October Community Update for Agua Fria Village

The Agua Fría Village Association (AFVA) has been working on your behalf to make our community a better place. This Community Update describes what actions have been taken and how YOU THE READER can help to achieve even more. NOTE: The next AFVA Meeting is on the 1st Monday, November 4th, 2013 at 6:00 p.m. at NRCC. Agenda items will be accepted by emailing: WilliamHenryMee@aol.com. This is a full and exciting meeting and social event --- Please Come! QUICK Announcements: 1. Dr. Field Goods Kitchen Donating % of Dinner Sales to Solarize NRCC! On Tuesday, November 5th from 11 AM to 9 PM, Dr. Field Goods kitchen is donating a percentage of their Breakfast, lunch and dinner sales to solarize the Nancy Rodriguez Community Center. Dr. Field Goods is located at 2860 Cerrillos Road Suite 3 next to Jackalope Mark Your Calendar! This is called the “Dine to Donate SOL Not Coal Event” put on by the New Energy Economy organization (www.NewEnergyEconomy.org) to advance their community solarization projects. What is better than eating great food with neighbors, supporting local restaurants, and spreading the benefits of solar power far and wide? Please join us next week by taking your breakfast, lunch, or dinner at Dr. Field Goods - a fantastic local establishment (http://drfieldgoods.com/). New Energy Economy, 343 East Alameda, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 87501, (505)989-7262. 2. Successful meeting with Area Legislators at Flying Tortilla. On October 18th, the AFVA and friends met with 3 of our 6 legislators for the Traditional Historic Community Area, as authorized by the August AFVA meeting. The meeting was to introduce the new legislators (Senator Phil Griego, Senator Peter Wirth, Representative Lucky Varela and Rep. Carl Trujillo) to our area with a background of completed projects, future needs and problem areas. We described to our existing legislators Senator Nancy Rodriquez and Representative Jim Trujillo our submittal to Santa Fe County’s Capital Improvement Project (CIP) program and the constraints on county funding. 3. Public Hearing Notice: BCC Case #MIS 13-5061 Robert and Bernadette Anaya . Notice is hereby given that a public hearing will be held to consider a request by Robert and Bernadette Anaya, for reconsideration of conditions imposed by the BCC for Master Plan Zoning approval. The property is located at 2253 Ben Lane in the Traditional Community of Agua Fria, within Section 31, Township 17 North, Range 9 East (Commission District 2). A public hearing will be held in the County Commission Chambers of the Santa Fe County Courthouse, corner of Grant and Palace Avenues, Santa Fe, New Mexico on the 12th day of November 2013, at 5 p.m. on a petition to the Board of County Commissioners. Please forward all comments and questions to the County Land Use Administration Office at 986-6225. All interested parties will be heard at the Public Hearing prior to the Commission taking action. All comments, questions and objections to the proposal may be submitted to the County Land Use Administrator in writing to P.O. Box 276, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87504-0276; or presented in person at the hearing. 4. Agua Fria Elementary School annual Veteran’s Day Assembly seeking Veterans. Agua Fria Elementary School has an annual Veteran’s Day Assembly that they would like to recognize veterans of the Agua Fria community. As Principal Suzanne Jacquez Gorman, Ph.D., writes: “If you have names and phone numbers we would be happy to contact them to see if they would be willing to be recognized and if any of them would be willing to speak to the students about their experiences. Our assembly is scheduled for November 11, 2013. Thanks for your assistance to this matter.” Contact Agua Fria Elementary School at 505-467-1302. For more info see # 18 below. 5. NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH UPDATE: In a recent New Mexican article titled: “Property crime on decline in Santa Fe County” our neighbors in Quail View Lane were featured. http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/property-crime-on-decline-in-santa-fe-county/article_b157ca0c-c18f-5d61-849b-e7ef5fb182c1.html A burglary alert is issued for a 1991 Teal Honda Accord License# LYY922. 6. Naming of Schools in Agua Fria. AFVA named three persons to a School Naming Committee established by Linda Trujillo, School Board President. They are Rubel “Mel” Gallegos, Melinda Romero Pike as historian, and Commissioner Miguel Chavez as a public member. For more info see # 17 below. 7. Clearing the Waters Newsletter features projects on Comanche Creek Santa Fe River. The Quivira Coalition (Catherine Baca, our Treasurer, works there) has been working for years on restoring the Watershed at Comanche Creek, and the EID newsletter recognizes this effort. Also there is an article on Santa Fe River restoration. ftp://ftp.nmenv.state.nm.us/www/swqb/WPS/CTW/ClearingTheWaters-Summer2013.pdf 8. Kudos to Santa Fe County. Santa Fe County deserves Kudos for fixing the buckled sidewalks on Agua Fria Street and patching the potholes on Lopez Lane. In breaking the slabs of the sidewalk it was found that the concrete did NOT have remesh wire. The pothole patching was done deeper and wider than in the past and should last. Dennis Hernandez who ran for County Commissioner told us that the inability to fix the Lopez Lane potholes, that have existed for more than a decade, was one of the several factors that prompted him to run for office. Former County Manager Gilbert Tercero praised the County for this action. He stated that he called Commissioner Miguel Chavez’s Administrative Assistant Rita Maes and within hours the crews were out patching. Mr. Tercero commented that perhaps the fixing of the bumps on Agua Fria Street Phase Two could also be done (this might require a more substantial reconstruction since the sinkholes seem to be at manhole covers and wastewater grates and indicate a failure to tamp the base coarse properly). 9. Cornerstones and Open Space & Trail Programs seeking Contractors and Students. The potential contractor for the Agua Fria Street Gateway Monument, Cornerstones, is seeking Agua-Fria based Contractors with a GB-98 License to oversee the pouring of a foundation and laying of adobes for the monument in Spring 2014. Additionally, students over 17 are sought who might participate in the project and serve as interns in the Santa Fe Community College’s Adobe Construction course also in Spring 2014. For more info call William Mee at 473-3160 or email: WilliamHenryMee@aol.com. 10. Register Now for Fall Hiking The City of Santa Fe Recreation Division is offering new fall hikes that will highlight hiking opportunities close to Santa Fe. Hikes, ranging from easy to moderate, will include the following trails: Borrego/Bear Wallow, Tesuque Creek, La Tierra, and Chamisa. The class will meet on Saturdays for four sessions beginning October 26 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The fee is $20 for all 4 hikes, or $6 for each individual hike. Pre-registration is required 24-hours in advance of the first hike. Course outline will be available at registration. Please contact Michelle Rogers at 505-955-4047 or visit http://www.chavezcenter.com for more information. 11. Agua Fria’s Romero Park Master Plan Update: On October 29th, the Third and final meeting was held at the Nancy Rodriguez Community Center with the County’s Open Space and Trails Program and its contractor Content Design. Detailed plans were unveiled that would make the park more utilized and more of an asset to our community. 12. Santa Fe Community Farm Update: We'd like to remind you that the on-site Farm Stand is still open for the season! We have fresh, pesticide-free produce available for sale at low prices from 12-4 pm Sundays. Items change weekly, and the season is rapidly winding down. Be sure to stop by, pick up some goodies and say hello. We can also use volunteers on the weekends to help us get set up for the stand so feel free to come by and lend a hand anytime during the week or weekend! 13. New Mexico Progress is framing questions for the mayoral debate. We submitted this: ONE. We are in a prolonged drought and under Western water law which requires entities to prove beneficial use and respond to priority calls by senior water rights users like aboriginal and agricultural. Further the Santa Fe River Adjudication is undone. How will you ensure water and respect the water rights of surrounding communities? TWO. Annexation has been a controversial issue and one proven by the UNM-BBER to be too costly to implement. The Traditional Historic Community of Agua Fria Village cannot be annexed but there are many surrounding rural areas with equestrian facilities that many not fit into an urbanized city. Would you let these areas and the new Agua Fria School site go into the THC area? THREE. The City of Santa Fe infrastructure is aging and will be costly to repair. Further, when you really think about it, there is really no good way to get across the city on roads. Any historically arterial roads have now installed traffic calming devices that make them driver unfriendly. As a neighboring community we use the infrastructure to get to stores, entertainment and work. The traffic grid is really State Road 599, Meadows, Miles, I-25, Cerrillos and St. Francis. Do you have plans to come up with alternative transportation, parking, connector roads FOUR. Property Taxes and Gross Receipts Taxes of Santa Fe are virtually the highest in New Mexico and the five surrounding states. With the need to replace the Hold Harmless tax supplement from the State of New Mexico that is going away, are higher taxes really the answer? Higher city property taxes are immediately utilized by the County Assessor to raise County rates as comparables. FIVE. About a year ago crime was out of control (admittedly the numbers are way down after four years of increases). Immigrant youth gangs were shooting at each other in populated areas, burglarizing, and graffiting everything in sight. Transients were fighting with each other and breaking into areas and trespassing in neighboring communities to sleep or find food. How will you address these problems? SIX. Jobs. Seems to be a lack of good-paying career-long jobs. So you see that each city action has a corresponding positive or negative reaction in the surrounding county areas. Submit your own questions here: http://progressnownewmexico.pnstate.org/site/Survey?SURVEY_ID=34622&ACTION_REQUIRED=URI_ACTION_USER_REQUESTS https://www.facebook.com/progressnownm 14. County Development Review Committee (CDRC) Seeking Members The Santa Fe County Growth Management Department (Building and Development Services Division) is currently seeking three members to serve on the County Development Review Committee (CDRC). Of the three members sought, one member must reside in Commission District 2 (Commission District map www.santafecountynm.gov/county_commissioners), one member must reside within the City Limits and one member may reside in any Commission District. Committee Members are responsible for attending monthly public hearings on the third Thursday of every month, where CDRC members listen to County staff recommendations, project application presentations and testimony from the public. The CDRC subsequently makes land development related decisions and recommendations to the Board of County Commissioners (BCC). Projects heard by this committee range from non-residential development plan requests to master plans for large subdivisions. Application Deadline is Tuesday, November 5, 2013. Interested individuals should submit a letter of interest and resume to: Santa Fe County Growth Management Department Attn: Vicki Lucero P.O. Box 276 Santa Fe, New Mexico 87504-0276 Email: vlopez@santafecountynm.gov Phone: (505) 986-6222 15. Edwin Lemus who lives across from Agua Fria Elementary School in the old Antonio Montoya house has opened a restaurant called LA COCINA DE BALAM, located at 1406 Third St. (across Dunn Edwards Paints), Santa Fe. Message from Balam: Come be with us in this journey of creating a family and community-oriented place, Bohemian and so forth. Share this invitation with your friends. This will be appreciated. Paz y Amor Balam (Edwin). 16. Santa Fe County has a new Volunteer Coordinator. Carol J. Branch has been hired as a Volunteer Coordinator for Santa Fe County. She will be planning and executing the Santa Fe River clean-ups. She will be going along the river in this area to assess the illegal dumping. If there are other areas that are in need of cleaning that you know about, please contact Carol J. Branch at 992-3053 or cbranch@santafecountynm.gov. Also thanks goes out to Zach Taylor Service Education Director and his students at The MASTERS Program Charter High School for cleaning the Santa Fe River. Contact Zach Taylor at (505) 231-1698 or ztaylor@tmpsantafe.org. 17. Continued from Number 6 Above: The SFPS district could soon have two schools potentially named “Agua Fria”---so in order to minimize any confusion the old school should have a name and the new school should have another name. The names of course should be significant to the Agua Fria community. Many people are recommending to name it after someone in the Village who has been a tireless dedicated educator like Esther Lynch School, etc., or it could be a historic feature of the Community like: Camino Real School. So be thinking of names. The School Naming Committee will be soliciting names shortly and developing a process to rate the names. One of the first steps is to get good historical/factual information on some choices. Here is an entry: Margaret M. DeValle By Melinda Romero Pike “PLANTING THE SEED OF DESIRE TO LEARN” This was the role of Margaret M. DeValle, a schoolteacher at The Agua Fria School in the mid forties where she was the primary and first grade teacher. Margaret was a descendent of pioneer original families in New Mexico. Her roots go back to Rancho de las Golondrinas, now the Museum in La Cienega. In those years the county administered the public schools in the rural areas. In 1959-60 the county schools were made part of the Santa Fe Public School System. Mrs. DeValle was an excellent teacher who had no favorites, she loved and helped all her students. It is a rare situation when a teacher is acclaimed and appreciated by an entire community, as she was here in the Historic Village of Agua Fria. Educators will tell you that the role of the first grade teacher is a very challenging job where the teacher really molds her students who are yet in their formative years of their lives. Not only was she a teacher but also she and her husband assimilated themselves in the lives of the residents of the community. Although a lot of the parents of that era are now gone, a great deal of her students who are now the peers of the community still remember her with much love and affection. Children from Agua Fria Village who were taught by Margaret M. DeValle went on to become the largest number of professionals emanating from the Agua Fria School as Follows: Engineers, doctors, lawyers, social workers, teachers, nurses ,Masters of Science, Masters of Business Management , as well as high ranking officers in the military. It would be remise on the part of this community if they don’t seize the opportunity to honor the memory of this wonderful and great educator by naming the school: MARGARET M. DE VALLE. She retired as a teacher with some 30 plus years from the Agua Fria School. 18. Continued from Number 4 Above: Living and Deceased Veterans from Agua Fría Village Compiled by Melinda Romero Pike 10/29/2013 Spanish American War: †Lucas Telles World War One: †Remegio Gallegos †Gomesindo Gonzales †Miguel Gonzales †Delfino Hernandez †Atanacio Lopez †Isidro Lopez †Federico Lopez †Henry Lynch †Juan Ortiz †Asencion Romero, Sr. World War Two: †Anastacio “Nick” Baca, European Theater †Ambrosio Chavez Apolinario Gonzales †Antonio Gonzales †Florentino Gonzales †Jose E. Gonzales (Battle of Normandy) †Fermin Lopez (Italian Theater) James F. Lynch, Prison Guard in Alamogordo/El Paso Benny R. Montoya, World War Two; POW Battle of the Bulge †Eustacio Montoya, Purple Heart, WWII, Battle of the Bulge †Lino Montoya, Jr. †Manuel Montoya †Ramon Perea †Leon Edgar Pike †Jimmy Prada †Antonio Romero (son of Flavio Romero) †Filemon Romero, European Theater Jose Librado Romero, U.S. Navy, South Pacific †Leopoldo Romero †Ramon L. Romero (son of Fabian Romero) †John Rotunno †Tom Rotunno †Wilroy Rotunno †Juan Sanchez †Eligio Tercero Marin Mier? Korean/Vietnam and other wars: †Anastacio “Nick” Baca, Jr., Fort Carson Vietnam era Lucy Chavez, N.M. National Guard Elias Bennie Gallegos Jimmy Gallegos (presently National Cemetery Honor Guard) Arsenio “Archie” Gonzales N.M. National Guard Elidoro Gonzales N.M. National Guard Mark Gonzales, Major (Retired); N.M. National Guard Colonel Michael Gonzales, U.S. Army, Army War College †Larry Jacobs, U.S. Navy Ronnie Jacobs, U.S. Navy Andrew Lopez Orlando “Andy” Lopez, U.S. Army, after Korea Adolpho Maes,101st Airborne, Vietnam era †Gilbert Mier Antonio “Tony” Montoya, Jr. Korean War Bennie Montoya, Korean; brother of Eustacio †Sammy Montoya Gloria Narvaiz (Martinez) Guadalupe Daniel Narvaiz †Ramon Perea, Jr. †Tony Perea Albert “Abbie” Romero Jerry Romero Manuel Romero, N.M. National Guard, Korean period Tommy Romero Francisco Tercero Nabor Tercero Sgt. Jeff Gonzales, Active Duty, N.M. National Guard (Iraq/Afghanistan) If you know of more veterans or corrections please email WilliamHenryMee@aol.com. 19. On October 25th William Mee presented at the N.M. State Records and Archives a PowerPoint presentation titled: “Agriculture in the Traditional Village of Agua Fria.” http://www.nmcpr.state.nm.us/archives/archives_week/2013/ArchivesMonth2013.htm NEXT AFVA MEETINGS: 2013 Schedule of AFVA Meetings: First Monday of the month, except as noted: First Monday December 2nd. Proposed 2014 schedule: January 6, February 3, March 3, April 7, May 5, June 2, July 7 (Tuesday 8th Monday 14th), August 4, September 8 (Labor Day is the 1st), October 6 (Columbus Day is13th), November 3, and December 1st. Call William Mee at 473-3160 (WilliamHenryMee@aol.com) to be placed on Agenda. ---Thanks for reading this (and do pass it on or post it on your refrigerator). Meetings are at the Nancy Rodriguez Community Center, #1 Prairie Dog Loop and start promptly at 6:00 p.m. We end at 8:00 p.m. or earlier. Two hours is a small investment in YOUR community. Please share this Community Update with others in the community who do not have email; especially the elders and people who are “shut-in”---print out a copy and share it. Send a TEXT alert about important issues. +++++++++++++++++++++++++ Don’t forget to join our own Agua Fria Village group at: http://aguafriavillage.ning.com/ or at FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/249299328461189/ Go to the “Forum” section and there are a number of files posted there. Or join the Nextdoor site: https://aguafriavillagethc.nextdoor.com/login/?next=/news_feed/ +++++++++++END+++++++++++

PEP TALK for Agua Fria Residents:

The AFVA is currently working on ways that we can deliver financial or social benefits to all Traditional Historic Community (THC) residents, on a local scale, so that there is genuine value in being in the THC. Financial benefits include really thinking outside of the box and having things that save or make us money for being in the THC. What about developing a small electric cooperative that reduces our energy costs? Social benefits include: reducing crime, improving education, increasing health care coverage, having a senior citizen’s center, etc. This list is really only limited by our imaginations.

The big point is to have an answer to the question: What's in it for Me? to be a part of the THC as opposed to being outside the boundary. At the December AFVA meeting, we were looking at negotiating with various waste management companies to get a “district rate” rather than a higher individual rate that people have now.

I was talking to Marta at Chicoma Vista subdivision, and she says they have a loosely organized group, mainly to help maintain the Chicoma Vista road. She asks: Are there any others in the THC that have dirt roads that the County won't maintain? It might be possible to pool resources to obtain better rates on base course and/or maintaining equipment. So this is the kind of thinking we can all be a part of and share.

To build more community events, beyond just those done by the San Isidro Church and the Agua Fria Elementary, which people begin to see themselves as a sense of community. To create an identity so that people can proudly say: “I am from Agua Fria.” That having a home in Agua Fria becomes fun and very desirable.

The Community Update for the last several months has featured talk of “buying local” and creating a “business directory” to aid us in this. We have talked about building and maintaining infrastructure within the THC and in influencing the Santa Fe County’s planning on Capitol Improvement Projects. Additionally, we have talked about our distinct “history” dating back to 1693 and even earlier with the two abandoned pueblos. The archaeological dig here this summer on Agua Fria Street by San Isidro Crossing uncovered the oldest-largest-settlement in North America dating back to 3-4,000 B.C. This is when primitive man first was able to sustain a colony bigger than a 100 person clan of relatives on the North American continent. It happened HERE in Agua Fria---not in Clovis, Folsom, Bandelier, Gila, Mesa Verde, etc.; all this other sites that have a lot of notoriety.

So we have something special here that we need to preserve, improve and share. Share especially, with those people that live here and don’t know all these good things they are missing. So in 2010 let’s figure out how we can make this a better place.