horns, two on its brow and one on its snout, and a boney headdress known as a frill. It was a notch in that frill, shown to be closing over time in Sealey’s and the other fossils, that is central to the Fowlers’ conclusions. The Fowlers named the older of the new species Navajoceratops sulli- vani for the Navajo people who live in the area and Robert Sullivan, Ph.D., who led the expedition that discovered it, and the younger Ter- minocavus sealeyi, for Sealey and “closing cavity.” Sealey, an Albuquerque native, earned his bachelor’s and master’s Paleontologist Paul Sealey poses with the skull of the Bisti Beast at the New Mexico degrees in anthropology from the University of New Mexico and was one Museum of Natural History and Science in Albuquerque in 2012. of the first research associates signing on with the natural history museum As credit for his discovery, the new species of tyrannosaurus was named in Albuquerque before it was built. Despite the prominence of his discov- Bistahieversor sealeyi, the first dinosaur to bear his name. eries, dinosaurs are not his main interest. “I found my first fossil like fifty years ago on a trip with my family,” he said. “We weren’t really fossil hunting on that trip, but I found an ammonite… That is what I research.” Ammonites would be mollusks that left fossils know for their coiled external shells akin to the modern nautilus. Sealey is lead or co-author on numerous publications related to ammonites, often in collaboration with Spencer Lucas, Ph.D., also a curator of paleontology at the New Mexico Museum.

(Above:) One of Sealey’s prized ammonites, pulled from storage in the lab of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History.

(Left:) Bisti Beast rib bones from Sealey’s first find.

PAGE 8 • JULY 2020 • SANDOVAL SIGNPOST • SERVING THE COMMUNITY SINCE 1988 Estate Planning & Elder Law Firm

• Wills and Trusts • Special Needs Trusts • Probate and Trust Administration • Powers of Attorney • Health Care Documents • Elder Law • Guardianship and Conservatorship

During this time, we will be offering phone and video conferencing. We also have emergency procedures for isolated individuals to complete documents.

Mrs. Pickel has a Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Estate Planning and Elder Law, is the former chair of the Elder Law Section of the New Mexico Bar, is the former division chair of the Estate and Trust division of Real Property, Estate and Trust Section of the New Mexico Bar, is a member of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, and was a prior board member of the Greater Albuquerque Habitat for Humanity. She served as an Assistant Judge Advocate General (JAG) with the U. S. Air Force before settling in Placitas.

JOHANNA A. PICKEL, LLC Business office locations in both Placitas and Albuquerque

(505) 798-2515 01 Ridge Court, Placitas, New Mexico 87043 4801 Lang Avenue, NE • Suite 110 • Albuquerque, New Mexico 87109 [email protected] • www.johannapickel.com AROUND TOWN Pandemic cancels Placitas parade, alters Fiestas de San Lorenzo ~SIGNPOST STAFF As the coronavirus continues to Meanwhile, Bernalillo, which spread, events, large and small, started the year billing itself as including the July Fourth parade in “Small Town, Big Events,” Placitas are saying see ya next year! extended cancellations through “What we need to do is keep August. That takes out the Fourth everybody safe,” said Jim of July celebration and the 7th Madueña, who inherited the title of Annual Mountain Brew Fest parade marshal more than twenty planned for August 29 in the years ago. “I want to remind every- town’s Loretto Park. body what happened between Separately, the Sandoval County Philadelphia and St. Louis.” Sheriff’s Posse canceled the annual His reference is to the 1918 rodeo, set for August 15-16, at the influenza pandemic where rodeo grounds in Bernalillo. The Philadelphia staged a large World Sandoval County Fair scheduled War I parade only to soon quaran- for August has instead turned into tine the city and dig mass graves, a virtual fair with online 4-H and as nearly 14,000 residents died. FFA livestock exhibitions and sales. Meanwhile, St. Louis, among other A major change for the people of actions, closed schools, public gath- Bernalillo will be the 327th annual ering places, and churches, while Fiestas de San Lorenzo, from limiting business hours and record- August 9-11, being only accessible ing 2,900 deaths by the end of the to participants. For the public, that year. means that prayers, services at San- The biggest cancellation tuario de San Lorenzo, dances, and drawn large crowds, especially for the procession and the dances of Las Mat- announced to date is the Albu- the delivering of the statue of San achines—portraying the triumph of good over evil. Fiestas is considered not only querque International Balloon Lorenzo to the new mayordomo’s an integral part of the town’s identity but a homecoming for former residents and Fiesta, scheduled October 3-11. Sev- can only be seen by live stream on an attraction for thousands of visitors. eral days later, the New Mexico Facebook and YouTube at News of the pandemic-related changes and the streaming schedule are to State Fair announced it was cancel- “Bernalillo Fiestas de San Antonio.” be published in the town newsletter and also will be posted on its website: ing its September 10-20 run. In years past, those events have TownOfBernalillo.org.

Sandoval Signpost • Serving the community since 1988 • JULY 2020 • Page 9 Neva Daugherty Wenzel REAL PEOPLE

Neva Daugherty Wenzel, Village of Jemez Springs honors age 72, a longtime resident of Placitas, New Mexico, left us on Monday, June 15, Samantha D’Anna for clean-up efforts 2020, to be with God and ~ERICA ASMUS-OTERO

the angels. The Village of Jemez Springs has “I have been visiting the Jemez She is survived by her proclaimed June 11 as “Samantha for years and am honored to be rec- husband, Jamie of Placitas; D’Anna Day,” in recognition of Los ognized for doing something that I Alamos resident, Samantha hope anyone would,” said D’Anna. children, Brenda and D’Anna, who voluntarily spent sev- Using COVID Safe Practices, husband, Bubba of Elephant eral hours last week cleaning up Mayor Sweet and Village staff pre- Butte, Bryan and wife, trash in the Jemez Springs area. sented D’Anna with a proclamation Jackie, of Albuquerque, After a weekend trip with friends certificate and $100 gift card outside Paul and wife, Meaghan, in late May, D’Anna noticed a sig- the Village Plaza on June 11. of Oahu, HI; grandchildren, nificant amount of trash in Jemez Under the Governor’s orders, Vil- Springs and in the neighboring lage restaurants and hotels are now Sara and David of Elephant Butte; Aryton, Triton, and Santa Fe National Forest. Days later, operating at fifty percent capacity, Melaina of Knoxville, TN, Garrett and Beckett, of Oahu, she spent several hours voluntarily with other businesses at 25 percent HI, Riley and Ryder, of Albuquerque; brother, John and cleaning up and removing the trash. capacity. The USDA Forest Service wife, Susan, of Albuquerque; sisters, Patty and Terrie, “We want to recognize the efforts has resumed trash pickup service as of Clovis, NM; and cousin, Gary, of Las Vegas, NV; plus of a true Jemez ambassador who well. took it upon herself to clean up For more information on open- many nieces, nephews, and friends. She was preceded in trash left by other people in an ings in the Village, visit death by her son, Martin of Winnemucca, NV. effort to preserve the beauty of the www.jemezsprings.org/News or A Funeral Service was held at FRENCH—Wyoming, Jemez Valley,” said Jemez Springs contact Erica Asmus-Otero at Mayor Roger Sweet. “Jemez Springs [email protected] or by and Interment took place in Dimmitt, TX. is a refuge for many people, and calling 505-259-2202. Please visit our online guestbook for Neva at Samantha’s selfless care for our village is exemplary and should be www.FrenchFunerals.com celebrated!” FRENCH—Wyoming 7121 Wyoming Blvd. NE • (505) 823-9400

County manager praised as OUNTY she heads into retirement C

~SIGNPOST STAFF ANDOVAL S After decades in public service, Sandoval County Manager Dianne Maes is going fishing, although grandchildren might have something to do with her retirement as well. OURTESY When the county budget year ended on June 30, Maes turned over her office —C keys to Wayne Johnson, mostly recently the Torrance County manager. She has been with the county since 2002 and said that she has worked steadily since age 11, starting in the family grocery store in Las Vegas, N.M., taking time out only for her college years and the birth of her first child. Most of the last thirty years have been spent in county and municipal government. “I look at people who go back to work after they’ve retired, and I just scratch my head,” Maes said. “We’ll definitely travel. I have three children and three grandchildren, none of them in New Mexico any more.” County Manager Dianne Maes displays her retirement gift, presented during the For travel, she and her husband have an RV, and Maes said they both fish. June 18 meeting by Sandoval County Commission Chair David Heil. During her years at Sandoval County, Maes has been a contract administrator, County Commissioner Katherine Bruch is in the background. capital projects administrator, and director of economic development and tourism. She was named county manager in May, 2017, after holding the acting title after Phil Rios retired. “I do feel really good about the detention center,” Maes said. “I think “I would never have imagined how this ended up, but it worked out,” Maes moving forward, and with the organizational changes, people feel good. It’s said. “It gave me an opportunity to fix internal things I could see were lacking… a different place to work.” Hopefully the county is in a better place now.” At their June 18 meeting, county commissioners recognized Maes’s Maes took over the county administration just as the high-profile escape of accomplishment with a certificate and engraved jewelry box inscribed with two inmates and the mistaken release of another from the Sandoval County recognition for her service. Detention Center led to the firing of jail administrators. It also brought to the “You have really been a transformational county manager in my opinion,” fore decades of neglect in maintaining the facility. Commissioner Jay Block of Rio Rancho said. “You have put Sandoval County commissioners who prided themselves on keeping taxes low increased County on the path that we have been working hard to get on to openness sales taxes to fund more than $5 million in repairs, upgrades, and future opera- and ethics, writing policy down, enforcing policy, and it’s been hard… You tions. are leaving Sandoval County a lot better than you found it, by far.”

PAGE 10 • JULY 2020 • SANDOVAL SIGNPOST • SERVING THE COMMUNITY SINCE 1988 PUBLIC SAFETY Camino Real Antiques

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Strong Again Physical Therapy, LLC Linda Stewart, Physical Therapist Your personal physical therapist in the comfort of your own home! Addressing your needs with a personalized program to improve quality of life. Call today for further information: ph 505-933-7994 • fax 505-930-7136 [email protected] Bernalillo firefighters (from left) Matthew Esquibel, Brian Edwards, and Lt. Matthew www.preventfalls.org Miller inspect the department’s new Ferrara Fire Appartus ladder truck. After a quick visit, the truck proceeded to Albuquerque for final outfitting before delivery this month.

Two new fire trucks prepping for Bernalillo service ~SIGNPOST STAFF

In recent weeks, the Town of Bernalillo has gone from fearing the loss of fund- truck and confirmed it fits in the fire station with five inches to spare. The ing for a new fire truck to preparing to welcome both a new ladder truck truck then went to vendor 411 Equipment LLC in Albuquerque for equipment downtown and a brush truck at the west side station. installation. With the special session of the Legislature approaching to deal with a rev- The new truck, with a 77-foot ladder, five-hundred-gallon tank, and 1,500 enue crash from the pandemic and cratered oil prices, panic spread among gallons-per-minute pump, replaces a 1993 Pierce Manufacturing ladder truck local governments. The initial word from Santa Fe had all capital-outlay money bought second-hand nearly ten years ago from the city of Los Ranchos. approved earlier this year being pulled back to plug a gaping hole in the state Bernalillo Fire Chief Mike Carroll said the old truck still maintained needed budget. certifications but was requiring more and more maintenance. The Ferrera truck For Bernalillo, that meant $900,000 for the new ladder truck and $1.3 million seats four firefighters and has significantly more compartment space. on top of federal grant funding for water-system improvements—notably an “It will give us a more reliable apparatus over here, increasing our capabili- upgrade to water lines and hydrants in the Mountain View neighborhood. ties with a longer reach,” Carroll told the Signpost. The truck is expected to “We couldn’t hit the pavement, so we hit the phones,” Bernalillo Mayor Jack enter service in mid-July. Torres said. “We reached out to the governor’s office and the capital-outlay Coincidentally, the brush truck, ordered with earlier funding, arrived at Mel- staff to state our case.” loy in Albuquerque on June 26 for final outfitting. It should enter service about Ultimately, the Legislature swept up capital money for projects only partially the same time as the ladder truck and will be based at Station No. 2. funded or not ready to proceed. In early June, the town got its first look at the Ferrara Fire Apparatus ladder

Sandoval Signpost • Serving the community since 1988 • JULY 2020 • Page 11 July 2020 Night Sky ENJOY THE STARRY NIGHT SKY • REDUCE NIGHTTIME GLARE ~CHARLIE CHRISTMANN TURN OFF OR SHIELD YOUR OUTSIDE LIGHTS DOWNWARD AN AMERICAN SUCCESS STORY: With the successful May 30th launch of two NASA astronauts aboard the private Falcon 9/Dragon spacecraft, SpaceX has added to its growing list of accomplishments. It had been nine years, since the last Space Shuttle launch, in July of 2011, that the United States had to rely on Russian launch capabilities to reach the International Space Station. NASA had set its future on having its Commercial Crew program operational by 2015, but project funding of just under five-hundred- million dollars per year, a bit short of the more than $800 million requested for the development project, had caused a projected delay until 2017. To keep an American presence on the Space Station, NASA and the Russian Space Agency signed a contract in 2011 to deliver astronauts into space and back for approximately $62.7 million per seat in a Russian Soyuz capsule. By 2013, that cost has increased to just over $70.7 million per astronaut. That deal, struck in April of 2013, was for six astronauts at a cost of $424 million. The delays and funding certainty caused NASA to push for private companies to develop human space capabilities. The space agency signed billion-dollar deals with two U.S. companies, SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corporation, to fly unmanned resupply missions to the International Space Station (ISS). By 2013, SpaceX had completed two of its twelve contracted resupply missions. In 2014, both SpaceX and Boeing were awarded contracts to put U.S. astronauts into orbit from U.S. soil. The firm, fixed-price contracts were worth about $6.8 billion; Boeing received $4.2 billion, SpaceX received only $2.6 billion for the equivalent amount of effort. From this point, the race was on. Most space experts were putting their money on Boeing to get to the ISS with astronauts first. After all, Boeing had been in the aero- space business for many decades. They had a large part in the Apollo program and gained valuable experience about human space flight. The Washington Post reported that an industry veteran said, “You know their rockets are put together with rubber bands and sealing wax. It’s not real. It won’t fly.” With the original 2017 deadline fast approaching, Boeing was dealing with its large bureaucracy, better equipped to handle longer-term, cost plus contracts. The delays were beginning to add up. But, SpaceX had its own problems when two of its Falcon 9 boosters exploded and parachute deployment issues slowed progress. Just as things began looking up, SpaceX’s Dragon capsule was destroyed in an emergency abort test of its escape system in 2019. Scrappy SpaceX was able to quickly find and fix the problems. Boe- ing’s Starliner, in a 2019 test, had its own major malfunction, causing its brightness, and can be spotted with the naked eye (see Heavens-Above.com onboard computer system to crash and go offline for eleven hours, aborting for times). the unmanned test mission. In fixing the crash, Boeing discovered another The FCC, who regulates the satellite radio frequencies, has approved a bug that could affect separation of the crew module from the service mod- total of 12,000 satellites and is coordinating with the International Telecom- ule necessary to expose the crew module’s heat shield for reentry. munications Union for another thirty thousand replacement satellites. As of Yet, on May 30, 2020, underfunded but determined, SpaceX beat Boeing June 13, 2020, SpaceX has launched 540 Starlink satellites in nine launches. with astronauts to the ISS, and recovered the first-stage boosters for reuse. The mission has been very successful and the space craft is functioning so ON TO MARS: well that the return of the astronauts from the ISS has not yet been deter- SpaceX is now turning its attention to perfecting its Starship to carry mined. humans to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. This monster reusable rocket and space capsule system is planned to be one of the most powerful rockets ever A PROBLEM FOR ASTRONOMERS: built, able to deliver about 220,000 pounds of cargo into earth orbit. It is sec- While SpaceX has wowed us in delivering cargo and people to orbit, one of ond only to the Saturn V, capable of putting 310,000 pounds in orbit. their projects is causing consternation with astronomers. Starlink is planned So far, four prototypes have been destroyed on the test stand. Two rup- to allow affordable, fast internet service anywhere on Earth via a swarm of tured during a static pressure test of the fuel tanks, one from a procedural satellites. issue that caused an explosion, and one from a leak in a ground support Current plans are to place 1,584 small, five-hundred pound, table-sized fuel line that leveled the test area. Knowing SpaceX, those problems will be satellites 370 miles above Earth, sixty at a time. Astronomers, along with solved quickly, since NASA awarded SpaceX, in April 2020, a one of three SpaceX, were surprised at how bright the satellites appeared as the first contracts to compete in the Artemis program, aimed at putting Americans sixty trained across the sky like a “string of pearls.” Over the next few days, back on the Moon. the satellites migrated to their operational orbits and spread out, becoming Commercial Starship missions could begin sometime in 2021, according to dimmer in the process. Still, astronomers, using long-duration exposures to Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX. Unmanned missions to Mars are planned for capture the faint light from very dim objects had their images almost ren- 2022, with one, maybe two missions launched. In 2023, SpaceX has a con- dered useless by streaks caused by Starlink satellites flying through the pic- tract to send Yukazu Maezawa, a Japanese billionaire, around the Moon in a ture. Starship. If all goes well, a manned mission to Mars could happen in 2026 More recent launches have satellites coated with anti-reflective and darker with a viable colony operational by 2050. coatings to reduce their brightness even more, yet astronomers are still reporting problems. The satellites are still second or third magnitude in

PAGE 12 • JULY 2020 • SANDOVAL SIGNPOST • SERVING THE COMMUNITY SINCE 1988 —U.S. F SERVICES FOR ALL

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The Bush Fire, considered the fifth largest wildfire in Arizona history, is one of many sources of smoke that Celebrating over 30 Years shrouded southern Sandoval County in June. This June 16 view of the fire looks east from near Phoenix. Providing Tax & Accounting Services to New Mexicans Distant fires smoke up TERRY PISEL, CPA, LLC ECO-BEAT CERTIFIED PUBLIC ACCOUNTANT Sandoval County Tax Planning & Preparation ~SIGNPOST STAFF for Individuals & Businesses Fire season has been kind to Sandoval County, so far, in terms of flames—instead, it’s smoke trav- QuickBooks Consulting eling hundreds of miles to afflict the area and prompt health warnings. Three main culprits, among many contributors, have come from Arizona: the Bush Fire, more than 190,000 acres in the Tonto National Forest northeast of Phoenix (possibly human-caused); In Placitas • 798-1003 the Magnum Fire, 71,000 acres in the Kaibab National Forest north of the Grand Canyon; and the Bighorn Fire, 81,000 acres in the Coronado National Forest northeast of Tucson. Lightning is responsible for the Bighorn Fire while the cause of the Magnum Fire remains under investigation, according to the U.S. Forest Service. At last report, three fires were actively burning in southwest New Mexico, two in the Gila National Forest and one in the San Mateo Mountains of Socorro County on the Cibola National Forest Magdalena Ranger District. The largest was the 11,000-acre Tad- pole Fire north of Silver City, last reported to be 45 percent contained, with full containment forecast for July 18. State Road 15 from near Pinos Altos to Lake Roberts remains closed. The 14,000-acre Good Fire is burning about 1.5 miles southeast of the Gila Cliff Dwellings and is projected to spread south-southwest. Started by lightning, at last report it was 39 percent contained. The Vics Peak Fire in the San Mateos is easily visible from Interstate 25 and has spread over nearly 7,000 acres of timber litter, understory, and grasses since being started by lightning on June 15. A health alert issued June 18 by the city of Albuquerque Air Quality Pro- gram, in addition to the usual warnings about people with respiratory and other conditions taking precautions, added a specific warning related to COVID-19. It noted smoke makes people more vulnerable to infections like COVID-19 and can aggravate the symptoms and increase the medical impacts. More information can be found at the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions at CDC.gov/Coron- avirus/2019-NCOV/php/smoke- faq.html.

Sandoval Signpost • Serving the community since 1988 • JULY 2020 • Page 13 Fort Union, twenty miles north of Las Vegas, N.M., had been in service on the Santa Fe Trail for ten years when Confederate soldiers invaded A century after it was abandoned in 1885, Fort Craig’s stone building walls still southern New Mexico knowing the fort blocked their route to Colorado. stood strong. Union and Confederate soldiers fought the Battle of Valverde along The remains of the fort, where wagon ruts from the Santa Fe Trail can be seen, the Rio Grande below the left end Mesa de la Contadera in the background. became and national historic site in 1954. Civil War sites link New Mexico’s past with current events

~BILL DIVEN

After a cold night on wet ground near Algodones, Sgt. Alfred Peticolas of Confederate invasion of New Mexico trudged back to Texas after a year in the Co. C, 4th Regiment, Texas Mounted Volunteers, marched through Bernalillo territory. with fellow rebels intending to reinforce Confederate troops holding Albu- “Lying in camp eating scant rations and wishing for a change of clothes,” Peti- querque. colas wrote on May 11 after trekking more than three hundred miles to what is Instead, it was the beginning of their arduous retreat toward home eight now El Paso, Texas. “Most of us are wearing the same suit we started from Santa hundred miles away. Fe in.” It was April 10, 1862. Nearly a month would pass before survivors of the UNM Press published the Peticolas diary in 1984 as Rebels on the Rio Grande, edited by the late Don Alberts, Ph.D., at the time chief historian at Kirtland Air Force Base. The high point of the invasion came six weeks before Peticolas passed south- ward through Sandoval County. Over two days the Texans routed U.S. Army regulars and New Mexico volunteers, including two Placitas men at the Battle of Valverde about 25 miles south of Socorro. The federals fell back into Fort Craig, its remains now administered by the Bureau of Land Management, recognizing the largest Civil War battle in the Southwest. The battle also produced the only Confederate war memorial in the state, erected 74 years later. The Fort Craig National Historic Site is one of several accessible places related to the Civil War and is open Thursdays through Sundays, from 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., under COVID-19 restrictions, which include closure of the visitor center. Others stretch north from Mesilla, capital of the Confederate state of Arizona, along the Rio Grande to Albuquerque and overland to Santa Fe, Glorieta, and Fort Union. The sites provide destinations for Civil War buffs or anyone interested in state history or just a cruise to see new country. So, from south to north: Texas forces, eventually numbering about 3,200 men, first targeted Fort Fill- more several miles south of Las Cruces. There, the perhaps treasonous commander abandoned the fort, sending his command toward Fort Stanton near Capitan more than one hundred miles away. Few made it more than ten miles to the Organ Mountains before surrendering. Fort Fillmore today is melted adobe, on private property, surrounded by a pecan orchard, but nearby Mesilla is rich with history. Southern sympathizers welcomed the victors and hanged a couple of unionists with hard feelings, con- tributing to a deadly 1871 political riot on the Mesilla plaza, quelled by troops from post-war Fort Selden. Some Texans continued west as part of a plan to capture Arizona, and ultimately California, while Mesilla became the administrative center for the new Confederate state. Others pressed northeast to Fort Stanton, a current state historic site that played a role in the later Lincoln County War, before torching the property at the end of a month-long occupation. (www.FortStanton.org) From Mesilla, the now reinforced rebels marched north, unopposed for nearly one hundred miles, until clashing with troops from Fort Craig in the two-day Battle of Valverde on the banks of the Rio Grande. About 160 men died outright or of injuries, with the rebels continuing north rather than attacking the fort. Both Francisco Trujillo and Francisco Gonzales of Placitas were among the New Mexico volunteers in the battle, according to Las Placitas, Historical Facts and Legends, oral history collected by Placitas resident Lou Sage Batchen in the 1930s. Her work was first published in 1972 with sponsorship from Las Jar- dineros de Placitas. Returning from war, Gonzales brought the first firearm to the village, she wrote. —continued next page

PAGE 14 • JULY 2020 • SANDOVAL SIGNPOST • SERVING THE COMMUNITY SINCE 1988 TIME OFF Complimentary from page 14——— retirement plan reviews.

Civil War Lucas Romero Financial Advisor In 1936, the Texas division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) placed a seven-foot granite slab weighing five tons beside what is now State 240 S Camino Del Pueblo Ste B Road 1 near the battlefield and about six miles from Fort Craig. The engraved Bernalillo, NM 87004 stone memorializes the Texas volunteers and casualties of the battle. 505-867-9635 The monument had already stirred some controversy before the May 25 death of George Floyd—a Black man beneath the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer—ignited broadly based social- and racial-justice protests around the country. Southern Civil War monuments, many erected long after the war and MAKING SENSE OF INVESTING seen by some as objects of racist oppression, became particular targets. edwardjones.com By October, 2019, chisel work on the Valverde monument, begun at least two years earlier, had nearly obliterated the engraved Confederate battle flag. Mean- while, New Mexico protests following Floyd’s death are leading to proposed reforms in the Albuquerque Police Department, although the focus of protestors here also relates to monuments tied to 16th-century Spanish colonization, and by extension, the subjugation of Native Americans. IVEN

As Union troops fled Albuquerque for Santa Fe, Confederates occupied Old D

Town where replicas cannons grace the plaza today, while the originals buried ILL by retreating rebels reside at the Albuquerque Museum. The Confederate States B BY flag known as the Stars and Bars flew on the plaza beside U.S., Mexican, and Spanish flags until 2015, when it was removed after a white supremacist mur- PHOTOS dered nine members of a Bible study class at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C. Also taken down after the church massacre were UDC markers the then-State TORY Highway Department installed across southwest New Mexico in the 1950s, des- —S ignating U.S. Highway 70, now Interstate 10, as the Jefferson Davis Memorial Highway. The attempt to elevate the Confederate president to the status of Abra- ham Lincoln was a response to the transcontinental Lincoln Highway, the first transcontinental highway named in 1913, according to news accounts of the time. Santa Fe also fell to the Texans without a shot on March 23, 1862, while Union troops hauling supplies spent five wintry days traveling 172 miles over Glorieta Pass and high plains to Fort Union on the Santa Fe Trail. At this writing, a stone obelisk erected in 1868 still stands on the Santa Fe plaza recognizing Union A granite monument erected in 1936 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy troops at Valverde and soldiers in the then-ongoing Indian Wars. stands a few miles from the site the Battle of Valverde. Texas soldiers who invaded Long a flashpoint in cultural relations, the monument referred to Union New Mexico came around Mesa de la Contadera in the background and clashed “heroes” and “savage Indians,” until 1974 when an anonymous man in a hard- with Union soldiers on the banks of the Rio Grande. hat carved away the word “savage.” In April, someone with a marker wrote “Resilient” in the empty space, and on June 22 someone shattered part of the inscription and adorned the obelisk with graffiti labeling it racist and on Indian land. From Santa Fe, the rebel army set its sights on Fort Union twenty miles north of Las Vegas, aiming ultimately for the gold fields of Colorado. But by then Col- orado volunteers had reached Fort Union to join in fighting the Texans near Pecos. The Battle of Glorieta, sometimes called the Gettysburg of the West, ended with Union troops withdrawing and the Texans holding the field and claiming victory. Despite the tactical win, the battle doomed Confederate aspirations as Colorado troops descending from Rowe Mesa to Apache Pass destroyed the lightly defended Confederate wagon train with its crucial supplies. Fort Union National Monument administered by the National Park Service is currently open daily, from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Trails reopened in late May, but the visitor center remains closed. (www.NPS.gov/FOUN, 505-425-8025 ext. 0) The park service also manages the Pecos National Historic Park, which includes the Glorieta battlefield, and hosts an annual Civil War Encampment with re-enactors in late March but canceled this year. The park is open daily, from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with its visitor center still closed. (www.NPS.gov/PECO, (505) 757-7241) The impact of the Civil War lingered in New Mexico. The California Column drove the rebels from Arizona and brought Gen. James Carleton to New Mexico The United Daughters of the Confederacy monument memorializing Texas soldiers where he stayed as military commander of the territory. at the Battle of Valverde was already showing damage to its rebel battle flag a Carleton remains notorious for the brutal roundup of the Navajo people and few years before current racial-justice protests led to the removal their forcible removal, known as the Long Walk, hundreds of miles away to a of Confederate statues in other states. concentration camp on the Pecos River. Other veterans, Union soldiers discharged here and Confederate veterans who arrived later, became prominent business and political leaders at a time when success required learning Spanish. A rebel sergeant with a law degree, Thomas Benton Catron of Missouri, was elected as one of New Mexico’s first U.S. sena- ten districts, from Las Cruces to Hobbs to Clovis. Even in Albuquerque, tors after statehood. Black moviegoers were restricted to theater balconies, and many restaurants New Mexico also embraced Jim Crow during the national revival of the Ku denied service to Black customers before a public-accommodations ordi- Klux Klan in the 1920s, segregating Black students in separate schools in about nance was passed in 1952.

Sandoval Signpost • Serving the community since 1988 • JULY 2020 • Page 15 • Women’s Health • Same Day Appointments • Prenatal Services • Family Planning • Comprehensive Family • Behavioral Health Medicine

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RI E AUX L

———A L V RI

Strawberry shortcake never changes. You can tweak “As the kids got older and wiser —A it, but the basic trifecta of strawberries, cream, and they began demanding whipped cake is so stable that there isn’t much room for cream,” she recounts. “So now we improvement. This means it’s near impossible to use fifty/fifty full fat yogurt and screw up. These qualities made strawberry short- whipped cream.” cake a great starter cake for my nine-year-old self. When Luci enters the kitchen to I had some help from my friend Sara Lee and her make lunch, she’s as no-nonsense as a All Butter Pound Cake found in the frozen food heart attack. Everything better be in its section. The hardest part of the whole recipe was place, because she’s got work to do, waiting for the pound cake to thaw. I cut it in half including dessert. along a horizontal plane into top and bottom layers, Dessert after lunch is part of the daily plastered them with whipped cream and straw- bargain on the farm when you have a Strawberry shortcake parfait berry slices, stacked them into a two-layer cake, crew of child laborers. This time of My slovenly shortcake however was long on fla- and coated the whole thing with more whipped year, it’s often strawberry shortcake. Before she vor. The buttermilk rhubarb cake and strawberry cream and strawberries. starts lunch, she preheats the oven and mixes the lemon sauce came together like a strawberry short- My memories of that strawberry shortcake are simple batter. No butter, hardly any sugar, and, cake should. The flavors contrasted one another unassailable, even though I haven’t tasted a Sara “You don’t even have to crack an egg.” brilliantly, and the textures created a place of divine Lee pound cake in about four decades. So as part of I told Missoula’s one-and-only Chef Marianne creamy sogginess that you could fall into forever, if my fiftieth birthday festivities, I staged a Straw- that I wanted to put rhubarb in Luci’s cake, as a only your belly could handle it. berry Shortcake showdown: Sara Lee vs what I way of adding more tartness. She suggested slices My kids, the new generation of critics, agreed. would make now, if given the strawberries, cream, rolled in sugar and folded into the batter. I also They were particularly impressed with the and the ingredients for a cake. replaced Luci’s milk with buttermilk, for more tang whipped cream and yogurt combo, which at first With so little room for improvement in the for- with no extra nonsense. Nailed it. they mistook for store-bought whipped cream. mula, I resorted to doubling up on the flavors I served the fresh strawberries in a quick sauce They actually sprinted to the fridge from their already present. with lemon (more tartness), and whipped the cream plates, in search of the can. Redundancy can be annoying in some contexts, with nothing but vanilla. Then I prepared for battle, Since my new formulation is messier and harder but in the kitchen it’s a powerful tool, and I use it in chef vs chef, against my nine-year-old self. to contain than the original Sara Lee, I served it as almost all my recipes, sweet and savory. As back- The Sara Lee version looked sharp. The smooth, parfait, in glasses. Parfait happens to mean “per- ground singers embellish the lead vocals in a band, almost golden pound cake juxtaposed with the fect” in French, and strawberry shortcake parfait a chorus of similar flavors can add richness and stately whipped cream, which was stiffer without turns out to be the perfect way to combine the three depth to flavor. yogurt. Eating it was a nostalgic experience, trans- pillars of shortcake, with every component mixing My friend Luci adds yogurt to her whipped porting me instantly across the decades. But with a perfectly in each bite. cream, which is redundant in terms of both tartness life of experience behind me now, that Sara Lee was It’s the parfait solution, if you’ll excuse my and creaminess. I like it. But, Luci admits, years too sweet and too Plain Jane, and that stiff whipped French, and a reminder that with a little redun- back she used yogurt instead of whipped cream, cream kept the flavors separate when they should dancy, you can teach an old recipe new tricks. arguably a borderline violation of the fundamental have mixed. trifecta. —See recipe, next page

PAGE 16 • JULY 2020 • SANDOVAL SIGNPOST • SERVING THE COMMUNITY SINCE 1988 CORRALES HEMPORIUM COMMUNITY CENTERS LOTS OF NEW PRODUCTS TO CHOOSE FROM! CBD Lotion, Roll-On Pain Ointment, Sandoval County Senior Centers Pain Freeze now with 1000mg CBD. CBD Bath Bombs with ingredients for: Exfoliation & Cleansing, Relaxation & continue to serve meals to public Rest & to Relieve & Soothe. Itch-A-Way Skin First Aid & While activities at all Sandoval County Senior centers are cancelled due to the Coco de Rasta with Coconut Oil & COVID-19 pandemic, meals are still available for pick up only and potentially Pure Hemp Seed Oil from Belize! home delivery. The menu will be the same for all of the Sandoval County senior (Both amazing—ONLY $12 each! ) centers on any given day. Medical, Military & Senior Discounts! To learn more about the weekly menus or to receive a reopening update from your local senior center, give them a call: Open Tues-Sat 9am-5:30pm Placitas: 867-1396; Bernalillo: 867-9448; Corrales: 897-3818; Rio Rancho: 891- Sun 10am-3pm • 505-898-5252 5818; Jemez: 575-834-7630; Cuba: 575-289-3510. If you are a senior or a disabled adult who cannot access groceries due to 4484 Corrales Rd, Corrales 87048 COVID-19 (Coronavirus), call the Aging and Long Term Services Department www.corraleshemporium.com at 1-800-432-2080 for assistance.

from page 16 ———Parfait HEALTH Rachael Tingen, DMD BUTTERMILK RHUBARB CAKE Serves 4-8 2 cups flour 1/2 teaspoon crème of tartar 4 teaspoons baking powder 2 tablespoons sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt 1-1/3 cups buttermilk 1/2 cup of oil (I use a mild, fruity olive oil) 2 teaspoons vanilla extract or equivalent 2 more tablespoons sugar (redundancy is my friend) For the best general dentistry 1-2 sticks of rhubarb, peeled, sliced into 1/4–inch thick discs (about 1/3 cup) Combine and mix dry ingredients except the second bit of sugar. Mix buttermilk and oil and, before they separate, immediately add them to the dry ingredients. Toss the rhubarb slices in the second sugar and add it to the mix, and stir it all together. Add to a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan. Bake at 375, checking periodically, for about 45 minutes or until a knife comes out clean.

Whipped Cream 1 pint heavy cream 3 Homesteads Rd., Ste. B 1/4 cup full fat yogurt Placitas, NM 87043 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 tablespoon sugar Whip the cream. Add the vanilla, sugar and yogurt and gently stir.

Strawberries 1 pound fresh strawberries, sliced 3 tablespoons sugar (more to taste) Juice of one lemon (about 4 tablespoons) Add the sugar and lemon juice to the pan and stir to dissolve the sugar. Add the strawberries and turn the heat to medium, stirring steadily once it starts simmering. Cook for about ten minutes, or until the strawberries fully soften.

Assembling the Parfait When the cake has cooled, cut it into one inch-cubes. Add layers to your par- 878 s camino del pueblo fait cup in this order: cream, cubes of cake, sauce. Add layers until the cups bernalillo, new mexico 87004 are full. www.atmabodhyoga.com

Ari LeVaux writes from Missoula, Montana, 505.867.9222 though a big piece of his heart haunts the hills, washes, and ditches of Placitas, where he spent three dreamy years. His column appears nationally in more than 70 newspapers. Tibetan CranialYOGA Sessions CLASSES available TAUGHT by appointment. Information aboutIN Tibetan THE IYENGARCranial work TRADITION is on the website listed above.

Sandoval Signpost • Serving the community since 1988 • JULY 2020 • Page 17 PAGE 18 • JULY 2020 • SANDOVAL SIGNPOST • SERVING THE COMMUNITY SINCE 1988 BLM asks public for help in ECO- preventing wildfires BEAT ~NATIONAL. BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT ~CONTINUED The arrival of vacation season and increasing wildfire activity with hot, dry summer weather in the West is prompting the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to ask the public to help prevent wildland fires, the majority of which are caused by people. The Southwest and Alaska are currently experiencing fire activity, with numerous large wildfires occurring, and other states may experience significant wildfire activity over the next few months. “Every year, human-caused wildfires comprise approximately 87 percent of all wildfire ignitions across the country, posing considerable threat to public and firefighter safety,” says William Perry Pendley, BLM Deputy Director for Policy and Programs. “These wildfires are preventable and this year, more than ever, our wildland firefighters need the public’s help in reducing human-caused wildfire risk.” The National Interagency Fire Center’s (NIFC) Predictive Services unit, which assesses wildfire potential throughout the country, predicts above-normal wildfire potential this year in areas of Oregon, Washington, California, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Hawaii due to expected high temperatures, dry vegetation, and other weather factors including high winds. Because of these conditions, human-caused wildfire ignitions have the potential to quickly grow out of control and threaten lives, property, and precious natural resources. People accidentally start wildfires during numerous activities, so the public is asked to help reduce ignitions from causes such as campfires, debris burning, equipment use, or even from an automobile’s hot tailpipe scorch- ing dry grass. Visit www.blm.gov to find more information about possible fire prevention orders and fire restrictions in your area. Additionally, people who live near wildlands should prepare their homes and communities for wildfire. A few simple landscaping techniques can greatly improve a home’s survivability during a wildfire event, so visit www.nfpa.org. for more information. The BLM manages more than 245 million acres of public land located primarily in 12 Western states, including Alaska. The BLM also administers 700 million acres of sub- surface mineral estate throughout the nation. In fiscal year 2018, the diverse activities authorized on BLM-managed lands generated $105 billion in economic output across the country. This economic activity supported 471,000 jobs and contributed substantial revenue to the U.S. Treasury and state governments, mostly through royalties on minerals.

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$70,000 – Tierra Antigua $75,000 – Stardust Court $650,000 – 107 Buffalo Ridge SALE PENDING 2.59 AC • This lot is not a part of the Casas 2.27 AC • Placitas best buy! Build that 2,650 SF, 4 BR, 3 BA • This is a build to suit proposed Montanes subdivision and has no CC&R’s. custom home with great views! Less than 2 construction. Enchanted Spac- Level site with backdrop views of Sandias. min. to 1-25. Small town charm abounds. es LLC, where Scottsdale meets New Mexico, is on the cutting $225,000 – Evening Star Court $139,000 – 21 Pinon Court edge of design innovation with 2.15 AC • Build your dream home right 3.31 AC • Exquisite building site encom- the latest in floor plans and across from the National Forest. Enjoy passing all the views! Nice flat easy to finishes. hiking & biking trails right out your door. build lot. Awaiting your imagination... $615,000 – 106 Richard Road – Corrales 3,545 SF, 4 BR, 3 BA – Welcome to your dream home in the $107,000 – Wide Ruin Court $210,000 – 23 Apache Mesa Road lovely Village of Corrales! This 1.88 AC • Located in the Anasazi Trails sub- Southwest Masterpiece beckons division. The premiere location in Placitas. 4.68 AC • The Placitas lifestyle – hiking, biking, dining & shopping in quaint/quiet you with all the charm that only Beautiful views & easy access. Surrounded southwest architecture can by upscale custom homes. small town...all right at your fingertips. provide. SALE PENDING $180,000 – Morning Star Court $552,000 – 7 Palomar Road SALE PENDING 1.13 AC • Incredible building site for 3,115 SF, 3 BR, 3 BA • Custom built beauty $548,000 – 9 Mimbres Court Custom built beauty dream house. 37,000 acres of National in the country with fruit/vegetable gardens, in Plactias! All the views, Sandia Mt’s, colorful Mesa’s and Forest for your back yard. 20 min to ABQ. amazing views, entertainers dream home. twinkle light nights. Very energy efficient insulated panel construction, keeping those utility bills low! Wood ceilings on the porches and great room. Very traditional $576,000 – 4 Calle Cienega Court $442,000 – 122 Placitas Trails Rd Santa Fe style! 2,863 SF, 3 BR, 3 BA • Santa Fe charm in 2,401 SF, 3 BR, 3 BA • Hand crafted Santa custom Placitas home. You really can have Fe style custom home. Traditional farmhouse it all, plenty of patios, three car garage. charm lives here. Outdoor space beckons. In a gentle way you can shake the world. – $575,000 – 281 Star Meadow Rd SALE PENDING $568,000 – 5700 Papaya Place NE, “You must be the change 2,585 SF, 3 BR, 3 BA • Custom built ABQ 3,100 SF, 3 BR, 4 BA • Outstanding authentic Santa Fe Style, Gold LEED you wish to see in Inman home that is ready to move into. the world” Ghandi certification. Designed w/master & guest Updated, light filled beautiful design that wings split by open concept living area. flows seamlessly.

LA PUERTA REAL ESTATE SERVICES, LLC • 505-867-3388 ONE RIDGE COURT • PLACITAS, NM 87043

Sandoval Signpost • Serving the community since 1988 • JULY 2020 • Page 19 Placitas artist Lisa Chernoff builds glass trophies for Saul Bell Design Award ~RIO GRANDE JEWELRY SUPPLY, RIOGRANDE.COM

Entries for the Saul Bell Design Award offer a glimpse into each designer’s deepest dreams. So, it’s fitting that the 2020 recipients will take home glass sculptures as singular as their winning pieces—created by an artist who knew the award’s namesake. Like her designs, Lisa Chernoff’s living space and studio are pulsing with color and alive with form, yet serene. A paint-daubed, seven-foot statue rises from a mosaic base, her branches-as-arms embracing the sunlit room. A classic wingchair has been re-upholstered in a crazy quilt of reclaimed vinyl. Red pom-poms prevent the dog from poking her eye on the antlers protruding from re-purposed picnic seating. But back to the glass. There’s an abundance of that, too. Suspended from the kitchen ceiling. Splashed amidst the white tiles in the shower. Serving as We are open regular business hours colorful drawer pulls and doorknobs. Lining the walls of her gallery and studio. practicing NM covid guidelines. Lisa says that she has “always been crafty.” She was born in Alamogordo, New Mexico, and remembers, “My father was very creative with electronics, and today he’s an expert clock fixer.” Her lack of formal art education has been liberating rather than limiting. She says, “I never felt like I couldn’t combine colors, or try certain techniques.” She first experimented with glass by incorporating it into her ceramic designs. She remembers, “I’d bring home bottle glass from my hikes, break and mix it, and include it in my pottery. It was very intriguing to see what it would do.” Undeterred by the pieces that didn’t quite work out, she kept at it. Then she took a glass jewelry class and learned about fusing compatible glass, or glass that has the same coefficient of expansion. The bottle glass she’d used in her clay creations wasn’t compatible, which explained the mixed results she’d experienced. Today, her creative process mixes spontaneity with science. She says, “I like fusing because you can overlay glass. It’s more random than stained glass.” Lisa starts with sheets of glass that arrive in wood crates. She scores organic shapes into the sheets and snaps the pieces apart with silicone-covered pliers. Miniscule shards tend to sift through the grid on her worktop. And while accidental breakage is rare, cut fingers are a daily reality. She smiles and says, ©JATW2020 “Sometimes a tiny bit will catch my eye, and I’ll reach down and place it into the piece I’m working on.” Lisa begins each piece by “thinking backwards.” She says, “I envision how something will look on the wall and work in reverse.” Glittery snow swirls outside her studio window as she begins construction of one of the award JEWELERS & statues. First, she lays a fiber paper “blanket” on her worktop, to create the GEMOLOGISTS indentations that add texture and encourage the subtle play of light in each piece. She follows with dichroic glass, a clear glass blank and colored glass. 892-3841 Sometimes glass will change color during firing. Lisa says, “Once I started thinking of fusing as an experiment, everything changed.” 909 36th Pl. SE The piece will be fired in a custom 6’ x 3’ kiln. After the first full fuse in the Rio Rancho kiln, she’ll slump it using molds that are sculptures unto themselves. And (Across from like many jewelers, she has to think about annealing after every step. For Turtle Mountain Pub) example, after the first full fuse at 1,500 degrees, she’ll cool the kiln down to 950 degrees. A large piece can take days to anneal. OPEN: Monday–Friday 10am-5:30pm Large pieces are Lisa’s passion—her colossal kiln was funded by a 13’ x 5.5’ Saturday 10am-4pm • harrisjewelersnm.com x 1’ commission comprising more than 1,000 glass “ribbons.” (She made 100 extra ribbons “just in case” and amazingly only broke two during the entire process.) She says, “I like to work on organic, asymmetrical pieces that have a lot of depth.” Although the Saul Bell Design Award statues are smaller than many of her Placitas Studio Tour cancelled creations, she counts them as among her most intimate and special. Lisa knew the Bell family while she worked as “runner” in the Gold Department ~NANCY HOLLEY of what was then Rio Grande Albuquerque. (A sculpture on her kitchen wall The 23rd annual Placitas Studio Tour has been cancelled due to too much includes spray-painted cardboard tubes that date back to her time there.) She uncertainty regarding the COVID-19 virus. Mark your calendars for says that Saul was “quiet and industrious. He was always physically doing Mother’s Day weekend, May 7-8, 2021 when once again the growing cul- the things that needed to be done.” Lisa says, “It was a pleasant surprise to tural community of Placitas will open their studio doors to share the fasci- hear from Molly (Executive Vice President, and Saul’s daughter.). I wanted nating spaces where the artwork is created. Please continue to explore the these statues to be different and express what I do.” tour’s website, www.placitasstudiotour.com, to browse the artists’ pages Learn more about Lisa’s paradoxically named business, Pompous Glass where you can still see and get in touch with the artists to perhaps purchase and see her work at pompousglass.com. Learn more about Saul Bell Design one of their amazing creations. We will be back in 2021! Award at saulbellaward.com.

PAGE 20 • JULY 2020 • SANDOVAL SIGNPOST • SERVING THE COMMUNITY SINCE 1988

SANDOVAL ARTS RIVER STONE MOSAIC Add local flavor to your environment

Commissions for custom Cat Tales at Placitas Community Library indoor & outdoor installations Free on-site evaluations

~REBECCA S. COHEN Sigmund Freud said it Visit www.riverstonemosaic.com best: “Time spent with for photos of mosaic artwork cats is never wasted.” Accordingly, the Placitas Call or email to schedule: Community Library Art 505-401-4015 Committee is excited to [email protected] offer an opportunity to observe a host of fasci- nating felines at rest and at play. Beginning July 7, and continuing through August 27, this PCL exhibit will be available for the first “She Cat of True Blue Heart,” time—both in the by Leslie Long library’s Collin Room and as a virtual exhibition online at PCLArt.com. “Just like cats, the artwork for Cat Tales is beautiful, quirky, expressive, and unexpected,” says Elizabeth Potter, the exhibit’s coordinator. “Cats may have only one tail, but every cat has lots of tales to share.” Each is told by participating artists in a unique and appealing way through mixed media on paper, appliqued and pieced quilts, pastel drawings, and more. Exhibitors include Susan Burden, Tobin Levy, Lesley Long, Melissa Lowry Mosley, Lavon Maestas, Mary Mahon- Foley, Linda Nystrom, Judith Rod- erick, Pam Troutman, and Lisa “Feathered Fantasy Feline,” Zawadzki. As always, works are by Pam Troutman available for purchase, with 25 percent of the price benefiting the library. Beginning July 7, the Cat Tales exhibit can be viewed in the Collin Meeting Room during the library’s Special Oper- ating Hours on Tuesdays, from 3:00 to 7:00 p.m., Thursdays, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and Saturdays, from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. Please check the library website at placitaslibrary.com, or call 867- 3355, for schedule changes or to leave a message to arrange access to the work in the exhibit. Purchases can be made through the website. And works will be made available for pick-up at the library.

“Purr-Serving Life,” by Mowry Mosley

Sandoval Signpost • Serving the community since 1988 • JULY 2020 • Page 21 SIGNPOST COMMUNITY CALENDAR

MANY OF THESE ONGOING LISTINGS ARE TEMPORARILY CANCELLED DUE TO THE NOVEL CORONA VIRUS PANDEMIC. CHECK VIA THEIR CONTACT INFORMATION FOR DETAILS AND TO SEE WHEN AND IF THEY WILL RESUME.

To submit a listing, send it to: [email protected]. Deadline for day. Board meeting agenda is posted on the ESCAFCA website (escafca.com) submission is the twentieth of the month prior to publication. The calendar and at the front desk of the Town Hall by Friday preceding the meeting. Second Thursday: The New Mexico Parkinson’s Coalition (NMPC) meets. is for nonprofit organizations. “First Monday” means the first Monday of 1:30-3 p.m. Held at Grace Outreach at 2900 Southern Boulevard SE in Rio each month. Fourth Tuesdays: Placitas Democrats and Friends. 6-7:30 p.m. Held at Rancho. The NMPC works to enhance the quality of life for individuals with Placitas Community Library. Meetings are open to the public and feature Parkinson’s through education, awareness and support for those with the Daily: The Mayor Hull Show. Go to rrnm.gov/mayorhullshow. Rio Rancho candidates for local, state, national offices. www.sandovaldemocrats.org, disease. For more information, call 219-5065 or visit the website: nmparkin- Mayor Gregg Hull talks about issues facing Rio Rancho. 259-5860. son.org.

Daily: Free hikes at Valles Caldera National Preserve—from Magma to Tuesdays: Haven House Domestic Violence Support Group for women Second Thursdays: Visionary Arts & Crafts Guild (VACG). 6-8 p.m. VACG Magpie. For a complete list of activities at the National Preserve, go to whose lives have been touched by domestic violence. 6:30-8:00 p.m. Topics is a group of juried artists whose mission is to develop a fellowship among https://www.nps.gov/vall/index.htm. include: Dynamics of Domestic Violence, Safety Plans, Developing Healthy craftspeople and facilitate a market for crafts. The VACG supports the “Art of Relationships, and information about available services. All sessions are con- Craft” through exhibitions, education and public awareness to promote the Monthly: Various community events at Rio Rancho Libraries. Rio Ran- fidential and free of charge. Held at Rio Rancho First Baptist Church, corner development and appreciation of craftspeople and theira work. Baptist cho libraries—Esther Bone and Loma Colorado—will be hosting a variety of Route 528 and 19th Avenue. 896-4869 or 1-800-526-7157. Church of Rio Rancho Adult Education Center, 1909 Grande Avenue, Rio of events all month long ranging from book signings, to poetry readings, Rancho. [email protected], 948-3132. lectures, concerts, arts and crafts, meet and greets, etc. For more information Wednesdays: Seniors (62+) ride free on the Rail Runner. Bring valid about the library or each month’s activities, visit photo ID (with birthdate). Third Thursdays: Placitas Community Library Board of Directors meet- www.riorancholibraries.org. ings. At the Placitas Community Library, 453 Hwy 165. 6:30 p.m. Open to Wednesdays: Thinking Straight open meeting of Alcoholics Anony- the public. Meeting agendas are posted at the library and Placitas Post Monthly: Urban Horticulture classes. Sponsored by the SandovalMaster- mous. 6-7 p.m. Have a Desire to Stop Drinking? Celebrate Sobriety with us Office. Gardeners.org. Free. Open to public. Registration preferred. Sandovalmaster- and learn how to stay sober. Held at the First Assembly Church, 274 Camino gardeners.org/public-class-registration. Don Tomas (Room 8), Just south of Highway 550 in Bernalillo. 266-1900. Fourth Thursdays: Sandoval County Development Planning & Zoning Commission. 6 p.m. Held at the Sandoval County Administration Building, Mondays: Bernalillo/Placitas open Al-Anon meeting for families and Wednesdays: Cub Scout meetings. 6:30-7:30 p.m. Held at the LDS Church 1500 Idalia Road., Bldg. D, Bernalillo. friends of alcoholics/problem drinkers. 7:30-8:30. Held at the Bernalillo Center in Bernalillo, west of I-25’s Exit 240. New members are always wel- United Methodist Church, 136 Calle Don Andres (behind Abuelitas), come. 867-4689, 867-2047. Last Thursdays: Sandoval County veteran’s outreach and business coun- Bernalillo, 262-2177. seling. 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Held at 433 Meadowlark SE in Rio Rancho. All honor- Wednesdays: Rotary Club of Rio Rancho Sunrise. 7 a.m. For breakfast, fel- ably-discharged veterans may be entitled to VA benefits and state Veteran Second and fourth Mondays: Bernalillo Town Council meeting. 6:30 p.m. lowship, a great speaker, and a chance to get involved in local and worldwide benefits. Come learn about your potential benefits. Bring your DD-214. 383- Held at Bernalillo Town Hall. Info: call 867-3311, townofbernalillo.org. service projects. At Club Rio Rancho (used to be Chamisa Hills CC), 500 2414. Country Club Drive, Rio Rancho. Info: Mac McKinney, 892-4313. Second and fourth Fridays: Westside Neuro Choir—A chorus for adults Fridays: Bernalillo Farmers Market. 4-7 pm. through October. Offering living with brain challenges & caregivers. Includes ALS, brain injury, MS, Wednesdays: Urban Horticulture Class Continuing Series. 1-3 p.m. Spon- fresh fruits, produce, herbs, and more. Under pavilion at Rotary Park. SNAP Parkinson’s, strokes, and others. 1-2:30 p.m. Held at Grace Outreach Church, sored by the SandovalMasterGardeners.org. Free and open to the public. EBT dollars are doubled. Vendors welcome. 228-5801. 2900 Southern Boulevard, in Rio Rancho. Use entrance on the south side of Registration preferred. SandovalMasterGardeners.org. Sandoval County Ext. the of the building. For more info, contact Sheri Armendariz at 917 7981 or Office, Bernalillo. 929-0414. Fridays: Toddler Time—music, stories, and crafts. 10 a.m. Held at the [email protected]. Town of Bernalillo-Martha Liebert Public Library from November 8-Decem- First Wednesdays: Free civil legal clinic offered. 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Held in the ber 20. Closed on Thanksgiving. 867-1440. Mondays through Fridays: Placitas Mothers’ Day Out childcare. A caring, third-floor conference room of the Second District Courthouse, at the south- cooperative, community childcare program since 1989. Hours: 8 a.m.-3 p.m. west corner of Lomas and Fourth, NW. Free legal advice on a number of civil Fridays: Sandoval County Stroke Support Group. 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Pro- daily, $23. Info: Ms. Debbie Steuber, 867-3371. legal issues. No family law services will be offered. Attendance is limited to vides weekly support to survivors of stroke, their caregivers, adult family the first 25 persons who qualify for low-income assistance. Interpreters and members, and health care providers. Water and light snacks provided. No Tuesdays: Teen Hang Out at the Martha Liebert Public Library. 4 p.m. bilingual attorneys will be on hand. Attendees should bring all of their charge for meetings. Social outings arranged six times a year. Geri: 620- 867-1440. paperwork. Expect about a thirty-minute, free legal consultation. 797-6077. 8802. Tuesdays: Yoga with Patricia, 1-2 p.m., at the Town of Bernalillo Martha Liebert Public Library, 124 Calle Melinche, Bernalillo, NM 87004, (505) 867- Second Wednesdays: Rio Rancho Art Association (RRAA) monthly Fridays: Celebrate Recovery—12 steps to finding freedom from hurts, 1440. membership meeting. 6:30-8:30 p.m. RRAA is a non-juried/all mediums hang-ups, and habits. 6:30 p.m. Held at the First Assembly Church, 274 regional art association. You need not be a resident of Rio Rancho to join. Camino Don Tomas, Bernalillo. 867-7226. Tuesdays and Thursdays: Pickleball at the Bernalillo Community Center. Held in Don Chalmer’s Ford Community Room, 2500 Rio Rancho Boulevard, 1-4 p.m. Pickleball is a game played on a court with paddles and a whiffle Rio Rancho. www.rraausa.org, www.rioranchoartassociation.blogspot.com First Fridays: Monthly luncheon of the Democratic Party of Sandoval ball. The court is smaller than a tennis court and allows people to play who or 301-2009. County. 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Range Cafe in Bernalillo, 925 Camino del Pueblo. no longer want to run and jump as they did in their younger years. Anyone Sandoval Democrats gather once a month (most months) to welcome speak- can play, even if they have never played tennis. 934-2649. Second and fourth Wednesdays: Sandoval County Civitans. 6:00 p.m. Held ers, candidates, and government representatives. You pay for your lunch at Fair Winds, 920 Riverview Drive SE, Rio Rancho. 898-6884. from the menu, or come for just the meeting. www.sandovaldemocrats.org. First Tuesdays: Albuquerque Newcomers’ Club Welcome Coffee. 10 a.m. Held at Sandia Presbyterian Church (not affiliated with church)—10704 Third Wednesdays: Meeting of the Coronado Optimist Club. 6-7 p.m. Held Second Friday: Luncheon of the San-Bern Federated Republican Paseo del Norte. Membership is open to residents who have lived in the at the Range Cafe in Bernalillo. Women. Starts at 11:30 a.m. Held at Rio Rancho Inn and Conference Cen- Albuquerque area (including Sandoval County) for five years or less, or who ter—1465 Rio Rancho Blvd. SE, Rio Rancho, 87124. The meet-and-greet are having major changes in their lives. Make new friends and increase your Third Wednesdays: Las Placitas Association Board meeting. 6:30 p.m. luncheons are to discuss business and politics for both Sandoval and social life. Sign up for monthly luncheons and speakers, dining out, visits to Currently held via Zoom. Attendance by invitation. Visitors welcome. Email: Bernalillo County Republican interests. Our aim is to promote an informed area attractions, book and movie groups, bridge, bunco, mah jongg, walking, [email protected] for an invitation. public through political education and activity. All Republican men and wine tastings, etc. Singles’ and men’s groups. women invited to attend. Contact Julie Wright at 720- 4883 or go to [email protected]. 321-6970. Thursdays: Using Microsoft Word at the Martha Liebert Public Library. www.sanbernfrw.org. 10 a.m. Registration a must. 867-1440. First Tuesdays: Coronado Kennel Club meeting. 7:30 p.m. All-breed kennel Saturdays: Wildflower walks on the Sandia Ranger District. Starting at 9 club. Schedule changes in August and December. Call 867-4510 for meeting Thursdays: El Club del Libro—Our monthly Spanish Book Club. 6-7 a.m. There will be an amenity fee of three dollars. Be sure to bring a hat, location. p.m. Recurring. Held at Loma Colorado Main Library Rio Rancho History water, and sunscreen. Sandia Ranger District: 281-3305. Room. Join us in reading a book in Spanish, improving conversation skills, First Tuesday: Monthly ice cream social hosted by the Kiwanis Club. 6 and meeting interesting friends who wouldn’t have the opportunity to cross Saturdays: Casa Rosa Food Bank. Open 9-11 a.m. Held in the pink house p.m. Held at the Paleta Bar in Bernalillo—510 NM Highway 528. paths without “El Club del Libro.” This month, in coordination with PBS’s east of Las Placitas Presbyterian Church at 640 Highway 165, six miles east The Great American Read program, we will discuss Bendiceme, Ultima by of I-25. Community outreach program provides nonperishable food items as Third Tuesday: Open meeting of the Sandia Vista Amateur Radio Club. 7 Rudolfo Anaya. No registration required. Walk-ins welcome! Please note well as dairy, frozen meats, and fresh produce as available for Placitas resi- p.m. Held at Fire Station 41 on highway 165, just east of the Placitas Com- new day and time. dents in need. Donations, volunteers welcome. munity Library. Everyone is welcome to attend meetings, whether or not they have an FCC License. Thursdays: Sandoval County Historical Society archives and library are Saturdays: Village of Los Ranchos de Albuquerque Growers’ Market. open to members and the public for family research, 9 a.m.-Noon. Free. Sep.-Nov. 8 a.m.-noon. Fresh vegetable, fruits, herbs flowers, jams, Third Tuesdays: Monthly meeting of the Republican Party of Sandoval Bernalillo. Info: 867-2755. cheeses, arts and crafts. Live music. Voted “Best In City.” Accepts WIC/Senior. County (RPSC). 7 p.m. Held at the Gospel Light Baptist Church, 1500 At Village of Los Ranchos tennis court parking lot. losranchosgrowersmar- Southern Boulevard in Rio Rancho. www.SandovalGOP.com. First Thursdays: Sandoval County veteran’s outreach and business coun- ket.com. seling. 1-4 p.m. Held at the Sandoval County Administrative Building, 1500 Third Tuesdays: Sandia Vista Amateur Radio Club. 7 p.m. Help provide Idalia Road in Bernalillo. All honorably-discharged veterans may be entitled Second and fourth Saturdays: Placitas Saturday Market. Cancelled until emergency communications in Placitas. Become a “HAM” radio operator. We to VA benefits and state Veteran benefits. Come learn about your potential 2021. For additional information, contact Nancy Holley at 515-4323. will help you get your FCC license. Visitors welcome. Held at the Placitas Fire benefits. Bring your DD-214. 383-2414. Station No. 41, Hwy 165, near the Library. Info: sandiavista.net.. Third Saturdays: Rio Rancho Northwest Mesa NAACP meets. 11 a.m. Held First Thursdays: Art and Music at the Loma Colorado Main Library at Don Newton Community Center. Public is invited. www.rrnwmnaacp.org. Fourth Tuesdays: Pathways: Wildlife Corridors of NM monthly meeting. Auditorium, Rio Rancho. Info: riorancholibraries.org, 505-891-5013. 6:30 p.m. Held at Placitas Community Center. Open to the public. path- Sundays: Corrales Growers’ Market. 9-noon. Located at Corrales and Jones wayswc.wordpress.com. Election of Board officers will be held on January First and third Thursdays: Sandoval County Commission meeting. 6 p.m. Road. 259-0203. 28. Unless otherwise noted, all meetings will be held in the Sandoval Adminis- tration Building, 1500 Idalia Road Building D, Bernalillo. Info or meeting Fourth Tuesdays: Eastern Sandoval County Arroyo Flood Control agenda: www.sandovalcounty.com, 867-7500. Authority (ESCAFCA) meeting. 6 p.m. Held in the Town of Bernalillo Council Chambers. Persons wishing to be on the agenda or persons with dis- abilities who need accommodations should call 771-7110 by the first Tues-

PAGE 22 • JULY 2020 • SANDOVAL SIGNPOST • SERVING THE COMMUNITY SINCE 1988 COMMUNITY BITS

State of New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department helps feed New Mexicans in need

~NORA SACKETT

The State of New Mexico Children, Youth and Fam- grants, and food purchased using Federal and State alongside our sister-agencies and philanthropic ilies Department, Human Services Department and emergency funds. These collaborations developed organizations, our state continues to be responsive the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints during the pandemic can serve as a roadmap to and effective in our relief efforts in tribal communi- (LDS) are in a public-private partnership to feed bring a new level of responsiveness to combat food. ties.” more than three thousand New Mexicans who are The state received 120,000 pounds of food Day Those experiencing financial hardship through food insecure due to the pandemic. Saints volunteers recently, which helped feed at the pandemic can find resources at Since the start of the pandemic, with assistance least three-thousand people. newmexico.gov/i-need-assistance/. If you wish to from tribal communities, the National Guard, food “As New Mexico’s tribal communities continue to help your neighbors during these uncertain times, banks and pantries, private food distributors, deal with the impact of the COVID-19, it is hearten- contact the food bank that serves your county to be churches and nonprofits, the State of New Mexico ing to see the generosity of our neighbors,” said matched up to opportunities close to home. To has helped facilitate delivery of more than two mil- Indian Affairs Secretary Lynn Trujillo. “This week’s learn how you can help, visit lion pounds of food to New Mexicans who are food delivery of over 120,000 pounds of food to Albu- www.nmfoodbanks.org or www.rrfb.org. insecure. querque’s urban native population by the Church Deliveries have included donations, food from of Latter Day Saints is greatly appreciated. Working

USACE—-Albuquerque District to expand phased reopening of lakes SignPOSt ~U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS, ALBUQUERQUE DISTRICT THANK YOU FOR The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Albu- ABIQUIU LAKE: READING THE SIGNPOST querque District announced on May 29, that two The boat ramp at Abiquiu News and information of interest to USACE-managed lakes in New Mexico have begun Lake reopened May 30, a phased reopening, and the boat ramp at Abiquiu 2020. The public is required the residents of Sandoval County Lake is now open. to bring their own life jack- Mailed subscriptions available—$35/year USACE-Albuquerque District-managed camp- ets as the Loaner Life grounds remain closed and are scheduled to reopen Jacket program is currently Email mailing address to: [email protected] at a later date. USACE-Albuquerque District recre- not in operation. The boat ation actions are being coordinated with New Mex- ramp is open for motorized www.sandovalsignpost.com ico State Parks (NMSP) as well as Colorado Parks & traffic. All New Mexico STAY HOME • STAY SAFE • SAVE LIVES Wildlife (CPW). USACE will not precede state State rules related to actions. Aquatic Invasive Species State guidelines regarding COVID-19 (such as (AIS) will be adhered to, and staff will be monitor- social distancing and the use of face masks) apply ing for compliance. Other day use recreation areas while visiting USACE-managed recreation areas. that are open include the Cerrito Day Use Area; the COCHITI LAKE: For information about lake operations and recre- Overlook Day Use Area, including picnic areas; and At this time, Cochiti Lake remains closed until fur- ation statuses at Abiquiu, Conchas, Cochiti, visit: the downstream Rio Chama Day Use Area. The ther notice. The visitor center, campgrounds, day- www.spa.usace.army.mil/Missions/Civil- main office/visitor center is open for phone calls, use areas, boat ramp, swim areas, fishing areas, and Wors/Recreation/Updates/. but is closed for public walk-ins at this time. Day walking trails are closed to the public. The main use fees have been waived until October 1, 2020. office is open for phone calls, but closed for public Normally, these fees are collected at Abiquiu from walk-ins at this time. April 15 through October 15.

Sandoval Signpost • Serving the community since 1988 • JULY 2020 • Page 23 GAUNTLET re: Fireworks LETTERS • OPINIONS • LOCAL ISSUES It’s not a bad idea for New Mexico residents to heed the warnings of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham about not using The Signpost welcomes letters of opinion. fireworks during the drought. Letters are subject to editing for length, clarity, libel, and other considerations. Fireworks are responsible for an average of 18,500 fires every Mail to: Signpost, P. O. Box 889, Placitas, NM, 87043 or email to: [email protected] year, according to the National Safety Council, and that’s under normal conditions. And fireworks are hazardous for animals, too. Dogs and cats who are terrified of the loud re: In my life explosions often run from their In my life, I have worn many hats, so I view life through multiple prisms. homes and (hopefully) turn up But after my many travels and adventures, I choose the little village of Placitas, New Mexico, in which to spend some at animal shelters in the follow- of my retirement time. I was privileged to get to know this little town back in the 1970s when the Thunderbird Bar was ing days. Scared deer and other in its heyday. It was a great town then and a great town now. wild animals run into road- I have been both counterculture and mainstream establishment culture in my time. ways, and birds flee their nests, So to keep this comment as brief as possible: the folks who made New Mexico Great are the Native Americans, the frequently crashing into houses, Spanish Colonialists, and the Gringo Ranchers, Railroaders, etc.. Yep, it was a god-awful bloody, non-stop war. (Just ask signs, and other obstacles. Billy the Kid). In 2017, fireworks injured In more peaceful times, it is these same folks who were determined to live together, in peace, that has made New Mex- more than 12,000 people badly ico Great. That confluence of cultures here in New Mexico is second to none. Add a little red or green to that and you are enough to require medical treat- in heaven. ment and killed eight. People I do enjoy the six mile drive up to Placitas from I-12. I liked it better in the 1970s when the HOA trophy houses were for the Ethical Treatment of not here, but I am determined to get along with the newbies. Animals (PETA) encourages I occasionally see some written criticisms of this little village of Placitas. cities to set a safe and compas- Yep, I get it. I was once on the Board of Directors of an HOA on the Gold Coast of Florida. The control freaks never get sionate example by switching to enough control. I finally had to flee like a refugee. laser light shows, which offer The wish to control how other people live is an international mental heath problem which results in many wars, local all the “wow” without the dan- and international. ger. But help is available. If one simply switches on the TV set, there are any number of drugs that can help you get over Sincerely, obsessing about how your neighbor lives and what he is doing wrong. The new wonder drugs will actually make you —MICHELLE KRETZER, want to sing and dance in the streets. As advertised on TV… The PETA Foundation Meanwhile down here in old Placitas, life is good. Let’s keep it that way… Best wishes, —STEVE T., Placitas

Las Placitas Association (LPA)——— please don’t poison the animals ~JOAN FENICLE, LAS PLACITAS ASSOCIATION Flying insects, weeds, and rodents are a problem, for consumption and the but there are ways to control them without using birds will thank you. All poisons that can move into water systems and these chemicals end up in poison other animals higher in the food chain. our food, our soil, and our Here are some suggestions from Las Placitas water. Think about the dis- Association. appearing Placitas sun- Bull snakes, red racers, hawks, and owls natu- flower. It is an annual that rally control pack rats and mice, and so we depends on birds for reseeding. Second hand poi- should aim to protect them. son has reduced our bird population… thus A creative way to control rodents without using fewer sunflowers. Second hand poison kills our pesticides is by using coyote urine (which can be local pollinators (bees, butterflies, and moths) purchased online and does not harm our much- and means fewer blooming plants and shrubs— needed wildlife populations who will die if they it’s all connected. eat poisoned rodents). The suggested application There are several small businesses that will pull method for coyote urine is to pour a bit down the weeds and help you with organic choices for pest holes of the packrat nests or soak cotton balls that removal at reasonable cost. you place down the holes and around any areas If you want to keep yourself safe from flying where you suspect mice are getting in. The urine insects while outdoors, you can get deet-free bug triggers the rodents’ emotional response, and spray at the new Placitas Pharmacy in the Home- they quickly move on to an area where they do stead Shopping Center. not suspect a coyote is lying in wait for them. It Think before you spray, look at labels, and works on gophers too. research what you are using. There are many Live traps are a solution that require transport- alternatives to harmful products. Poisoned birds ing and releasing the critters in a distant area—a On a fun note, there have been reports of Lynx good thing if you have the time. and a Mexican Grey wolf in Placitas. We have Pulling weeds is a good way to avoid introduc- asked our local wildlife experts, Pathways ing poisons into our soil and water. Avoiding Wildlife Corridors, to let us know about any chemicals on your fruit trees makes the fruit safer unusual animal presence in the area.

PAGE 24 • JULY 2020 • SANDOVAL SIGNPOST • SERVING THE COMMUNITY SINCE 1988 ISH

ANIMAL NEWS F AND

Urban bears returned to AME G OF wilder place . EPT ~SIGNPOST STAFF A mother bear and three cubs became too or near wooded areas. Other advice familiar with neighborhood garbage includes not leaving pet food or dishes N.M. D while roaming Los Alamos and now have out overnight, not adding meat or sweet- a new home somewhere in the wilds of smelling scraps to compost piles, and not OURTESY western New Mexico. letting fruit from trees and bushes rot on A call from a concerned resident to the ground. —C New Mexico Department of Game and The department also issued advice for Fish led to seven conservation officers bear encounters, starting with moving working for several days to capture of quietly away if the bear hasn’t seen you the sow and cubs. The bears were healthy and not getting between a mother bear and had not been captured in the past, and her cubs. Making yourself appear according to the department news large by holding out a jacket, picking up release. small children so they don’t run, and “Our officers did a great job safely making sure the bear has an escape route catching these bears,” department Direc- may discourage the bear from advancing. tor Mike Sloane said in the release. “Even In case of an attack, the department in the city, it’s important for people to advises fighting with anything from know they can help keep wildlife wild by rocks to sticks to binoculars and bare reducing the amount of attractants in hands aiming for the bear’s nose and their own yards and neighborhoods.” eyes. For public and bear safety, keeping trash contained until the day of pickup is important, especially for people living in Conservation officer Jerry Pohl carries one of three bear cubs out of a Los Alamos neighborhood in early June. The cubs and their mother were becoming accustomed to feeding from trash bins and have been relocated to western New Mexico. —A

MANDA Scouts

G YOUTH ~DAVID GARDNER RIEGO During the pandemic, the scouts of Troop 708 have continued to meet weekly online using Zoom technology. They also continue to post the American Flag at the homes of subscribers on national holidays and days of remembrance, such as Independence Day. During July they will continue to observe health practices, including social distancing, by confining their hikes to “buddy” hikes where two at a time can hike as buddies and look after each other. At an upcoming meeting, the young men will elect their officers who will serve for the next six month. Because there will be no Great Southwest Council camp this summer, because of pandemic restrictions, the scouts will be able to work online with merit badge counselors operating from Camp Gorham. As they complete rank requirements, they can meet with the troop advance- ment committee for a Board of Review to assess the fulfillment of the requirements. In June, Steven Harper passed the Board of Review for Life rank, and Diego Vigil passed for his First Class rank. Preston Bean is scheduled for a District Board of Review for the rank of Eagle Scout. Pack 708 for Cub Scouts has encouraged the cubs to work at home with their families, which is in line with the scouting program, intended to be family oriented. Three of the cubs have completed the requirements for Bear Cubs, the program for nine year olds. We look forward to the time when we can meet together again as a group. For more information call Amanda at 507-1305, or David at 867-4689.

A scout posts a flag for a national holiday.

Summer reading for all ages at Rio Rancho Public Libraries ~ANNEMARIE L. GARCÍA, COMMUNICATIONS AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT OFFICER, CITY OF RIO RANCHO The City of Rio Rancho’s Library and Information be entered into a drawing for gift cards by complet- website or by calling either library: 891-5013 for Services Department’s Summer Reading Program is ing experiential activities. Adults will earn entries Loma Colorado; 891-5012 for Esther Bone. here! Online registration can be found at the library in weekly drawings for amazing prizes. All prizes This program is generously supported by The website—www.riorancholibraries.org. This year’s will be mailed to the homes of participants. Friends of the Library of Rio Rancho. program can be easily completed from the comfort This year, the summer reading theme is “Imagine The Loma Colorado Main Library is located at of your home. Your Story” and throughout the summer, there will 755 Loma Colorado Boulevard, and the Esther Bone The Summer Reading Program will run until July be online programs and activities focused on this Memorial Library is located at 950 Pinetree Road. 31. Children and teens are invited to earn prizes theme. More information about the Summer Read- through reading, and will have the opportunity to ing Program can be found by visiting the libraries’

Sandoval Signpost • Serving the community since 1988 • JULY 2020 • Page 25 YOUTH Placitas library invites children for summer reading ~CONTINUED ~PAM TROUTMAN Placitas Community Library’s online summer reading program continues in July with Katie Adams presenting her Make Believe Theater—a 45-minute storytelling video of classic fairy tales from the Enchanted Kingdom with singing, colorful props and mime. This program is available the week of July 5-11. During the week of July 12-18, we will show Shana Banana’s virtual concert for kids and families called “Fairy Tales Gone Bananas.” Our final program in July will be shown on July 18-25, when Matt Sandbank, teacher, poet, and puppeteer, presents his trio of workshops on the following topics: “The Science of Shadow Puppets, Poetry- Writing, and Shadow Puppet Creation. For questions, send an email to [email protected]. The Placitas Community Library is located at 453 Highway 165.

ANIMAL NEWS Forty-thousand people weigh in on Mexican gray wolves ~CONTINUED ~CHRIS SMITH, WILDEARTH GUARDIANS

On April 15, 2020, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) opened a sixty-day Project Coyote and The Rewilding Institute were endorsed by more than one “scoping” period to receive public comments on needed changes to a manage- hundred independent and academic scientists. ment rule that will determine the recovery success of Mexican gray wolves in “Public values, the law, and the best available science are all telling U.S. Fish the southwestern United States. This revision follows on a court order to rem- and Wildlife Service to do better, a lot better, for lobo recovery,” said Chris edy the rule’s deficiencies and use the best available science. Despite the chal- Smith, southern Rockies wildlife advocate for WildEarth Guardians. “This is lenges to public outreach in the midst of the global pandemic and stay-at-home the best opportunity for real recovery, and I hope that opportunity is taken— orders, supporters of effective science-informed recovery of the critically U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service needs to end the cycle of litigation and do right endangered “lobos” submitted more than forty-thousand comments. by these iconic wolves.” By initial review, the large majority of the comments submitted appear to be “People are saying loud and clear that we want more wolves in more in support of the (FWS) taking all crucial and necessary measures to restore the places!” said Emily Renn, Executive Director of the Grand Canyon Wolf Recov- endangered subspecies’ declining genetic health, allowing unrestricted disper- ery Project. “Given all the threats that Mexican wolves are facing, there is no sal to critically important habitats, and removing the current population cap need for the USFWS to continue to delay their recovery through inadequate limiting the U.S. population to only 325 wolves. Proponents are also calling for and piecemeal management plans. It’s time to ensure Mexican wolves have a an “essential” status designation for Mexican gray wolves. viable future in all suitable habitats, including the Grand Canyon region.” For far too long, the FWS has bent to the pressures of the livestock industry Several specific changes were consistently referenced in comments to FWS: by lethally removing wolves, despite evidence that these actions can have long- • The FWS must designate wild Mexican gray wolves as “essential” to the lasting effects on the wolves left in the wild and have also not been proven to continued existence of the subspecies in the wild. Since the beginning of rein- be effective at reducing livestock losses over time. Polling shows more than troductions, the wolves in the wild have been legally listed as “nonessential” to two-thirds of voters in Arizona and New Mexico support recovery of Mexican the survival of the subspecies. This classification can no longer be supported by wolves to restore the balance of nature in the Southwest. the best available science. In addition to the thousands of public comments, numerous non-governmen- • There should be no cap or maximum number of Mexican wolves allowed tal conservation organizations submitted substantial comments with detailed in the wild. science-based recommendations for ensuring that the revised management rule • Non-lethal methods must be prioritized over removing or killing wild leads to recovery of Mexican wolves in the wild, as required by the Endan- Mexican gray wolves to resolve human-wolf conflicts. gered Species Act. Furthermore, comments authored by David Parsons, biolo- • Wolves should not be removed from the wild because they roamed beyond gist and former Mexican Wolf Recovery Coordinator for the FWS, on behalf of any geographic boundary. In particular, wolves should not be removed from

IN THE

GALLERY

by RUDI KLIMPERT

PAGE 26 • JULY 2020 • SANDOVAL SIGNPOST • SERVING THE COMMUNITY SINCE 1988 ANIMAL NEWS ~CONTINUED

Hello from “Straight To The Horse’s Mouth”

~LAUREL HULL Excellent care for your family pet Coronado Pet Hospital is a state-of-the-art, clean, and comfortable We miss seeing all of our friends at veterinary clinic with a wide variety of veterinary services for total pet care. the Placitas Saturday Markets. That’s 11 markets we’re missing this Coronado's compassionate and experienced staff is fully equipped to year where we usually raise money treat dogs, cats, and many exotic species with general and emergency veterinary services, surgery, dental care, and prescription pet foods. to feed our family band of ten formerly wild horses. But while Stop by to meet our staff or call for an appointment today. we’re all sheltering in place, the horses keep eating. We need to raise money to buy hay and grass while it is available! Some of our most popular items featured at the Placitas Saturday Markets were our Sabaku Artwear Shirts. We have inventory we want to move. So every week, we’re going to feature a shirt design from our inventory on Nextdoor at a reduced price from retail. We don’t charge tax because we are a non- Conveniently located at profit. If you would like to order a shirt, 4192 Hwy 528 (just South of 550) please call Laurel Hull at 867-9172 Rio Rancho, NM 87144 or email info@straighttothehorsesmouth.org. I have the inventory and can accept cash, check, or credit. I Call 505-771-3311 will fill the orders on a first-come first-served basis and deliver to a Having fun and staying safe at Open: Mon-Fri 8am-6pm • Saturdays 8am-4pm mutually agreeable place. If a shirt “Straight To The Horses Mouth” has to be mailed, we will add five Closed Sundays and major holidays dollars for postage. You can also order and pay via PayPal on our website: straighttothehorsesmouth.org on our Contact Us page. As always, donations of any amount are very welcome! So please help us reduce our inventory and raise money for hay for our horses. Until we can meet safely again, stay well and safe. THE ANIMAL HOTLINE Thank you. To help reunite lost/found pets with their people.

LOST: Cat: Pinky is a healthy, four-to- five-pound, four-year-old from page 26 Siberian with long hair. She is ———Wolves a kaleidoscope of colors, but the the wild for traveling into or base of her inhabiting regions north of mixed coat is Interstate Highway 40, which white. She is so have been determined by much more than independent scientists to be a calico. critically important for full Creme tipped recovery of Mexican wolves tail and feet. in the U.S. Southwest. She was lost on her third time outside. Quite a mix. She may be • Recovery efforts should A lot of wild animals come thru here, so I more than half way through facilitate natural connectivity fear the worst, but maybe someone took a pregnancy. She likely between wolves in the U.S. her in and is looking for her owner. needs a Vet to help her preg- and Mexico. If you find her, please call 867-0590. nancy, because of her size. • The USFWS must be Thank you so much. She is shy and runs fast. proactive in support of estab- —MARLA LLOYD lishing two additional subpopulations of at least two hundred Mexican wolves in identified areas of suitable habitats in the U.S. Southwest, north of I-40. Following its analysis of scoping comments, the FWS will prepare and issue a If you lose or find an animal in Sandoval County, proposed revised management rule and an accompanying draft supplement to email the information to: [email protected] the 2014 Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). These documents will be offered for another opportunity for public review and comment. This next step has not We will place it in the upcoming issue at no charge. been scheduled but is expected before the end of the year. Following that review If the animal you reported no longer needs attention, please email the Sign- the USFWS will issue a final revised management rule and final supplement to post by the 20th of the month to have the listing removed. the EIS. U.S. District Court Judge Jennifer Zipps Court Order ruling stated that the 2015 10(j) rule requires this process and a final decision to be completed by The Animal Hotline is a free community service of the Signpost. May 2021.

Sandoval Signpost • Serving the community since 1988 • JULY 2020 • Page 27 Skunk moving day! LALO’S ANIMAL PRINTS —ERIN MAGENNIS AND KYLE RAY Email your animal photos to “Lalo” at: [email protected]

A skunk has moved into our shed!

Kyle to the rescue!

The bobcat came into our backyard yesterday afternoon and proceeded immediately down hill to an arroyo. I grabbed my Nikon and caught it just in time before it disappeared at the bottom. Photo credit can go to me or to the bobcat. Beautiful animal. —NEAL MAZER

Bold skunk is captured in live trap

Lalo: Here’s a Checkered Whiptail from our backyard. They reproduce parthenogenically, and all individuals in a colony are genetically identical females. Cheers, —ERIC HUBBARD

But wait! A baby And more and more! Six little stinkers and mama off to under the floorboards! Wildlife Rescue for rehab & release. Phew!

PAGE 28 • JULY 2020 • SANDOVAL SIGNPOST • SERVING THE COMMUNITY SINCE 1988 SANDOVAL CLASSIFIEDS To place a classified ad, email your ad or questions to: [email protected] (Includes a free posting on the Signpost website.) For further information, visit: www.sandovalsignpost.com SignA N INDEPENDENT PLOCALO NEWSPAPERSt or call the Signpost office at 505-867-3810.

ANNOUNCEMENTS ART / MUSIC FOR SALE: HOMES / LAND

“PLACITAS(at the old Anasazi Fields WINERY” Winery location) Online VOiCe and PianO leSSOnS PRICE REDUCTION ON WILD CHERRY FARMS IN IS LOOKING FOR LOCAL FRUIT TO By Cia Khakaura, Master Teacher THE VILLAGE OF PLACITAS—5 lots in the compound with underground shared well, power and natural gas. HARVEST FOR WINE- & CIDER-MAKING 505-629-2150 • www.onlinevoiceandpiano.com Don’t let it go to waste! We’ll pick it. Apricots, cherries, Mountain/valley views tucked in among the fruit and peaches, plums, apples, berries, etc. are all welcome. cottonwood trees. Owner-financing possible and now Please give Barb a call/text at 505-363-5606 only $69,000 per lot. Porter 263-3662, La Puerta Real or send an email to: [email protected]. Estate Services, LLC -867-3388.

Best wishes during this challenging time Chris Livingston, Master Music Instructor Want to learn Piano, Guitar, Bass, Ukulele or Theory? Like Jazz, Rock, Classical, Funk? What’s your Style? DESERT MOUNTAIN VIEW LOT IN A CUL-DE-SAC Call Chris for LESSONS via Skype, Zoom, FaceTime! AWAY FROM THE HIGHWAY—All underground utili- B.A. in Music • 20 yrs. Instructor & Performer ties to the lot and a driveway cut to the building area. ANIMALS Certified in Early Childhood Teaching Complete Sandia and sunset/city light views. Only Reasonable rates • Gentle approach to teaching/learning $125,000. Call Porter 263-3662. La Puerta Real Estate Serv- 505-980-4322 • [email protected] ices, LLC 867-3388. Paws N’ Claws Pet Care FLAT BUILDABLE LOT JUST ACROSS LAS HUERTAS In-Home Pet Care serving: STREAM—with old cottonwoods off the north lot line. Placitas, Corrales & Rio Rancho Power and shared well available. Only $52,000 and possi- Overnight Pet Care provided in Placitas CLEANINg ble owner-financing. Call Porter 263-3662. La Puerta Real Pet Sitting • Pet Waste Removal Estate Services, LLC 867-3388. {505} 440-0875 Insured/Bonded Deb Stichmann PLACITAS HOUSEKEEPING [email protected]

LOOKING FOR DOG AGILITY EQUIPMENT Happy for one piece or many. Will pick up. Local resident • 25 years experience Z Z Z Please call 505-867-5603 Z Z Z (We’d love the seesaw! Please call again.) References provided • Placitas area Lesia Graham — 448-1152 / 659-5500

RESPONSIBLE HOUSE-SITTER AVAILABLE—Respon- sible, mature woman seeks house-sitting position. Pets PLACITAS—5 ACRE MEADOW $88,000—Large lot with huge Sandia views as well as views of the Jemez and and barn animals lovingly cared for. Short- and long-term Call for Free Estimate Mesas! Very convenient! Close to National Forest! Owner situations. References. Please call Lois at 575-519-8498. Lic. & Insured • References financing. Placitas Realty 867-8000, Dave 263-2266.

PLACITAS—ALMOST 4 ACRES $74,000—Convenient, Now Open in Placitas Bridget Cobb—Proprietor developed lot on paved road with water included! Moti- vated! Placitas Realty 867-8000 Dave Harper 263-2266.

Camp Pa sitive Servicing: Placitas, Bernalillo, Where your dog can come stay and play Los Ranchos, and Corrales, NM PLACITAS—5 ACRES—ONLY $60,000—Already plat- ted as 2 lots, this land has water & electric lines already ZiaMaids.com Offering day camp and overnights at our home. (505) 818-4348 • run to the land! Dave Harper 263-2266, Placitas Realty 150 Camino de la Rosa Castilla 867-8000. Phone: 867-4408

DESERT FLOWER CARPET & STEAM CLEANING PLACITAS—NEXT TO PUBLIC LAND! $50,000—This Make a reservation for your pup to come play with us. CARPET AND FURNITURE SPECIALISTS land backs up to thousands of acres on Public Land and We steam clean wool and silk area rugs, too, has no restrictions! Call Dave at Placitas Realty 505-263- plus your tile, grout and stone 2266 or 505-867-8000. 867-4493 • www.desertflowercleancarpets.com NON-LETHAL SNAKE REMOVAL ~ ~ ~ Any kind of snake ~ ~ ~ PLACITAS—2.5 ACRES $40,000—Ridge top lot with Donations accepted for payment. panoramic views! Perfect place to build your off-the-grid Call Moises—321-3600 ROSA’S HOUSECLEANING SERVICE, LLC home! Views of Sandias, Cabezon, Jemez, mesas & Ortiz Mtns!! Dave, Placitas Realty 867-8000 or 263-2266. ~ Family Business in Bernalillo ~ PLACITAS—4.6 ACRES $35,000—Large lot along sea- WILDLIFE RESCUE—Call 505-344-2500. Licensed • Free Estimates sonal stream! Huge Sandia views! Call Dave at Placitas An all-volunteer wildlife rescue program to assist injured References Provided or orphaned wildlife. A service of the Rio Grande Nature Realty 505-263-2266 or 505-867-8000. Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico. 505-379-8652 • 505-990-2053 —“FOR SALE-HOMES/LAND,” continued next page

Sandoval Signpost • Serving the community since 1988 • JULY 2020 • Page 29 gROUND WORK GROUND WORK CLASSIFIEDS / LANDSCAPING LANDSCAPING ~CONTINUED~ ~CONTINUED~

BLOOMING NATIVE GARDENS FOR SALE: PROFESSIONAL XERISCAPE DESIGN, FOREVERBLOOM—A HORTICULTURE AND INSTALLATION & MAINTENANCE ARBORICULTURE BUSINESS. Services include: HOMES / LAND BASED IN PLACITAS Consulting, landscape design, plant care, pre-purchase inspection and selection. Disease and pest infestation

~CONTINUED~ NOW SCHEDULING SUMMER CLEANUP!! control. Tree appraisals and landscape restoration. • Xeriscape design, installation & maintenance 30 yrs. exp. Please give me a call—Virginia Escamilla at • Installation & repair of irrigation & water features 505-379-8890. • Over 30 yrs experience in native/non-native plants • Offering maintenance schedule to fit your needs LYNN KOCH, CRS, 3+ DECADES IN REAL ESTATE • 10% off for new Placitas customers Realty One of New Mexico • Call (m) 505-379-2289, • Installation from sod & plants to flagstone patios (o) 883-9400 or email: [email protected] & block walls VISIT www.PlacitasRealEstate.com. HEALTH / SPIRIT YOUR “GO–TO” SITE FOR PLACITAS INFORMATION! 505-440-0875 [email protected] / BEAUTY JUST LISTED Lot 20-A, La Mesa Subdivision—Backing up to hundreds Recommended by Angie’s List • References furnished • Lic/Ins of acres of City of ABQ Open Space, this lot is fully improved with utilities—community water, electric, telephone, natural gas, and cable tv. Lovely Sandia Mountains view and small building site already there. Incredible lot for the money. 1.708 acres $99,900 DALE’S TREE SERVICE—Pruning, removals, stumps, RIVER STONE CATE CLARK MASSAGE THERAPY 6 Camino de los Desmontes—RARE Placitas commercial metal building, hauling and mowing. 28 years experience. Dale Roberts, is Covid Compliant and Open for Business by Appointment in Placitas. very energy efficient with active solar, natural gas and individual well. 505-473-4129 or 505-977-1981. Excellent (like-new) condition freshly painted interior, new commercial car- Swedish Hot Stones, Deep Tissue, Craniosacral Therapy and pet, new window coverings. C-1 Zoning, 3750 sf (45% office, 55% ware- Certified Manual Lymphatic Therapist. MT4607 • 505-401-4015 house), 6 phone jacks, Ethernet cable, high speed internet, 16’ roll-up metal bay door, 1.748 acres, $589,000 7 Tierra Madre Road—UNIQUE Placitas property including 3 BR, 2 BA adobe/frame passive solar main house & 2 BR, 1 BA casita on view property in a great location. Renovated w/ new appliances, granite in kitchens & baths, new baths, some new tile, some new windows, freshly painted interi- ors, no carpet, newer septic. Get the benefit of Old World SW charm w/ new SERVICES features in both ONE LEVEL homes. 2 car+30’ RV garages, $479,000 LOT 128, OCATE COURT—ALL AROUND VIEWS—Sandia Mountain, Mesa and Sunset views from this easy building site comprised of 1.68 acres. Located in gorgeous Anasazi Meadows. Fully improved w/ community water, electric, telephone, cable & natural gas. Build your dream home here! $115,000 ABR Septic Pumping Lot 4-1-1, Sunrise Drive—INCREDIBLE VIEW LOT where you can see forever. Sandia Mountains, the Village of Placitas, Santa Fe—a vista of over & Back-Up Service 100 miles. Fully improved with all utilities at the lot line. If you are looking for an amazing lot, this is it! 1.12 acres $97,000. “We Live & Own in Placitas!” Call Jim: 505-315-5000 WeWe wearwear masksmasks && glovesgloves forfor youryour protprotection.ection. Regular septic service & emergencies This Land is Your Land! Own a beautiful 5+ acre Placitas property a HIGH & DRY LANDSCAPES a Build your home on a rare 5+-acre parcel Country cottage gardens using native plants & permaculture HOMEOWNERS’ HANDYMAN SERVICES—Carpentry, in Placitas that allows freedom to garden, CALL/TXT: SALLY HALL—505-695-0243 decks, doors, landscaping, painting, tile, windows. Free keep horses, have a guesthouse, and relax. Wired for estimates. Call 505-313-1929. Cable TV & Internet. Already subdivided to two 2.5+ acre lots. Enjoy gorgeous 60-mile mountain and mesa views. A moss rock arroyo provides your own private park. The 560-acre Placitas Open Space is next door. WHELCHEL Take a drive Have a look! At intersection of Sacred Path & Hohokam Road Landscaping and Construction Co.

Call Dave Harper, Placitas Realty 263-2266 or 867-8000 SAVE 10% off our already competitive prices when you MENTION this SIGNPOST AD! NOW is a great time to SAVE MONEY on Landscaping, Concrete Work, Paved Patios, FOR SALE: Patio Covers, Gravel Work & more! We’re specialists in Landscaping & Outdoor Living MISCELLANEOUS If you can imagine it, we can create it.

Sprinkler & Drip Systems Concrete, Flagstone & Brick Work Block Walls & Stucco Work • Additions & Remodels FOUR NEW HANKOOK OPTIMO PLUS II TIRES— Kiva Fireplaces, Banco Seating, Outdoor Kitchens Sizes: p225/60R16-97H, $100. [email protected], Portals, Patio Covers, Decks, Retaining Walls 10 Aspen Ct, Placitas, NM. Terracing , Sod, Gravel & Planting —“SERVICES,” continued next page Call 221-8052 for free estimate References/Pictures on Request • www.nmlandscaping.com LOOKING FOR DOG AGILITY EQUIPMENT Licensed/Bonded/Insured/Lic. #60178 Happy for one piece or many. Will pick up. A-Rating - Angie’s List • AAA - Better Business Bureau Z Z Z Please call 505-867-5603 Z Z Z Read Signpost back issues at (We’d love the seesaw! Please call again.) —“GROUND WORK / LANDSCAPING,” continued next column www.sandovalsignpost.com

PAGE 30 • JULY 2020 • SANDOVAL SIGNPOST • SERVING THE COMMUNITY SINCE 1988 • • • DESERT SERVICE SPRING • • • SERVICES DAVE’S Garage Door Service ~CONTINUED~ BOBCAT SERVICE Broken Spring & Operator Repair 505-252-9722 • WEEKENDS—No Extra Charge Dirt Removal Trash Haul • Grading O'HARA PAINTING—Quality craftsmanship. Tree/Brush Removal Professional service. Clean and efficient. Low VOC Gravel • Driveways paint products. Licensed, Bonded and Insured. Check Snow Removal • Backhoe references at: nextdoor.com. Call Kieran O'Hara for a free estimate. 505-699-6253 (land lines: dial 505). Call 505-264-1062 Licensed & Insured “Serving Sandoval County Placitas since 1996” Pool & Spa Service Complete Service • Repair • Maintenance FREE ESTIMATES • LOCAL REFERENCES • LIC#67125 797-9680 Clip This Ad and Place on Refrigerator for Future Reference NEW MEXICO RUBBISH REMOVAL Adobe Handyman Services WEEKLY TRASH SERVICE I do it all! • Serving the Placitas Area • Bi-weekly recycling available N

AN A Tile Framing Drywall • Offering assistance

MA M Stucco Plaster Painting

YM Y to elderly & disabled Windows Doors Roofs DY D Stonework Adobe Landscaping • Placitas owned & operated N

AN A Painting by No job too small Call Jon Dominguez • 239-3971

HA H N llamsootbojo ! FREE EEERF ESTIMATES!STST MI ATAT SE !S United Services Call Scott 600-2394 ocSllaC tttt 625-043 96 Residential • Commercial

All Paints & Refinishes • Int./Ext. General Maintenance Handyman • Stucco Repairs 505.250.6646 Licensed, Insured & Bonded

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”INSECTS”

A STEREOGRAM by GARY PRIESTER

TO VIEW THE STEREOGRAM: Hold the image close to your wide open eyes and look “through” the image, not focusing on it, then slowly move the image away maintaining the blurred focus. Let your brain work to see the hidden image in 3D. Visit: facebook.com/Eyetricks3DStereograms to see images that change each week or visit: eyetricks-3d-stereograms.com.

Sandoval Signpost • Serving the community since 1988 • JULY 2020 • Page 31 WINDOW & DOOR RREPLACEMMENT TM WINDOWWS & DOORS MADE EA ASY

OFFFER ENDS JUULLYY 31SSTT 20% WWiWithWithW hhNO 20%2 NO 20% NO

/31/2/20 s We’We re so confid ent your n new wind ows will mak ke your DDaatte 007/31/2007/3 PPlusPlluslus home comfortable, WE’LL PAY YOUR EENERGY BIILLS 8585 ndowws.cocom THIS SUMMMER!* DrreeamstyleWindows.coeamsmstyleeWin Callll ffor youry FFREE consultal ation:i 505-7500-0926 l DreamstyleeWindows.coom *We will pay your Julyy,, August, and September Energy bills up to $500.000 when you purchase four or more windows and/or doors between July 1-July 31, 2020.**0% APR for 12 months avvailable to well qualiﬁed buyers on approved credit only. Fiinancing not valid with other offers or prior purchases. Finance charges will be waived if promo balance is paid in fuull in 12 months. Down payment may be required, OAC. Valid with the purchase of 4 or more windowws. VVaalid on purchases made on July 1, 2020 or before July 31, 2020. ©2020 Drreamstyle Remodeling, Inc. Lic. GB02 911738

PAGE 32 • JULY 2020 • SANDOVAL SIGNPOST • SERVING THE COMMUNITY SINCE 1988