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 busi- ness, 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 publica- tion 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.