TODAY'S TOP STORIES: Red-light cameras in Santa Fe and Las Cruces?
Drivers in Santa Fe and Las Cruces could soon find themselves policed by traffic cameras, as they are already in Albuquerque and El Paso.
The Santa Fe City Council could vote in September on a proposal to put red-light cameras at the four worst intersections in town for crashes, and a fifth camera would be mounted in a vehicle, The New Mexican reported today. City councilors and police say red-light runners are a growing problem, especially on busy Cerrillos Road. The likeliest vendor to supply the cameras is the same company that has brought Albuquerque millions of dollars in fines, Redflex Traffic Systems.
Las Cruces is in virtually the same situation, The Las Cruces Sun-News writes. A plan will come before the City Council for approval in September, and four intersections are likely to be targeted, the paper said. The city is hearing the same arguments heard in Albuquerque about the "Big Brother" aspect of traffic cameras, but Public Works Director Mike Johnson said safety is the bottom line. "This program has proven itself to reduce violations of motorists running red lights and a reduction of accidents," he said.
The falling price of natural gas and higher costs for drilling and environmental protect could cause some "slowing pains" for the New Mexico gas industry, The Farmington Daily News reported today. "I think we could be in for a big slowdown," D.J. Simmons Inc. President and CEO John Byrom said. "Drilling rates in New Mexico are already way down compared to other states."
Natural gas spot prices are down about 11 percent since April, according to the federal Energy Information Administration, and down 26 percent since early July. Combined with tighter restrictions on the disposal of drilling muds, operators in the San Juan Basin near Farmington could start slowing down production, said Bob Gallagher, president of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association.
The electric utility in Gallup can't seem to get everyone to pay up, including the U.S. Department of Health, The Gallup Independent said today. The feds owe more than $61,000, though that's better than in January, when the delinquent account was nearly $85,000.
City officials said they understand that bureaucratic shuffles can delay payments. The Bureau of Indian Affairs in Fort Wingate owes $36,619, the paper reported, and the Navajo Shopping Center has bills amounting to almost $20,000. The city has written off more than $200,000 in unpaid bills in recent months, but that's still better than the national average, the Independent said.
Dairy farmers and ranchers in Curry County are not happy about a proposed nuisance ordinance, and they want the county to hold off action until the bill can be "tweaked" to help out the agriculture industry, The Clovis News Journal reported today.
County Manager Lance Pyle told the paper he has heard a lot of concern about the proposed ordinance, particularly about the section that deals with offensive odors. "I can’t see hurrying through something that still needs tweaking and then we have to come back in a couple of months and do addendums or amendments or repeal (the ordinance) because it was not serving the purpose and the need it was intended to,” Pyle said.
As written, the nuisance ordinance could make a manure pile a violation of county law, said Caren Cowan, executive director of the New Mexico Cattle Growers Association. “I think the thing’s just too loosely written," she said.
New Mexico Tech has agreed to release documents regarding its plans for an Air Force testing range on its land outside Socorro, The Albuquerque Journal reported today. Neighbors of the proposed training ground near Socorro Peak wanted to know more about the Air Force plan and demanded information, such as the environmental assessment, which the school said it wasn't required to turn over. They sued the school and won; the school says it won't appeal.
The training ground covers 640 acres about nine miles west of Socorro. The land is already used by the school's Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center; Air Force crews would use it for training in dropping objects out of airplanes and perhaps for air-to-ground gunnery practice.
Albuquerque attorney Tom Gulley, who represented plaintiffs in the case, said the landowners just wanted to know what would be happening nearby. "I expect any landowner would not be pleased if C-130s were flying at a low altitude over their property and dropping objects from the sky," he told the Journal. "We don't have the documents that explain how the drop zone was created, who's doing what and what it costs."
Be the first to comment