A new report spotlights high oil drilling volumes and an oil drilling boom in New Mexico over the past decade.

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 With slightly less wild enthusiasm, fortunately, than Texas Gov. Rick Perry receiving a bottle of maple syrup at a New Hampshire town hall, New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez accepted a gift of cheese at the Roundhouse this afternoon upon signing a bill designed to help the state's agriculture.

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 An Ortiz Middle School teacher is resigning effective Feb. 29, citing "unsavory practices within Santa Fe Public Schools" and a district-wide "dangerous situation."

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Dragon dance, lion dance – martial art demonsrtrations, performances, sand dance, ribbon dance,

Each lion  - 2 people

Dragon – 60 feet

All by our members – all the performers are from our school –

Synthia lin the owner – me

From 1990 – this will be the 22^nd.

Dragon is power strength represents nobility it’s one of the signs – Chinese people like to refer to – most welcome – always – lots of babies get born people want to have a child they can say oh it’s born in the year of the dragon

Free – just – celebration open to the public

Outdoor in parking lot

400 chairs first come first serve.

 Santa Fe County will receive $150,000 in federal funding as part of the US Department of Agriculture's Secure Rural Schools program, US Senator Jeff Bingaman, D-NM, announced today.

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 The first contemporary art exhibit produced for the Bond House Museum in Española got off to a promising start last night, with many of the artists on-hand to offer insight into their photography.

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 A photography exhibit opening Friday in Espanola brings together the work of 10 artists who are also students or faculty of Santa Fe Community College's School of Art and Design.

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As has become a tradition at SFR, we are calling each of the candidates for this year's city council election and posing questions designed to test their knowledge of city business and constituents' needs. This week we quizzed the three candidates to replace District 3 councilor Miguel Chavez.
The candidates are former PNM employee Gilbert Martinez, retired Santa Fe Fire Department chief Chris Rivera, and Native Hispanic Institute president Marie Campos.

Candidates had one minute to answer each question, and weren't allowed to call back with different responses. See the key at the end for correct answers.

Questions:

1. Why are you running?

2. How much did it cost taxpayers to build the Zia Station platform?

3. Which commercial carriers fly in and out of Santa Fe Municipal Airport?

4. How many square miles is District 3?

5. What percent of affordable housing is required in any new housing development in the city?

6. How much of the city General Obligation bond money would go to construction of the Southwest Activity Node park?

7. How many F grades did Santa Fe Public Schools receive under the new state A-F rating scheme this year?

8. How can we help integrate the south side with the rest of Santa Fe and alleviate some of the disparities in quality of life?

Gilbert Martinez, former PNM employee:

1. I think we need a change in leadership in city government, and the other reason I'm running is I'd like to see more accountability and transparency as far as how our tax dollars are being spent at city hall. I think based on the economic situation that all of us nationwide have taken, we need to be a little bit more careful in how our funds are being used and utilized not today but in the future.

2. You know, I have not been very versed on the cost—I can say I think more consideration should have been taken as far as the utilization of that station, whether it was necessary or not. I think there was some opposition from the neighborhood associations, but cost-wise I think we, the city, could have done a little bit better on how we spent that money.

3. The one I've used is American Airlines, or the American Eagle.

4. I don't have that in front of me, but it's the largest growing district out of the four districts in Santa Fe. That's why they went through the redistricting plan. As far as square miles, that depends if you're looking at today, versus the annexation plan that's being considered, which will encompass the largest district in the city. I can say this, it's a very large area.

SFR: I'm asking about today—do you have a guess?

GM: Today—I'd say—I don't know the answer.

5. There was a proposal to reduce it from 30 percent down to 20 percent.

SFR: So what is it today?

GM: I believe it's being considered 20 percent.

6. I'd say they're looking at 100 percent of the bond issue would be for the construction. There's a question whether the cost of maintaining it has not been addressed. This is just the construction phase of it.

SFR: So how much of the General Obligation bond money—how many dollars?

GM: It's been in the paper—it's a little over $14 million.

SFR: $14 million for the SWAN park?

GM: I believe so. I don't have that in front of me.

7. I believe there was six or seven schools that I briefly looked at that received the F grading.

8. You know, that's going to take a team effort between the entire city council. There is disparity between north and south and from each area. I think the identifications of this whole process is to identify the core services that the city of Santa Fe maintains—that's of course water, refuse, fire, police and sewer. That is the core. As far as the integration I think we need to invest in our community as we have invested in the northern part of the city. As far as bringing those two communities of two areas together, areas within each other, that's just going to take a learning curve between the city and the public.

Chris Rivera, retired Santa Fe Fire Department chief:

1. I'm running because I think I can make a difference in our community. I have past experience as a fire chief, I have knowledge of the city budget, its line-item budgeting, how it works from the inside out, so I think I can make a difference with the budget. But mostly it's to bring a little bit of equity to District 3, to the south side. We definitely do not have the amenities that many of the people on the north side of Santa Fe have, with grocery stores, parks, just all around amenities. The new Wal-Mart is helping, but we could definitely use a whole lot more.

2. That I'm not real sure about. But I can definitely find the answer if you want me to call you back!

3. I think it's American Airlines, the smaller company that—and I'm not sure about the other one.

4. There's 45 square miles in the city, so District 3, maybe a fourth of that—maybe 10 square miles?

5. I believe that just dropped from 30 percent to 20 percent.

6. It's the chunk of the money which I believe is $14 million—but just how much is going to the SWAN park?

SFR: Yes.

CR: So public safety, that would be a small percentage of it—I don't know the exact amount. Do I have a minute to answer that? Because I think if I wrote it down I could probably come up with it.

SFR: You have a few more seconds...that's a minute now.

7. This would just be a guess, I would guess about seven or eight. I know it's probably too late to say on the bond, but I think—I know the whole thing is $14 million, so I would say the park would maybe be around $5 or $6 [million].

8. I think it's going to take someone that understands, that lives on the south side and understands what's going on out there, that understands our children, what they need. I have four daughters, so I understand the types of things they would need on the south side for just quality of life. In regards to parks I know we have the [Genoveva Chavez Community Center] on the south side, but it's not something that kids can afford to do every single day. So I think just a working knowledge of the area. And then to integrate, I think it's have more events on the south side that maybe people from the north side would enjoy coming to. Maybe a farmer's market on the south side, or I know this past summer they did the movie in the park on the south side, which brought some residents from different parts of the city into the south side. Maybe just having more activities so people can see what the south side has to offer.

 Marie Campos, president, Native Hispanic Institute:

1. I'm running because I see a lot of problems in District 3, like we have the lowest rate of voters, we have the highest rate of crime, we have the lowest rate of graduating students—just those types of general things. And I think that if we have a strong city council then we can start working with the county and the police department and other entities in the city to begin to resolve those problems.

2. You know, I do not know how much it cost to build that. That's a pretty specific question.

3. You know, I've never used that airport and I know that it went through some changes—it was like [inaudible] before—I have no idea what the name of the carrier is. I know there's a carrier there that bought it a few years ago. It changed hands.

4. Wow, these are really—I don't think I'm going to complete these if these are the kind of questions being asked, because I don't think that anybody would sit there and figure 'Oh, well this is so many square miles' and things like that. If that's the kind of questions, I think we'll just end this right here.

SFR: You don't want to finish the quiz?

MC: No, because I don't think that those kind of questions are so specific that I don't think they really give any indication of your knowledge of the city. 

KEY:

2. $1 million

3. American Eagle (an affiliate of American Airlines)

4. 10.19 square miles

5. 20 percent

6. $5 million

7. Five

 New Mexico Voices for Children held a State of Children and Youth Address at the Roundhouse this morning, and released a new report that ranks New Mexican third graders last in the nation for reading. Watch:

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 Independent Source Political Action Committee is calling for the resignation of state Education Secretary-designate Hanna Skandera.

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