Roswell Daily Record
Vol. 122, No. 290 75¢ Daily / $1.25 Sunday
THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
December 4, 2013
www.rdrnews.com
WEDNESDAY
Council approves veterans cemetery funding JILL MCLAUGHLIN RECORD STAFF WRITER
City councilors approved a $75,000 resolution to break ground on a veterans cemetery Tuesday night, against the advice of its city attor ney after she was questioned if the action would violate public notice requirements of the state Open Meetings Act. The funds will jump-start the project on a small section at South Park Cemetery, including the installation of a water system,
electrical and a drive-up area. Earlier Tuesday, the city’s Finance Committee recommended the funding, approved by committee members and Councilors Jimmy Craig and Art Sandoval. Mayor Del Jurney questioned whether the council could pass the budget resolution Tuesday night, as the city might not have properly notified the public. “There’s going to have to be a resolution, but we didn’t advertise it that
way,” Jurney said Tuesday morning. City Attor ney Barbara Patterson advised the committee to only make a motion to recommend the funding. “You can make a motion to recommend up to $75,000,” Patterson said. “Your motion can be: $75,000 out of the appropriate line item as designated by staff. If it has to come out of more than one line item, you can do that as well.” Patterson advised Jurney
and the committee to advertise the resolution the following week to present it at next week’s regular city council meeting. “We can have a resolution at a later time,” Patterson said. “For the purposes of what we need, we don’t have to have a resolution.” Jurney said he and Patterson later looked at the Open Meetings Act and decided the city had followed the requirements. The council approved a resolution drafted that afternoon, Jurney said.
Mark Wilson Photo
Tree of Hope brings cancer awareness Students from All Saints Catholic School decorate the Tree of Hope at the Roswell Museum and Art Center, Tuesday afternoon.
TESS TOWNSEND RECORD STAFF WRITER
Year after year, decade after decade, the Tree of Hope has encouraged children in Roswell to believe
a cure for cancer can be found in their lifetimes. This year’s tree was decorated by students of All Saints Catholic School at Roswell Museum and Arts Center Tuesday and will remain on display at the
museum until Jan. 2. Roswell resident Pamela Rambin, who has overseen the display since 1995, opened the tree decorating ceremony by encouraging the students to lear n about cancer and support
victims of the disease’s many manifestations. “By the time you all get big like us, there will be a cure out there, we’re hopSee HOPE, Page A3
“We looked at that,” Jurney said following the city council meeting. “We looked at the requirements of the city and how we present an agenda and how we go about presenting the process for this. My understanding is, it does not need to be identified. We followed the requirements of the Open Meetings Act.” Patterson did not attend the council meeting and was not available for comment. Jurney said the push for
the city to pass the funding was to put the city in a position to be able to submit an application to the state by the end of the month to be considered for the rural veterans cemetery program. “A lot of the rush is because it’s going to happen anyway,” Jurney said. “We want to put ourselves in a position to submit our application at the end of the month.” Gov. Susana Martinez
TESS TOWNSEND RECORD STAFF WRITER
Skandera. She said the evaluations should aid in professional development by providing teachers with more thorough feedback than the former system. During the forum, local educators expressed wariness about what they said was excessive subjectivity in the observation component of the evaluation process. Sierra Middle School science teacher Tamara Gedde said that she thought her score from a classroom observation was lower than it should have been, given the performance of her students. “I used to be considered a rock star teacher,” she said. Skandera responded by explaining checks and balances built into the evaluation system to prevent subjective judgements from hijacking evaluation outcomes. She gave as an example a teacher who is ranked “ineffective” in observations conducted by district staff or school leaders, but
Skandera fields questions, concerns about teacher evals
New Mexico Public Education Department Secretary Designate Hanna Skandera recently visited Roswell Independent School District headquarters to field questions and comments about the state’s new teacher evaluation system. More than 50 parents and educators from Roswell, Hager man and Lake Arthur, as well as Rep. Nora Ezpinoza (RRoswell), attended the Monday forum arranged by PED and New Mexico Parent Teacher Association. Skandera acknowledged concer ns about the new system, telling the audience, “I don’t know of any system that’s perfect when it’s implemented that first year.” She said the new system is necessary to ensure quality instruction of students. Since 2003, teachers across the state have received a total of $400 million in salary increases without corresponding improvement in “student achievement,” according to
See CEMETERY, Page A2
See EVALS, Page A3
Man arrested for CSP Animal Services advises winter pet care The Roswell Police Department arrested Jonathan Rothchild, 68, on Monday on charges of criminal sexual penetration of a minor under 6 years old. Rothchild was arraigned in Magistrate Court, Tuesday. The incident occurred on Tuesday on East Byrne Street. The police were called to Lovelace Regional Hospital to investigate a suspected
case of CSP. The child was later taken to Esperanza House for an interview, which appeared to confirm the findings.
Detectives obtained an arrest warrant for Rothschild, who was arrested and transported to the Chaves County Detention Center, where he remains with a $100,000 cash-only bond.
JESSICA PALMER RECORD STAFF WRITER
As the temperatures prepare to plummet into the teens on Thursday, people need to prepare their pets for the cold weather. Animal Services supervisor Joseph Pacheco said preparations are basic common sense. Make sure the pet has adequate shelter. The standard dog houses are a start, but Pacheco believes
that additional insulation is important on the coldest days. He recommends straw or hay which can be obtained from stores like Tractor Supply. The bales can be broken apart to create a bed or blankets also work. Bedding may need to be replaced if it gets wet. “Some people use sweaters, but they don’t give complete coverage or provide a windbreak that an animal will get from a
Union official: NYC train engineer ‘nodded’ YONKERS, N.Y. (AP) — An engineer whose speeding commuter train ran off the rails along a curve, killing four people, nodded at the controls just before the wreck, and by the time he caught himself it was too late, a union official said Tuesday. William Rockefeller “basically nodded,” said Anthony Bottalico, leader of the rail employees union, relating what he said the engineer told him.
“He had the equivalent of what we all have when we drive a car,” Bottalico said. “That is, you sometimes have a momentary nod or whatever that might be. How long that lasts, I can’t answer that.” Rockefeller’s lawyer did not return calls. During a late-afternoon news conference, federal investigators said they were still talking to Rockefeller, and they wouldn’t comment on his level of alertness around the time of the
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TODAY’S FORECAST
Sunday morning wreck in the Bronx. Separately, however, two law enforcement officials said the engineer told police at the scene that his mind was wandering before he realized the train was in trouble and by then it was too late to do anything about it. One of the officials said Rockefeller described himself as being “in a daze” before the wreck. The officials, who were briefed on the engineer’s
• JAMES FENTON “HANK” BALLARD • NEIL JAY LARD • FRANKLIN MIDDLETON
shelter,” Pacheco said. Sweaters, too, will need to be replaced once wet. He urges people to reposition the dog house so the door faces away from the prevailing wind. Pacheco said: “Tarps can go a long way as a windbreak. They cost less than $10 and can be hung on a fence.” If a dog is on a chain, then the chain must reach to allow access to shelter. Clear the area of debris
where the chain can get tangled. Ideally, Pacheco feels that dogs, and cats, should be brought into a building, either the home, a garage or shed. “You can put them in the laundry room if you have one of those. Just keep them out of the cold,” he said. Another concern is water. Water bowls need to be checked daily. When the See PET, Page A3
comments, weren’t authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Questions about Rockefeller’s role mounted rapidly after investigators disclosed on Monday that the Metro-North Railroad train jumped the tracks after going into a curve at 82 mph, or nearly three times the 30 mph speed limit. Dozens of people were hurt.
• DOROTHY HUCKABEE • VICTORIANO CONTRERAS
TODAY’S OBITUARIES PAGE A6
AP Photo
Metro North Railroad engineer William Rockefeller is wheeled on a stretcher away from the area where the commuter train he was operating derailed in the Bronx borough of New York, Sunday.
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INDEX GENERAL ...............A2 HOROSCOPES .........B6 LOTTERIES .............A2 NATION ..................A6
OPINION .................A4 SPORTS .................B1
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