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Today's News

  • College settles with its former baseball coach

    Luna Community College has settled with its former baseball coach, Sam Soto, for $55,000, officials said.

    In a lawsuit filed earlier this year, Soto, who served as coach from August 2005 to December 2006, alleges that he was fired in retaliation for his having exercised his First Amendment rights.

    Asked why the school settled, Luna’s human resources director, Lawrence Quintana said, “(President) Pete (Campos) wanted to move the college forward. He’s trying to tie up loose ends that previous administrations left here.”

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  • Mora native is top enlisted member

    More than 30 years ago, James Abeyta and a friend were looking at a catalog about the U.S. Navy. And it immediately sparked the Mora County native’s interest.

    On Friday, Abeyta, an air force master chief in the Navy, retired after three decades with the service.

    “Had we been looking at an Army catalog, I might have been in the Army,” said the 48-year-old Abeyta.

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  • County Commission approves courthouse project

    San Miguel County is moving ahead with its project to renovate parts of the old county courthouse.

    Recently, the County Commission voted to enter an agreement with Las Vegas-based Franken Construction for the project.

    The project’s price tag is $1.9 million. The courthouse was built in 1938.

    Franken, the low bidder, had entered a bid higher than the project budget, but through negotiations, the county was able to bring down the price. For instance, to save money, the county will take care of demolition disposal with its own crews.

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  • EDITORIAL: Purging perks a good idea

    These are tight economic times, and the city will almost certainly have to find places to trim the budget. Fortunately, officials are already working toward this goal.

    If unmanaged, perks such as take-home cars and cell phones can become excessive. And that appears to have been the case with city government.

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  • City may lose state money

    The city may lose more than $1 million from the state because of confusion about what the money is for.

    City officials presented what they knew about the funds during a City Council meeting last week.

    The city received the money — estimated at between $1.2 million and $1.4 million — a few years ago for a water project. Some say it was originally for the recently finished improvements to the wastewater treatment plant. Others think it was for study involving a project involving the lining of canals used by the Storrie Project Water Users Association.

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  • Mil Gracias

    The West Las Vegas Athletic Department would like to thank the following sponsors for their donations toward homecoming and the Vegas Bowl:

    Bank of Las Vegas, Community First Bank, Charlie’s Diesel, Alta Vista Regional Hospital, and Sun Loan Company.

    Thank you for your support for West Las Vegas Home of the Dons and Lady Dons.

    Jose Medina

    Las Vegas

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  • City reopens gun range

    A few weeks ago, the city closed the range, which is near the National Guard Armory at Camp Luna, because of problems such as vandalism, debris, litter and people shooting things not intended as targets.

    But Police Chief Gary Gold announced last week that the range would be opened because the city, with the help of residents, cleaned up the facility.

    Mercy Lopez, a city spokeswoman, said this week that the range will be locked and that people would need to go to the Police Department to sign in for a key to use the range.

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  • LETTER: Thanks to all who helped

    My name is Amalia Gallegos and I am licensed state and national massage and bodywork therapist in the state of New Mexico. I am writing this letter to thank the following people for helping me build my practice here in San Miguel County and the surrounding area.

    First, Jody and Peter Stege for allowing me to build my business, Melissa Gold at the Small Business Development Center, Sharon Vander Meer at the Economic Development Corporation, Diane Ortiz at the Chamber of Commerce, and Joseph Baca at KFUN for all their help and support in the community.

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  • EDITORIAL: Making it fair

    The San Miguel County Commission last week passed an ordinance allowing the county to file liens on properties in which owners don’t pay their solid waste bills.

    This decision comes a few months after the county put a bunch of accounts on inactive status after it became apparent that they were uncollectible.

    The commissioners said they felt it was unfair that some people always pay their bills, while others don’t and essentially get away with it.

    This new ordinance will eliminate this inherent inequity.

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  • LETTER: Congratulations to HU's leaders

    Congratulations to Highlands University for not only being financially sound but for once again being a stable force in Northern New Mexico. It has been nearly two years since James Fries took the reins to my alma mater and I want to thank him and the regents for having the vision to move forward. I remember not too long ago when Highlands was an at-risk university.

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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.