Here’s some of today’s news:
According to a release, an environmental cleanup will begin this week at the Royal John Mine and Mill located in the Silver City Ranger District of the Gila National Forest. The mine site is east of San Lorenzo on the western slopes of the Black Range of the Mimbres Mountains. Past lead and zinc mining activities left over 90,000 cubic yards of tailings and waste rock material along the upper reaches of Cold Springs Creek. The USDA Forest Service is performing the first phase of a two-part environmental cleanup to remove waste with elevated levels of lead. The environmental cleanup will require heavy construction equipment during daylight hours. The Royal John Mine Road will be closed to the public on the National Forest past the intersection of Silver Creek Road on National Forest System land. The closure will be in effect from April 1st to approximately June 28th. In addition, Silver Creek Road also known as Forest Road 523 will remain open.
The Gila Regional Medical Center Board of Trustees has approved a letter of need to be sent to the New Mexico Finance Authority to start the process of issuing a revenue bond to go toward a new PET scanner to assist in the diagnosis of disease. The revenue bond in the amount of $1.25 million will be used toward the purchase of a combination CT and PET scanner. A portion of the funding is targeted for renovation of the chemotherapy room in the hospital cancer center. Currently, the hospital has a contract with a business that brings in a PET scanner every two weeks.
Deming’s Early College High School will be accepting 50 ninth grade students for the 2019-20 academic year. The Early College High School was created by the Deming Public Schools to provide students an advanced learning program in small setting that will give them a head start towards their academic future. Students accepted into the program will complete their core credits in two years and then will take dual college classes to achieve an associate’s degree by high school graduation. An informational meeting for current eighth-grade students and their parents will be held tomorrow evening at 5:30 p.m. at the Mimbres Valley Learning and Special Events Center located at 2300 East Pine Street in Deming.
Today is designated as Medal of Honor Day dedicated to all Medal of Honor recipients. Created in 1861, the Medal of Honor is the United States of America’s highest military honor. It is awarded only to US military personnel, by the President of the United States in the name of Congress, for personal acts of valor above and beyond the call of duty. There are three versions of the Medal of Honor; one for the Army, one for the Navy and one for the Air Force, with personnel of the Marine Corps and the Coast Guard receiving the Navy version. Since its creation, there have been 3,468 Medals of Honor awarded to the country’s soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and coast guardsmen.
