Welcome to the Website for the Sandia Knolls Neighborhood
Association. This site contains vital information on the issues we need to
know about as property owners here in the Knolls.
Be on Our
E-Mail list, Send your Address to
Webmaster@sandiaknolls.com,
I am getting a lot of retuned e-mails...Please update your address.
Attention q.com address owners-- q.com
is blocking our community e-mail announcements. Please add Webmaster@sandiaknolls.com
to the safe senders list!
Happy Holidays!
I got 2 replies from people suggesting services for snow removal.
3M
Lynn Moir
5059803615
Chris Spear has a Bronco and a plow, he is out and about right now
servicing his many customers. If you call him, he can advise on the
costs - dependent on the driveway or business. Chris takes care of
Mountain Insurance, the Shell station and many others.
If there is an elderly person or couple that needs their driveway
shoveled he may give them a better rate, he is a very kind person.
263-9420
I have not checked these folks out but they are suggestions from our
members,
Have a good day,
Mark Emery
Dave on Pinon Heights, got this great shot of an Owl in his backyard
recently.
Bachechi Open Space
A beautiful new park near the Alameda Bosque
Entrance,
Construction Project Update
Late August 2011
• The interior finishing work of the education
building, maintenance building, and caretakers unit is being completed.
• Alameda Open Space parking lot improvements are
complete, including the equestrian-dedicated spaces on the eastern area of
the parking lot. The public may now park in these areas.
• Installation of site landscaping and testing of all
irrigation systems continues. Irrigation of the open field habitat through
the new Bachechi Lateral was tested in early August and irrigated quickly
and efficiently.
• The pecan orchard will not have the additional pecan
trees planted until October 2011. Cooler weather is desirable for planting
these trees, plus the delivery of the desired trees could not occur until
October.
• The Bachechi Family Rose Memorial Garden and the
outdoor classroom will be completed by mid-September. Roses will not be
transplanted to this location until February 2012, however, in order to
increase the roses’ chance of survival.
• Site furnishings are being installed and will be
completed by mid-September.
• Vegetation clearing in the arboretum is completed for
the time being. This elm-intensive area will continue to have selective elm
trees and their shoots removed, over time, through a combination of
mechanical and chemical means.
• Interpretive and wayfinding signage are being
finalized and will be fabricated in September for installation later that
month.
• Bernalillo County Open Space is gearing up for the
utilization of the education building in 2012. We will be partnering with
local education groups to meet one of our main programmatic foci,
environmental education. These groups include Environmental Education
Association of New Mexico (EEANM), the Bosque Ecosystem Monitoring Program (BEMP),
Experiential EE, LLC, and others.
The County will also start using the building and
property for the Master Naturalist program in late 2011 with ongoing service
projects and events. Next year, the Master Naturalist training will take
place at Bachechi Open Space in June and July. Finally, look for a
naturalist series in 2012 that will be free, available to the general
public, and highlight many of the environmental features at Bachechi Open
Space.
• A Request for Proposals for a resident caretaker will
be advertised in September and is expected to be awarded and negotiated
later in fall 2011. December 1, 2011 is a targeted residency date for the
caretaker.
• Public access to and use of the completed site is
still scheduled for early October 2011 . A dedication event is being looked
at for late October or mid-November. Once the date is finalized, it will be
posted at www.bernco.gov/openspace.
If you have questions,
please contact Bernalillo County Parks and Recreation Department Planning
Manager Clay Campbell at 314-0400 or at ccampbell@bernco.gov
Submitted by Jan Hayes of
BearWatch:
I had been receiving several calls daily from people who
were seeing hungry bears. But, almost no calls the last
two weeks. I believe the bears must be feeding on
pinons and juniper berries or perhaps because many bears
have already been killed or relocated, especially in the
Sandias.
Some members are asking me to push for diversionary
feeding. I've thought about this long and hard and have
decided to wait and see what happens by early next year.
In the meantime, I will be contacting people. My
reasons are that first, the lack of bear forage is
statewide and it would be almost impossible to
distribute enough food at this late date... and I don't
know for sure if the bulk of the bear population is
truly starving. Second, unless forced, the NMG&F would
never agree to it. Third, I don't believe the Forest
Service would go along with feeding on their lands.
They would have to give permission. Fourth, Gov.
Martinez will abide by the NMG&F's and her husband's
recommendations on feeding.
Recently the NMG&F increased the bear hunt 20% in three
regions. Zone 5, the Gila, Zones 6B and 6C, the
Cloudcroft and Ruidoso areas. This agency's intent is
to kill bears not protect them. The overall hunt number
was raised from 686 to 712 with sows increased from 303
to 313.
But, we can take the fight to the Media and Governor
Martinez with these concerns:
1: The NMG&F is killing bears on sight, while
ignoring their touted 'three strikes and the bear is
destroyed' policy.
2. The NMG&F is killing helpless cubs.
3. The draconian killing of female bears, the future.
Ask that the hunt on female bears stop.
4. Ask Gov. Martinez why there is not a singe wildlife
conservationist on her seven member Game Commission.
Ask her to balance the Commission with
conservationists on behalf of New Mexico's wildlife. 5. The NMG&F director position is open.
Ask Gov. Martinez to not appoint someone from
the present senior staff of NMG&F to be the next NMG&F
Director. Weather aside, everything
negative that has happened in the past two years for New
Mexico's bears is mostly because of decisions and
policies championed by just a few members of NMG&F
senior staff.
It's not an understatement that many people no longer
trust the actions or words of New Mexico Game and Fish
Officers, not when they kill a starving orphaned cub
because "it wasn't acting like a good bear should" .
The City of Raton should be ashamed about how they have
allowed their bears to be destroyed and abused decade
after decade. (Write a letter to the Raton
newspaper....complain about their city's continued
uncaring stance) See address below.
Some G&F officers care about the bears and some do not.
In the cases mentioned above, they did not transport
these cubs to Dr. Ramsay's place of safety near
Espanola. The Albuquerque Zoo has also offered to take 4
orphan cubs along with Wildlife West. Some G&F officers
have transported some 37 bear cubs to Dr. Ramsay's place
over the summer. Now, there is more room because
BearWatch just constructed an additional bear cub
enclosure for Ramsay's operation for that purpose.
As of Oct. 7, the NMG&F depredation reports 226 bears
killed by NMG&F officers and others, 33 bears killed by
auto, etc, hunters have killed 427 bears. The grand
total comes to 686 bears killed so far.
Sadly, NMG&F is destroying our Sandia bear population.
We are waiting for the final numbers, but we believe
that in the past two years, more that 2/3 of the Sandia
bear population has been killed or relocated to other
mountain ranges out of an estimated population of 50-60
bears.
Some food for thought......
Las Vegas, New Mexico citizens are fed up with the
indiscriminate killing of their bears. They've reported
that 48 bears and at least two cubs (the NMG&F officer
said they would die anyway) have been killed in Las
Vegas and the surrounding area. Residents have
complained to their State Representative and gone to the
NMG&F for a meeting about diversionary feed and about
abuses of their bears. They, like us, are looking at
the big picture and what to do next year should we have
the same problems.
On TV recently, NMG&F's Bear Biologist Rick Winslow
called diversionary feeding bears 'idiotic'. I doubt
that the NMG&F would allow their 'money wildlife' like
elk and big horn sheep to starve.
For seventeen years, BearWatch has advised against any
kind of feeding of bears, either inadvertently or on
purpose. But, it seems there should be some flexibility
when there is concern about the survival of this species
in many parts of this state. The facts are in the
numbers...the NMG&F and others have now killed 220+
bears on depredation calls alone. This number does not
include bears that were trapped and relocated to die
elsewhere, be killed by hunters or to starve this
winter.
If this drought continues into next year and we have
another destructive spring freeze, BearWatch will pursue
'Diversionary' feeding of our bears. It's worked in
other communities in the past. It keeps the bears out of
the communities and saves the bears. And studies have
found that when natural food is abundant, they will go
back to foraging on that food.
Please call, write letters and send emails to Gov.
Martinez and your State Representatives asking for help
to stop the ongoing destruction of New Mexico's bears.
Item 5 in the above list is the most important
pending issue. Call your local TV and Radio
stations, write letters to newspapers statewide. Put
your complaint about the decimation of New Mexico bears
on your Facebook page...let the world know what a rotten
job Gov. Martinez and her Game and Fish Department are
doing for New Mexico's black bears.
Please keep these addresses for future reference.
Gov. Susana Martinez
490 Old Santa Fe Trail
Room 400 Santa Fe, NM 87501
505-476-2200
Raton Range
208 S 3rd St.
Raton, NM 87740
Editor
575-445-2721
Ruidoso News
PO Box 128
Ruidoso, NM 88355
Editor
575-257-4001
Silver City Daily Press
300W Market
PO Box 740
Silver City, NM 88062
Jan Hayes
505-281-9282
Please help us!! East Mountain
High School’s Speech & Debate Team won the State Championship last
year and we hope to send students to Nationals this year in
Indianapolis! Albertson’s Grocery store will award us
$5000 if we have enough votes. You can cast 5 votes per person per
day.
Go to:
http://www.albertsonscpchallenge.com/index.php
Register & then it is very quick to vote. Please forward to anyone
that might help and that fits the following qualifications. Our
School Code is 0513.
To be eligible to vote, participants
must be a legal resident of the United States residing in Texarkana
AR, LA, TX, FL, AZ, CO, NM, or Salt Lake City UT and at least 13
years of age or older.
Thank you so much for your help!!
Lori Spanjers, EMHS Speech & Debate
Parent
East Mountain residents,
You missed an excellent meeting if you didn't attend
this one. Joe Vigil from KOB TV was there and showed a
very nice segment on the 10 pm news. No newspaper was
represented, so I started taking notes, and here they
are.
Christine Smith, President, East Mountain Coalition
August 24, 2011, 6 - 8 pm, San Antonito
Elementary School, LESSONS LEARNED
Jerome McDonald was responsible for
firefighters on the ground and for generating
a fire-fighting strategy. He
was specifically responsible for the north end of the
Wallow fire. His fire-fighting strategy was to flank
the fire because that fire was too dangerous to put
firefighters in front. He worked with 1000 people to
fire-fight and strategize. And, by the way, Jerome
started EMIFPA in the East Mountains 24 years ago.
He said that evacuation notices would come from the
sheriff's office. Evacuation areas may not be in the
flame area but a spot fire area. A spot area was
where a spark or ember landed and started a new fire.
(They had people watching for flames.) Sometimes
there was 24 hour notice for evacuation, but otherwise
it had to be done immediately.
Karen Takai, USFS, said the call
centers were hampered with phones crashing, computer
brown-outs, and gmail limits of 300. This was because
everyone who lived there was trying to communicate with
relatives--and when you added the communication
necessary for fire-fighting and getting word out to the
media to inform, things didn't initially work. They
quickly found sendwordnow.com, infoweb.com, and
googleearth.com--the last being for fire near your
property in real time.
Fire can move very quickly! In Los Conchas it ran the
length of a football field in 2 1/2 seconds!!! (This
made me blanch.)
A week's wait out-of-home after an evacuation isn't
unusual. (This is how long it takes for the fire to
die.) The fire assessor decides when it's safe to go
back--it's a role given to someone. Then the county
notifies individuals regarding when it's safe to
re-enter their residential area.
Local meeting areas are good places to spread the word
about fires. USFS will use any available means to get
news out.
Cid Morgan,USFS, said
that at 1% humidity the fire retardants dropped from
planes were ineffective. This was the case for the
Wallow fire. 100% contained means the fire has stopped
its progression--not that the fire is out.
There will be forestry clearings this winter in the
Sandias, and after this has been completed, there will
be clumps of trees in clearings--similar to what would
remain after a fire. This wood will be sold to people
who have signed up for it.
Cid believes 90 - 95% of the houses in the East
Mountains are not defensible. There are 22,000
homes between San Pedro Estates and I-40; that's 35,000
people. If there is a fire out here, there won't be a
fire truck for every house. We must prepare. Our
mountain has 50,000 acres, and that could all burn in a
day. The Wallow fire burned 60,000 acres in a day. She
believes that insurance companies are going to require
defensible space. It's already happened on South 14.
Letters have been sent to S14 residents by insurance
companies.
The main objective in clearing land in the Sandias is
going to be to break up canopies. Dense stands of trees
aren't natural. In a crown fire the objective is to get
the fire to fall on the ground (from the canopies) where
it can be fought.
The Sandias were dryer than Los Conchas. We could have
had a fire here in the Sandias because the conditions
were ripe for it.
After the Wallow and Los Conchas fires, there is (will
be) a burn area rehab team to map, re-seed, and plant
trees.
John Helmich, EMIFPA, said that the
third Saturday of each month there would be a fire
meeting at the Ranger District. Session 1 will be
Making a Plan to Evacuate. Session 2 will be Fire
weather & Behavior. Session 3 will be Sand
Tables. These proposed meetings will be held on November
19 ("Making a Plan"), and in January, February, and
March. The public is encouraged to come.
Lt. John McCauley, BCSO, said that
once you've been evacuated, the sheriff's dept. is
responsible for security in the area. For security
reasons--such as theft & vandalism--no one will be
allowed back in once he's been evacuated.
Someone asked about fire gel. Jerome McDonald said that
fire gel encapsulates water. If it's dry and windy, the
gel doesn't work.
Subject: EMIFPA: Fire
Notification from Bernalillo County
In our continued effort to improving the
safety of citizens in the unincorporated
areas of Bernalillo County , Bernalillo
County and the Emergency Communications
Center (E9-1-1), are pleased to announce
you may now register your cellular
and/or VoIP phone number(s) for the
purpose of receiving emergency
notifications. Bernalillo County has an
emergency notification system
which can be used to send important
messages to residents and businesses
within the unincorporated areas of the
County with the capability of sending
thousands of messages in a very short
time, based on the geographic location
of an incident.
Examples of Emergency Notifications may
be:
Evacuation notices due to emergency
situations, such as fire, flood or other
environmental hazard.
Notifications of dangerous situations in
your area, such as an environmental
hazard, law enforcement investigation or
other instance where you may be
instructed to remain in your home.
* Notifications are NOT automatic and
are sent at the direction of an incident
commander or other managing authority of
a situation.
If you have a landline phone, either
residential or business, your phone
number has automatically been entered
into the system and is capable of
receiving an emergency notification.
If your primary phone is a cellular/VoIP
phone number and you would like to
receive the emergency notification you
will need to register the phone number
with Target Notification.
Keep in mind once you register your
phone number and the Bernalillo County
Emergency Communications Department
sends out an emergency message, you will
receive the notification even if you are
NOT in the affected area at the time.
Also, if you change your cellular/VoIP
phone number you will need to re-register
it.
If you need further assistance please
contact: Jared Sanchez at 798-7004
Comcast Internet for Low Income Families
Comcast is now offering $10 per month home Internet access to
families who qualify for free school lunches. The offer is
part of a new program called 'Internet Essentials', which will
provide the low-cost Internet in any area where Comcast
provides service.
Families will be responsible for taxes on the $10 services,
but will not have to pay fees for activation or equipment
rentals. Families can also recieve a laptop computer for $150
plus tax when they sign up
and are eligible to receive free Internet training. The
computer comes equipped with parental controls to protect
children online.
In order to be eligible, families must not have subscribrd to
Comcast Internet service within the previous 90 days, and must
not have an overdue Comcast bill or unreturned equipment.
To apply, call 1-855-8-INTERNET to request an application.
From:
Mari B. Simbana Sent: Friday, October 14, 2011 3:33 PM Subject: FW: N-14 Sector Development Plan
Greetings, N-14 group!
I hope you are enjoying the beautiful New Mexico
Fall.
I wanted to let you know (if you didn't already
) that at the October 5 hearing, the County Planning Commissioners
decided to grant additional time so that I can have one more public
meeting to present some outstanding issues and hear back from the
community.
These issues include the following:
-Assigning a maximum building size
-Adding 'Drive - Thrus' to the permissive uses in N14RC zone
-Removing Architectural Design standard form the Design Overlay
Zone
-Combining SVC and N14RC
zones into onezone that would
apply to both nodes
-Allowing properties in the existing EMAP commercial corridor
and node to apply for O-1 and C-N
zoning
I will notify you as soon as we have established
a N 14 Sector Development Plan meeting date. Plan on attending to
share your thoughts.
Please feel free to send me written comments
through email or regular mail. As always, email or call me if you have
any questions. My contact information is below.
Sincerely,
Mari Simbaña,
Planner
505.314.0386
Zoning, Building,
Planning, Environmental Health
111 Union Sq. St.
SE, Suite 100
Albuquerque, NM
87102
*************************************************
October 10, 2011
SUBJECT: FILE
NO: SPR-20110002
LEGAL DESCRIPTION: Zoning, Building, Planning & Environmental
Health Department requests approval of the North 14 Sector Development
Plan. This plan generally encompasses properties on both sides of the
North 14 corridor (one or two parcels deep) from the Tijeras Village
limits on the south to the San Antonio Elementary School on the
north. This plan proposes a design overlay zone and two commercial
zones.
ACTION:
Continued to the March 7, 2012 hearing
To
Whom It May Concern:
At
the October 5, 2011
public hearing, the County Planning Commission continued the
request of the North 14 Sector Development Plan. This plan generally
encompasses properties on both sides of the North 14 corridor (one or
two parcels deep) from the Tijeras Village limits on the south to the
San Antonio Elementary School on the north. This plan proposes a
design overlay zone and two commercial zones to the March 7, 2012
hearing.
These
are some very abbreviated from Commissioner Brasher's very
informative meeting on Aug. 4th. Speakers were Dr. Paul Ettestad,
Veterinarian and Epidemiologist for the NM Dept. of Health, Dr. Mark
DiMenna, Entymologist, Supervisor of the City of Abq. Vector-Borne and
Zoonotic Disease Division (452-5301), Jeff Sheyka, plague specialist
(452-5302) ,and George Schroeder of Environmental Health. Commissioner
Brasher intends to have this taped presentation shown on government tv.
Plague
first came into the US in about 1900 at the ports of Honolulu, Galveston,
and San Francisco. Today plague is found mostly in the western US.
Fleas are carried on rock squirrels and prairie dogs, mainly. Some types
of fleas are better carriers than others. 71% of those who get
plague have gotten them from flea bites.
There are
3 forms of plague: septicemic, bubonic, and pneumonic (inhaling it).
Don't worry about the last kind, because there hasn't been an incidence of
that kind in the US since 1925. There have been 53 cases of plague
in the US between 1970 and 2008. Most of those have been in the
counties of Santa Fe and Bernalillo.
Incidences of plague follow El Ninos. Most cases are in summer.
The first case in the East Mtn. was 1959. There have been 46 cases
in the EM from 1959 to present. 17 cases occurred in the EM between
July 2005 and July 2009. (There was a total of 24 cases in all of NM
during that same span of time.)
The
highest risk of plague is at an altitude of 2300 m--or about 7000 feet and
is associated with populations of pinon trees and juniper trees. (That's
us.) Wood piles are the main habitat. Rock squirrels are the
most common host, and as many as 600
fleas have been counted on one rock squirrel. They also affect deer
mice, pinon mice, and wood rats (that's the packrat). Exposure for
people is near their homes.
There have never been any cases of Hanta virus in Bernalillo County--ever.
The recommended disinfectant for rodent droppings is a bleach and
water solution.
West Nile
virus is transmitted by mosquitoes. There have been no cases in NM
this year to date.
Report
mysteriously dead rock squirrels or prairie dogs near vacated colonies to
the Health Dept.(See phone nos. above.) Handle dead rodents with care.
Christine
Smith
Septic Systems
Our septic systems are going to become an issue that all home
owners in the Knolls are going to have to deal with by 2015, or if you do a
major upgrade to your home or you sell your home, you will have to conform
to the new wastewater ordinance immediately. I am including a copy of the
new ordinance here for you to read, I believe you will find it interesting
if you can get through the legalese. Most of the homes that have been sold
in the Knolls recently have had to have their septic systems replaced or
brought up to code. The process can be devastating to your yard. Under the
new ordinance nothing but grass can cover your new drain fields, and nothing
can be built on top of the area, including driveways that might compact the
field. Also access to the tank for pump trucks in any weather is a
requirement, so plan ahead if you are thinking about building or landscaping
your property. Pumping at regular intervals is also a new requirement.
Property owners a supposed to keep records of all work done to the septic
systems.
Here is a 31 page document Bernalillo County prepared
detailing the East Mountain Environmental
Quality Profile. (This is a LARGEfile 3MEG dial-up users
beware!)
