Plaza hosts community days

Live entertainment and information booths will be part of the annual Community Days celebration today on the Santa Fe Plaza.

Booths will be set up from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., and entertainment is scheduled from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Parking will be free in all city lots and parking meters.

However, four old, unused parking meters will be set up at the city Public Works Department booth at the corner of Palace Avenue and Old Santa Fe Trail to collect "spare change" for charity. A city news release said coins dropped in those meters will be used to help homeless adults buy bus passes.

The announcement said the idea was borrowed from the cities of Denver and Durango and could serve as a pilot program.

The department asked downtown business owners who get a lot of pedestrian traffic and would be interested in placing one of the meters in front of their businesses to call Joyce Bond at 955-6852. The release said details of the program — such as who will collect the money, how it would be distributed and where the meters would be located — are still being worked out.

Police: Officer hits oncoming car

An Española city police officer apparently fell asleep while driving home to Chimayó on Friday morning after working a graveyard shift, drifted over the center line of N.M. 76 and hit another car head-on, state police said.

Police Officer George Martinez, 27, who had just finished a shift, and Larry Ortiz, 25, who was driving toward Española, were taken to Española Valley Hospital, said state police spokesman Lt. Eric Garcia. He said Martinez, who had cuts to his elbow, right hand, face and leg, will be cited for careless driving, and Ortiz, who had cuts to his face and legs, will be cited for not wearing a seat belt.

Garcia said the accident occurred at 6:45 a.m. Friday on the winding roadway between Española and Chimayó when the left front fender of Martinez's police car, a 2006 Ford Crown Victoria, struck the front of Ortiz's 1999 Infinity SUV. Both men had to be extricated from their cars, he said.

Ex-municipal judge released from jail

Former Santa Fe Municipal Judge Tom Fiorina, incarcerated since last week on a civil contempt order for refusing to pay $13,500 to his estranged wife, was released from jail Friday.

Fiorina's lawyer, Yvonne Quintana of Española, said state District Judge Stephen Pfeffer, who ordered Fiorina to jail on May 7, granted her motion to let him wear an electronic monitoring device so he can stay at home.

Quintana said Pfeffer also agreed to set a hearing soon to reconsider the order for Fiorina to pay three months of a $4,500 monthly income allocation to his wife, Caryn Keahbone, who is seeking a divorce.

Fiorina said in a jailhouse interview Monday that he doesn't believe Keahbone, who works for the city's information technology division, deserves so much money. He charged she has been negligent in the care of their 16-year-old daughter, Chanet.

Keahbone, who denied the allegation, accused Fiorina, city judge from 1983 to 1996, of gambling away money from the sale of Fiorina family property for the Piazza Fiorina shopping center on Cerrillos Road. She said the money was supposed to go to the care of Fiorina's mother, who was secretary of state from 1959 to 1962 and now has Alzheimer's disease.

No charges yet in fatal Pojoaque accident

More than six weeks after a Chimayó man was struck and killed by a vehicle while he walked along a highway on Pojoaque Pueblo, no charges have been filed against the pueblo's lieutenant governor who is suspected of hitting him, then leaving the scene.

The body of Phillip Espinosa, 31, was found alongside U.S. 84/285 on April 4. On April 5, Pojoaque Pueblo Lieutenant Gov. Linda Diaz, 52, called the Pojoaque tribal police to say she had "done something very bad," according to a Santa Fe County Sheriff's report which found indications that Espinosa had been struck by Diaz's car.

The case was turned over to the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs for investigation. No one from the BIA responded to messages seeking information on the case Friday. U.S. Attorney spokesman Norm Cairns said Friday that no charge had been filed against Diaz. Pojoaque Pueblo officials have declined comment.

La Sotella burn ignitions finished

Fire managers and crews completed ignitions of 4,950 acres within the 6,500-acre La Sotella prescribed burn area on the Española Ranger District near Abiquiú on Friday. Crews won't conduct more burning in the area over the weekend but will continue to monitor the fire.

The La Sotella burn is supposed to improve forage for wildlife, according to Española District fire staff.

Prescribed burns on the Santa Fe National Forest must comply with regulations set by the state Environment Department Air Quality Bureau.

Smoke from the fires may continue to settle in communities north of Española and in the Española Valley, according to fire managers. Smoke from the burn will be visible from the communities of Abiquiú, Hernandez, Santa Fe, Española, Tesuque and Los Alamos, and along I-25 and US 84/285 through the weekend.

AG takes aim at car-warranty calls

Tired of annoying "robocalls" that warn that your automobile warranty is expiring?

Attorney General Gary King says he is working with the Federal Trade Commission to put a stop to these illegal calls.

According to a news release from King's office, the FTC seeks to shut down the telemarketing campaign "bombarding U.S. consumers with hundreds of millions of allegedly deceptive automated calls in an effort to sell them vehicle service contracts under the guise that they are extensions of original vehicle warranties."

New Mexico consumers have steadily lodged complaints with the Attorney General's Office about receiving such calls at home and even on state cell phones.

Franklin E. Miles Park to get face-lift

The city of Santa Fe has awarded a $1.3 million contract to Lee Landscapes Inc. of Albuquerque for improvements to Gen. Franklin E. Miles Park, at Camino Carlos Rey and Siringo Road.

Improvements include new irrigation systems, replacement of aging park furniture and playground equipment, new walking trails/sidewalks, shade pavilions, parking-lot improvements and "a considerable amount of landscaping," a city news release said.

The new amenities will add to a new concession building recently completed and a new bathroom facility under construction. Construction is expected to be completed in early September.

The project is funded with a bond issue for park improvements that voters approved in March 2008.

Beginning next week, the contractor will install temporary construction fencing at the park perimeters, including parking lots. As construction activities allow, the fencing will be adjusted to allow for public use of the basketball court, skateboard facility and playground.