Breaking Down the Fireworks Law

As this author has already shared, state law says that fireworks can only be banned in certain circumstances and then, not all of the fireworks can be banned. Let's see if Bosque Farms meets the criteria.

1. Some official using an official method of determination must call a drought.

You can probably judge this just as well for yourself. Has there been very little rain for the past three months or so? Are you having a hard time keeping your grass alive? When you walk in the Bosque does everything crackle beneath you because it is so dry?

Ah, but lest anyone accuse this author not providing facts- look for yourself:

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/abq/feature/droughtinfo.php

The answer - NO!

2. The Village has an ordinance on hand saying that the fireworks can be restricted or banned and limited to the types only allowable under state law?

This is tricky.

In an article last year the Mayor said the law hasn't been updated since 1999. Yet on the Village website there is a new ordinance for Bosque Farms with a place for MAYOR HUNING of Los Lunas to sign dated 2002 (HUH?!) saying the fireworks of certain types are banned in the limits of LOS LUNAS.

http://bosquefarms.us/Ordinances/SECT5-5%20Fireworks%20-%20revision%202003.doc

http://www.news-bulletin.com/news/61793-05-27-06.html

If this law was passed this author is unable to find note of it in the local paper very easily. But if this law was adopted then maybe Los Lunas can not use certain fireworks if Bosque Farms calls a drought.

3. The Village has issued a proclamation of a sever draught throwing this ordinance into effect.

NO. And for the simple reason that they can't be the ones to declare the drought, they simple recognize that there is a drought in Bosque Farms. The drought must be declared by the National Weather Guys and Gals. (Uh, for those of you who doubt, check out NMSA 60-2c-8.1A.

And as if all of that isn't enough, the proclamation saying there are extreme dry conditions must be passed 20 days prior to the holiday. So it should have happened a long time ago and the signs been put up many days prior to when they went up. (Simple sense here, if there is a drought the state doesn't want the fireworks sale people to have a chance to sell anything that might start a fire and be used illegally. This is one state law that is trying to help both businesses and buyers fairly!)

So the Village has not met the requirements for enacting a fireworks ban. That doesn't mean everyone should run out and buy a bunch of fireworks and light them all off- it simply means that you can and their signs are a bunch of hogwash put up to intimidate the few that might think they mean something.

By the way, look at the state law here:

http://nxt.ella.net/NXT/gateway.dll?f=templates$fn=default.htm$vid=nm:all

Fireworks, Ordinances and Lies

"Been Around" asks: Bosque Gal, I saw there are restricted fireworks signs up. I didn't see anything in the paper regarding restrictions. What does that mean, do you know?

Thank you "Been Around" this author noticed this and has been working on getting some facts together about this very topic.


This issues raises up every year and every year the Village gets sneaky and tries to stop others from using fireworks by implying that it is illegal. It looks like the same thing is happening this year. It is a scare tactic and it is unfortunate that some will fall for it.

The signs are up, the same signs they have used year after year, and yet nothing has been declared in an official act ( unless the Councilors and Mayor are having more special meetings?)

Here is how it works based on state law:

• 1. An official, using an official type method (such as the Palmer Index) has to call a drought in the area.
• 2. The Municipalities have to recognize that the drought is indeed in their area.
• 3. The Municipalities have to have already had a local law on their books that says, IF there is a drought, and if the municipality recognizes it then some certain types of fireworks are banned.
• 4. Even after all that, let it be known that some certain types of fireworks are still allowed under state law and municipal law will not be able to change that.

And note this:

Chief Stidham last year said fireworks use was hard to ban and hard to enforce. Why? Because by the time his men hear the report of the fireworks there is no way they can see who set it off and for the police to charge you they have to see you with their very own eyes.

Some Thoughts About This Blog

This is not really a terms of service agreement because this author simply runs this one blog while blogger.com runs the overall website and software. But this author has been thinking and thought that it would be wise to inform the readers of a few facts and thoughts and policies that the author/s have tried to follow.


This author does not collect any personal information. To post on this site you do fill out some form and set up an account. This form and account is not for this site but for all blogger.com sites. This author does not see any of the information you provide and this author does not do anything with any information you may provide through your posts.


As indicated above, all of your posts are anonymous and this author has no real way to check what you say is accurate or true. Those reading your posts should be aware of this as well. For this reason, this author at least, has tried to provide some documentation for statements and encourages readers to do so as well.


This author is unable to modify posts. The only modification that this author can make to any posts you write is to delete your posts.

All content posted on this site, including by any readers, does fall under the control of this author. This means that if you post something without documentation or violate copyright law , for example, this author can and will delete it. And this author does not have a duty to modify or withdraw posts but may choose to do so. You may request for posts to be deleted and this author will consider this request. And certainly at any time you can delete your own posts, as this is set up by blogger.com.

This blog does not advertise on this site. It does not advertise in unmarked posts nor does it advertise in links. This author does not recieve any money for advertising or for providing links. If this author does provide a link to a business or a place to buy items, this author is not going to recieve anything in return and this author will attempt to explain how this link is important or interesting or why it caught the fancy of an author.

FYI: This site has been putting large spaces in the posts this author writes. There is no real reason that this author is aware of for these spaces to appear. This author does not write those spaces in and they are annoying and ugly. This author wants everyone to know they are not posted that way to begin with.

Water Rates

Lets see if this author has it right:

1. The Councilors agree to a special meeting even though they PROMISED that they would NOT hold special meetings and that they would hold meetings at a time the public could attend. They discussed water rates, which they have been working on behind scenes for several years now.

2. At this meeting the failing water system and the single clarifier (whatever that is) and the lack of savings made it almost an emergency. And do not forget to include in that list of 'emergency problems' that makes this rate increase mandatory in their eyes the aging water pipes in the Village.

BUT did you know that just over a year ago the Council of Governments gave a report on the water system and the Village was losing less water than normal through leaking pipes? (Yup, this author sat through that meeting!)

3. The lack of savings is the fault of the Council and the Mayor.

4. You and this author will now pay the price for their spending ways. This payment will come in the form of higher water rates, possibly higher fees for over usage, and quite possible both.

5. The Council has not considered any other options such as asking the state for the funds, writing for grants, saving funds before they are spent.

6. They expect you to blindly go along with this without asking any questions or really getting any answers (after all, if you listen to Councilor Wallace or Mayor Ake it's all about state law!) Some of the questions they need to be sharing with us include:


- How much does it cost to run the system?


- How much is it going to cost to fix the system that isn't yet broken?


- How can you say the pipes are aging when less than two years ago they were doing great according to an outside source?


- How much money do we have saved?


- Where has the money that was previously saved gone? What major expenditures have eaten up this money, our taxes?


- Exactly what is going to happen to this extra money we, the Villagers, are going to have to pay?



- and as mentioned by another reader - is there going to be an increase in sewer rates as well? Most likely as the two are tied together.

The Summer Program

This author took a quick jaunt over to the park with some kids the other day and how interesting the Summer Program is this year. Here are a few observations:


1. The person running it is an adult, not a young adult who is 18 and barely able to drive but an adult with a cell phone, a hand held radio (for what? police contact? who knows?) and plans.


2. There is more shade than there was last year and there are balls, hula hoops, and lots of water.


3. The community center is being used by the children on windy and rainy days. Not only that there are books, puzzles, games and indoor toys for these children. Wow, how did that happen? The community center open to children?


(Note: This author hopes this continues and a playgroup or toddler group is held during the school year too!)





4. They walk to the library and check out library books. Wow. This is what should be happening, the community center and the library should be working together to serve the community in a variety of meaningful ways.

Water Rates and Pipes Part Two

This author did a little bit more digging to see if there was proof besides a memory of watching PVC pipe being laid down and look:

One of the biggest costs in this project is PVC pipe," Moffatt explained to the council. "I don't know of any contractor who can hold his price over a period of time." Emphasis added by this author.

http://www.news-bulletin.com/news/29277-09-28-02.html

So let this auhor recap:

The Council and the Clerk are crying that it is urgent that water rates be raised and one reason they give you is that the pipes are aging. Makes sense, aging pipes leak and the water is wasted, and wasted water probably would equal higher water rates.

But Wait!

The pipes in phase four were put in during 2002. So those pipes at most are five or six years old. And the first pipes were put in what?

But Wait!

The pipes are made of PVC and PVC pipes may last 60 years and possibly to 100 years.

Liar's motto: If at first you don't deceive, lie, lie again.

~ Duane Allan Hahn

Water Rates and Pipes

This author was thinking about this comment in the newspaper:

Right now, if the clarifier blows, we don't have the money to fix it," Jones said. "Our water lines are getting old, and we don't have the money in the budget to fix them. We really need to start preparing for future expenses."
http://www.news-bulletin.com/news/72107-06-20-07.html

And this author began thinking about the water lines that were put in down this street and it seems it was PVC pipe. Now, this author may be wrong and there may be other types of pipe that look like PVC but goes by another name, but it certainly wasn't lead pipes or copper pipes that went down the side of the street.

So this author got thinking, wow, PVC pipe should last much longer than that. Otherwise you would see everyone who had put sprinkler systems in ten years ago digging them up right? But you don't see that, so what is the life expentancy of PVC pipes?

This then allows an estimation of the durability by extrapolation to a life expectancy under pressure of 50 to100 years² .
Real experience in Germany³ has shown that buried PVC pressure pipes dug up after 60 years of active use were proven to be fit for purpose when analysed and likely to have a further life expectancy of 50 years.

http://www.pvc4pipes.org/faq/life-expectancy-pvc-pipe.htm

And if that isn't enough:

After reading these papers, we believe you will come to the same conclusion that we have and consider one hundred years an extremely conservative estimate for the service life of a properly designed and installed PVC pipe.

http://www.uni-bell.org/faq.html

So this author isn't buying the argument that it's an urgent need to raise water rates to pay for repairs to pipes that are getting old. The question you need to ask your self is why are they lying to you about this?

Pluto Demoted Again?

Poor Pluto, New Mexico is the only state the has any respect for this little planet. (Remember, New Mexico officially recognized Pluto as a planet! not to long ago!)



Not only has it been demoted from planet to "dwarf planet", research now shows that it cannot even lay claim to being the biggest of these.


A study has confirmed that the dwarf planet Eris - whose discovery prompted Pluto's relegation from planet to dwarf - outranks it in mass.

Weeds

Weeds are such a bother. This is true everywhere. Bosque Farms has a week ordinance that says the weeds must be kept down to some minimum growth. The point of this ordinance is that if you are killing your weeds, mowing your weeds, some how keeping your weeds down it is more difficult for them to flower and seed thus spreading the weeds. The other point of this ordinance is that helps to create a nicer environment for neighbors and businesses.

Here is information about one nasty weed.

Tumbleweed," "Russian thistle" and "wind witch" are common names for this symbol of the American west. Russian thistle alludes to its Eurasian origin. Scientific names for tumbleweed include Salsola kali, S. pestifer, S. australis, S. iberica, and S. tragus. Salsola is derived from the Latin sallere, "to salt," in reference to the plant’s salt tolerance

http://www.desertusa.com/mag01/may/papr/tweed.html

It can survive in high temps and low temps, it can survive in high salinity soil and it can easily be spread.

But not to worry, if the drought continues as it has been predicted we can always eat it, or least the horses of Bosque Farms can: A severe drought in the 1930’s in Canada led farmers to use young tumbleweeds as hay and silage for livestock.

Water Rates

Here it is, front page news, water rates will be raised, it's all over but the final vote.

The reasoning is provided on the front page- the water system expense is out of control, there is no savings, the pipes are old, there is no savings, and the system needs to pay for itself and there is no savings.

Wait? Prior to Mayor Baldwin there was savings in the millions for just this reason. Prior to the current council there was some savings. Where is the money? (Another post, another day to answer this one.)

This author particularly like that there were no numbers provided- how much money is saved? How much does it cost to run the system? How much is are the repairs and how soon do they have to be done? The answers to those questions should dictate how the Village goes about raising funds, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

It's a big emergency- if the clarifier goes out then the Village has no funds to cover it, but we'll raise rates at a buck or two. What? How much sense does that make?

Why not ask the state for money? In the past this Village has recieved funds from the state for almost every item that it has asked for and in the case last year even more than requested. Why not start there?

Craig Tire

Not a Bosque Farms business but this blog wants to applaud their advertising. The author has recently heard their ads on the radio. Way to go.

This author will also share that recently when buying tires Craig Tire employees were very helpful, patient and kind.


How about you? Have any of you heard ads or seen ads in the paper for businesses in Bosque Farms?

Worth Immediate Information

http://kob.com/article/stories/s88009.shtml?v=1

Free swim passes available through KOB TV and...

Free Swim Passes are also available at Itz, Radio Disney, Mechanical Concepts, the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District, Bernalillo County Sheriff and Fire Departments, City of Albuquerque Police and Fire Departments.

Please be sure to use these and not the ditches. This author is considering that but there will not be a current to swim against and this author admits to being a bit worred about getting out of shape. Dodging around the dead animals also helps and the pools won't have that either...

Ditches are Deadly

Lest anyone think this author is advocating playing in Ditches (or swimming in them) this author will provide some education.

Ditches are Deadly!

Ditches are Deadly!

When it rains the water runs downhill. The arroyo system was created to funnel this water away from the mountains and into the Rio Grande. And rember- even if the ditches are dry, it can be raining in the mountains. And that water can come gushing down. (Technical term there- gushing down for those nonwater savy people mean it will be flowing downhill fast!) You, those who swim in ditches, may not be able to get out fast enough and may drown.

Drowning is the second leading cause of accidental death in New Mexico for ages 1 to 44 years old. Each year over 8,000 people drown in this country. Nearly 4,000 of these drownings occur during the summer months of June, July and August.

http://www.ditchesaredeadly.com/new2nm.htm


http://www.cabq.gov/flood/ditches.html

Congratulations to this Resident

Roger Easton was the recipient of the New Mexico Orchid Guild's (NMOG) People's Choice award for his orchid at the guild's annual spring show in Albuquerque, where over 300 orchids were shown.

And wow, this is very impressive:
Easton grows more than 135 orchid plants, with more than 30,000 species of orchids and 20,000 hybrids in the greenhouse inside his home

http://www.news-bulletin.com/news/72044-06-16-07.html

Happy Father's Day

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

In 1966 President Lyndon Johnson signed a presidential proclamation

declaring the 3rd Sunday of June as

Father's Day.

http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~homespun/fdpoems1.html

http://www.news-bulletin.com/news/72040-06-16-07.html

June 14- A Special Day

This author flies a flag every year, are you flying your flag today?


Inspired by these three decades of state and local celebrations, Flag Day - the anniversary of the Flag Resolution of 1777 - was officially established by the Proclamation of President Woodrow Wilson on May 30th, 1916. While Flag Day was celebrated in various communities for years after Wilson's proclamation, it was not until August 3rd, 1949, that President Truman signed an Act of Congress designating June 14th of each year as National Flag Day.

http://www.usflag.org/history/flagday.html

Officer of the Year

Sorry for not mentioning this earlier. This author has misplaced the paper and now no longer even remembers the name of this officer, apologies. Surely someone will help by providing the information.

Congratulations to the officer of the year.

The Trailer Park

This author noticed something when driving through the Village the other day- the trailer sales place, the one behind Curves.

Has anyone else noticed it? If you look near the back of the lot there are some very trashy trailers. Who is going to buy those trailers? Certainly there is very limited places a trailer can be put up in Bosque Farms anymore. Also, it is an ordinance that trailers can't be fixed or repaired on site.

So the guy can't fix the trailers, he probably won't sell the trailers but those businesses near there and the homes that back up to that lot have to live with the problem. Now this author asks- How fair is that?

Helmets and Horses (Post six)

Previous links and articles have discussed bikers wearing helmets, motorcycle riders and drivers wearing helmets, skateboarders wearing helmets and now this author presents horses and horse riders wearing helmets.

Previously "El Tigre" argued that only children (ages 12 and under maybe?) wear a helmet rather than everyone. Yet this author has repeatedly provided links of helmets saving the lives and lack of helmets maybe resulting in the death of people who are much older.

Here again, more about Helmets. Be sure to read the "True Helmet Facts" sidebar on the right side of the screen as well.

The following stories have been contributed by HORSE-SENSE readers who are sharing their first-hand experiences in the hopes that they will help convince you or someone you care about to wear a ASTM/SEI-approved riding helmet for every ride.

A 12 year old writes: The doctors told me that if I hadn't had a helmet on, I would have cracked open my head AGAIN! (As it was she had a hairline fracture) I want everyone to know,especially western riders, it doesnt matter how advanced you think you are, a horse's mind is something that we will never understand

A wife writes: I ended up in the ICU with some brain trauma that I'll recover from but if I hadn't had my helmet on they say I wouldn't have survived.

http://www.horse-sense.org/stories/

Mosquitos

The other day while swimming in the ditches this author noticed that the mosquitoes were quite horrible. (Swimming against the current really develops those arm muscles!)

Is the Village spraying for those pesty buggers? This author has not seen anyone driving the fancy spray truck in some time. It seems with all of the rain it is time to start the spraying again.

What About...

What about a yearly crazy contest or a yearly event, made larger? The Bosque Farms Fair is a great event and should remain small. But certainly new events could be developed or ongoing events made larger or even we could tag onto a local event in Los Lunas and do something fun that would attract new money into this Village without dragging people into our neighborhoods.

Duke City Shootout has a film making event in Albuquerque.


Custer Montana has a Crazy Days event.

Some cities have crazy contests- ride your trike in jell-o, hot dog eating contests, etc.

Other cities try to make the biggest record breaking something- the biggest taco, the largest salad etc.

We could have a Valencia County Marathon, A Bosque Farms farmer's market, A giant pumpkin contest, and the ideas go on and on. Share your ideas...

Just some thoughts. Of course, this author would agree with the comment from another poster that the businesses should be the ones to organize this.


http://www.dukecityshootout.com/





http://custer.visitmt.com/categories/moreinfo.asp?IDRRecordID=10274&SiteID=129


http://www.nstpaulevents.com/crazy_days/index.html

Weed Control

http://www.turf.uiuc.edu/weed_web/index.htm


This web site was designed with the intent of aiding the homeowner, professional turf manager, student, and others in need of aid in the proper identification and control of turfgrass weeds through the use of digital imaging.

This is a fascinating site. It has pictures of weeds that show up in turf grass and information about the weed and methods of controlling the weed. It even has pictures and information about "Look Alikes" - weeds that look like one weed but really isn't.

While on this discussion, this author would like to know, what do you do with your weeds?
Do you compost them? Do you just mow them down? Do you spray them? And if you spray them with what do you spray your weeds? Where do you buy the stuff? Do you burn your weeds? Any ideas and comments appreciated.

Have you guessed that this author is expecting to recieve a weed letter soon if the weeds are under control?

Helmets and Facts (Post 5) For "El Tigre"

• About 540,000 bicyclists visit emergency rooms with injuries every year.


• Of those, about 67,000 have head injuries, and 27,000 have injuries serious enough to be hospitalized.


• Bicycle crashes and injuries are under-reported, since the majority are not serious enough for emergency room visits.


• 1 in 8 of the cyclists with reported injuries has a brain injury.


• Two-thirds of the deaths here are from traumatic brain injury.


• A very high percentage of cyclists' brain injuries can be prevented by a helmet, estimated at anywhere from 45 to 88 per cent.


• Many years of potential life are lost because about half of the deaths are children under 15 years old
  

http://www.helmets.org/index.htm

Helmet Saves a Man's Life (Moved from May 21, 07)

Recently there was discussion about helmets, children wearing helmets for riding horses or bikes and laws demanding children wear helmets.

So here is a young man, going to college, riding his bike and next thing he knows...

The truck ran over his head.

"I didn't see it coming, but I sure felt it roll over my head. It feels really strange to have a truck run over your head."

His helmet, a Giro, was crushed, but Lipscomb's head was fine.

http://www.madison.com/tct/mad/topstories/index.php?ntid=133934&ntpid=1

Evidence that wearing a helmet is wise for all ages.

According to the most recent county treasurer's financial report, there is over $9.4 million in unpaid 2006 property taxes.

Once the money is collected, the treasurer's office distributes the funds to the county, the municipalities, the local school districts, the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District and other entities. Lovato said the distribution of the taxes is set by the state.

http://www.news-bulletin.com/news/71722-06-02-07.html

So the question the Councilors need to be asking include the following:
- How much of that money is ours?
- If we had that money would be able to not raise water rates?
- What can we do to help the County get it back?

The Lack of A Helmet (Post Four)

The ones below are all very sad and all have the same end result- death or serious injury and the person hurt wasn't wearing a helmet.

_________________________

A Jarales man is in critical condition after a motorcycle accident Sunday afternoon.
No helmet.

http://www.news-bulletin.com/news/archives/arch_NB_2721-2000.HTM

____________________

"What was worse was he wasn't wearing his helmet. He was pronounced dead on scene."

http://www.news-bulletin.com/news/25994-05-08-02.html

______________________

http://www.news-bulletin.com/news/41737-06-16-04.html


___________________

http://www.news-bulletin.com/news/41737-06-16-04.html

"El Tigre" Explains the Flood Plain

Due to the length and for ease of reading none of this is in blue. The whole of the post below the line is from "El Tigre" Read the original post here:

http://bfgovernment.blogspot.com/2007/05/former-villager-shares-some-information.html

_____________________________________

I don't mean to blow you all off on this request. While it only took 5 minutes to find it, I think it took a bit longer to figure out a summary that makes sense.



The info comes from; http://www.nmfma.org/NM%20Flood%20History.pdf



This report is dated 2003 but uses 1990s data. Essentially, Bosque Farms(BF) and Corrales(Cs) have similar topographical and rainfall descriptions. There are a number of very similar flood considerations listed in the report that I will not list for brevities sake.



We are different in our historical descriptions in that we are described as swampy and they are not. Cs had a pretty bad flood on 8/19/76. It was caused by run off from Rio Rancho breaking levees and ponding in the Village to a depth of 3 feet in some places. That levee failure caused them to be included in the flood plan until the levees were rebuilt after 1995. (I haven't been able to find the exact date.)



The BF area flooded routinely until the levees were built on either side of the Rio Grande in 1933 and the swamp was drained in 1935. All this prior to settlement. We have not had a flood since then.



BF has an additional flood concern Cs doesn't. That is the Hells Canyon Wash to the east of us. It has a drainage area of about 165 miles with several ponding areas. The construction of numerous canals and levees, principally the Tome Drain and Chical Ditch, have largely protected the area from flooding. It hasn't, nor can it, eliminate flooding in the area. There still has been some flooding to the East and North of the Village.



Basically, it comes down to this;Cs has had it's only real threat of flooding mitigated by reconstruction of the levees. BF has 2 flood threats. The river and its associated levee system to the west and the Hells Wash systems to the east. In the near future, it is likely the river threat could be mitigated. It is unlikely the huge Hells Wash drainage area could be.



Please remember this is the briefest of summaries. Be kind to me.