The New Mexico National Guard 515th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion will return to Belen from Iraq tomorrow afternoon, with a welcome home ceremony scheduled for 4:00pm at Calvary Chapel in Belen.

The public is welcome to attend to show their support for the soldiers.

The soldiers will be riding in a convoy from Fort Bliss to Belen tomorrow afternoon, with an anticipated arrival in Belen around 4:00pm.

The soldiers served in Iraq for nearly a year.

Valencia! kept track of the 515th as they left Belen for their tour of duty:

• Soldiers get ready for Iraq deployment
• Recently deployed soldier suffers heart attack
• Soldiers arrive in Kuwait
• New Mexico soldiers arrive in Iraq
• Soldiers settle into their Iraq mission
• Soldiers prepare for next year’s Iraq drawdown
• Soldiers spend Thanksgiving in transition
• Troops celebrated the holidays with tradition
• Soldiers in Iraq anticipate early return home

The Belen City Council meeting packet distributed to the city councilors for tonight’s meeting includes the agenda, Eagle Scout information, a flood protection ordinance, budget documents, the City of Belen Fire Department’s strategic plan, and documents related to proposed destruction of records.

The meeting is at 6:00pm at Belen City Hall, located at 100 South Main Street in Belen.

The Belen City Council meeting packet distributed to the city councilors for tomorrow’s meeting includes the agenda, minutes, police department goals, a geotechnical engineering study of the Belen Community Center, a memo about destruction of records, a zoning change request, and a list of members of the city’s advisory boards.

The meeting is at 6:00pm at Belen City Hall, located at 100 South Main Street in Belen.

The Belen City Council meeting packet distributed to the city councilors for tomorrow’s meeting includes the agenda, minutes, a proclamation, financial documents related to the Camino del Llano project and a document showing every check issued by the city between March 9 and March 31.

The meeting is at 6:00pm at Belen City Hall, located at 100 South Main Street in Belen.

The Belen City Council meeting packet distributed to the city councilors for tomorrow’s meeting includes the agenda and information about bids for arsenic treatment systems.

The meeting is at 6:00pm at Belen City Hall, located at 100 South Main Street in Belen.

The Belen City Council last night remedied an Open Meetings Act (OMA) violation, bringing the city back into compliance with state law.

By a vote of 4-0, the city council approved an OMA resolution that defines the proper public notice for regular, special and emergency meetings.

The city is required to approve an OMA resolution every year, but hadn’t approved one since 2008.

The resolution was proposed by Councilor Jerah R. Cordova.

The Belen City Council meeting packet distributed to the city councilors for tomorrow’s meeting includes the agenda, a booklet about project labor agreements, financial documents and a proposed Open Meetings Act resolution.

The meeting is at 6:00pm at Belen City Hall, located at 100 South Main Street in Belen.

The Belen City Council meeting packet distributed to the councilors for tomorrow’s meeting includes the agenda, the election results to be approved by the present city council, and an email from the district attorney’s office to City Manager Sally Garley.

The meeting is at 6:00pm at Belen City Hall, located at 100 South Main Street in Belen.

During the past 15 months, Valencia! was dedicated to bringing you news and information about Valencia County, starting as a scrappy blog and developing into a respected journalistic enterprise.

At its peak, Valencia! received more than 2,500 hits per day, a number that makes us proud.

I want to personally thank you for reading our articles. I also want to thank our many supporters — the people who advertised, the citizens who emailed tips and all the public officials who didn’t mind the scrutiny.

Because I was elected to the Belen City Council this week, Valencia! will cease to operate as a Valencia County news and information website.

As a city councilor, it would be difficult to cover the public officials I will work with, not only in Belen but throughout the county. As a journalist, I don’t feel it would be ethical.

Starting next week, Valencia! will be redesigned and become an open government website paid for and maintained by me as an elected official dedicated to open government.

Transparency and accessibility are essential to good government. This open government website will give Belen’s residents and business owners a way to see what their government is doing each day. It’ll also make it easy for citizens to contact me with their comments, concerns and criticisms.

The open government website will provide as much information as possible, everything from the city’s budget and planning documents to proposed ordinances and public notices. It will be updated immediately as information becomes available.

For a limited amount of time, you will be able to access the website with the same web address — www.valenciavoices.com — but it will also have a new web address: www.betterbelen.com.

Jerah R. Cordova
Reporter and Publisher
Valencia!

Showing that Valencia County’s economy continues to worsen, the county’s unemployment rate in December rose to 9.0 percent, according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Valencia County ends '09 at 9.0 percent.

While the unemployment rate has mostly ticked upward one- or two-tenths at a time over the last year, in December the unemployment rate shot up four-tenths of a percent.

December’s rate is the highest on record for Valencia County.

It comes at a time when the promise of Signet Solar, a solar technology manufacturer expected create 600 jobs in Belen, was unable to get a federal loan guarantee to move forward with financing and construction of a plant.

City of Belen officials are in Washington, DC, this week on a planned trip to lobby Congress. At the last minute, they arranged to meet with officials at the United States Department of Energy, the department that denied the loan guarantee.