Committee OKs city land lease

A City Council committee late Tuesday endorsed a Santa Fe Civic Housing Authority request to lease city land under West Alameda public housing sites for a redevelopment project.

The Public Works Committee vote sent the proposal to the Finance Committee prior to its going to the full City Council for a final vote.

Ed Romero, director of the housing authority, said the proposed 99-year lease would allow the authority to apply to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for approvals, including vouchers to relocate current residents during reconstruction and permission to demolish aging structures that were largely funded by the federal agency.

The lease would be contingent on various conditions.

The authority plans to build up to 184 units of mixed-income housing to replace the 104 low-income units at the site. At least 30 percent of the new units would be set aside for very-low-income families and some the other units rented at below-market rates.

Pair makes bid for 'Tribune'

Santa Fe resident Tom Carroll said he and Doug Turner of Albuquerque have made an offer to buy the Albuquerque Tribune from the E.W. Scripps Co. of Cincinnati.

Carroll and Turner are, respectively, president and chief executive officer of D.W. Turner, an Albuquerque advertising and public-relations firm.

"But this is not a D.W. Turner enterprise," Carroll said in a telephone interview Tuesday from New York City. "We're doing this outside of D.W. Turner, privately."

Carroll said he has been negotiating with Scripps for the Tribune "for a while," and it will be "several weeks" before he can say anything else due to a confidentiality agreement.

Scripps announced Aug. 28 it would close the paper in two months if it did not find a buyer. The proffered sale does not include the Tribune's 64-year-old joint operating agreement with the Albuquerque Journal.

Anti-graffiti law gains support

Santa Fe County commissioners Tuesday agreed to advertise a proposed anti-graffiti ordinance, even though Commissioner Paul Campos questioned if it would penalize property owners.

Like the city of Santa Fe's anti-graffiti ordinance, the proposed county ordinance would allow county officials to go onto private property to eradicate graffiti and then charge the property owner for the work.

Campos said that sounds like penalizing the victims of graffiti. He suggested county staff rewrite the proposed ordinance to set up a special fund that could be used to remove graffiti rather than charging property owners.

Commissioner Harry Montoya asked if the county could raise more money by increasing proposed fines for graffiti vandals. But County Attorney Steve Ross said state law makes $300 the maximum fine.

Portion of Paseo to be closed

One lane of Paseo de Peralta, between Bishops Lodge Road and Otero Street, will be intermittently closed over the next five weeks beginning today, a city news release announced.

The temporary closures are a result of work by Richardson's Excavating LLC under a private contract to prevent a retaining wall from falling into the street, a city spokeswoman said.

Lock problem concerns teachers

Teachers at Capital High School didn't have keys to their classrooms last week. In some cases, doorknobs fell off doors if anyone pulled them.

The problems started when construction crews replaced doorknobs and mixed up the keys, school officials said.

Not being able to lock doors posed a safety and security problem, teachers said. There was no way to keep anyone out of classes, which could have been dangerous, especially in the case of a lockdown, they said.

Workers finally addressed the problem over the weekend, school staff said Tuesday, and staff started handing new keys to teachers on Tuesday afternoon.

Cashier describes thrift-store robber

Michelle Gonzales said Tuesday that she didn't think she heard the man right when he demanded all the money in the Open Hands Thrift Store cash register on Monday. She said she asked him to repeat himself.

When Gonzales fumbled with the register, the man, who indicated he had a weapon in his pocket, told her to hurry up or he would shoot somebody. About 15 people were in the West San Mateo Road store.

Gonzales, who works as cashier, said the robber was about 5 feet 9 inches tall, weighed between 190 and 200 pounds, had dark, black hair and dark brown eyes and no facial hair. He was wearing a dark blue jacket with the hood pulled up and jeans.

According to Gonzales, a customer said the man also had a tattoo on his pinkie finger. Another customer, who is a regular at the store, saw the robber in the parking lot and told Gonzales he and another man were driving a bronzed-colored Ford Contour.

Gonzales estimated the loss to the store at more than $100.

Bike-lane plan takes step forward

A plan to designate a bike lane on Don Gaspar Avenue passed another hurdle at Tuesday night's city Public Works Committee.

Councilors on the committee voted to grant conceptual approval for the 5-foot-wide bike lane, an idea that had been recommended by two advisory committees late this summer.

The bike lane would require restripping Don Gaspar from Paseo De Peralta to Coronado Lane, a few blocks south of Cordova Road, and would eliminate residential parking on the west side of the street to accommodate alternative travel.

The proposal now moves to the Finance Committee before a vote before the full City Council.

Man pleads guilty in shooting case

A 26-year-old man pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiracy to commit aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in connection with his role in the accidental shooting death of another man last November.

Daniel Garcia also agreed to testify against a 19-year-old man who prosecutors plan to try later this fall on charges of evidence tampering and conspiracy to commit aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in the death of Eugene Bustos.

Bustos' cousin, Desiree CdeBaca, has admitted to pulling the trigger on the shotgun that killed him. She pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter last month and also will testify against Amado Salcido.

Bustos was killed after he, Salcido and CdeBaca drove to a house in the 2500 block of Rosina Street on Nov. 10 and got into a fight with the occupants. CdeBaca fired the shotgun blindly after she locked herself in a car and people began banging on the car.

A trial date for Salcido, who police say refused to take Bustos to a hospital after the shooting and instead dumped his body in a rural area of Santa Fe County, will be set later this month.

Wife from horse accident arrested

The wife of a man whose children were hit by a drunken driver while they rode horses on a Santa Fe County road last fall was arrested Monday on a domestic-violence charge.

Anzelle Scrimshaw, 36, of Madrid is charged with battery against a household member and assault on a peace officer, according to a statement of probable cause. Scrimshaw was arraigned Tuesday in Santa Fe County Magistrate Court. Her husband, Scott Scrimshaw, the alleged victim in the case, said in court the situation was a misunderstanding and his family has been through a lot since the accident in which his 12-year-old daughter nearly lost a leg.

According to a statement of probable cause, Anzelle Scrimshaw bit Scott Scrimshaw after an argument at about 1:07 p.m. Monday in Madrid. One of their children called the police, the statement says.

Kucinich urges end to war

ALBUQUERQUE — Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich on Tuesday urged Congress to put an end to the war he says is a "gross immorality."

The Ohio congressman
told the crowd of more than
500 people that if Congress does not impeach President Bush for intentionally misleading the public, the next president should hand over Bush and his administration to law enforcement officials — a suggestion that was answered with cheers and a standing ovation from the audience.

Kucinich walked through the aisles at Central New Mexico Community College's Smith-Brasher Hall, taking questions from the audience on issues such as immigration, education, social security and taxes.







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