Local News

A front-end loader belonging to Mora County was stolen from next to the Mora County sheriff’s office, said Peter Martinez, a Mora County commissioner.

The theft is believed to have occurred between 11 p.m. and 12:30 a.m. Tuesday. The front-end loader is a model 420D Caterpillar 4x4 backhoe with roughly 1,000 hours of use.

“It’s disheartening that the thieves thought they were stealing from the county,” Martinez said, “because that was bought with taxpayer dollars. They were stealing from themselves.”

The city’s top water official says he believes the city may have wasted millions in federal dollars by drilling another well at Taylor Wells. And he plans to get an independent entity to examine the project.

George DuFour, the city’s utilities director, criticized past city management for its focus on the new well at Taylor Wells, which cost $4 million in federal money. He said the city should seriously consider a rancher’s offer to lease wells in the area of Taylor Wells southwest of Las Vegas.

The City Council will hold an “informational retreat” on Saturday.

The all-day meeting will start at 9 a.m. in Alta Vista Regional Hospital’s board room.

Mayor Tony Marquez noted that the retreat is being held in town, not out of the city as in the past. The city last held a retreat in 2005 at Pendaries.

In the morning, department directors will get 10 to 20 minutes each to detail to the governing body their departments’ missions, goals, budgets, employee counts and issues, Marquez said.

Anyone who does business in San Miguel County’s unincorporated areas must get a county business license. And there are no exceptions, officials said this week.

Alex Tafoya, the county’s planning and zoning supervisor, told the County Commission about the county’s business license rules and noted that they include businesses such as real estate agencies. While such businesses may base their operations in Las Vegas, they conduct business in the county’s rural areas, he said.