Roswell Daily Record THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
Vol. 123, No. 190 75¢ Daily / $1.25 Sunday
August 8, 2014
Fire Department seeking arson info, recruits BY JERRY HECK RECORD STAFF WRITER
The arsons that have plagued Roswell are under investigation by multiple agencies on the local, state and federal levels. Roswell Fire Chief Chad Hamill said he is concerned that the phones are not ringing. Hamill encourages residents to contact the fire department. No detail or observation should go unreported, he said. Simple precautions can reduce opportunity for an
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arsonist to endanger lives and property, such as parking vehicles in the garage, outdoor lighting and most especially locking the vehicle doors. Reports from the fire marshal’s office identify that this series of arsons dates back to November and numbers about 20 blazes. The fire department has about a dozen position vacancies with pending retirements, and the number is expected to increase. Hamill is retiring in Novem-
A trim before training
ber. “After 20 years, it is hard to stay,” he said. Despite the personnel shortages, public safety is not comprised, one of the firefighters at the meeting said. Roswell is still at 100 percent coverage that is maintained by authorized overtime. City manager Larry Fry added that overtime is an additional 10 percent of the budget. “The department has several contingency plans. Should a whole shift be out with the flu we have a
back-up plan,” Hamill said. City Councilor Art Sandoval serves as fire committee chair, and Councilor Tabitha D. Denny as a committee member. Councilor Natasha Mackey also serves on the committee, but was absent. Both Sandoval and Denny expressed concerns that firefighter recruits are not completing the fire academy. Sandoval specifically addressed the situation where recruits left training just two weeks shy of completion.
Jerry Heck Photo
Orlando Daco of the Mexican city of Hermosillo gets his official RAT buzz cut by Kristine Roberts during New Mexico Military Institute Recruits at Training week.
About a dozen firefighters that attended the meeting provided commentary on their observation of recent academy classes. A seasoned firefighter said that some of the departed recruits did not want to study even though the answers where in the book, and Hamill agreed. A method to bolster the ranks is the new lateral hiring plan. Lateral hiring will allow for firefighters from other departments to apply without having to go though the fire academy
again. This was a sticking point in the past with many veteran firefighters. “If the standards were the same in the department they came from, we can put them on shift and teach them our SOPs (standard operating procedures),” Hamill said. Salary also is a consideration to recruit qualified applicants. Roswell’s department has an entrylevel package somewhat higher than comparable
Boost for vets’ health: Obama signs new law
FORT BELVOIR, Va. (AP) — Tens of thousands of military veterans who have been enduring long waits for medical care should be able to turn to private doctors almost immediately under a law signed Thursday by President Barack Obama. Other changes will take longer under the $16.3 billion law, which is the government’s most sweeping response to the problems that have rocked the Veterans Affairs Department and led to the ouster of Eric Shinseki as VA secretary. Improved access to outside care is likely to be the most immediate effect. Veterans who have waited at least a month for a medical appointment or who live at
See FIRE, Page A3
least 40 miles from a Veterans Affairs hospital or clinic will be able to see private doctors at gover nment expense.
Expanding the VA staff by hiring thousands of doctors, nurses and mental health counselors — another key component of the law — will take months to get underway and years to complete, VA officials said. Opening 27 new clinics across the country will take at least two years.
“Implementing this law will take time,” Obama acknowledged as he signed the bill at Fort Belvoir, an Army base in Virginia just outside Washington. Serv-
Fossils found at White Commission nominates Riggs for judge Sands Missile Range Currier honored by friends, family and co-workers
LAS CRUCES (AP) — Remains of a prehistoric elephant-like creature have been found in souther n New Mexico. White Sands Missile Range recently announced the discovery of a fossilized mastodon skeleton on the expansive military installation, the Las Cruces SunNews reports. Stan Berryman, an archaeologist at WSMR, says the mastodon was first found in January in the foothills of the San Andres Mountains to the west of U.S. 70. He says a 10-person crew was searching for remnants of early Native American cultures at the time. “We were doing an archaeological survey along the shoreline of the old lake,” Berryman said. “Surprise, surprise — we found the mastodon.”
Officials said the team was led to the specimen via a trail of tooth fragments. A tusk was partially exposed, thanks to erosion. “We suspect there’s a complete animal out there,” Berryman said. A second team of experts in July carried out a fiveday trip to the site to gather more information and stabilize it for a future excavation. Preliminary information says the mastodon fossil, dubbed “Chompers,” may have lived around 30,000 years ago. The most recent team that visited the White Sands Missile Range mastodon included experts from the Smithsonian, the University of New Mexico and some consultants with a private company, R. Christopher Goodwin and Associates.
AP Photo
This Aug. 4 photo shows Eneyda Alvarez of Honduras peeling a mango while her son, Antony, plays at the Senda de Vida migrant shelter in Reynosa, Mexico. Alvarez hopes to join the thousands of families and mothers or fathers with young children who have crossed the Rio Grande into the U.S.
HIGH 92 LOW 67
TODAY’S FORECAST
BY RANDAL SEYLER RECORD STAFF WRITER
The District Judicial Nominating Commission voted on Thursday to forward Kea Riggs’ name to the governor for appointment to the 5th Judicial District Court. The commission, meeting at the Chaves County Courthouse, consisted of area attorneys and judges from Santa Fe and Albuquerque as well as 5th Judicial District Judge Freddie Romero of Roswell. Riggs’s application is the only one submitted to the Judicial Selection Office as of Tuesday for the vacancy in the 5th Judicial District Court due to the retirement of Judge Charles Currier. Currier was appointed to the bench in March 2002 and elected the following November. He
Randal Seyler Photo
Kea Riggs, left, nominee for the 5th Judicial District Court judgeship, visits with retiring judge Charles Currier on Thursday following a retirement ceremony and reception for Currier. Riggs received the nomination to fill Currier’s position in a commission meeting on Tuesday, and now it is up to Gov. Susana Martinez to appoint Riggs to the bench.
was retained in 2008. “Once the candidate’s name has been submitted to the governor, she has three weeks to make the
appointment,” said Commission Chairman David Herring of Albuquerque, dean of the University of New Mexico School of Law.
See VETS, Page A3
“I am very excited and honored,” Riggs said following the hearing. “I wouldn’t say it is a done deal, though. The governor has the options of either approving me, or coming back and asking the commission for more candidates.” Riggs, who currently serves as a federal magistrate judge for the United States District Court, said that if she is appointed to the bench in the 5th Judicial District, then she will have to be replaced on the federal court. If Riggs is appointed by Gov. Susana Martinez to fill the remainder of Currier’s ter m of office, then she will also have to be elected to office in the general election in November. Members of the commis-
Flow of child immigrants slows along Texas border to about 100 per day, down from 300 or more in June, according to the Border Patrol.
McALLEN, Texas (AP) — Far fewer unaccompanied immigrant children are crossing the Texas-Mexico border, allowing the federal gover nment to close the temporary shelters that it hurriedly opened to handle the surge, authorities say.
The Department of Homeland Security released data Thursday showing that about 5,500 unaccompanied children were arrested in July, barely half the number in May and June and the fewest children arrested in a month since February.
Similarly, arrests of parents with children dropped by more than half last month, to just over 7,400. DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson welcomed the decline but said the current numbers are still much higher than in previous years. “We continue to have much work to do to address this issue, and our message continues to be clear — ‘Our border is not open to illegal migration,”’ Johnson said in a statement. Arrests in South Texas have fallen in recent weeks
The decline could be the result of searing summer temperatures or a messaging campaign in both the U.S. and the migrants’ home countries that stresses the dangers of the journey and warns them they will not be allowed to stay. The gover nment has reduced the removal time for many adults traveling alone from 33 days to about four days, Johnson said.
• STUART MARSHALL PRITCHARD • ALICE MODELL FULKERSON
• JOHN JAY CARNES • DOROTHY JEAN WHEAT • JUANITA GONZALES VALDEZ
CLASSIFIEDS ..........B8 COMICS .................B7 ENTERTAINMENT .....B6 FINANCIAL ..............B4
TODAY’S OBITUARIES PAGE B5
See JUDGE, Page A3
Officials on the border are careful not to suggest that the crisis has passed. When temperatures subside, they say, children from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador could be back in greater numbers.
The White House has shied away from taking credit for the decrease, which gives the administration more time to deal with the crush of immigrants who have already arrived, many drawn here by persistent rumors that once across the border, they will be allowed to stay.
INDEX GENERAL ...............A2
HOROSCOPES .........B6 LOTTERIES .............A2
OPINION .................A4
SPORTS .................B1
WEATHER ............A10