What sounds like good news for my home town of Rio Rancho is bad new for Colorado Springs, CO. To open the new support center in Rio Rancho they are apparently closing one in Colorado Springs. 800 people have to move to Rio Rancho or lose their jobs.

HP told local workers that the Colorado Springs center is scheduled to close in the second half of next year, when the company plans to open a new center in the Albuquerque suburb that eventually will employ 1,200, said the sources, who said they were told not to disclose the information outside Hewlett-Packard.

I really feel for the people of Colorado Springs. In 2007 Intel announced they are closing their plant in Colorado Springs in which many of those people came to Rio Rancho. I checked out the Colorado Springs plant when they opened in 2000. It’s a beautiful town and I can imagine it will be tough for people to leave there.

HP is bringing 1300 jobs in the way of a support center to Rio Rancho. HP is receiving tax breaks and the 1300 jobs could be realized by 2012.

According to the Albuquerque Journal, it’s likely to be build near the new downtown in the same are where the Santa Anna Star Center is. Yet another building that can be added to the list of building to be built in the new downtown which actually are not.

In another example of crack reporting (or reporters on crack) at the Albuquerque Journal:

Jobs at Hewlett-Packard mostly would be in customer support and sales. They could help offset layoffs at Intel, which remains the state's largest private-sector employer despite cutting about 1,000 jobs during the last year.

I’m not sure how that works. The Intel layoffs were last year and new HP jobs are not likely to come for a while. A year or two at least. Maybe they will come in time for the next round of layoffs.

In any case based on what I read on the Consumerists, HP needs all the support center help it can get.

Note: I don’t actually know of a new round of layoffs at Intel. I’m mostly being sarcastic but I wouldn’t bet on anything in these times.

From Rio Rancho Observers’s Police Blotter.

Mark T. Marshall was arrested on three charges of child abuse after allowing his 11-year-old son to drive his large truck while he rode along side it on a bicycle. Marshall’s son was involved in a collision with a semi-truck, because he failed to yield to westbound traffic. Marshall’s 9-year-old son and his 6-year-old daughter were also in the vehicle at the time.

Tonight the big guns started showing up. First one was a good sized, about silver dollar sized, wolf spider. This guy saw me coming but I was able to track him down with my vacuum. Right after I got that guy I went back down the hallway and saw this good sized black spider right where I was. Where the heck did this guy come from? What kind of spider is it? I have no idea but it got vacuumed up too.

I wouldn't say I'm afraid of spiders but as I've got little tolerance for them or bugs in general since I've moved into this house. I know they are harmless to people and they are good for the environment by eating other bugs but I don't like them scurrying around my house. With the scorpions and the spiders, I may just have to get out some insecticide.

Now, what am I going to do about it (them)? I found a PDF from NMSU which describes various ways to kill them. This is a problem for me. I don't use pesticides on a regular basis, only in extreme circumstances. I don't use chemicals other than vinegar to kill weeds. I use chemical fertilizers to a minimum. I'm not against the nuclear option, but only if I absolutely have to.

The PDF from NMSU states that repellants don't work. I could try trapping them. Trapping or poising them requires me to find their tunnels and dig holes.

On the bright side, the PDF does indicate there are benefits of gophers.

Although, in many cases, the damage caused by pocket go-phers is the overriding factor, the benefits of pocket gophers should be recognized. Some of these are:

• increased soil fertility by adding organic matter such as buried vegetation and fecal wastes.
• increased soil aeration and decreased soil compaction.
• increased rate of soil formation by bringing sub-soil material to the surface of the ground, subjecting it to weatherization.
• increased water infiltration.

The Rio Rancho Observers "Letters to the Editors" section continues to entertain. I think this person was on drugs when they wrote it.

Drugs legalized?

Editor:

According to an article in the Albuquerque Journal, we should legalize and subsidize drugs in order to prevent drug addicts from being killed while in the felonious pursuit of stealing, or robbing, using weapons of minor destruction.

It’s about time someone came forward with a logical solution to this problem, gee golly gosh, all along we thought it insurmountable.

Well, it just goes to show if you think long enough about a problem a solution will present itself.

Well people, you can rest easy now, sell your handguns, get rid of that ball bat and start feeding your pit bull again. The world, well maybe New Mexico, is a safer place now thanks be to solid intelligence, not unmixed with a heavy dose of whatever it is in that pipe, has arrived.

Quis,quid, ubi, quibus auxiliis, cur, quomodo,quando?

(Who, what, where, with what, why, how, when?)

Bob Harpley

Rio Rancho

There's a giant sink hole on Paseo Del Norte, a major artery through the west side of Albuquerque and Rio Rancho. The following comment was posted on the KOBTV's article on the road closure.

Well, those crews had better get busy! I need to use that road to get to TD's every day for my daily fix of skin and wiggles!

TD's is a strip club in Albuquerque.

It was in the high 70's earlier this week. Now it's snowing. Only in New Mexico.

I didn't have my camera with me tonight so I borrowed this creative commons licensed photo from flickr.

[Update 11/23/07 2:34PM]: I've replaced the original photo with one of my own backyard.

I wonder if this is going to be housed in what used to be Fab7

A California company will build a supercomputer here that will be housed at Intel Corp. in Rio Rancho. SGI of California has been awarded an $11 million state contract to build the computer. Businesses, governments and schools will be able to use the facility, to be called the New Mexico Computing Applications Center, to model complex problems, according to Gov. Bill Richardson's office. These range from creating new products to modeling scenarios for New Mexico's future water supply.

I actually saw snow this evening at my house, though it could barely be called snow. None the less I am calling it snow. It was very very light, but they were flakes. It just left the cement a little wet. It was pretty darned cold out, about 20 degrees less than the normals for this time of year. So much for global warming.

I chose to contribute to the green house effect by running a fire in the fireplace for most of the evening.

The metal duct work is mostly rusted away. I would expect that the ducting would be incased in concrete, which it appears there was an attempt to do so. Except only 50% of the ducting had concrete surrounding it, the rest was up against dirt. Damp dirt, which led to the rusting and the mud which penetrated the ducting.

I pulled up the majority of rusted mess out. I allowed the pit to dry out then vacuumed up as much of the dirt with a shop vac as I could. I also found a layer of dirt in the 18 inch duct that leads to the main distribution center under the forced air heater. Thankfully that where the dirt stops.

If your interested in following the progress, you can view pictures at a flickr set.

Check out this local news report of a balloon crash in Rio Rancho with some pretty graphic video. This balloon was taking part in the Balloon Fiesta this week. Overall, I believe the safety record of the Balloon Fiesta is pretty good but these crashes highlight just how little control the balloon pilots have compared to a plane.

The City of Rio Rancho has canceled it's contract with Azulstar for free (and fee based) city wide wi-fi access. According to the Albuquerque Journal (annoying ad viewing required), Azulstar owes the city $33,000 in electricity charges and continues to rack up the charges.

The letter, dated Sept. 20, said the wireless company failed to honor terms of the contract regarding payment for electricity charges, providing a satisfactory business plan and proof of its financial ability to offer continued service in the city of Rio Rancho.

There is always Road Runner Wireless, which is not sponsored by the city. Of course, their website looks like it was designed in 1995. Tables are not for layout.

A bear was sighted near North Hills in Rio Rancho. So far I find no reports that it was found.

A black bear weighing 90 to 100 pounds was spotted this morning around 8 a.m. near Unser and Cherry Road and was last seen heading in a northwesterly direction around 8:30 this morning heading in the direction of Colinas del Norte Elementary School on 23rd Avenue, Rio Rancho Department of Public Safety spokesman John Francis tells us.

I'm sure it was heading toward the school to eat the children. Isn't that what bears do?

There's been quite a few bomb threats around town lately.

• 08/31/07 - I believe there have been several of these bank related bomb threats.

  Police are searching for a white male, about 6-foot-2, 180 pounds, who touched off the bomb scare shortly after 4 p.m. The suspect walked into a doctor's office on Juan Tabo, strapped "suspicious devices" onto a doctor and the doctor's assistant, then marched the two into the bank, Albuquerque police spokeswoman Trish Hoffman said.

• 09/07/07 - Rio Rancho High School.

  Rio Rancho Department of Public Safety Spokesman John Francis said the bomb threat was called in to Rio Rancho’s 911 emergency line at about 7:40 a.m.

• 09/09/07 -

  A bomb threat called into the Sandia Peak tram closed business for about an hour on Saturday as authorities searched the restaurant located at the bottom of the mountain for explosives. After an investigation of the building, no explosives were found. However, authorities now have the phone number used to make the bomb threat because the Tram had caller ID.

Good news if you live in Sandoval County, crime is down 30% according to KOB TV. Sandoval county is where Rio Rancho resides. Albuquerque resides in Bernalillo County. In a unrelated note, the Town of Bernalillo is also in Sandoval county.

Speaking of crime, areaconnect.com has a nifty city crime rate comparison tool. Holy crap if Albuquerque doesn't have a severely high crime rate. It's not just higher than Rio Rancho but higher than just about every city I compare it to.

I was prepared both mentally and financially to be laid off. My years of employment at Intel would have provided me with several months of pay. The state is helping everyone find jobs (you know, our Governor is running for President). There was also the chance of going to school. I know, I should be grateful that I have a job particularly since Intel pays so well. Especially for New Mexico. But there were some benefits to being laid off and I am ready for a new career. Or that's what I have convinced myself leading up to last week. Not to mention that the whole process left a bad taste in my mouth.

There is no good way to do a layoff. There seems to be bad ways to do layoffs. The common way, it seems to me from talking with others who have gone through layoffs at other companies, is that people are suddenly missing one day without warning. You show up to work and a bunch of people are no longer there. Intel's way was different, it was a process. I could go on and on and on about this, but I will leave it at this for now. Since I still have a job, I want to keep it and stay out of trouble.

The whole reason for these layoffs, which has been widely reported, is that Intel is moving from 200mm to 300mm wafer sizes. There are two factories here, a 200 and 300 one. Merging them together with all the wonders of automation in the 300mm factory means you need less people to run it. New Mexico didn't have the only 200mm factory, all other factories like this should pay attention to what happened here.

It's good that I have a job, at least I can focus on other things that don't involve looking for a job. I paid off my debt in preparation, that was also a good thing. This next year should bring along some changes, time to hold on for the ride.

Related: June 30, 2006: Intel -- will it, or won't it?

This summer I've only had a few spiders, nothing like last year and so far no scorpions. But I have had crickets and crickets and more crickets. My weapon of choice is the Dyson. For several nights in a row, I vacuumed up around 6 crickets at a time.

The thing about crickets, they seem to hang out where they came into the house. I was finding most of them coming from one area of the living room. After a few days, I started looking around and found a big crack between the fireplace and the wall. There were even crickets in it. I filled all the cracks around the fire place with expanding foam. This has blocked off the main cricket highway.

Now I'm finding a few in the hallway. I'm finding at least two a night under the refrigerator. The other thing about crickets is the male makes the chirping noise to attract the female. Whenever a male is chirping, there's almost always a female nearby.

The Rio Rancho City Council unanimously voted no confidence in Mayor Kevin Jackson. The Mayor position is apparently more of a figure head and the council cannot force him out. They would have to take him to court to get him out, which doesn't seem likely.

He wasn't in town for the vote, he was in Taos for a conference and lost his cell phone. How convenient. Every one seems to think he has no choice but to resign.

When I wrote about Albuquerque's (or just the Mayors) desire to have city wide WiFi, I was wondering why Rio Rancho's efforts were considered to be a bad thing. Apparently the city feels the contract with Azulstar is in breach.

According to the letter, the breaches include incomplete installation of equipment, inconsistent coverage, minimal customer service, improperly installed equipment, nonpayment of PNM electricity bills and nonpayment of a bond for almost $30,000 owed to the city.Azulstar cancelled the insurance on its equipment on April 19, which violates the contract. The company also did not complete an application for a permit required to install the equipment.

There's some other interesting tidbits in that article as well, like residents of the city are suppose to get 8 hours of free service a month. I wonder how that works

There is competiton. Roadrunner Wireless Services, Inc. has antennas up all over the city. I get a strong signal at my house from their various access points and pretty much everywhere I go in the city. Yet I have some reservations about a company that's about the latest technologies, yet their website looks like it was designed in 1995. It doesn't load properly when viewed on the internet. When viewed from their access point, your treated to layout done in tables, a starry background and animated gifs.

I've often thought there is a lot of corruption and ego in New Mexico politics. I should say, what seems like more than a normal amount of corruption and ego in New Mexico politics. Kind of a "god-old-boys network" that exists. The Mayor of Albuquerque seems to like to promote himself a lot more than I would expect, for example.

I didn't expect it from Kevin Jackson, Rio Rancho's new mayor. he campaigned on being different and trustworthy and I mostly bought into it. Now he's almost blown any trust I had, since he's had his credit card revoked from the city for spending $8000 at Scorpion games that wasn't authorized. The non profit New Mexico Family Council-Best Choice has recently fired Jackson for mismanaging money too.

The Rio Rancho Mayor position is part time, and pays about $12,000 a year. Mayor Jackson said he was giving that money back to the city. Perhaps he thinks he was justified?

Update 10:54 PM: According to KRQE, Mayor Jackson is accused of double billing some trips to the city and his non profit foundation.

Update 6/5/07 6:18 PM:Oh come on now. This is just sour grapes, "Not only is former Mayor Jim Owen calling for Jackson's resignation, he is also saying the council should name the second place finisher in the last mayoral election to take his place. That person would be Owen.". Jackson can't be as bad as this guy.

Update 07/06/07 10:03 PM: It just keeps getting worse. KRQE is now saying that the Rio Rancho city council may have a vote of no confidence at the next meeting (June 13th?).

Also, some of the Santa Anna Star Center receipts list "Mayor Chavez", yet Albuquerque's mayor says he's never been to the center and doesn't want his ass dragged into it.

Update 6/9/07 8:38 AM: Kevin Jackson has made an official statement saying he will pay back any charges but not admitting any wrong doing. Also saying something about others making charges. New Mexico FBIHOP suggests it's his brothers that made the other charges. Very interesting.

Kevin Jackson has sent the following "letter to the editor".

I do not believe in attacking others. When there are challenges and mistakes, we need to learn from them and grow through them.There are certain new issues that we have had to grow through. We can either grow through them professionally or destructively.

Also the Observer thinks the Mayor should resign and suggests alternatives. I say lets not be premature.

While I snoozed away this morning, a bear was on my street. They eventually caught up to him in a doctors office a few miles down Southern Ave. KOB has video and the Albuquerque Journal has an article.

I'm sleeping on the couch tonight because I have a bunch of crap on the bed. I get settled in and start to doze off when I get a loud nock at the door. That freaks me out. I don't have unannounced visitors at the house at this time of night. I look through the crack in the blinds and I see a Rio Rancho Police patch.

Yikes! I search around for my pants. I open the door and there are two Rio Rancho cops with flashlights out. They ask my name then ask me if I know a few other people. Never heard the names. Then they ask how long I lived here, if anyone else lives here, etc. Eventually, they realize I'm not the droids they're looking for.

Another lady comes out of the darkness with paperwork and they start discussing it. Not sure what was going on but I suspect they were trying to serve warrants. They ask me a few more questions then they decide to leave. I'm sure they also ran my plates since they asked if that was my truck.

I'll give them this, they sure are stealthy. I heard several cars drive off but I didn't hear a single thing when they came to the house, except for nock on the door.

Now I have to try to get back to sleep.

An Albuquerque Tribune article discusses how the Scorpions didn't make enough money during their first season in Rio Rancho to cover costs. They didn't make enough money when they were in Albuquerque, either.

I can certainly see why they would thing the grass will be greener here in Rio Rancho, really what did they have to loose? I'm still concerned, how long will they continue to loose money? What if Rio Rancho's growth doesn't happen as fast as it needs to? Real fans are already driving to Rio Rancho to watch the games, what else will be done to attract new fans?

I'm still surprised to hear people complain about the drive to the Arena. Unser Road did suck, but it's mostly better now. Any major city with major league sports have much worse traffic problems than Rio Rancho. I don't think people know how good they have it.

RIO RANCHO, N.M. (AP) -- Intel Corp. said Tuesday that it expects to cut more than 1,000 jobs at its Rio Rancho plant as the company ends production of an older silicon wafer technology. Intel will stop making the 200-millimeter wafers at the plant by the end of August, and affected employees will be offered severance packages or can apply for other jobs within the company, spokesman Jami Grindatto said.

Anyone who works at the Intel Rio Rancho plant knew this was coming. I know a large number of people that have been waiting to for a chance to get out with a severance package. Still, this sucks. One fifth (20%) of the people that work at this plant will be gone wether they like it or not.

The AP article doesn't mention when Intel expect to have everyone out but this KOB article say they start in August.

A article from the Albuquerque Tribune says:

Larry Waldman, a senior economist with the University of New Mexico's Bureau of Business and Economic Research, projects the layoffs expected to come in August could cause the loss of another 1,000 jobs in places such as the retail and service sectors. "It's not going to be just 1,000 jobs when you look at effects on other parts of the economy," said Waldman, referring to retail and service jobs that might supplement Intel workers. While that may not be the rosiest picture, Waldman said the losses will have only a minor impact on the economies of both the state and Albuquerque metro

Update 5/7/07: From the Trib:

U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici has asked Labor Secretary Elaine Chao to assign staff from her agency's Dallas office to coordinate job placement programs for the 1,000-plus workers expected to lose their jobs at Intel Corp.'s Rio Rancho plant.

The declines were greatest in the cities of Albuquerque and Rio Rancho. In the Duke City, 223 permits were issued in March compared with 524 in March 2006. For Rio Rancho, just 124 permits were obtained this March compared to 336 a year ago.

New home permits plunge by more than 50 percent - New Mexico Business Weekly.

After a spring winter storm, blue skies are back. This is the view from my front window. This week's Photo Friday, "The Blues".

I'm trying to think back to my own graduation 15 years ago. It was held at the high school football field and I think there was a limit of how many people I could attend, something like 5 people (the class was 2000 people (update: 2000 is the total number of students in the school that year)). The Rio Rancho High School graduation is in some controversy due to the 8 person limit imposed when the school moved the ceremony to the Santa Anna Star Center. It was previously held at the "Pit" in Albuquerque.

The Santa Ana Star Center, which opened in November, will hold 5,500 of the graduates' family and friends, while the The Pit held 11,000 for the ceremony last year, said Bill Duncan, Rio Rancho High activities director.

One thing that is annoying me is the woman I've seen on the news several times who complains that she cannot take all 50 of her relatives (she has a blog rioranchogradsunite.blogspot.com) to see her kid graduate. The Albuquerque Tribune says another person is upset because she ordered 40 invitations. Even if it was held at the Pit, there isn't enough room for every kid to take that many people.

I know this is important to a lot of people and I don't have a kid who is graduating nor 50 relatives that would come out for it even if I did. It appears that the school is willing to accommodate a reasonable amount of people (this problem isn't unique to Rio Rancho High School). I feel it's better to have the graduation in Rio Rancho, where the school is. I also feel that parents should be reasonable.

What a better way to start spring in New Mexico than with a snow storm. It's actually coming down pretty good right now. It's not sticking though, and it's barley making the ground wet.

Talk about bizarre weather.

According to the Albuquerque Journal, a 350,000 sq/ft shopping center, called Loma Colorado Crossing, is coming to Rio Rancho this Fall. It will be at northwest corner of 40th street and Northern.

The article also indicates that a Lowes might be built there. Whether or not it is, a large shopping center is needed around that area. Hopefully with a grocery store and a gas station.

My favorite wing place from Arizona is coming to Rio Rancho (and Albuquerque).

A Gilbert-based restaurant chain is expanding outside Arizona. This year, Native New Yorker expects to start opening restaurants in New Mexico. Four eateries in Albuquerque and one in Rio Rancho are planned, said Mario Altiery, president of Upside Group, a franchise consulting firm working with the company.

"The Native" as we refer to it, was my favorite wing place. If only In-N-Out Burger would follow.

Rio Rancho man accused of illegally dumping coyote carcasses (Via Free New Mexican).

A Rio Rancho man faces charges of illegally dumping about 20 skinned coyote carcasses in an arroyo west of the city.Coyotes are not a protected species in New Mexico, and it is legal to hunt the animals. However, Undersheriff Tim Lucero said it is illegal to dump carcasses in that part of Sandoval County. County ordinance makes violators liable to 364 days in jail and a fine of up to $1,000 for dumping.

Intel Corp. said on Monday it will spend $1 billion to $1.5 billion to retool a factory in New Mexico, which will start to make chips with cutting-edge 45-nanometer-wide transistors in the second half of 2008.

The factory to be renovated in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, is known as Fab 11X and will be the fourth Intel plant to use 45-nanometer technology, which includes new materials that boost chip efficiency by cutting leakage of electrical current.

My employment is secure.

Here's a little bit more information about the IRB that was used to fund this upgrade. Looks like there's some money left in the pot.

I would have never imagined creating this sentence. Turtle Mountain Brewery company has had it's anti-drunk driving talking urinal cakes stolen. If you do a search for "talking Urinal Cakes" you will learn how the Rio Rancho based Turtle Mountain is the first to get them in New Mexico.

I saw the report on channel 4, I will update with a link once they decide to put it up.

Update 2/20/07 10:22PM] Here's a AP article.

At the Turtle Mountain, the urinal cakes have proved so intriguing that three have been swiped already. "I'm mystified why someone would stick their hand into one of our urinals," Ortiz said. "But I'm sure we'll see them on eBay. Hopefully, the seller will advertise it as, `Stolen from Turtle Mountain.'"

The Rio Rancho City Council overturned a recently enacted Ordinance that banned tractor trailers from parking in residential areas.

On Wednesday, Jan. 24, about a dozen truck drivers attended a City Council meeting to speak out against an ordinance that had been approved the week before. It prohibited tractor-trailers from parking on residential lots in Rio Rancho.

Many of the drivers argued that before purchasing houses in Rio Rancho, they had checked with the city to make sure they could park their rigs at their homes. Others said they had surveyed their neighbors, and found that many were surprised by the city's decision to enact such an ordinance.

Personally I'm not sure what to make of it. I've seen the rigs parked around Rio Rancho and they do take a lot of room and don't look that great. They shouldn't be around for very long, since the truckers make their money by being on the road, not parking the truck.

I drove home tonight to the smell of natural gas. Apparently, while working on the Unser road improvements, construction workers broke through a 16 inch (16 inch!) natural gas pipe. As of 7pm tonight, there were some mandatory evacuations.

I assume that houses in lower valleys are being evacuated.

Another snow storm has come through today and it's coming down good. I had to drive in it this morning and are reminded why I bought four wheel drive. Of course, four wheel drive does give more control, it does not have keep you from stopping. Even with the four wheel drive I was slipping and sliding around.

I'm staying home for the rest of the day.

[Update 12/29/06 10:07 PM] I can't believe it, its still snowing! Its been snowing non stop all day, I've got about 6 inches of the white stuff on my driveway. A freind called an said he was stuck in Las Vegas when his plane was diverted, earliest he will be here will be sunday.

[Update 12/30/06 12:18 AM] Apparently this is the most snow thats fallen at once in the Albuquerque area. It's still snowing and has been since yesterday morning. Were looking at another 12-18 hours.

I've been thinking and saying out loud that the City Manager should be fired. Mainly for things like Unser Road and other such things going on in Rio Rancho. Loos like I'm not the only one as City Manager Jim Palenick was canned by the City Council. KRQE reported on it and so did the Citizens Media Group.

Palenick’s management style alienated some on staff, and two department heads had threatened to resign, including Rob Anderson, director of development services. Anderson had followed Palenick from Bay City, Mich., where Palenick had been fired from his job as city manager in August 2002.

Hopefully we will see some better planing around here with the next guy.

It looks like the City of Rio Rancho is resorting to traffic enforcement dirty tricks to generate revenue. Just south of Southern Blvd, on NM 528 there is a left turn lane, it will take you onto Peggy Rd and give you access to local businesses like McDonalds and Burger King.

There is a posted sign indicated that you are not to turn during the hours of 4 to 6pm, rush hour traffic time. This seems reasonable considering that NM 528 is pretty packed during rush hours. What happens if you didn't see the sign? There's nothing there to physically keep you from turing into this lane. What happens is you will likely be greeted by the Rio Rancho Police on Peggy Road, waiting to hand you a ticket.

The reason I consider this a dirty trick: if they were really interested in traffic enforcement and preventing people from turing here they would sit at the turn lane, keeping cars from turing. They are instead waiting for cars to turn and issuing tickets. I don't know about every case but the cases I do know of there were no warning issued. Somebody prove me wrong.

The Rio Rancho City Council has voted to extend Northern Blvd into Corrales. I don't get how this works exactly, how does Rio Rancho decided if a road is built in another city (town, whatever Corrales is).

I also don't get how the road will be extended. Check out the end of Northern Blvd as it butts up against Corrales now, I guess there's some room there somewhere. I do like the concept of having a major road go all the way through, instead of the weird set up we have now. It shouldn't increase traffic to Corrales, that's going to happen whether the road is extended or not. Extending the road should improve the traffic flow for when the traffic does increase.

Finally, I think Councilor Mike Williams is on the right track for voting against it. Why doesn't the city worry about the other road projects that they haven't completed yet, before doing this one.

"I'd be in support of D-93 if at any point in time I had something in writing from, first of all from the state of New Mexico highway department stating that 528 was going to be done before Northern Boulevard was going to be opened up, also that the City of Rio Rancho commits that Northern Boulevard is four to five lanes all the way to Unser just so it can handle the traffic," Williams said. "I have no problem opening this leg, but this is not the time, and until we have that etched in stone with 528 and Northern Boulevard, I have no choice but to vote against it."

It's snowing and it's cold. Cold enough to keep the snow sticking to the street. Glad I don't have to drive in the morning.

Some people in a Rio Rancho neighborhood hit by a water main break on Sunday are saying that the city isn’t doing its part to assure that they have clean, drinkable water. “It’s just getting really old,” said Renee Popovich, a homeowner near Rockaway and Pyrite in northeast Rio Rancho. “We’re not getting any support from the city to provide at least drinking water for the residents.” Popovich said that her children had to spend the night with friends so they had water to get ready for school on Monday morning. The break carved out a mini arroyo in front of several homes leaving people unable to back their cars out of their driveways. Rio Rancho officials say that they are aware of the problem and have recently removed asphalt over the water main in preparation for repairing the faulty pipes, which have failed several times in recent months.

The city came and fixed the water main break in front of my house pretty quickly. This break seems much worse than mine which might be part of the problem. Perhaps the city should do a better job of communicating to the residents the problems in fixing this and how long it's going to take so it doesn't end up on the news. Just sayin'.

The New Mexico Scorpions (not those Scorpions) played last night to a sell out crowd of over 6000 at their first game (they say it was sell out but there were plenty of empty seats). I have to say it was pretty cool to be able to go less than 10 minutes away to watch this game. Well, 10 minutes if I had my own private road.

Not surprisingly, Unser road was not complete and not surprisingly, traffic was backed up for some time. City officials were there at the game and seemed pretty proud of the new arena, but they should be ashamed that that Unser road wasn't completed in time for the event. I doubt many from Albuquerque will be willing to make the trip again with those road conditions. Thankfully I know the back ways through Northern Meadows and North Hills so i was able to avoid the traffic, even though it was like driving through a maze (and a little four wheeling).

As for the event itself, it was a good time. The Scorpions lost to the Arizona Sun Dogs 3 - 1, they looked like they haven't played together in 18 months. The concession stands also didn't quite have their act together. I wish they had some local businesses in there like the Isotopes Stadium does. This should all improve over time.

User road is one of the main drags through Rio Rancho. It use to only take you to North Hills (where I lived when I first moved to New Mexico), it now takes you to the new Down Town Rio Rancho, along with all the house developments besides North Hills. It's deplorable that with all the housing and the down town that the road is still only in progress of being widened from 2 lanes (no center lane) to 4 lanes. Anyone that's been at the intersection of Unser and Northern about 7am can testify that this road should have been completed with construction about two or three years ago.

The Scorpion's play at the new Santa Anna Star Center in the new down town on 27 October. I don't see anyway that they will have this road paved in a week and ready for traffic. The other road leading to the events center is Paseo Del Volcan, which Cocoposts explains how the whole United States paid for the majority of the road. In fact, I think the whole country paid for most of the Unser expansion too. Thanks USA!

DukeCityFix covers the former mayor of Rio Rancho's little predicament.

It seems that state legislative candidate (District 60) and former Rio Rancho Mayor Jim Owen failed to mention his 2001 felony child abuse charges in campaign questionnaires over the years.

The charge was related to corporal punishment and he may have been set up. None the less he's been a little dodgy by not reporting it while running for the legislature. This sort of thing is always going to come out. He should have just mentioned if regardless of the technicalities of the language.

I guess you could say that AMREP owned most of Rio Rancho at some point. They basically started Rio Rancho, the first house I bought here was made by AMREP. Thankfully they are out of the house building market.

Their latest financial report is a good indicator that the real estate marked hasn't slowed down that much here.

Revenues of the Company's AMREP Southwest real estate subsidiary were $37,092,000 in the first quarter of 2007 compared to $7,689,000 in the same quarter last year. This substantial revenue increase was primarily due to increased sales of both developed and undeveloped lots in AMREP Southwest's principal market of Rio Rancho, New Mexico, where interest in the Company's landholdings did not appear to be impacted by the slowdown in housing that has been reported in many parts of the country.

It's a pain in the ass to do just about anything in Rio Rancho, because you can't actually do much in Rio Rancho. You have to go into Albuquerque. Now I'm getting a 14 screen movie theater right down the road from my house. I was hoping for a Home Depot to be build there, but I will take what I can get.

Drew Dolan, a project coordinator with Argus, said plans include a strip mall with 8,500 square feet of retail space to be developed with the theater. Site plans also include another sit-down restaurant, fast food offerings and an auto services provider, he said.

An introductory class on television production for people interested in producing programs for RioVision, the city of Rio Rancho's public access television channel, will take place in September and October.

The class will cover studio and field production, and attendees should be residents of Rio Rancho or sponsored by a city resident. A fee of $50 will be charged for the course, which will meet on Thursday evenings Sept. 21 through October 12 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. in council chambers in the Rio Rancho City Hall.

Leading the class will be Ed Smith, owner of Edit House Productions LLC, the Rio Rancho company recently awarded the contract to manage the public access channel, and Elizabeth Dwyer, RioVision producer.

For information, call (505) 891-5051.

Link

The City of Rio Rancho has finally updated their website. with all the broken links and lack of purpose, It was badly in need of a update. They still have a while to go to catch up to Albuquerque's website. Also, no RSS feed.

This Observer article has some more information. What this article seems to leave out, which seems to me to be important, is a link to the website. Also, the Observer doesn't have a RSS feed. Why is this so hard people!

Many Rio Ranchoans have said the recent rainstorms are worse than any they remember. Those observations, as it turns out, are more accurate than they may have realized.Rio Rancho emergency programs manager Rick Bassi said Tuesday that the recent flooding is the worst flood disaster in the city's history, and it might not be over.

Link

The ice floor is taking shape and soon the chiller will be connected to the building. For hockey fans this is one of the truest signs that the hockey drought is almost over. Season ticket holders can even see the seating bowl and picture their view of the Scorpions beating the competition. Come this October, anyone attending a Scorpions game will have a great view of the ice surface no matter where they sit. No more posts or pillars obstructing the view.

A article on the status os the Santa Anna Star Center

Rio Rancho ranks No. 56 on Money magazine's list of the 100 best small cities to live.The Sandoval County city improved on its ranking of No. 83 in 2005.Money magazine's Web site said it was looking for small, livable cities with a mix of good jobs and schools, low crime, open space and "rational home prices."Rio Rancho's median annual family income is $57,562 and its median home price is $150,024, the magazine said. It ranked the city's property crime risk as 33 and its personal crime risk at 50 out of national averages of 100.The rankings released Monday gave the top spot to Fort Collins, Colo.

Link

What's in a name? In the case of Rio Rancho's $45 million, 160,000-square-foot arena and events center, about $500,000 a year. The Santa Ana Pueblo has reached an agreement with the city of Rio Rancho to purchase naming rights for the center for $2.5 million for five years, Mayor Kevin Jackson said.

Link

While Intel Corp. said today it will be laying off 1,000 managerial positions worldwide, no layoffs at the Rio Rancho facility have been announced to date. Intel's Rio Rancho spokeswoman Liz Shipley wouldn't disclose or speculate on how many layoffs, if any, the Rio Rancho facility would see as a result of the company's decision.

Link

UPDATE: Intel says Rio Rancho plant will experience layoffs

Botulism is being blamed for the death of birds and other wildlife at the Chamisa Hills Golf Course in Rio Rancho.Rio Rancho spokesman Peter Wells says dead birds submitted for testing showed botulism as the cause of death. The birds lived near a pond on the course. Residents are urged not to touch or move any hurt or dead birds from the area to prevent the disease from spreading. Factors that can cause botulism are warm water temperatures, high nutrient content in the pond, anaerobic conditions and rain fall that stirs up the bottom of the pond.

This is suspicious because the same golf course was found to be killing ducks using a poison earlier this year.

The City is looking for help from the state to clean up from the massive amount of rain we had over the last week. Mother Nature doesn't let dirt roads stand in the way of it's canal (arroyo) making, in fact they make easy targets. I can understand that people are upset about this but their expectation are a bit out of whack.

“We are very, very frustrated with the city that they allowed us to build here. We are a drainage focal point for about two or three miles up.”

I can't totally blame the city for their problems, when you live in an area with dirt roads and no storm drains you have to expect this to happen. Rain is pretty scarce in the desert but the effects of heavy rain are known to make noticeable changes to the terrain. They should have planned better for it.

What is a hurricane doing in the middle of the desert? TOnight we had a massive wind storm, this picture shows the view from my back yard. The news said we had winds around 67 MPH in parts of alb. Check out this Jiffy Lube's roof in Rio Rancho.

I haven't gone out to check out my own roof yet, but one of my trees did fall over.

What is up with these spiders? I found this guy running across the floor tonight, scared the crap out of me. I proceeded to vacuum him up with my shopvac only to have him escape and run across the floor again! (or it was another, identical spider?)

I it is pretty menacing looking and I have no idea what it is. Kind of looks like a Wold Spider but I've never seen a completely black one. This one kind of looks like one of those fake plastic ring spiders.

Since there was a Albuquerque photo pool (actually several) in Flickr, I set up a Rio Rancho pool. Now all it needs is members.

Fun stuff happening around these parts. Here are some choice bits from the article.

A loud party last month led to the citation of nine minors for underage drinking and possible charges for the "passed out" mother who allowed it. Marcus Riggs, 18, whose mother rented the apartment, let police in. Riggs told officer Chris French that "he and some of his friends got together and had a few beers". It is unclear if Riggs' mother Lynda, 36, would have objected to the party, as she was in no condition to break it up. "Lynda Riggs was found passed out in one of the back rooms". Still, the officers suspected that Mrs. Riggs facilitated the party, leading to the possible charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. The district attorney's office will decide whether or not to file that charge. This arrest was part of a Sandoval County DWI Task Force underage-drinking sweep run by the Sandoval County Sheriff's Department.

I know people who don't get a good signal, well within the network.

Ushering in a new generation of wireless public and government services, this city on the bank of the Rio Grande today completed one of the nation's largest municipal Wi-Fi networks. Built for Rio Rancho by wireless services firm Azulstar Networks, the metro network provides "laptop ready" mobile Wi-Fi access across more than 40 square miles and is already delivering never-before-available services to businesses, city agencies and some 70,000 residents.

Azulstar has almost completed the city wide wireless network in Rio Rancho. Although I'm soon to be a resident of Rio Rancho, I probably wont subscribe to this network. Instead going with cable and my own router.

This might change later, especially if If the signal is as strong as they say it will be. The main issue is that I have multiple computer I want to have on the 'net at the same time.

Jesus H. Christ.

Rio Rancho's school board has adopted a policy allowing alternative theories to evolution to be discussed in the city's public school science classrooms.The board voted 3-2 on Monday in favor of the policy.New Mexico American Civil Liberties Union director Peter Simonson says the policy's primary purpose is to teach "intelligent design."

They need to give equal time to all forms of alternative theories.

Update 08/24/05 12:25 PM: The ACLU is getting involved.