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Local News

  • Emergency office set to update plan

    The local office of emergency management has received $30,000 to revise and update the area’s emergency plan.

    The plan was last updated in the mid-1990s.

    Dennis English, manager of the San Miguel-Las Vegas Office of Emergency Management, will update the council on the issue at its meeting set for 6 p.m. Wednesday at City Hall.

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  • Where to invest?

    The chairman of the Highlands University Board of Regents says he wants the board to be more involved in the planning for the annual budget.

    The board last week approved the annual budget, just ahead of a deadline to turn in a preliminary document to the state government.

    The budget is $95 million, which Highlands finance officials considered relatively flat, given inflation. The core of the budget, in which the regents have more control, is $38 million. Much of the rest involves restricted funds, where expenditures are mandated for particular purposes.

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  • Ex-Mora deputy accepts plea deal

    A plea bargain has been accepted by a former Mora County sheriff’s deputy accused of telling a woman she could either perform a sex act or go to jail after a disturbance call at her home.

    Lucas Marquez pleaded no contest Monday to a fourth-degree felony charge of accepting a bribe by a witness.

    State District Judge Abigail Aragon sentenced him to probation not to exceed 18 months.

    Marquez was dispatched to the woman’s Guadalupita home on June 18, 2006

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  • Students to perform musicals

    Interested in what Broadway has to offer? You dont have to go to New York. Just stop by to see West Las Vegas next production.

    The choirs at West Las Vegas high and middle schools will present A Night on Broadway at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 15, at Highlands Universitys Ilfeld Auditorium.

    The program will feature pieces from 10 Broadway musicals performed by the high schools honors choir, the symphonic choir and the middle school choir.

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  • Bulldozer used in attempted Mora bank break-in

    It was an unusual way to try to break into a bank.

    Around 2 a.m. Friday, authorities responded to an incident in which someone operating a bulldozer tried to break the walls of the Mora branch of the Bank of Las Vegas. The bulldozer was stolen from a track-and-field construction project on school grounds, said Tim Marquez, Mora County’s undersheriff.

    He said state police responded after a bulldozer triggered the bank’s alarms. He said it appeared as if the person tried to break into the “pretty solid” wall to get to the automatic teller machine.

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  • Officials upset over lack of invitation

    A couple of City Council members were upset that they weren’t invited to a recent Arbor Day event.

    At last week’s council meeting, members Morris Madrid and Cruz Roybal questioned the city administration about why they didn’t get an invitation. Both were staunch supporters of former Mayor Henry Sanchez, whom Mayor Tony Marquez handily beat in March’s municipal election.

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  • Resident named to state Hall of Fame

    At first, there were 80 nominations, from which 21 were recognized for the 23rd annual Governor’s Award for Outstanding New Mexico Women.

    Then came the naming of two to the New Mexico Women’s Hall of Fame — and the first ever to win the award from Las Vegas.

    At a banquet on Friday in Albuquerque, local soup kitchen and library volunteer Carol Durham became an honoree into the New Mexico Women’s Hall of Fame. She joins 50 other women to have received the honor since its inception 22 years ago.

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  • Mora Co. says it's not involved

    Courts sentence people convicted of crimes, not county governments.

    Still, Miguel Martinez, Mora County’s interim manager, felt the need to clarify the situation involving the recent conviction of Clifford Gutierrez, 34, of Cleveland, N.M., which is in Mora County. The man was sentenced for inappropriately touching seven underage victims.

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  • City can regulate size of campaign signs, attorney says

    Las Vegas has long had an ordinance on the books regulating the size of campaign signs. But it hasn’t been enforced because a former city attorney apparently deemed in unconstitutional.

    But the new city attorney, Carlos Quinones, disagrees altogether. After doing some research, he said he has found that it’s constitutional for a community to regulate campaign sign sizes.

    The current ordinance prohibits signs larger than 6 square feet in residential neighborhoods and those more than 32 square feet in nonresidential zones.

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  • Resident questions rates for city utility

    Las Vegas resident Robert Jones only used around 800 gallons of water last month. But he was charged for a whopping 8,000 gallons of sewage.

    Under city sewer rate rules, that’s business as usual. But to Jones, who has lived at his Rosenwald Street house for only a month, it’s nothing short of outrageous.

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The Las Vegas Optic is your source for local news, sports, events, and information in San Miguel County and Las Vegas, NM, and the surrounding area.