Roswell Daily Record
INSIDE NEWS
A candidate in the running for the position of Roswell’s next city manager pulled his name from consideration, leaving two applicants on the short-list of contenders. Jeffrey Lester, currently an assistant city manager in Moline, Ill., told city offi-
October 15, 2010
FRIDAY
www.roswell-record.com
Illinois applicant pulls out MATTHEW ARCO RECORD STAFF WRITER
NATO CHIEF WANTS ANTIMISSILE SYSTEM
THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
City manager short list gets shorter
Vol. 119, No. 247 50¢ Daily / $1 Sunday
cials recently that he decided to rescind his application. The candidate was slated to visit Roswell on Monday to tour the city and meet with local officials. Mayor Del Jurney said Lester made the decision after being told he would bear the cost of having to fly to Roswell and stay the night. New Mexico’s antidonation clause in the
state’s constitution prohibits the city from paying for such costs. Lester would have also been taking a pay cut if he were to be offered the city manager position. His current salary is about $30,000 to $35,000 more than what Roswell’s city manager earns, officials said. “He just explained that
when you look at the economics of it ... (that) it was starting to mount,” Jurney said. Roswell’s assistant city manager, Larry Fry, and a city manager from Raton, Pete Mileta, are the two remaining candidates for the position. Jurney said he doesn’t plan to pull another name from the previous list of 26 applicants to fill Lester’s slot.
BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO allies are moving toward approving an anti-missile system that would protect Europe, the alliance’s secretary general said Thursday, adding that he hoped Russia would join in creating such a shield. - PAGE B7
TOP 5 For The Past 24 Hours
• 2 men die in auto wreck • Suspect in kidnapping turns self in • Parade opens Eastern NM State Fair • Xcel Energy unveils solar energy demo • CC! honors cross country athletes
INSIDE SPORTS
Mark Wilson Photo
A cadet stands at attention as a first-quarter moon rises over the New Mexico Military Institute campus during the Silver Taps ceremony, Thursday evening.
Silver Taps honors fallen NMMI alumni
EMILY RUSSO MILLER RECORD STAFF WRITER
Trailing 2-1 to District 4-4A foe Artesia, the Roswell volleyball team could have easily packed it in and accepted a loss. Coyote coach Bobby Bates wasn’t going to allow that to happen. In the break between Games 3 and 4, Bates looked at his team and simply said, “Get a drink of water, it’s going to be a long night. We’re going to go to Game 5.” That simple edict worked. - PAGE B1
Under a first-quarter moon and dark azure sky, the sound of bugles playing taps echoed from New Mexico Military Institute’s quadrangle inside Hagerman Barracks, Thursday evening. The candlelight vigil was held to commemorate the 110 alumni who died this past year. The co-educational military boarding high school
and junior college holds the somber ceremony in memory of deceased cadets every year during its homecoming celebrations. “It’ll send chills up your spine,” Michael Ortiz, Class of 1985, said. Groups of alumni were huddled outside in the middle of the quad, surrounded by 900 silent members of the Corps of Cadets, frozen in formaSee TAPS, Page A3
Autumn leaves
TODAY’S OBITUARIES
• Jimmie “Jim” Steffens • Bernard “Beau” Stone • Marjorie Belle Thigpen • George Sisneros - PAGE B4
HIGH ...82˚ LOW ....46˚
TODAY’S FORECAST
CLASSIFIEDS..........C1 COMICS.................B6 ENTERTAINMENT.....B8 FINANCIAL .............B5 GENERAL ..............A2 HOROSCOPES ........C8 LOTTERIES ............A2 OPINION ................A4 SPORTS ................B1 WEATHER ..............A8 WORLD .................B7
INDEX
Council approves channel repair
mattarco@roswell-record.com
MATTHEW ARCO RECORD STAFF WRITER
WEB
ROSWELL RALLIES FOR 3–2 WIN
“We’re going to two,” he said. Fry and Mileta will have their own day to tour the city and meet with officials. Fry’s slated to tour Oct. 21 and Mileta will visit Oct. 20. A special City Council meeting for a final vote on the next city manager is slated for Oct. 28.
Mark Wilson Photo
Autumn begins to make its presence known as area trees begin to change color on a clear Thursday morning.
Emily Russo Miller Photo
New Cadet Ryan Ginsburg, 17, plays Silver Taps in the north tower of Hagerman Barracks. Cadet Lobdell and Sgt. McCormick, unseen, play from the south and west towers.
City councilors voted to approve spending $450,000 of city funds to repair a portion of the Spring River drainage channel during the council’s regular monthly meeting, Thursday. The repairs will be made to the channel near the Roswell Museum and Art Center, between Main Street and Richardson Avenue. The project will cost nearly $750,000, with about $300,000 coming from the state. Councilors approved the agreement in an 8-2 vote. Councilor Elena Velasquez voted against the proposal, as did Councilor Robert McWilliams, who objected over some of the architectural designs he said went above and beyond the basic repairs. “I’m just trying to be conservative,” he said. Other councilors, including Dusty Huckabee, Steve Henderson, Jimmy Craig, Barry Foster and Jason Perry, spoke in favor of architectural designs. “I think it’s going to enhance the convention center and museum,” Huckabee said. “I think it needs See COUNCIL, Page A3
Clinton talks water at Denish rally
ESPANOLA (AP) — Former President Bill Clinton used the specter of water disputes with Texas to rally New Mexico voters Thursday for Democratic gubernatorial nominee Diane Denish. At an outdoor rally that drew several thousand people, Clinton reminded the cheering partisans of the Texas roots of the Republican candidate for governor, Susana Martinez. She was bor n in El Paso but has lived in New Mexico for nearly 25 years, serving as a district attorney in Las Cruces since 1997.
Clinton said Denish would protect New Mexico’s natural resources, and he suggested that some of Martinez’s political contributors from Texas were interested in water from New Mexico. “I feel bad about Texas being short of water. Really, I do,” Clinton said. “But you know, I don’t feel so bad that I think they should have two governors and New Mexico none.” The crowd laughed and then cheered. Water rights are a sensitive issue in arid New Mexico, and the state has an
obligation under interstate compacts and legal settlements to ensure the delivery of certain amounts of water to Texas through major rivers — the Rio Grande and Pecos — that flow through the state. State GOP spokeswoman Janel Causey said, “It is disappointing to see someone of for mer President Clinton’s stature recycle discredited attacks against Susana Martinez.” Denish introduced Clinton and sounded populist themes by promising to
After 95 years, Roswell will lose Cobean’s, piece of history JOE D. MOORE RECORD STAFF WRITER
The sign at 320 N. Main St. is vintage. The store’s inventory is somewhat eccentric and specialized in things not found elsewhere. It’s a family business in a world of international big box chains. And, after 95 years of serving the Roswell community, Cobean Stationery Company will soon be no more. In August, Les McPherson, who’s been with Cobean’s since 1943 and
its president for the past several decades, celebrated his 89th birthday. Not long after, in front of the family and friends who’d wondered about his and the store’s future, he announced, “I’d like to do something different for the next 40 or 50 years of my life.” The store will close before the ball falls on 2011. Looking back on 65 years at Cobean’s, McPherson, who could easily pass for 70, recalls the good times
of doing business in Roswell. There were the jokesters who fished in the frequent floodwaters that swept down Main Street, where the first store was located in the back of a pharmacy. There were the Budweiser Clydesdales taking shelter under the roof that Cobean’s would soon occupy on Richardson Avenue. And, of course, there were lots of good people and sales. See COBEAN’S, Page A3
See DENISH, Page A3
Joe D. Moore Photo
Customers have a final opportunity to take advantage of Cobean's rare inventory and esteemed service, now at even lower prices.