Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
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SANTA ROSA — The Santa Rosa Consolidated Schools board on May 28 approved a calendar consisting of four-day weeks next school year. This was amid the confusion over a state mandate of five-day weeks. Earlier this month, a judge issued a preliminary injunction stopping Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s order for five-day weeks. More than 50 districts, many of them rural, sued the state over the mandate. In an email to The Communicator, Superintendent Martin Madrid said the district had prepared both four- and five-day week calendars. “Due to the c...
SANTA ROSA — The hiring of a city administrator and police chief, among other new hires, and limits on the mayor’s power to authorize personnel actions and spending were among the items Santa Rosa councilor Erasmo Bravo asked the council on to act on. The city administrator’s position has been vacant since Martín Martinez’s resignation in June. The city has had eight people in the position since Mayor Nelson Kotiar first was elected in 2018. The city is also operating without a police chief since October 2022, when then-chief Angelo Romo was...
SANTA ROSA — Former Santa Rosa city administrator Lisa Brassell has settled her case against Santa Rosa city government officials for a sum of $102,500 to be divided between Brassell and her attorney Michael Schwarz of Santa Fe, according to a copy of the settlement. In return, according to a copy of the agreement obtained through the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act, Brassell has dropped all charges against the city officials, including former city councilor Jose Campos III, who was named as a defendant in an amended complaint f...
SANTA ROSA — Monica Young, the city’s human resources director who filed a restraining order against Mayor Nelson Kotiar, returned to work April 19 after being notified by the mayor she was being “formerly reprimanded” instead of fired. In a letter signed by Kotiar, four memos were noted as the “reasons for this (disciplinary) action.” Her statements during a predisciplinary meeting on April 11 “provided mitigating facts,” stated the letter, but the mayor still concluded her “behavior was disruptive and unprofessional.” “Moreover,” the let...
SANTA ROSA — The city’s human resources director has filed for a restraining order against Mayor Nelson Kotiar, alleging he has “created a hostile work environment” by allowing sexual harassment, threats and intimidation to take place in violation of the city’s personnel policy ordinance. Monica Young, a city employee since May 2022, filed the complaint March 30, two days after her “partner,” P.J. Salazar, was fired as a special projects employee for the city. Young said in her complaint she fears “more retaliation and (a) continued hosti...
NEWKIRK — To the applause of nearly two dozen family, friends and neighbors, Newkirk Volunteer Fire Department Chief Robert Hall and Assistant Chief Chris Booth did the ribbon-cutting honors on Dec. 29 to officially open the Pablo Aragon Fire Station. The $580,000 project was funded by a New Mexico Fire Marshal’s grant and a loan from New Mexico Finance Authority. Additionally, with help from the county, the Newkirk VFD was awarded a grant from the state Forestry Division for wildlands firefighting equipment. Work to build the new fire sta...
SANTA ROSA — An Oklahoma couple died in a head-on crash with a tractor-trailer July 25 on Interstate 40 in Guadalupe County, according to New Mexico State Police. The collision occurred at about 8:40 a.m. east of Santa Rosa. State Police reported that the initial investigation showed that a 2017 Freightliner was going west on Interstate 40 when, for reasons still being investigated, the rig crossed the I-40 median and struck an eastbound Nissan Sentra head-on. The driver of the Nissan, Stephen Barnes, 67, and passenger Susan Barnes, 69, both o...
SANTA ROSA — Off-duty New Mexico State Police officer Omar Carrasco, 24, died of natural causes, State Police announced last week. “No foul play was suspected,” State Police Officer Dusty Francisco said on July 27. Carrasco was found dead in his Santa Rosa apartment off Blue Hole Road on July 18. A native of El Paso, Texas, Carrasco had moved to Santa Rosa, where he had been assigned after completing New Mexico State Police 99th Recruit School and being assigned to the Uniform Bureau here. He had been with state police for about a month and w...
The Guadalupe County Commission on Dec. 16 approved an agreement with De Baca County to reserve up to 24 beds for Guadalupe's adult inmates. Guadalupe County Sheriff Lorenzo Mata said the agreement applies to the new jail that De Baca is building. Construction is expected to be complete in January or February. “It's going to be my main area” for housing county inmates, Mata told the commissioners. Mata and County Manager Rose Fernandez told commissioners the contract was initially for a full year, but De Baca County pulled it back to a six...