Roswell Daily Record THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
State marks year of weather extremes Vol. 122, No. 311 75¢ Daily / $1.25 Sunday
ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — It seemed there was no end in sight after three years without any meaningful snow or summer rain. In 2013, New Mexico’s drought had become what climate experts and water managers were calling unprecedented. A summer heat wave made things worse as the state’s reservoirs were reduced to mucky messes, and stretches of the Rio Grande and Pecos rivers went dry. But summing up New Mexico’s weather this year is not that simple. There was also record rainfall, flash flooding, historic wind gusts and a severe hail storm that put snow plows to work during the first week of July. “We end the year with near normal temperatures and near normal precipitation, but the fluctua-
December 27, 2013
www.rdrnews.com
tions during the year were anything but near normal,” said Deirdre Kann, the science and operations officer for the National Weather Service in Albuquerque. Meteorologist Kerry Jones had his own description. “If you had to sum it up, it would just be the switch from the extreme drought to wet,” he said. “It’s always a collection of extremes, and this year was magnified.” Jones spent part of his Christmas shift crunching numbers. He found that about a dozen days of moisture in July and September accounted for nearly three-quarters of Albuquerque’s total rainfall this year. Had it not been for those rainy days, Albuquerque would be in trouble. For the first six months
of the year, the city had only 0.70 inches of rain, making for the second driest start of the year since 1931. In eastern New Mexico, Clayton and Roswell are still about 3 inches behind, and forecasters say the odds of them catching up before the end of the year are slim. The latest map shows nearly a third of New Mexico in the grip of severe drought or worse. At this time last year, more than 90 percent of the state was dealing with the worst categories of drought. In addition to causing problems for farmers and ranchers, the drought combined with aging infrastructure and a lack of maintenance to leave some small communities without drinking water.
SATURDAY
AP Photo
In this Sept. 13 photo, La Union resident George Enriquez, left, and Pablo Romero of Las Cruces survey the damage along Sentenario Street in La Union.
Dunn declares run for land commissioner Robbers steal family’s savings See WEATHER, Page A2
JILL MCLAUGHLIN RECORD STAFF WRITER
Chairman of the Chaves County Soil and Water Conservation District Aubrey Dunn announced his candidacy this week to run for the position of New Mexico commissioner of public lands. A New Mexico native, businessman and rancher, Dunn said that management of state lands today is critical to the future of New Mexico and its educational system. “I am running for our children and grandchildren,” Dunn said. “I am running for jobs for New Mexicans. This state deserves a land commissioner that understands that maximizing the responsible use of our natural resources is how we put money into our permanent fund for education and create opportunity for industries to add jobs.” Dunn has served Chaves County for more than 10 years as a member of the conservation district and is a board member of the Farm Credit of New Mexico. While serving, he has helped establish a noxious weeds
JESSICA PALMER RECORD STAFF WRITER.
Courtesy Photo
Rancher Aubrey Dunn, center, chairman of the Chaves County Soil and Water District, has announced his candidacy for New Mexico Commissioner of Public Lands.
control program, worked on land leveling for farms, livestock watering systems, wildlife fencing projects, watershed work and solar well projects. Dunn retired after working for 25 years in the financial industry as a president and chief finan-
cial officer for First Federal Bank. He also continues to serve on the board for Far m Credit of New Mexico, which furnishes agriculture loans. He also occasionally consults for the FDIC. Dunn was raised on an apple farm in High Rolls,
near Cloudcroft, and graduated from Colorado State University with a degree in animal science. He and his wife, Robin, operate a 40-section cow and calf ranch 45 miles from Roswell. They will celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary next year. The
Dunns have three children: A. Blair Dunn, an Albuquerque attor ney, Jamie Dunn, an optometrist with University of New Mexico Hospital, and Jed Dunn, a soil spe-
See DUNN, Page A3
One Dexter woman did not expect what fate threw her way after she watched her husband, Edwin Adams, die on Dec. 21 in Mesilla Valley Hospital. That night, Beth Adams became stranded in Cloudcroft at her daughter’s house because of snow. She phoned a family member when she found out that thieves had broken into her home of 21 years. Beth Adams described her husband’s last month as that of excruciating pain. He died after losing a seven-year battle with cancer. “Then all the memories, the things that held the memories, were gone when I returned,” she said. Her daughter, Rhonda Napolean, spoke of the losses to her mother: “They did not take the TV, electronics. ... They took a
Chaves County Iran talks hit bump over enrichment prints new marriage licenses after ruling JILL MCLAUGHLIN RECORD STAFF WRITER
The Chaves County Clerk’s office has only sold two marriage certificates to gay couples since last week’s state Supreme Court ruling that cleared the way for same-sex marriages in the state. “I didn’t think Chaves County was going to be a real big place to sell those,” said Clerk Dave Kunko. Both certificates— acquired by two men and two women—were sold Dec. 19, the day the New Mexico Supreme Court ruled it was unconstitutional to bar same-sex couples from getting marriage licenses. Following the ruling, the county was obligated to reprint its licenses. The new licenses were received Thursday. “Instead of writing bride and groom on the license, it will just say ‘spouse’ and ‘spouse,’” Kunko said. On the application, the
software company the county uses removed references to “male” and “female” and replaced the words with “applicant.” Kunko said his office had received some inquiries since the ruling. He said the court decision has helped give state clerks direction, and he hadn’t received any negative or positive feedback from the community. “I think it has helped give us all the direction we needed, so we were all doing the same thing,” Kunko said. “It doesn’t look good for our state if we’re not doing the same thing.” The clerk is swor n to uphold the state’s constitution and laws, Kunko said. “Since the (state) Supreme Court feels this is in conflict to the constitution, they decided we needed to start doing it right away. We felt like we had to do it,” he said. See LICENSES, Page A3
HIGH 59 LOW 32
TODAY’S FORECAST
VIENNA (AP) — Iran is taking steps to improve its ability to speed up uranium enrichment that could delay implementation of a nuclear deal with six world powers because Tehran’s moves are opposed by the United States and its allies. Iran’s nuclear chief, Ali Akbar Salehi, said late Thursday that his country is building a new generation of centrifuges for uranium enrichment but they need further tests before they can be mass produced. His comments appeared aimed at countering criticism from Iranian hardliners by showing their country’s nuclear program is moving ahead and has not been halted by the accord. But two officials familiar with Iran’s nuclear activities said Tehran has gone even further by interpreting a provision of the interim Geneva nuclear deal in a way rejected by many, if not all, of the six powers that sealed the Geneva deal with Iran. They told The Associated Press Friday that Iranian technical experts told counterparts from the six powers last week that some of the cutting-edge machines have been installed at a research tract of one of Iran’s enriching sites. They gave no numbers. Iran argued that it had a right to do so under the research and development provisions of the Nov. 24
AP Photo
In this photo released by the official website of the office of the Iranian presidency, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani speaks about next year's budget bill in an open session of parliament in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, Dec. 8.
Geneva accord, said the officials, who represent countries that are members of the Vienna-based U.N. nuclear agency monitoring Tehran’s atomic activities. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss the closed meetings. Iran’s approach is being hotly disputed by the United States and other representatives of the six powers — the United States, Russia, China,
TODAY’S OBITUARY PAGE A2
• STEVE SILVA
See ROBBERS, Page A3
CLASSIFIEDS ..........B6 COMICS .................B5 ENTERTAINMENT .....A8 FINANCIAL ..............B3
Britain, France and Germany — said the officials. They said they have argued that installing any centrifuge that increases overall numbers, particularly a new model, violates Tehran’s commitment to freeze the amount and type of enriching machines at Nov. 24 levels. In commitments under the Geneva accord, Iran agreed to freeze the See IRAN, Page A2
INDEX GENERAL ...............A2
HOROSCOPES .........A8 LOTTERIES .............A2
OPINION .................A4
SPORTS .................B1
WEATHER ..............A8