Here’s a look at today’s local news:
The Rincon Fire, is burning on National Forest System lands, on the Wilderness Ranger District in Grant County, located just south of the Grapevine Campground, and west of NM Hwy 15, within the boundaries of the Gila Wilderness. Fire was visualized via helicopter reconnaissance and estimated at 10-20 acres. The management strategy for this incident is suppression. Fire management officials have chosen not to directly engage due to the rugged and steep terrain for the safety of wildland firefighters. The cause of the fire is probable human-caused.
Melody Harwood, a Silver High School student, has been accepted into the 2019 MIT summer program. The program called “MITES”, Minority Introduction to Engineering and Science, provides minorities and students from under-served communities the opportunity to study at Massachusetts Institute of Technology ranked the top research university in the world.
Hurley Town Councilors met during a workshop and discussed items in preparation of the 2019-20 budget. Each department manager has been requested to present a “wish list” to the council. Some of the items include: an expansion of the Hurley Volunteer Fire Department Building; various items needed for Animal Control; a needed computer for the Code Enforcement Department; and office equipment/supplies and security cameras for the Municipal Court.
The Board of Regents for Western New Mexico University met and unanimously approved the 2019-20 student fee proposal. According to a release from WNMU, the proposal contains, budget and a tuition revision, in response to the state Legislature’s mandate of public colleges and universities to provide employees throughout New Mexico a wage increase, impacting both regular full-time exempt and regular full-time nonexempt employees. Other recommendations included a 4% increase in compensation for WNMU employees.
Deming High School has ranked among the top 50 nationwide in the 2019 Vans Custom Culture Competition. Vans, an American company that produces skateboarding shoes and apparel, has initiated nationwide competition to inspire high school students to design and create custom shoes that reflect their local culture. Deming High School art instructors, Jesse Kriegel and Lizeth Gomez, worked with six senior class students to create two “Deming themed” pairs of shoes. The community can help them by voting for their entries online at custom culture dot vans dot com. The first-place winning school with receive $75,000 towards their art department. Four additional schools will receive $10,0000.
