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Headline News From Our
Dec. 20, 2002 Issue

The Grinch stole
Christmas in Arrey

  The Grinch stole Christmas last weekend in the small farming community of Arrey in southern Sierra County.

Contest Results

The Desert Journal’s prize winning Christmas supplement, featuring the 2002 High School Holiday Art Contest, is hot this year.

Click on winning art entry at left and see the winners and more.

Little girl’s cry for help muted

  A little girl’s cry for help went unheard, not only just a whisper’s plea at the moment of crisis, but by blind justice for more than a half year.

Bush signs EB Lease Lot Transfer Act

  U.S. Senators Pete Domenici and Jeff Bingaman confirmed Tuesday that President Bush has signed into law a bill that will solidify protections for Elephant Butte lease lot holders who have lived on the federal lands surrounding the reservoir for decades.

The beef behind school taxes

  Area voters have agreed, if reluctantly, to tax themselves through a mil levy and a bond issue to fund school construction and renovation projects and local school officials, having extensive projects in mind, hope voters and property owners will continue doing so.

Auto Museum to close Monday

  Effective Monday, Dec. 23, Callahan’s Auto Museum in Truth or Consequences will be closing. Not just for the holidays but permanently.

Burke’s Outlet opens in town

  Burke's Outlet opened up last weekend at the Lakeway Shopping Center at 1812 N. Date St. in Truth or Consequences.

Wildlands Project Comes to Hidalgo County

  When I began researching the environmental movement, one of the first books I read was a thick, 640 page treatise, entitled, "Trashing the Economy: How Runaway Environmentalism is Wrecking America."

CLICK ON PHOTO TO VIEW SERIES

Beachwalk

Luminarias

2002

Elephant Butte

Lake State Park

OBITUARIES

   Notice for  Ruby Mae Loper.

Decorated sailboats reflect off Elephant Butte Lake during the Beachwalk Luminarias event held last Saturday night. See inside for more photos of this beautiful holiday extravaganza. Click on photo to view series.
DJ photo by Bill Johnson

…They go without

Damaria Perez, seven months old, and Noemy Perez, 4, both of Arrey, brought their wish list to the Christmas party in Arrey Tuesday morning but Santa found it hard to fulfill any child’s wish after thieves stole most of the new toys from the Arrey Community Center sometime Sunday night or Monday morning. Santa said he thinks the Grinch and his evil elves eventually will get caught, or at least burn with a guilty conscience for stealing from the community’s needy children. DJ Photo by Bill Johnson

The Grinch stole

Christmas in Arrey

By Bill Johnson

of the Desert Journal

The Grinch stole Christmas last weekend in the small farming community of Arrey in southern Sierra County.

Poor children of immigrant farm laborers and other low-income families will be deprived of new toys and clothes for Christmas this year as a result of last Sunday night’s burglary of the Arrey Senior and Community Center.

“We were very upset. It was very heartbreaking. People bought all of those new toys. And the thieves took them,” said Carolyn Suttles, a volunteer at the fifth annual Christmas party for the community’s needy Tuesday morning.

“It was devastating. I came here yesterday (Monday) morning and I couldn’t believe my eyes,” said Alna Cooper, who with her sister, friend and several community volunteers have kept the toys for kids program alive in Arrey since the May 2001 death of Alna’s brother - the founder of the community’s Christmas drive - Troy Johnston.

The program is held in conjunction with the distribution of commodities so that when families come to pick up their bags of food they also can take home their Christmas baskets while children hunt through the huge piles of toys for their favorites. But this year was different.

“They took dolls’ clothes off, tore down a carriage, scattered toys and pulled toys apart, piled up baby clothes and put heavy stuff on top of them. The place was a total mess. But worst of all, they stole a lot of new toys and big stuffed animals that looked like new,” Cooper said.

The incident occurred 10 or so days before Christmas, either Sunday night after 5 p.m. when Arrey Fire Chief Richard Millard locked up the building after holding a CPR class there that afternoon, or early Monday morning before Larry Arrey was first to discover the mess inside the Community Center, according to Arrey. “I found the door unlocked. I grabbed the door handle and it opened,” Arrey said.

“It had to have been lots of kids and adults who did this. It was someone who had access,” said Arrey, the volunteer Santa for the annual Christmas presents giveaway to up to nearly a hundred needy families in Aggie land, many who speak only Spanish.

Children got to pick their toys, many consisting of the used and smaller stuffed animals; that is, smaller than the much bigger ones that thieves kept for themselves, Arrey said.

Many of the stolen new toys and clothing items consisted of the donations made by many individuals and members of the Fraternal Order of the Eagles and the Sierra County Humane Society, as well as the toys and beautiful infant and children’s clothes from the Vernon and Chatfield families of Carlsbad that made it more than 200 miles across the east plains. “They took it to El Paso and I picked it up there to bring here after Thanksgiving,” Cooper said.

It’s a yearlong effort involving many volunteer hours and the selfish bandits stole the best of the gifts, leaving crumbs for the children.

“They left everything ugly. We lost the spirit this year,” Cooper said.

“There was a Grinch in there,” said a disgusted John Johnson from his truck parked outside the center during Tuesday’s activities.

The incident was reported to the Sheriff’s Office. “They are investigating. It won’t undo the damage that was done but it will help,” Scuttles said.

Cooper added, “Our new sheriff (elect) David Martinez said he was going to go to work on it.”

<<<   >>>

Little girl’s cry

for help muted

Man charged

with rape

By Bill Johnson

of the Desert Journal

A little girl’s cry for help went unheard, not only just a whisper’s plea at the moment of crisis, but by blind justice for more than a half year.

A criminal complaint filed Dec. 10 alleges a 21-year-old man raped a 10-year-old girl on May 19 in Sierra County.

Charges leveled in the Sierra County Magistrate Court against James Chantry Cumiford of Florence, AZ, include two counts of criminal sexual penetration in the first degree and a count each of criminal sexual contact of a minor and false imprisonment.

Investigator Ernest Najera Jr. of the Sierra County Sheriff’s Office, who filed the complaint Dec. 10, said he received the case file on Nov. 1 from Lt. Chris Oskins, also of the Sheriff’s Office.

Najera said in the affidavit for arrest warrant he learned from Oskins that Oskins spoke to the victim’s mother about two weeks after the alleged rape occurred. “The minor child was alleging that she had been raped,” the affidavit said.

Najera said he also learned that the case had not been handled for seven months and that the suspect, Cumiford, no longer resides in New Mexico.

According to the investigator’s affidavit, the mother of the victim and her children were at a party at a neighbor’s house the night of the incident. The mother said her daughter was getting tired so she was going to take her daughter home.

After the mother told everyone bye, Cumifordd told her to stay at the party because she never gets to visit with her friends and that he would take the tired girl home, according to the affidavit.

“[The mother] trusted Chantry because he had been living with them for 12 years, on and off. She saw Chantry as one of her own children,” Investigator Najera said in the affidavit.

The girl had told her mother that after they arrived home and watched the Simpsons on TV, she was going to bed when Cumiford allegedly asked her if he could sleep in her room, being that her room was the only one with an alarm clock, according to the affidavit.

The girl allowed him to sleep in her room, “and she made it very clear to him that he would have to sleep on the floor,” according to the investigator’s statement.

After 10 minutes passed, the girl was awakened with Cumiford on top of her. “[The victim] stated that Chantry had pinned her arms down with his knees, and his head was facing her crouch area, and Chantry was pulling down her panties,” the affidavit alleged, adding, “Then he turned his body around and was facing her, lying on top of her.”

The complaint, then becoming graphic, alleges he penetrated her two times the same night, each at 15-minute intervals.

During the first incident, the rape stopped when they heard the sliding glass door open. “Chantry rolled off of [her] and just laid in bed with her,” the affidavit states.

The victim’s sister was going inside the house to pick up some cokes. “[The sister] briefly spoke to Chantry and [the victim], then she and her friend left,” the affidavit states.

After they left, Cumiford got back on top of the victim a second time and penetrated her again. But the victim’s sister returned a second time, entering the sliding glass door and then into the room where both the victim and alleged child molester were and asked Cumiford for a ride to a friend’s house.

“At this time [the victim] whispered to her sister, ‘Help me,’ but [her sister] didn’t hear her,” according to the investigator’s affidavit.

After the sister left the room, Cumiford allegedly told the victim not to tell anyone or she was going to get into trouble, the affidavit said.

Investigator Najera said he learned Lt. Oskins had handled the call and that Oskins had told the victim and her mother that he would have someone from the Sheriff’s Office take them to Las Cruces for a forensic interview, but no one ever showed.

“The victim and her mother were told three times that someone would take them to the forensic interview,” Najera said in the affidavit.

Oskins had taken the mattress where the rape incident occurred into evidence for DNA testing but the mattress was never sent to the crime lab for testing, Najera said in the affidavit, adding, “The mattress was in the evidence room for the past seven months.”

Najera said he cut the top liner of the mattress and packaged it to be sent off to the crime lab for testing, “per a direct order from Lt. Oskins.”

And it was not until Nov. 4 when the forensic interview was finally conducted, according to Najera’s statement. The investigator said he hadn’t spoken to the victim, but that Sylvia Aldaz, who conducted the interview, said she believes the victim was raped.

Najera said he also learned from Lt. Oskins that when Oskins asked Cumiford to return to T or C for an interview, Cumiford refused. Cumiford allegedly said he wouldn’t talk without a lawyer.

According to local authorities, Cumiford is in custody in Arizona and is awaiting extradition proceedings before being returned to New Mexico to face justice, which until recently turned a blind face on the little girl whose cry for help went unheard.

Magistrate Thomas Pestak set no bond, which may be reconsidered at arraignment.

<<<   >>>

…Feliz Navidad en Ecuador!

Astrid Daher, 18, of Guayaquil, Ecuador, won’t be going home for the holidays as the foreign exchange student will enjoy her Christmas in Truth or Consequences this year. Astrid is attending Hot Springs High School and is a volunteer with the Sierra County Magistrate Court, which invited her to their Christmas party at the Damsite Restaurant at Elephant Butte Lake last Friday night (as seen in photo). She stayed her first three months with the Harrelson family; is now living with Ellen Evans, a loan officer at Bank of the Southwest, and will spend her last three months with Magistrate Thomas Pestak and his family.

DJ photo by Bill Johnson

Bush signs EB Lease Lot Transfer Act

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senators Pete Domenici and Jeff Bingaman confirmed Tuesday that President Bush has signed into law a bill that will solidify protections for Elephant Butte lease lot holders who have lived on the federal lands surrounding the reservoir for decades.

The president on Monday passed the Elephant Butte Lease Lot Conveyance Act (HR.706) into law.

The bill, introduced by Rep. Joe Skeen, will allow lease holders to purchase at fair market value 403 lots from the Bureau of Reclamation within the Elephant Butte and Caballo reservoirs’ boundaries.

This property amounts to about 250 acres of the 78,000 acres within the boundaries of the Elephant Butte and Caballo boundaries.

“It has been a long road, but we now have protections in place for the Elephant Butte lessees who want to purchase their home sites. This strikes a fair balance, and I applaud Joe Skeen for all his hard work on this issue over the years,” Domenici said.

“Senator Bingaman and I have expressed our willingness to take a look at additional concerns about the impact of this bill, should the need arise. This law, however, is a positive stride toward ensuring longstanding lease holders will not be forced out of their homes.”

“Skeen worked hard to get this legislation to the president's desk, and I want to commend him for seeing this through to the end. The enactment of this bill into law is a major step toward resolving a long-standing issue that was of concern to many homeowners,” Senator Jeff Bingaman said.

“It has been brought to my attention that some concerns may remain, but both Senator Domenici and I have committed to addressing them," said Bingaman, who as chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee helped guide Skeen's bill to Senate passage.

In the 1940s, the Bureau of Reclamation began leasing lots around Elephant Butte for $10 a year. Lease holders were told that if they didn’t make improvements to the lots, the leases would revert back to the government.

Over the last 50 years, lease holders have made improvements to the lots such as houses, roads and other necessary infrastructure.

Allowing the purchase of the lots will in no way affect the public’s access to Elephant Butte, or interfere with the Bureau’s operation of the reservoir.

The bill has the support of the New Mexico congressional delegation, the Bureau of Reclamation, and 403 lease lot holders.

Specifically, the law grants each lessee an option to either purchase the property at fair market value, or continue leasing the property on terms to be negotiated with the Elephant Butte/Caballo Leaseholders Association Inc., a nonprofit corporation.

The legislation defines fair market value as the value of the property determined without regard to improvements constructed by the lessee of the property; by an appraisal in accordance with the Uniform Standards for Federal Land Acquisitions; and by an appraiser approved by the Secretary and the purchaser.

The conveyance of the properties for fair market value would have the beneficial results of eliminating associated management expenditures for federal taxpayers, while increasing local tax revenues from the new owners.

<<<   >>>

The beef behind school taxes

Where’s the state’s

fair share of support

for local education?

By Fred Mramor

Area voters have agreed, if reluctantly, to tax themselves through a mil levy and a bond issue to fund school construction and renovation projects and local school officials, having extensive projects in mind, hope voters and property owners will continue doing so.

The Truth or Consequences School District, with its $21 million annual budget, is funded by the mil levy and bond issue approved by district voters in addition to numerous state, federal and private grants.

District voters in 1983 approved a two-mil levy and have agreed to continue taxing themselves every three to four years since. If you own property with a market value of $60,000 and an assessed value of $20,000, the mil levy costs you $40 a year.

The mil levy generates $300,000 per year, which is used to erect and maintain school buildings and purchase computer equipment and other physical assets.

Continuing the mil levy has been a tough sell for school officials lately. Voters defeated the mil levy when it came up for renewal in February 2002.

But determined district officials placed the same mil levy before voters in a special election in April. Sufficiently cajoled by school officials and employees, newspaper editors and other civic-minded individuals, district voters said yes the second time around.

The T or C School Board in 1999 identified $21 million in needs and developed a 12-year plan for various repairs, improvements and renovations to district schools, including high school renovation Phase I for about $3.5 million.

To begin meeting those needs, district officials placed a $4.5 million school bond issue before voters in August 2000. Another tough sell, voters initially said no to the bond question, but undeterred school officials put it to them again for $4 million in February 2001.

The second bond measure was approved and district property owners will pay $3.42 a year for every $1,000 of assessed value for 12 years. Given the aforementioned property with an assessed value of $20,000, a property owner will pay $68.40 a year until the bond is retired.

School officials plan to ask district voters to approve another $4.5 million bond issue in 2004, and again every four years thereafter, to finance school construction, renovation and improvement projects.

School Superintendent Dr. Bruce Hegwer last week said a new bond also will refinance the existing bond so that taxes will not be raised above current levels while providing continued funding for the district’s long-range plans including new classrooms, a new gym and a performing arts center at the high school.

Funds from the bond issue may be spent only on capital improvements, Dr. Hegwer said.

Voter approval of the mil levy and bond issue helped the T or C School District obtain $4 million for facilities renovations from the state legislature who look more favorably on doling out funds to districts where voters are willing to pony up themselves, Hegwer said.

Though federal and state funds often may not be used for construction or building maintenance, school officials are lobbying the state legislature to allow the use of $2.4 million from a buildings deficiency fund, along with $1.2 million already slated for renovation, to demolish the high school’s main building and replace it with a new one, Hegwer said.

Hegwer said it would cost less to build a new high school than to repair the 37-year-old building, in part because the building, new or old, will have to meet new codes and comply with requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Hegwer said also new buildings are cheaper to heat, cool and maintain and will have a much longer useful life than patched-up old buildings.

The district will receive $633,000 in deficiencies corrections funds to renovate the T or C Elementary School Complex. But Dr. Hegwer said it wouldn’t be worth $633,000 to repair the aging elementary school with its persistently leaking roof and high utilities costs.

Hegwer said he would rather spend $3.5 million, possibly from the bond issue he hopes voters will approve in 2004, to build a new elementary school.

A new vocational building for agriculture, technology and woodworking is now under construction at Hot Springs High School. A new parking lot at the back of the school also will be built.

In a plan that has been has been criticized as being aesthetically-driven and uneconomical, school officials are considering turning the school around to make what is now the front of the school its back. Hegwer said that doing so, along with building a new parking lot, would greatly reduce traffic congestion for students, parents and busses. The new arrangement also will better accommodate planned new buildings, Hegwer said.

The purchase of an extra heavy-duty pickup truck - a four wheel drive, Chevrolet Duramax diesel with Allison transmission and extended cab, supposedly a $45,000 vehicle - also has been called into question.

The truck is used for school vehicle maintenance and repair and for package delivery to the various schools.

Dr. Hegwer said he doesn’t feel the Duramax is overkill as it is often used to haul heavy tools, an air compressor, welding equipment and a lift. Hegwer said the district paid only $27,000 for the truck.

School officials have been criticized also for spending $34,000 a year during the last four years for office furniture and equipment but only $19,000 a year for classroom equipment. Dr. Hegwer defended the expenditures saying the old equipment and furniture are worn out.

Completed projects in the school district include a flashing yellow light and new exterior paint at Arrey Elementary, plumbing at the T or C Elementary School Complex, security cameras at the middle and high schools, a perimeter fence at the middle school, a new roof on the high school gym and roof repairs on all other school buildings.

Lotto bull

New Mexico Lottery players in the T or C School District, who of course buy lottery tickets to help their schools, may be surprised to learn that since the state lottery’s inception in 1996 and until June 2001, lottery proceeds have assisted with construction and renovations only in school districts that were bonded to capacity, according to Dr. Hegwer.

In other words, only school districts that are affluent enough or whose voters are generous enough, which does not include the T or C School District, have received any lottery funds.

According to a North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries website, Public School Capital Outlay funds of $66.5 million have been distributed to New Mexico school districts (not T or C) until June 2001.

Lottery Tuition funds of $51.78 million were distributed during the same period.

Since June 2001, all state lottery proceeds have gone towards college scholarships for New Mexico high school graduates. One big catch: students must attend college immediately after graduating from high school to receive tuition funds.

Students who take a year off from school, whether to work or for any purpose, are ineligible for lottery-paid tuitions while those who are prepared to go to college immediately after completing high school may have four year’s tuition paid by state lottery proceeds.

<<<   >>>

...Shcool tax $$$ at work!!!

 Traditionally, only 20 percent of the US population was expected to complete high school, according to T or C School District Superintendent Dr. Bruce Hegwer. Dr. Hegwer said our government became concerned about a space gap, and an education gap, when the Russians launched Sputnik in 1957. It is only since then that finishing high school has become a minimum expectation for all Americans, Dr. Hegwer said, but our education system has yet to catch up with the expectation. Maybe these guys weren’t among the 20 percent the school system meant to graduate.

Auto Museum to close Monday

Desert Journal Staff Report

Effective Monday, Dec. 23, Callahan’s Auto Museum in Truth or Consequences will be closing. Not just for the holidays but permanently.

“I will put up a sign that says, ‘Closed forever. Ask the city why’,” said Bill Callahan, who opened the museum on Cedar Street 10 years ago.

Dwindling support in the way of City’s Lodgers Tax Funds seems to be the main beef that Callahan has with the city commission.

Callahan said he never asked for a dime for himself and that any request he has made was for promoting or advertising the auto museum as a tourist destination in T or C. But when he showed up for a lodgers tax request, some board members tried to insult or intimidate him.

And Callahan asks why there isn’t enough to go around when the T or C Lodgers Tax generates more than $1 million a year.

The city is entitled to half of it for its tourism and convention center’s needs, he added. That leaves more than a half million dollars for everyone else’s lodger tax funding needs, he said. He said his figures are according to the NMSU Rural Economic Development Through Tourism Project’s website.

“There are two interested buyers who want to buy and move the museum to their town. This was the first auto museum in New Mexico and since then I helped two others open in this state in Rio Ranch and Santa Rosa, and helped another one open out of state in Terre Haute, Indiana,” Callahan said.

“The guy in Santa Rosa will tell you how much his city helped him with the building and promoting the auto museum there,” Callahan said. But in T or C he said he has found he has been getting the cold shoulder.

“The Veterans Day Car Show held annually at the New Mexico State Veterans Home was started in this museum. I bring all kinds of auto buffs to town. Restaurants and motels should be mad (that the lodgers tax collections aren’t going to help tourist attractions like the auto museum pay for promoting or advertising costs),” he said.

He said the city commission has the final say but that it succumbs to only the whims of the lodgers tax board, which he says has cut the auto museum out of the big picture.

“No one on the commission went to bat for us,” Callahan said, adding that he was still awaiting the delivery of one commissioner’s promise of support.

Even though this is the last year the museum will be involved in the Veterans Day Car Show, Callahan said he personally will get involved in making sure the car show is a reality next year. “I will do that for our veterans,” he said.

<<<   >>>

One could only imagine why this candle is tipsy after attending the Magistrate Court party at the Damsite Restaurant and Bar last Friday night but the candle still conveys a message of good cheer and Season’s Greetings.
DJ photo by Bill Johnson

Burke’s Outlet opens in town

at Lakeway Shopping Center

Burke's Outlet opened up last weekend at the Lakeway Shopping Center at 1812 N. Date St. in Truth or Consequences.

The newest store in town became reality after Buke’s Outlet signed a lease for its 14,000-square-feet plus of space. The store will employ from seven to 10 associates and a store manager.

The Truth or Consequences store is Burke’s Outlet’s second store in the New Mexico market.

Burke's Outlet stores carry a wide variety of branded apparel, shoes and gifts for the whole family. The assortment of merchandise consists of vendor closeouts, private label import and domestic buys and off-price lines.

Burke’s Outlet prices its merchandise up to 70% off department stores prices with an every day low price philosophy.

Burke’s Outlet has a Senior Shopping program that entitles customers 50 years of age and older to a 15% discount off all purchases every Monday.

In addition, the Outlet boasts a Frequent Shopper program that is open to customers of all ages and entitles the cardholder to a 20% discount upon filling the card by spending $200.

<<<   >>>

Wildlands Project Comes

to Hidalgo County (Part 8)

The Wildlands Project:

The Nature Conservancy's

land acquisition program

A Country Girl's Musin'

By Judy Keeler

When I began researching the environmental movement, one of the first books I read was a thick, 640 page treatise, entitled, "Trashing the Economy: How Runaway Environmentalism is Wrecking America."*

Written by Ron Arnold and Alan Gottlieb, published in 1994, it is a virtual encyclopedia on the various environmental organizations operating in the United States.

I consider it invaluable when researching how, why and who is involved in "rewilding" America Incorporated in 1951, The Nature Conservancy (TNC), began small.

Funded by its members, consisting mainly of botanists and zoologists, TNC used their donations to purchase small tracts of land for preservation and collecting scientific specimens.

From its inception in 1951 until the 1970s TNC was "as American as motherhood and apple pie." As with all small, well-intentioned beginnings, the group began to expand its horizons when Patrick Noonan began serving as director of operations in 1970.

During then, TNC used a foundational grant to buy up three barrier islands off the Virginia coast. Soon Noonan began a secretive, "whirlwind acquisition" campaign to buy up the remaining islands "with the intent to develop them into upscale vacation homes."

Using a "bogus front group," TNC managed to purchase 14 of the 18 barrier islands. "With its purchase TNC destroyed hundreds of millions of dollars worth of economic growth and thousands of jobs - not just with those three but with what followed."

The land acquisition campaign cost TNC dissention among its ranks and several of its long-standing members. Under pressure Noonan resigned his position as both executive director and director of operations in 1980.  Assuming "the presidency of the Conservation Fund," he remained, however, a consultant to TNC.

Even without Noonan at the helm, the Virginia island land acquisition campaign continued into the 1980s. TNC spent most of their capital, about $25 million, acquiring 14 of the 18 barrier islands.

These acquisitions "effectively stopped all economic development - except for the Conservancy's." A new mission had begun; as a result, a new perception of the organization emerged.

"The people of the Virginia Shore generally hated The Nature Conservancy. They felt the organization was tying up lands that could have otherwise been developed for the Shore's economic benefit. They were also irritated by the intrusion of outsiders - 'come-heres' in local parlance - and the Nature Conservancy were consistently outsiders of the worst sort, arrogant, we-know-better-than-you-how-to-care-for-this-land, secretive, rich and openly hostile.

The county commissioners deeply resented the tax-exempt status of TNC's land, something the poor counties could ill afford. Everyone was annoyed when the Conservancy curbed the locals from hunting, fishing, camping, and joy riding on the islands.

A pattern soon emerged with the acquisition of the Virginia barrier islands: Create an exclusive private nature preserve as a magnet for profitable upscale adjacent residential and commercial development then use the profits to finance still more nature acquisition.

Learning from past experience, in the future TNC would "do it quietly." The new pattern would also include:

Striking deals with developers whereby the builders would donate as "charitable gifts" parcels of the land in the planned development to TNC. In exchange, the builder made promises of "compatible development." As the result of one such exchange, TNC got the Fish and Wildlife Foundation to accept title to the tidal wetlands (donated by the developer), which were then turned over to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for a refuge. The builder was then able to advertise the rest of the holdings as “being adjacent to a federal wildlife refuge.”

Reselling parcels of land to federal agencies. On June 30, 1990, TNC showed it held "$53.5 million in land for resale to the government." By 1992 TNC ledgers showed the organization had received $90,693,000 for sale of land to government agencies.

Patrick Noonan - hiding behind TNC's early reputation - not only shifted the Conservancy from small-is-beautiful to huge lands deals, from local control to rule from the top, but most significantly, he also shifted the Conservancy from its original keep-it-and-mange-it policy to getting the federal government to buy TNC land and pay them a tidy profit - never asking whether public ownership of land was in the best interest of either the public or the environment.

It was ecologist Garrett Hardin who said, “The tragedy of the commons is averted by private property.” William Weeks, who came on staff in 1982, was quoted by the late columnist Warren Brookes as saying, “We buy these (lands) when they need to be bought, so that at some point we can become the 'willing seller' (to the government).”

Although Weeks strongly denied he said it, the document still stands today. Another time, it was reported Mr. Weeks announced TNC had become "an arm of the federal government," with participants in the scheme of buying up private property for resale to the federal government.

Today, the Nature Conservancy has moved beyond buying and selling land. During the tenure of John Sawhill, former TNC executive director, and under Steve McCormick's directorship today, the organization is moving forward with a new agenda at a remarkable speed.

* All quotes from Ron Arnold's book "Trashing the Economy."

Next Week: The Nature Conservancy's - Strategy for 1990s.

<<<   >>>

Students of the Rainbow Works Preschool at the First United Methodist Church in T or C sing carols during their Christmas program Wednesday morning before family and friends.

Photo by Bill Johnson

OBITUARIES

Ruby Mae Loper, 84,of Truth or Consequences, died, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2002.A heavenly journey has begun for Ruby Mae Loper, whom met her maker early Thursday morning, December 19, 2002.

She was born on May 4, 1918, in Curry County, NM. Ruby was a descendant of an earlier New Mexican pioneer family. Her parents were William Wesley and Nancy Molly (Miley) Evans. At an early age she married Lloyd W. Smith in Socorro, NM on Sept. 1, 1933. From this union two sons were born. They moved to Truth or Consequences in 1951 and a few years later Ruby opened a beauty shop in the back of her home on Foch Street. Lloyd passed away a few years later in 1965. Ruby took great pride in her yard and garden. She enjoyed hand watering her yard and tending to her flowers and plants. She was a member of the Church of Christ.

She is survived by her two sons, Tom Smith, wife Bonnie, of Williamsburg, NM and Syd Smith, of T or C. One brother, Jack Evans of Idaho and two sisters, Edith Whimery of Grand Junction, CO and Evelyn Wallace, husband Claude, of Magdalena, NM. Other survivors include two granddaughters, two grandsons and four great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by three husbands, Lloyd W. Smith in 1965, George A. Hobbs in 1971 and Ray Loper in 1978, preceded Ruby in death. Also her parents and three brothers.

Funeral Services for Ruby will be at 11 a.m., Saturday, Dec. 21, 2002, at the Sierra Funeral Home Chapel. Mr. A. C. Morris with the Church of Christ, will officiate. Committal Services will follow at the Hot Springs Cemetery were she will be laid to rest beside George.  Service arrangements have been entrusted to the care and direction of Sierra Funeral Home, 507 West McAdoo Street, Truth or Consequences.

Beachwalk

Luminarias

2002

Elephant Butte

Lake State Park

DJ photos by BIll Johnson