Ombudsman

Valencia County has an ombudsman program for seniors.
And they are looking for more volunteers.
Currently there are only two or three people who are volunteering for this service.

You must go through training (and training is coming up in October) and you must be able to donate about three hours a week to the program. You can do this in 15 minute incriments or three hours all at once.

You essentially become an advocate for seniors in Valencia County.

Feel free to tell them that BosqueGal sent you. They will thank you. Although they most likely won't admit they know who this author is...

The definition of an ombudsman:

A neutral empowered to receive and investigate complaints about any institution, organization, or business. Sometimes he or she is also given the authority to facilitate solutions to problems or to recommend decisions on how problems should be solved. The impartiality of Ombudsmen is sometimes questioned because they are employees of the organization which has an interest in the dispute.

www.edcostello.com/article.cfm

Good News Maybe?

http://www.news-bulletin.com/news/74401-09-22-07.html

Assuming that the money is available, and there is no reason to believe it's not this could be good news.

I know there's no guarantee that if you drill 500 feet that we'll be below the 10 parts per billion, because there's a lot that determines this," Ake said. "They didn't mention anything about matching funds — they'll pay for drilling, a screen, but past that, they won't pay for one single pipe to get it to the existing well."

Ake suggested that the village could sample the water during the drilling process until they get to the spot where the arsenic levels meet the federal standard.

Mayor Pro-Tem Robert Knowlton, who attended the meeting by phone, said that he thinks this is a wonderful opportunity for the village and believes that there is a very high likelihood that drilling another well would find water below the 10 ppb.

Vacation

It's great to take a vacation. After school starts and the grandkids are busy this author and a few like minded individuals go for a nice beach vacation. It was a lovely trip but this author returns and apologizes for not posting a goodbye note previously. But onward this blog goes.

Bullets and Cars (Just some FYI)

It seems there is some debate about what is safer when someone is shooting at you- a car or a four wheeler. Here is just a little tidbit of what this author found.

The gunman's bullets punctured the tires from behind and broke the cooling radiator. The engine overheated because of the water leaking, it slowed down and eventually stopped running. The practitioners' car slowed down, the gunmen's car overtook the practitioners' car and shot at them as they were driving parallel. The gunmen tried to force the practitioners' car off the road with their car. Bullets went through driver Mr. David Liang' feet and shattered the heel bones in his right foot.

But he's alive...

(Note: Sorry, this author has lost the link to this article. Here is a follow up though.)

http://en.epochtimes.com/news/4-6-30/22194.html

Avast Mateys, Sept. 19.

Talk Like A Pirate Day

Sorry readers, this author forgot. September 19 is the all important Talk Like A Pirate Day.

The day you are encouraged to walk around saying fun words like

Ahoy

Shiver Me Timbers


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Talk_Like_a_Pirate_Day

For those who might want a better reference- The main page itself.

http://www.talklikeapirate.com/

Four Wheelers and Being Shot

a man riding a four-wheeler was wounded when someone in a passing sport utility vehicle shot him three times on Earhart Boulevard, New Orleans police said. The attacker or attackers also fired a flare at him but missed. ... , a white Ford Expedition pulled alongside the four-wheeler, said Sabrina Richardson, a police spokeswoman. Someone in the Expedition opened fire, wounding the man once each in the left hand, left thigh and right ankle. Police later found .40-caliber bullet casings at the scene.


http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tpupdates/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tpupdates/archives/2007_03_04.html





Yup, he's stable and off he went to the hospital but compare that to the man who was shot in his car in an earlier post, he had a hurt foot and that was about it.





Just something to think about

Police cars and bullets

http://www.snubnose.info/wordpress/tactics/farnam-does-more-testing-on-cor-bon-dpx/


No conventional hollow-point ammunition was able to penetrate the car door. (Author's Note: Simulated by two sheets of metal) Some didn’t even make it through the first layer. None made it through the second layer.

Of course, there is a lot of technical date on this site but this is the quote that this author found interesting.

Regardless of how it works out - car doors being safer than four wheelers or not- this author still doesn't see how the police believe they are going to be able to use the new four wheeler they have now bought.

Someone is on the ditch banks shooting and the police do what?

Drive to the fire station (where it is stored mind you), open the doors, maybe strap on a helmet, grab whatever equipment they need and then they go to the ditch bank and then they drive around trying to stop the guy shooting? Or even if they radio it in and the cop who is sitting at his desk doing paperwork grabs his stuff, straps on his helmet, runs to the fire station and goes through the whole process and gets to the ditch bank to catch the guy?

It just seems a bit far fetched and drawn out to this author.

Let's hope, more importantly, there is never a need to use the four wheeler.

Here are two kids who were hit, but from reading the report, it appears they were off their four wheeler at the time of the shooting. It's not a pretty story. This author hopes these kids are OK now.

http://www.mtexpress.com/2004/04-04-07/04-04-07shooting.htm

A Local

But witnesses say that the truck hit the motorcycle and left the scene before we got there," Montaño said. "We're thinking it will have damage on the passenger side."

The motorcyclist, identified by police as 39-year-old Lisa Stevens of Bosque Farms, is listed in critical condition at the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque suffering from severe head and pelvic injuries.

http://www.news-bulletin.com/news/74210-09-15-07.html

The prayers of this author are with you.

Shared Services

"Formerly Counciled" had some advice for the Council when discussion of a pool comes up again. Shared Services.
http://bfgovernment.blogspot.com/2007/06/summer-program.html

This author was curious and went looking:
The idea is that communities that have a need get together, pool their resources and do something that serves everyone. An example of this might be the hospital (except that tax payers voted to have this implimented!) or the 911 call center.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3601/is_3_53/ai_n16754446

Long relegated to the sharing of services such as landscaping and snow removal, municipalities and boards of education are beginning to realize the huge advantages to pursuing out-of-the-box thinking by expanding this concept to the concept of sharing facilities and land. Shared services in facilities helps to achieve new and/or expanded facilities while at the same time avoiding exorbitant expenses.
The cost savings alone on a shared building make the prospect of constructing two separate facilities wasteful.

So if the Village Councilors want to provide a pool or a new soccor field or a little league stadium then they could get together with Los Lunas, Belen, Valencia County and even the Los Lunas School District (all of which have much bigger budgets than this Village) . They could find a somewhat central location (or a place where land is cheaper than in the Village) and work together to find a way to pay for a pool that would serve everyone.



Note: The pool would serve anyone who wants to come anyways because when you spend taxpayer funds, you can't pick which tax payers get to use the service or building.

And of course, if you don't want to do shared services, what about public/private partnerships. Just like an adopt a school program with a business, only it's adopt a community. This author wonders if one business in Bosque Farms would be willing to do this? Or maybe the Business Association would be willing to enter a partnership of this kind. Here are a few examples of that.

http://www.usmayors.org/uscm/best_practices/bp_volume_2/westhart.htm




This might be a good idea for many of the more luxery type items the Village Councilors often mention.

A Four Wheeler

Oh lovely, saw the new four wheeler the police have in the parade.


There have been whispers the police had a new four wheeler. This author thought, surely not... after all where do they patrol that they need a four wheeler?


But it is true. There is a nice, lovely, large four wheeler that the police own. And this author can only ask- for what? What is it they patrol that they need a four wheeler for?


Will this be like the bikes they received several years ago- they got these lovely bikes, rode them only at parade and election time and now we don't see them anywhere?


And remember, it is not just the cost of the four wheeler. There are related costs- training, insurance, helmets and so on.


And remember, unless it has changed, MRGCD has not wanted the police patrolling. After all the MRGCD is responsible for the ditches and they hire ditch riders to do just that. The police, unless something has changed, do not have the authority to ride the ditches.

It Could Be Worse

Here is a great argument for budgeting and sticking to a strict budget.

And look, after this author wrote it there was the information published about how the funds for street repairs at the state level is Gone. Think we will get a lot of money? Oh sure.

Every time David Nelsen discovers a new pothole in his subdivision, he wonders how much it will cost him. He may soon have an answer: as much as $11,500.

Why?

The County is doing a special assessment district.


Why do a special assessment district? To raise funds to pay for needs in that one area.

In other words, you draw a line around an area on the map, call it a district and say everyone in this area needs road repairs and then you figure out the total cost of the repairs, divide amongst those in the circle you drew and start billing them.

They're not always popular, but special assessment districts are common for funding repairs of county-owned local roads, said Lorenzo Blount, director of roads for the county's Department of Public Service.

"The funding for Wayne County roads has been greatly limited, causing us to cut back," he said

So instead of cutting back and putting money towards needed repairs- they are just going to tax everyone at this really high rate.

Here is a sign to watch out for:

Gary Phillips, 67, wants the district so the 6-foot-wide pothole in front of his home on Laraugh Drive can be filled.


So if we start seeing big potholes that are not getting fixed, or small ones growing bigger, the residents need to be concerned. It is an indication that things are going downhill and the budget is out of control.

But look at their place:
http://www.northvillemich.com/

They have a nice sign welcoming people to their township.
And they certainly have more parks and recreation employees and events.
Hm.. but trashed roads? And they're going to make everyone pay for their poor budgeting.

And here is the Wayne County website too for good measure.
http://www.waynecounty.com/

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070904/METRO/709040366/1003

A Police Visit

This author heard an interesting story the other day and while this might be normal, it just seemed as if it shouldn't be normal.

Sitting at a party the other day this author heard this story:
It seems an officer took a call to go look at a home that might have had some strange noises or a strange car parked in front of it. When the officer visited he saw nothing amiss and went on his way. Then later, a friend told this lady there was a call for her home and the police had come to her home.

Of course, this is very vague because the story was a friend of a friend of a friend type event.

Now, she had no clue this had gone on.

While this may be normal for police to get a call, do a quick drive by and seeing nothing wrong, drive on by. It led this author to wonder- does this happen all the time in Bosque Farms?

Or is it possible in light of small town feel that everyone who lives here seems to crave, should it be expected that the police stick a little note on your door that says 'we were here on x date and everything looked fine.' This author knows for a fact that the police used to, and they probably still do, check doors and leave a note about any problems they see for businesses. Why not for homes too? Or are there too many calls of this nature to expect that?

This author isn't advocating anything yet, just throwing out some thoughts and questions.

Who is in Charge?

There has been discussion on this blog about the other job that the police chief has and how much time it might be taking away from his current position here with Bosque Farms.

So here it is:

http://www.legitsecurity.com/index_files/Page403.htm

He is President of this new company and wants to be the premier provider of security in your area. And if you dig around you can some of the events they have worked and services they can provide.

But look- isn't this interesting

Legit’s patrol vehicles are highly visible.

This is such an important fact they make sure to include it in their website- our patrols are highly visible. They advertise this because presumably it will cut down on crime. Yet what does Bosque Farms have- undercover cop cars, unmarked cars. Go figure.

Councilor Acts as Mayor? (From August 16)

ive Now that some time has passed this author feels comfortable speaking about something that happened the first day of the "Children's Summer Program".

Councilor Robert Knowlton came to the young ladies who were running the program and gave them a "Pep Talk" (if that term is acceptable for this event). During this pep talk he essentially told the young ladies what their job was and provided direction to them.

Now this author realizes that this is a Councilor Knowlton "Baby", he's the one who takes credit for this community center and he's the one who pushed for it the hardest. But that does not give him the right to act as Mayor and outline any employee duties and job.

This is the sacred act of the Mayor and in his place the Administrator. This relationship between Mayor and employee is a most sacred relationship. There is almost nationwide recognition of this fact.
Furthermore, Councilor Knowlton then proceeded to tell the young lady running this program that she was not to let the director of community events, the lady in charge of the Community Center (whose job duties include directing special events) boss her around. This seems like it was almost set up for a show down.

Luckily the young ladies running the program were professional and developed a professional relationship with the Community Center Director. They were able to work together for the children.

Councilor Knowlton needed to stay out of this situation completely and allow the Mayor to handle it and direct it and manage it. This author things being Mayor Pro Tem has gone to his head.

A Garage Sale Event, Now Is the Time (original from October 13)

Now is the time to plan for the annual garage sale event.

The Village could pay the minimum cost of advertising. The Business Association could pass out flyers in their places of work to notify shoppers of the sale. Everyone who wants to participate could bring a table and set up in some central location and wow, think of the numbers of garage salers this would attract. (Good Idea from a reader!)

Central location ideas:
There are plenty of empty lots on the Boulevard. Maybe one of the owners would be willing to allow for this type of event. The Rodeo Arena. Maybe the Village could work with the rodeo arena for an event like this. The park.

The Benefits

It would be another way to bring 'outside money' into the Village. People travel from Albuquerque every weekend in the summer to shop the garage sales that are held by people who live here. A day that many people in a community have a garage sale in a central location would be well attended by the weekend garage salers! And of course, they could stop and eat lunch and buy gas and maybe look at campers for sale!

Everyone would be given an opportunity to get rid of 'junk' and possibly get a few bucks. Money they can spend eating out after a hot day selling said 'junk'.

Garage salers would have the opportunity to hit many sales in a small area.

Some Additional Ideas

Local stores could put out coupons that would encourage people to drop in while they are garage sale shopping. Stop at Benny's for a Breakfast Burrito, 1$ off. Eat lunch at Sopa's, kids eat for 1$.

The Business Association could notify some of the charities; such as Goodwill, or Catholic Charities, etc., that there will be big garage sales that day. This way they could call around and offer to pick up the left overs. Or the Business Association could provide the numbers for these types of places in their newsletter article so those who participate can call themselves.

One Additional Thought

Maybe the police, if asked nicely by the Mayor, would be willing to direct traffic or be on hand for this event.

Wear your Helmets

Firefighters said the situation might have been prevented if the woman had been wearing a helmet.


The department has responded to about three incidents in which people have had their hair caught in rappelling devices in the past few years, Rasulo said.


"We enjoy a lot of climbing in the Boise area, but a lot of people don't wear helmets," Rasulo said.
"A helmet could have made a huge difference in a lot of these calls," he said.



http://www.idahostatesman.com/localnews/story/148666.html

LABOR DAY

Why Do we Celebrate?

To Honor the Workers

149.1 millionNumber of people age 16 or older in the nation’s labor force in May 2005. Among the nation’s workers are 80.0 million men and 69.1 million women. These men and women represent 66 percent of the civilian noninstitutionalized adult population

It is possible the first organized event on a Labor Day was a parade on Sept. 5, 1882, in New York City, probably organized by Peter J. McGuire, a Carpenters and Joiners Union secretary.

Lots of interesting information here:

http://www.chiff.com/a/labor-day.htm

Enjoy Yours and Be Safe