Thank you to residents

Editor:

I would like to thank residents for all of their support during my tenure as mayor. As many of you already know, I will be seeking my former District 1 City Council seat; a position I held prior to being appointed mayor last August. I have enjoyed meeting with you during my weekly office hours and discussing the relevant issues that face our community now and in the future. It has truly been my honor and privilege to be this communities’ representative at various functions, meetings, and special events over the last several months.

Serving as mayor has only strengthened my belief that Rio Rancho already is and continues to enhance its place as one of the premier places to live, work, and raise children in our country. I am confident that the positive momentum Rio Rancho has created over the last few years will continue, as this is the commitment each city elected official and city staff person has to its community members.

I urge every eligible voter to participate in the city’s upcoming municipal election on March 4. It is critical for our community that as many residents as possible be an active participant in our country’s democratic process.

Please learn about all the candidates running for office in City Council District 1, 4, 6, and those seeking to become your next mayor.

Please visit the city’s Webs site (www.ci.rio-rancho.nm.us) and click 2008 Municipal Election Information or contact the Office of the city clerk at 505-891-5004 to check for your voting location to avoid any confusion on election day as polling places may have changed.

Additionally, I encourage voters to learn more about the higher education initiative that is on the ballot as well. Voting in favor of this measure would mean a $.25 increase of gross receipts tax paid on every $100.00 you spend in Rio Rancho. This increase would sunset after 20 years. Funds generated would be applied towards a higher education campus in our new Downtown City Center. For additional information please visit http://UNMinRioRancho.com

Sincerely,

Michael J. Williams

Mayor of Rio Rancho

Call to vote for change

Editor:

New Mexican Democrats now have the chance to choose their presidential candidate, though choosing whom we want in the legislative branches in Washington won’t come until June. And that will be just as important. Progress is stymied in the House and Senate with one bunch pushing on the accelerator and the other pulling on the emergency brake. It’s time to break this virtual tie.

We can right our ship of state, if we can learn from our mistakes. The billions our country has and continues to pour into military spending isn’t making the world safer. If military might and bombs could have done it, Iraq would have been a democracy and freedom would reign there already. Demanding that countries desist from nuclear bomb capability or production, while our president and his backers refuse to dismantle our stockpile while pushing for more nuclear bomb triggers, is hypocritical and arrogant, and it doesn’t make the world, including us, any safer.

Perhaps a worse mistake was putting material wealth and greed for more than we need above our common sense. We are so addicted to fossil fuel energy we can’t say no to industries, which push for outdated, global polluting systems or products. We’ve caved in to government collusion with industry to give ‘free market’ license to any special interest or developers they choose. Air wave monopolies, obscene special interest money in campaigns for public office, profiteering, insurance and health conglomerates shortchanging their clients while leaving millions behind.

On and on! We forget freedom requires discipline.

We need to select public officers who will demand that the government budget for fundamental requirements of civil life, bring oversight and accountability back to lenders and borrowers, (and) place tax burdens in proportion to profits amassed.

Instead of giving up, we must give our voice and vote for the changes needed. To use the one-liner on test taking: “As long as there are tests, there will be prayer in the public schools,” we need prayer more than ever in this year’s voting.

Donald Baltz

Rio Rancho

Time to harvest rain water

Editor:

I’m just wondering why Albuquerque residents enjoy rain barrel rebates on their water bills of $25 to $150, depending on the amount of water storage, in gallons, they purchase and install.

I can only assume our City of Vision is not overly concerned with water harvesting. I have met and discussed this with my council representative over a year ago, alas no response.

I would like to point out that my 2,500 square feet of roof, patio, and garage over the past five years has produced close to 80,000 gallons of rain water. I can store nearly 1,800 gallons, and my roof produces 1,500 gallons per inch of rain.

Will Rio Rancho ever rebate rain barrels and work at saving our aquafir for drinking instead of irrigation?

Rob Roman

Rio Rancho

Kudos to JC Tile

Editor:

People use this format often to complain, but we’d like to extend a compliment to a local business, JC Tile, and its manager, Doug.

We had purchased some flooring in 2006 but had become disappointed in its quality and performance. With one phone call to Doug, the ball was rolling and within a very short time a new floor is being laid, compliments of JC Tile.

They no longer sell this product line due to performance issues and are replacing the floor at their own expense for materials and labor. Great customer service is hard to find these days, so kudos to JC Tile.

Duane and Randi Melvin

Rio Rancho

More probing questions

Editor:

Kudos to J. Gordon Hawley (Feb. 14) for his letter listing probing questions for city council and mayoral candidates. I await their reply to these and questions of my own (to follow). I also must reply to letter writer Gilbert Jaramillo’s tax-and-spend liberal letter and to a rant urging us to “vote Democrat.” Here are my questions:

Santa Fe is plagued by gridlock along Cerrillos Road, an appalling example of unplanned strip development. What will you do, if elected, to halt strip development along congested 528? What will you do to urge well-planned commercial centers featuring tidy, small businesses — not superstores — in neighborhoods as gasoline prices mushroom?

What will you do to encourage neighborhood libraries, parks, senior, teen and community centers, rather than remote mega facilities?

What will you do to ensure that the Rio Rancho Animal Shelter operates to 2008 standards, not 1970s standards?

What will you do to seek out and advance the concerns of citizens?

What will you do to assure courtesy toward citizens — those you will, if elected, represent — as they attend city council and attempt to give their input?

What will you do to find out what kind of city residents want rather than cling to an outdated master plan that is apparently more destination than guide? Assuming you attract high-paying jobs, what will you do to assure they go to locals?

What will you do to match growth to available schools?

As to Jaramillo’s tax-and-spend slur, that’s pretty empty during a Republican administration of a mushrooming deficit and a devalued dollar. Nor do I see solutions from the “vote Democrat” advice.

As Lou Dobb’s says, if you think either party serves us, you haven’t been paying attention. I will only begrudgingly give my vote to candidates of either party — or no party — who earn that vote!

Kathleene Parker

Rio Rancho

Bush is burning

Editor:

The Bush is burning; wire-tapping isn’t flowing like it should (according to the burning Bush). It is un-American to allow suspects (as in unproven) to use communication devices unmonitored by spy bots. Uncle Louie and Aunt Fern might say terroristic words and go unpunished solely because their telephone, on the usual suspect list, cannot be accessed by suspectors. We are in grave danger of being in danger from unknown, but dangerous, people.

Is our intelligence gathering department so inept that they are completely unable to gather intelligence (with any intelligence) on what is going on in certain places that are known places where terrorists gather to plot terrible acts of terror?

Gimmee a break! The United States is supposed to be a bastion of democracy and freedom, not a bunch of nitwits on a mission of misdeeds and onerous intrusions upon our hard fought, and constitutional freedom of speech. Where does it say our government has the option for invasion of personal privacy? Nowhere. And yet they are hell-bent on that very project without benefit of law.

As for torture, water boarding and etc on prisoners: There is nothing in any book, Bible or our Constitution that permits or sanctions such acts. It is subhuman and serves no purpose. Information gathered from physical abuse is immoral and a Burning bush said so a long time ago (according to legend).

Bob Harpley

Rio Rancho