artdirector@sfreporter.com
Morning Word
City sues country club
The City of Santa Fe has filed a lawsuit against the Santa Fe Country Club and Golf Association alleging breach of contract by the latter. The suit seeks both damages for the breaches as well as a declaratory judgement allowing the city to end its contract with the country club. As explicated in a news release yesterday from the city, a 60-year-old agreement between the city and the club provides free, treated effluent to the to the club—more than 5 billion gallons of treated effluent for free so far—in exchange for which the public receives access to the club and reduced green fees. The city alleges the country club between 2018 and 2021 exceeded its 700,000 per day limit on 143 different days for a total of more than 22 million gallons. Moreover, city officials say the country club refuses to discuss any contract revision that would include payment or a definite term, despite the city’s attempts to do so. “The City does not desire to end the Santa Fe County Club’s access to water,” the news release states. “The City seeks a new contractual arrangement that is fair and reasonable…the contract no longer represents a fair agreement for the city’s ratepayers, and it conflicts with current city code.”
SF school board picks Abeyta for vacant seat
Santa Fe Public Schools Board members last night unanimously chose former District 3 City Councilor Roman “Tiger” Abeyta to fill the SFPS’ vacant District 4 seat. Abeyta narrowly lost his city council seat in a surprise upset to now-Councilor Lee Garcia in last year’s municipal election. In a special meeting last night, board members heard from five candidates for the seat, which has been vacant since Rudy Garcia’s resignation last month. In Abeyta’s public interview with the board (right around the one hour, 30-minute mark), Abeyta described himself as “an advocate for youth and families,” particularly youth on the Southside, where Abeyta said he grew up in poverty, graduated from Capital High School and became a teen father. He began working for Santa Fe County in the Animal Control Division, eventually becoming the county manager by the end of his government career. He currently serves as the chief professional officer for the Boys and Girls Club of Santa Fe/Del Norte.
Recent internet outage causes untallied losses
A week ago today many in Santa Fe and Los Alamos counties lost internet service for the better part of the day after a dump truck pulled down lines. How many? Who knows. Comcast—Xfinity’s parent company—doesn’t release the number of customers affected by outages, spokesperson Julianne Phares tells SFR. But she says the incident did impact all Xfinity customers in Santa Fe and Los Alamos, as attested by many. “In the middle of a work week, in the middle of a work day, the cost to my productivity was immense and across Santa Fe it was incalculable,” GreenMoney.com founder and publisher Cliff Feigenbaum says. He estimates Wednesday’s outage cost him thousands in possible ad revenue as well as media attention during GreenMoney’s 30th Anniversary year. The outage also underscored the need for more internet service options and back-up systems. “It really draws back the curtain on the vulnerability of our society,” Brian Williams, emergency management director for the City of Santa Fe Office of Emergency Management, says. The city uses CenturyLink and wasn’t impacted; the state uses multiple providers and is otherwise protected from outages. Nonetheless, Department of Information Technology spokesperson Renee Narvaiz said the department “is concerned about any outages and even the potential for outages. A brief outage can become an emergency. Consider a physician who cannot access a patient record securely, or a person who is unable to make a phone call for emergency services.”
COVID-19 by the numbers
New cases: 963; 587,656 total cases
Deaths: 11; Santa Fe County had 328 total deaths; there have been 8,207 total fatalities statewide. Statewide hospitalizations: 194. Patients on ventilators: seven
Case rates: According to the state health department’s most recent report on geographical trends, published yesterday, for the seven-day period of July 18-24, Roosevelt County had the highest daily case rate per 100,000 population: 67.5, followed by Cibola County at 67.2 and McKinley County at 61.1; Santa Fe County’s case rate was 46.6, an increase from 44.3 last week. The state recorded 6,642 new cases total in the last seven days, comparable to last week.
Community levels: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s most recent update for COVID-19 “community levels,” updated every Thursday, shows more than twice as many New Mexico counties now have red or “high” levels compared with last week. The CDC framework combines case rates with two hospital metrics and shows, for the seven-day period of July 14-20, 17 New Mexico counties—10 more than last week—now have “red” or high levels. Santa Fe County remains “yellow” or medium. Only four counties now have “green” or low levels—down from nine last week. The CDC’s recommendations include indoor masking for people living in counties with high community levels. The community levels page has accompanying recommendations at the bottom of the page. The CDC also provides a quarantine and isolation calculator.
Resources: Vaccine registration; Booster registration Free at-home rapid antigen tests; Self-report a positive COVID-19 test result to the health department; COVID-19 treatment info: oral treatments Paxlovid (age 12+) and Molnupiravir (age 18+); and monoclonal antibody treatments. Toolkit for immunocompromised individuals. People seeking treatment who do not have a medical provider can call NMDOH’s COVID-19 hotline at 1-855-600-3453. Vaccines for children: Parents of children ages 6 months to 5 years can now schedule appointments for vaccinations at VaccineNM.org.
You can read all of SFR’s COVID-19 coverage here.
Listen up
The League of Women Voters of New Mexico and the New Mexico Humanities Council offer a program today—in person at Santa Fe Prep or via Zoom—on New Mexico Women: Heritage and Innovation. Historians will “explore the roles played by women from different socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds on the development of New Mexico and their contributions to our state’s unique multicultural environment.” Speakers include: Deputy State Historian Nicolasa Chavez; retired surgeon, poet and women’s suffrage expert Dr. Sylvia Ramos Cruz; Robin Farwell Gavin, curator emeritus for the Spanish Colonial Arts Museum and author of Converging Streams: Art of the Hispanic and Native American Southwest; former New Mexico History Museum Director Frances Levine; and Lisa Nordstrum, Santa Fe Prep history teacher and educator/curriculum developer for the state Cultural Affairs Department and School of Advanced Research. Register for the Zoom link here.
All the security money can buy
If $30 million sounds like a good price for a fortress, you’re in luck. The Wall Street Journal features a 312-acre ranch “built with survival in mind” just outside Taos. To wit: reinforced-concrete; its own water supply; a year’s worth of propane; a solar energy system; multiple backup generators; a herd of yak. The realtors for the property say it’s the most expensive listing in New Mexico. Owner Howard Mintz, 72, a retired real-estate developer and seismic-construction expert, says he spent two decades building it, but tells WSJ he’s not a survivalist “psycho”: “I’m not building an underground bunker with bunk beds and eating cans of beans and oatmeal for the rest of my life,” he said. On the other hand: “If all hell breaks loose, you can come here and you’ll be OK.” Regarding the yak, which Mintz describes as “smarter than cows, way less dangerous than buffalo,” they also are for sale with the property, which includes a guesthouse, where Mintz has been living as the main house—4,000 square feet of it—is still only 85% finished after many years of delays, some relating to labor (he has apparently fired over 80 people). As for Mintz, he plans to leave New Mexico, having “grown out of the idea of being there.” He now wants to live on the ocean and fish.
And the winners are...
Earlier this month, Travel & Leisure announced its “world’s best” awards, with Santa Fe coming in at number three for the best cities in the US. T&L followed up this week by asking Southwestern Association for Indian Arts Executive Director Kim Peone to share her picks for “the best” local arts and food. We commend T&L for turning to a local for recommendations. We do the same this week in a massive way with SFR’s 2022 edition of the Best of Santa Fe, on the streets and online today, with hundreds of recommendations from locals. You’ll find arts and food, along with business, shopping, kids, pets, cannabis—the list goes on (books, bands, hiking trails). You’ll find this year’s winner for best public servant (Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, for the third year running); best bar (congrats Tumbleroot!); best Instagram feed, even. Come celebrate the winners with us from 5 to 9 pm this Friday, July 29 in the Railyard, for a free party featuring food booths, a beer garden, games, giveaways, and this year’s Santa Fe Salutes free tribute concert to The Beatles starting at 7 pm. You can also pre-order this year’s BOSF T-shirt, featuring original artwork from Emma Bagley.
Take by storm
The National Weather Service forecasts a 40% chance for rain today and tonight, primarily after noon and before midnight, with scattered showers and thunderstorms. Today will otherwise be mostly sunny, with a high near 85 degrees and northeast wind 5 to 15 mph becoming southwest in the afternoon. Last night’s storm produced some heavy rain and serious flooding in Tesuque—we may seem some heavy rain again in the area starting tomorrow.
Thanks for reading! The Word’s reading list was already out of control even before yesterday’s announcement of The Booker Prize 2022 long list.
