New Year's Resolution Song

Expanding horizons for Mountainair Arts

Mountainair Arts blog post on artists hit by recession survey was picked up and tweeted all the way from London by @in_arts, a global arts channel. The post related the survey to Cibola Arts' "basket raffle" and exhorted the arts council follow Cibola's lead on behalf of local artists.

Pumped up by the exposed and to save time duplicating social media posts, I set up feeds to autopost both Arts and Announcements posts to  my Facebook wall and @VanessaVaile

As this specific horizon expands, so does the Mountainair web presence in general. Next, I'll do the same for the Poets & Writers Picnic, but sending the feed to its Facebook page (yet to be published). I should also also be able to auto-tweet other feeds, including Facebook Pages (but not groups or member profiles). Obviously, it can't be done with static web pages that don't have rss feeds...

Don't Put Off What Can Be Enjoyed Now

A turning of the year appropriate article from the New York Times

"For once, social scientists have discovered a flaw in the human psyche that will not be tedious to correct. You may not even need a support group. You could try on your own by starting with this simple New Year’s resolution: Have fun ... now!"

This sounds so right for the season... plus it's a resolution we have a fighting chance of being able to keep. Odd it may seem, putting off until tomorrow what could be enjoyed today is a common procrastination. With no deadlines or when a location is convenient, we are more like to put off until tomorrow what could be enjoyed today. In Egypt, I knew someone working on foreign geophysical crew who managed to miss seeing the Great Pyramid at Giza. What have you missed?

Tierney, the article's author goes onto to explain, "Once you start procrastinating pleasure, it can become a self-perpetuating process if you fixate on some imagined nirvana. The longer you wait to open that prize bottle of wine, the more special the occasion has to be." Not unlike waiting for the perfect person or moment... perfection is an ideal, not reality. The whole point of many carpe diem (seize the day) poems was the moment or occasion would pass and you could die before enjoying what you could have had. Don't waiting for a special occasion to indulge yourself, declare one, named or not, and celebrate.

Findings - The Psychology Behind Putting Off What Can Be Enjoyed Now

Survey finds artists hit hard by recession

According to The Santa Fe New Mexican, Survey finds artists hit hard by recession

The image of a "struggling artist" has become a reality for artists around the country in the ongoing economic recession, according to the findings of a recent national survey — and given there are more than 2.5 million working artists in the U.S., according to the U.S. Census Bureau, that's a serious matter.

Artists...are seeing their income drop, forcing many to find other jobs to support themselves. Many artists report they are unable to pay the high cost of medical insurance and are afraid of losing the coverage they have. (from the The Santa Fe New Mexican)

How is the recession affecting local artists, few if any of whom have customer bases or exposure comparable to Fanta Se counterparts? What strategies are local artists pursuing? Cibola's Baskets of Art Raffle is one example.

It's time to follow Cibola's example and get creative ~ surely a reasonable task for the creative contingent and a worthy arts council project. It is to be hoped that a call to creative arms tops the January 14th agenda (meeting at Turner Inn).

 (more from the The Santa Fe New Mexican)

Despite these challenges, artists are optimistic about the future, the survey found: Some 89 percent think they have a special role in helping strengthen communities in these times. Seventy-five percent said they believe this is an inspiring time to be an artist.

"The Artists and the Economic Recession Survey" was developed by Leveraging Investments in Creativity in partnership with Helicon Collaborative and Princeton Survey Research Associates International. The intent was "to provide high-quality and timely information to funders and artist service organizations," a statement from the survey group said.

"The survey sought to understand artists' financial circumstances more than a year into the recession, their strategies for adapting to the poor economy and their needs and concerns at this time," the statement said. "The research is part of LINC's efforts to improve conditions for artists nationwide."

LINC partnered with 35 arts-service organizations throughout the U.S. who asked their members to take part in the electronic survey, in either English or Spanish. In response, 5,380 artists nationwide completed the survey last summer.

Related links:

• Recession hits arts groups especially hard - Chronicle of Philanthropy
• Art groups, too, struggle with recession - NY Times
  
• Feeling the Recession in the Art World - Time Magazine
• Moving On: Can the "arts" survive the recession? - blog post
• Recession forces arts organizations to regroup - Seattle Times
  

Straw Mountain news: FINALLY, SOME NEW ARTWORK!

I'm so glad to hear from Jude at Notes From Straw Mountain that there is FINALLY, SOME NEW ARTWORK! Don't get me wrong... pictures of winter scenes, the house, Roy, sumptuous dinners, antiquing and all that have been delightful.

But Jude is an artist and one Mountainair Arts has always followed ~ moving to Pennsylvania doesn't change that. I want Straw Mountain art to blog and bet you want to see some too. So here's the latest project:

Want details, descriptions and more pictures? Click over to Jude's post for them.

Next... a delightful post from a visitor, great pictures of Ancient Cities, the mural and Dragon Ash Forge. Oh, and don't forget about nominations for the Mountainair Monties ~ making it short: town's best and worst of year + best and worst of decade.

Public Looks Back at Worst Decade in 50 Years

From a report from the PEW Research Center:

"As the current decade draws to a close, relatively few Americans have positive things to say about it. By roughly two-to-one, more say they have a generally negative (50%) rather than a generally positive (27%) impression of the past 10 years. This stands in stark contrast to the public's recollection of other decades in the past half-century. When asked to look back on the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, positive feelings outweigh negative in all cases."

Public Looks Back at Worst Decade in 50 Years

What do you think? Do you agree or disagree? Have the "aughties" been a transformative decade, a black hole or both?

Happy Holidays... all of them

This covers me for the rest of this year and 2010 as well ~ in case I forget to post greetings during the coming year.

'tis the season to shop local

I've been referring to this as the "annual shop local Christmas post." That was before searching back post and realizing the past practice has been too sporadic to tag as "annual" ~ something to add to New Years Blogging Resolutions

Last December's, "reminder to SHOP LOCAL" appeared on Announcements, also on Dec 24, opening, "'Tis the season - and most especially the day - not to be clogging the highway, wasting time & energy." The post includes a good list of local shopping suggestions and off the beaten gift track ideas, still worth checking just as long as you remember that several are no longer in business. Don't count on former links from the Chamber site either.

Standbys: Uncle Walter's (Kenny could sell tees bearing the legend, "I did all my holiday shopping at Uncle Walter's"); Meds & More; Olde Tyme Shoppe; St Vincent de Paul, Ruthie's Flowers & Gifts; Pop's Curios at the Shaffer; Cibola Arts Holiday Group Show ~ replete with high class stocking stuffers ~ soaps, jewelry, glass art, cards, decorations ~ all handcrafted by local artists; Hair Enchantment. Try a different approach to gifting by assembling your own gift basket filled with fanciful items (up to your imagination) or the practical, from edible to tools and automotive, from B Street Market, Gustin's Hardware, Burns Auto Supply, etc. There's always the gift certificate from any of the above mentioned or even not local service business. (Added to list this year: Abo Trading Holiday sale)

The shortest shop local exhortation, from May 2007 post titled "reminders," runs: "saves gas, saves time, saves the environment, supports the community, so do it," covers the subject concisely but adequately.

YES! Mountainair wins Shelter Challenge for NM

The Animal Rescue Site: Feed Shelter Animals With a Free Click Bulletin Posted by GreaterGood.org  The time has come to announce which shelters will receive a Christmas treat thanks to their supporters! With a record number of votes cast (over 5 million!) in the past three months , we're happy to announce the following winners of The Animal Rescue Site's $100,000 Shelter+ Challenge with Petfinder.com. Rolling Dog Ranch Animal Sanctuary of Ovando, Montana will receive the grand prize of $20,000! The Denison City Pound of Denison, Iowa takes the runner up prize of $5,000, and The Oasis Sanctuary of Benson, Arizona wins the third place prize of $3,000. We'd also like to acknowledge our 14th and final Weekly Winner: Mylestone Equine Rescue of Pohatcong, New Jersey. Congratulations to you all and to the 69 other shelters and rescue groups from every state in the U.S. as well as groups in Canada and Costa Rica that were awarded cash grants. Click here to see the complete list of winners. YES Mountainair is the New Mexico WINNER ~ 1st in the state.... Read more

Clueless in Costco

from the New York Times' Opinionator blog ~ Timothy Egan on American politics and life, as seen from the West. For a native Westerner, the slights from the other end of the country start early, and build through a lifetime: national broadcasters on election night who cannot pronounce Oregon (it's like gun) or Nevada (it's not Nev-odda), or a toll-free clerk who thinks New Mexico is part of old Mexico. "You'll have to go through your own embassy," a resident of Santa Fe was told when trying to order Olympics tickets for games on American soil. Geographic illiteracy from the Eastern Time Zone is a given, especially among the well-educated. A New York book publisher, and Harvard grad at that, once asked me if I ever take the ferry up to Alaska for the afternoon. No, I replied: do you ever go to Greenland on a day trip? Norman Maclean, the great Montana writer, had a worse experience. He complained that an editor turned down his masterpiece, "A River Runs Through It," because it had too many trees in it.... Read More

State authority nears first big renewables deal

High Lonesome in the news again.... good news for local development, but I still can't help wondering, a) why Edison can't pay it's own way, b) what state programs won't get funded to foot the bill, c) why can't some of the energy stay in NM and bring down our rates, and d) where are the local jobs.


This reads like a textbook case of "Interior colonialism" with NM as a classic "colonial debtor economy" ... the tag reads not "Made in China" but "Colonized by California"

State authority nears first big renewables deal via New Mexico Independent,Trip Jennings, 12/17/09

A 100-megawatt wind farm near Willard, N.M., could become the first beneficiary of the state's push into the world of renewable energy.

The New Mexico Renewable Energy Transmission Authority (RETA) on Wednesday took a first step toward issuing up to $85 million in bonds to help pay a transmission line upgrade to help High Lonesome Mesa, a 40-turbine wind farm that began operation this summer.

If the proposed bond issue occurs in the next couple of months as state officials hope, it would represent the first deal for the authority, which was created in 2007 to back renewable energy projects in New Mexico....Read more...

Mountainair UFO Sighting

Mountainair Sighting | New Mexico L.O.W.F.I

Mountainair Sighting?

Case Number: 21005

Log Number: US-12152009-0012
Submitted Date: 2009-12-15 21:46 GMT
Event Date: 2009-12-15 18:31 GMT
Status: Assigned
City: Mountainair

posted at New Mexico L.O.W.F.I (Tales of New Mexico's stranger side…) by UFO Stalker

Last week to vote in Shelter+ Challenge

The Animal Rescue Site: Feed Shelter Animals With a Free Click Bulletin Posted by GreaterGood.org There is still have one more weekly grant to give away as well as more than 50 grants ranging from $1,000 to $20,000: there will be a winner in EVERY state as well as winners in Canada and elsewhere.  Voting ends on December 20, so don't forget to vote today for a member of the Petfinder.com Network of shelters and rescue organizations. The Town of Mountainair Animal Shelter is still leading in New Mexico: odds are excellent that the shelter and its project to build a new shelter facility will win the state grant from Petfinder.com.  Read more...

2010 Water Conservation Conference

Hello - We now have only 2 1/2 months before the 15th Water Conservation Conference, 25-26 February 2010 - with holidays in progress until January. Just a reminder to register now, if possible, or put the dates on your calendar for January action. Please check agenda and speaker information at xeriscapenm.com Thank you to all who have registered in December! I will be in touch again in early 2010. ....... Scott Varner Executive Director Xeriscape Council of NM, Inc. www.XeriscapeNM.com 505-468-1021 scott@xeriscapenm.com View this email in browser: http://www.xeriscapenm.com/email/2009email22.html

Wind Resistance

Conferences

Read more! Wind resistance Wyoming may be the best place in the United States to generate electricity from wind. Thanks to a dip in the Continental Divide as it wends through the state, it has about half of all the top-quality (class 5, 6 and 7) wind in the country. That means that a turbine here can crank out as much as 30 percent more juice than one in, say, Texas or California. With a total population of just half a million, the state has plenty of uninhabited spaces for turbines, and it is famous for welcoming energy development. So companies have stampeded into the Cowboy State, reaching for every gust they can. They put up mobile anemometers alongside windy highways and in the sagebrush sea; their landmen scour ridges and ranches, toting proposals and contracts, hoping to grab their piece of state, federal or private land. Wyoming's governor compares the frenzy to a gold rush. That rush, however, is faltering. Greens are fretting about the enormous wind farms covering up the state's wild places, and sage grouse protection efforts threaten to stop the turbines in their tracks. Most surprisingly, though, the leaders of the charge against wind in Wyoming tend to be from the massive fossil fuel industry itself. Wyoming's politics, tumbled by the wind, have become almost as peculiar as the state's mammalian icon, the mythical jackalope. Read more from "Wind Resistance: Will the petrocracy -- and the greens -- keep Wyoming from realizing its windy potential?" »

Related articles by Zemanta

• 200 MW More Wind Power Coming to Wyoming via Duke Energy (treehugger.com)
• With Wind Energy, Opportunity for Corruption (nytimes.com)
• After Outcry, 2 Companies Shift Their Turbine Plans (nytimes.com)
• Windpowered stations to reach profitability by 2017 (telegraph.co.uk)

Fire In The Sky…Briefly

As always... John's photography (from NM Central blog) is a treat

Fire In The Sky…Briefly via New Mexico Central by John Weckerle on 12/14/09

Sunrise Over The Estancia Valley

by John Weckerle

At about 5:24 this morning, there appeared in the eastern sky a meteor so large and bright that your editor was able to see it without corrective lenses – which is saying that it was really big, and really bright.  We'd be interested in knowing if anyone else witnessed the event.  About an hour later, we were treated to a lovely sunrise with a sliver of moon – and figured we'd share it with those who might have missed it.

Things will be quiet on the International Space Station sightings front for the rest of this month, with only one pass scheduled (December 23, 2009).  For more information, see the Moriarty schedule.

2009 Mountainair Monties

We (ever mindful of Mark Twain) will be reviving the Mountainair Monties ~ including the coveted Golden Road Apple. What with this Dec 31 marking the end of the first decade of the millenium, there may even be a decade appropriate section.

Nominations are open; category recommendation invited.

This post would have been longer but the page reloaded unexpectedly and I didn't feeling like tapping it all out again. Cibola, Shaffer and other local businesses took the hit. I'll do the shop local thing another time.

Review: 'New Mexico for the 21st Century: Diverse Voices and History'

Book Review. Learn more about New Mexico’s history. Review cross-posted from H-NewMexico at H-Net

Marta Weigle, ed., with Frances Levine and Louise Stiver. Telling New Mexico: A New History. Santa Fe Museum of New Mexico Press, 2009. 483 pp. $45.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-89013-552-5; $29.95 (paper), ISBN 978-0-89013-556-3. Reviewed by William E. Tydeman (Texas Tech University),

New Mexico for the 21st Century: Diverse Voices and History

Long-term teachers of New Mexico history will recall the years when textbook adoption was clear cut. One book, Warren Beck's New Mexico: A History of Four Centuries (1962), was about the only choice. Richard Ellis's selection of readings often provided a useful supplement. For several decades, choices remained slim. Even then, the situation stood in marked contrast to the rapidly expanding textbook market for elementary and middle schools. The recent publication of Nuevo Mexico: An Anthology of History (2009) primarily designed for schools marks a new era--textbooks that can be used at the secondary and college level. 

Today, in contrast to the earlier era, we have a variety of fine supplemental readers to bolster assigned texts. Excellent compilations now exist beginning with Judy DeMark's collection, Essays in 20th Century New Mexico History, published in 1994. Coming closer to the present are Richard W. Etulain's edited volume New Mexican Lives: Profiles and Historical Stories (2002) and Ferenc M. Szasz's new edition of Larger Than Life: New Mexico in the Twentieth Century (2006). However, now comes Telling New Mexico, subtitled "A New History" from the Museum of New Mexico Press--easily the finest collection of readings on New Mexico ever assembled.

Telling New Mexico is an ambitious undertaking. Numbering more than 480 pages, it is edited by the renowned folklorist and cultural historian Marta Weigle. Most important, it reinforces the educational impact of the blockbuster exhibit celebrating the centennial of the founding of the Museum of New Mexico and anticipating the hundred years anniversary of New Mexico statehood coming in 2012. 

The relationship of the book to the New Mexico History Museum's exhibit is not indelible. However, the seven parts of Telling New Mexico roughly coincide to the exhibit's main themes and scope. The result is at once a tribute to the incredible depth and breadth of the museum's holdings as well as a testament to the inevitable limitations of the "artifactual" and archival record.

Energy: wind farm

Image via Wikipedia

May 2009 video of wind energy site under construction near Mountainair (5 min, 39 secs)

Related articles by Zemanta

• National Grid strikes deal with RI wind developer (sfgate.com)
•  News and Information about wind farm technology and issues (alternative-energy-news.info/) 
• Edgewood’s Recipe for Songbird Soup (nm-central.com)
  
•  Wind turbines don't lower home property values (usatoday.com)

When an old friend - a local business - dies, it hurts

From High Country News

The news came as a shock, but not a surprise. The Gambles store, a mainstay of downtown Salida, Colo., for more than 60 years, was going out of business.

At heart it was a hardware store, but it sold nearly everything you could imagine. Every time our local newspaper ran one of those "best of" surveys, Gambles won "best retailer." I look around my house: The desk lamp by my computer came from Gambles. So did our washer, dryer, dishwasher and kitchen stove. We sleep on a bed from Gambles, store our clothes in dressers from Gambles, and eat at a kitchen table from Gambles.

In other words, whatever we needed, we looked for it first at Gambles. Once, I made the mistake of buying a lawnmower at Wal-Mart. The bag that caught the clippings fell apart after a year or two. Wal-Mart, of course, didn't carry just the bag and wouldn't order one for me. The next mower came from Gambles, and when it refused to start one afternoon a year later, a store employee came by and fixed it -- at no charge.

READ THE REST OF THE STORY » 

Business Skills Workshop for Artists and Artisans, Jan 16 & 30

Could something similar but on a more modest scale be done here as a collaborative project: Town of Mountainair / Chamber of Commerce / Arts Council / independent artists and artisans ~ and hosted at local venues. For those in denial about the possibility: art tourism that could be designed to support Lodging/Hospitality.

A Business Skills Workshop for Artists and Artisans

Do you need an opportunity to improve or expand your business?  Have you ever thought about teaching workshops to visitors?

The City Santa Fe Arts Commission is offering an educational opportunity:

The City of Santa Fe is actively marketing hands-on creative experiences for visitors through www.santafecreativetourism.org.  These are opportunities for visitors to have an authentic, hands-on experience that allows them to gain a better, deeper understanding of our community and culture. Whether you are currently offering hands-on workshops now, or would like to begin offering them, this two-part business skills workshop is designed to help you develop and grow your business.

“Start the New Year Right!” and “Getting Ready for Company”

January 16 & 30,  2010

Time: 9am to 12pm

Price : $45.00 includes both sessions, workshop materials and refreshments

Location: TBA by Jan 6^th 2010

About the Trainer

The workshop will be led by Santa Fe resident Bette Bradbury, Director of Training for WESST.  Bradbury has over 15 years of hands-on entrepreneurial/artist training and business development experience combined with 30 years of marketing and business development expertise. In 2009, Bradbury was honored as the Small Business Administration’s Champion for Home Based Businesses. 

Seating is Limited Contact ASAP 

For further information please contact:

Brent E. Hanifl

City of Santa Fe Arts Commission
505-955-6215 or 955-6707

www.SantaFeCreativeTourism.org
santafecreativetourism@gmail.com

Cibola Arts Basket and Holiday Group Show

From Mary Schultz, Cibola Arts ~

Here’s a photo I took at the gallery yesterday that shows what the basket is like   Cibola Arts members have created three baskets of original arts and crafts to raffle as a fund raiser for the gallery.   Tickets are available, and one of each of the baskets is on view, at Cibola Arts Gallery, B Street Market and at the Alpine Coffee Shop.  The tickets are $1.00 ea. or 6 for $5.00.  The drawing for the three baskets will be at 3:00 pm on Saturday December 19th at the gallery.  You do not have to be present to win.   Also a reminder that the reception for the Cibola Group Holiday Show is from 2:00-4:00pm on Saturday December 5.  Come over and have some refreshments, do some Christmas shopping, and get your raffle tickets!   The show will remain up all month.  We encourage everyone to shop locally!

 

Arts & Letters Drive By

Briefly that is ~ in case I don't get to a more detailed, link and image rich post.

We bid fond adieux ... current issues of Steppin' Out (Gwen Roath, "Pengwen," Socorro) and Something to Do (Arts Alliance, Albuquerque) are their last hurrahs.

 Local artists with recent shows in Albuquerque: Timothy Wyllie @ The Land; Michael Godey @ The Wooden Cow. There may be others: both Marilyn Conway and Addie Draper have out of town gallery representation. Others? Send me notice and pics for a write up.

Animals in NM Mountains

 

Opening in Mountainair: Holiday Group Show, Cibola Arts, Broadway. Reception Saturday Dec 5.

Cibola Artists' "Basket o' Art": raffle tickets, $1 each or 6 for $5. I've asked for pictures and press release for a separate basket post. In the meantime, you can view baskets at Cibola, B Street Market and Alpine Alley.

Dale Harris has confirmed August Poets & Writers Picnic reservations at the Shaffer Hotel for August 21. Once more, owner Joel Marks supports this important cultural event (not just locally important but a major established NM poetry event)

Any word on the arts council Readers Theater project scheduled to perform Dickens' A Christmas Carol at the MAC? Email notices of meetings but nothing lately. Who is reading which part? Who is Scrooge? Christmas ghosts?

Related articles by Zemanta

• The Craft of a Master Wordsmith (laf.ee)
• 12 Days of A Christmas Carol (danidraws.com)

another indoors day

It's snowing and the temperature is supposed to be dropping. I'm hoping for pictures to post as that is the closest up front and personal I intend to get with the weather.

That makes it good catch-up day for answering email, blogging and other social media. I already posted bingo (today) and parade (Saturday) on Mountainair Announcements ~ and tweeted them @VanessaVaile. Still, there is more blog-keeping the weather may drive me to: Chamber Notes (from Tuesday's semi-election meeting), announcements (that I still wish all and sundry would email me so I can just copy and paste), a nifty project proposed by Dennis and his cousin Shane and approved by the chamber, Cibola's Art baskets, Joan Embree's announcement about a local Growers Market and more.... IF I can read my notes. They did not look that readable yesterday: I doubt sleeping on it has improved readability...

Short version: Scott Remmich (B St Market) is the new chamber president. Treasurer, Corresponding Secretary, one VP slot and one member at large remain open. Volunteers anyone? Contact the nominating committee (none except Jay particularly noted for diligence in answering email): Dorothy Cole, Mary Schultz, Kevin Turner, Jay Mortenson (contact information on Chamber web site).

Otherwise I am occcupied in developing an online advanced writing course for ESL students, pretty much what the school district missed out on snagging me to do.

Going to the Dogs Today

1) Keep your eye out for Kathy Davies' missing dog Zander ~ see Mountainair Announcement post. There'sd a reward for his return. Kristine Lauritsen sent out a mass emailing, we both Facebooked it and I tweeted, but what we really need is your eyeballs scanning the real world, which is where Zander is somewhere

2) Shelter Project update -  the Town of Mountainair Animal Shelter is still #1 in NM on the Petfinder  Shelter Challenge at the Animal Rescue Site ~ keep on clicking through Dec 20. I was going to post Fall Dog Walkathon results but can't find the email Dee and Jerry sent. You already know that the Deer Canyon Homeowner's Association auction was a smashing success. The Shelter Project hopes to break ground for construction this coming spring.

3) Pauline Dube and Under My Wing Rescue, needs your support too. Our new shelter will provide only temporary refuge. Abandoned dogs need homes. Pauline rehomes most dogs that Tanisha and Shannon rescue and Dee is working to build a new home for. Today she is dealing with zoning issues at the Torrance County P&Z today

Pauline sent the following email yesterday that I should have gotten out immediately ~ not to mention having received in time to mobilize a response:

the p&z hearing is dec 1st at 9:30 am in the old court house in estancia. it would be wonderful if you could attend. if not pls send us your mental good wishes. they will discuss rezoning my property and issuing a permit giving me permission to continue what i am doing. wish me luck, pauline

I looked up back posts on the subject ~ Pauline went through this last December too. I can't help wondering if this something P&Z does every December? Their version of a Scrooge + Grinch fusion. Bad enough Ledbetter with his documented history of gratuitous dog shooting is still on the payroll. Call or email P&Z ~ tell them to let Pauline keep saving dogs. Email Pauline, P H DUBE ~ undermywing@q.com, and tell you'll help.

• Dec 2008 article in NM Central - Rescued Animals In Torrance County Need Your Help
• Dec 2008 Telegraph opinion piece
• Our 2008 blog post ~ proposed county animal control ordinance 

2009 Proposed County Animal Control Ordinance: hearing at the Torrance County Planning & Zoning Commission, which meets the first Tuesday (that's today) of every month at the Torrance County Courthouse, 205 9th Street, Estancia. Contact Planning & Zoning for more information, 505-246-4759, afoust@torrancecountynm.org.

4) Tanisha (rescue the rescuer) update: insurance processing fast tracked but construction won't start until spring; Shannon is still the contact point, 847-0204 but you can also leave messages at Meds & More or catch Tanisha there at lunchtime most days; bingo under consideration