Valencia County Sheriff’s Department Captain Don Donges told county commissioners on Wednesday night that problems with “missed calls” at the county’s emergency dispatch center mean officers aren’t being dispatched to address crime.

“This is ridiculous,” he told the commissioners.

Donges has been defending his department against accusations that it failed to respond to calls about a rave in Tierra Grande during the Fourth of July weekend.

Caught in the middle of the debate is the Valencia County Regional Emergency Communication Center, a collaborative effort of the county and municipalities, housed within the Village of Los Lunas Police Department.

The dispatch center coordinates 911 emergency response for the county, the City of Belen, the Village of Bosque Farms, the Village of Los Lunas, and the Town of Peralta.

According to Donges, the call-takers at the dispatch center aren’t properly trained to identify when it’s appropriate to dispatch police, which had citizens at the meeting wondering out loud if the call-takers have been empowered to decide what laws should and shouldn’t be enforced.

He said calls to the dispatch center about the rave were never conveyed to the sheriff’s department.

The problems go beyond whether or not police were dispatched on the night of the rave. Commission Chairman Don Holliday expressed frustrations with an incident in his district.

Holliday said the county manager called the dispatch center after the incident to find out why there was a failure to respond, but the center’s administrator hasn’t responded to him.

“I’m concerned they haven’t gotten back to the county manager,” he said, acknowledging problems at the dispatch center. “We’re going to find out what the hell is going on.”

Commissioner Ron Gentry also wants to “find out what’s going on over there,” saying calls from citizens about crime, and in particular the rave, seem to be “falling on deaf ears.”

He said the county should “reevaluate” the $215,000 it contributes to the operation of the dispatch center.

“Are we getting what our citizens deserve?” Gentry asked.

Belen Mayor Rudy Jaramillo and the Belen City Council launched the the Adopt-a-City Park Program over the weekend, intended to both help the city maintain local parks under the current budget woes while also giving citizens more opportunity to beautify their community.

Since the launch of the program on Saturday, the city has received two application requesting to adopt parks. The city has also received interest and requests for applications from eight other individuals or groups.

The city maintains 11 parks from as small as 9/11 Park on Main Street to as large as Eagle Park near Belen High School.

The program was written and created by Councilor Jerah R. Cordova, with help from Jaramillo and the city council.

To participate in the program, whether as a volunteer or an adopting individual or organization, call Audrey Torres at 966-2740.

The Valencia County Commission last night unanimously agreed to pay the 13th Judicial District Court $50,000 so local courts can continue to offer alternative sentencing that help some offenders stay out of the county jail.

The funding will allow the district and magistrate courts to continue contract services provided by a probation officer who monitors roughly 75 offenders who might otherwise be in jail. The money will also pay for things like ankle bracelets.

The State of New Mexico cut the funding for the program for this fiscal year.

Had Valencia County not funded it, 36 to 40 of the offenders in the program would likely have ended up spending time in the Valencia County Detention Center, which is so overcrowded that this month nearly 30 inmates are being housed in Santa Fe and Cibola counties.

“The ‘no vacancy’ light is on,” said Commission Chairman Don Holliday.

According to Derek Williams, the jail’s warden, the county pays $85 a day to house the inmates in Santa Fe County and nearly $65 a day to house them in Cibola County. In-house, the cost per day is a minimum of $30.

Adding 36 to 40 inmates to the number already housed outside of Valencia County could cost the county much more than the $50,000 it’ll spend on program.

“There is an actual cost-savings to the county,” Commissioner Pedro Rael said.

Commissioner Ron Gentry, skeptical of committing money to the program, asked the commission to immediately identify how the county will fund the program.

The county was expected to hire four detention officers in August. The commission ultimately decided to fund the program by postponing the hiring of two of those four officers.

The City of Belen, Village of Bosque Farms, Village of Los Lunas and Town of Peralta all use the county jail to house their inmates.

Holliday recommended amending the county’s joint powers agreements with each of the county’s municipalities.

“Hit them up for a couple more bucks a day,” he said, an idea included in the motion approved by the commission.

Holliday said the municipalities should pay an additional $10,000 each.

Williams thought the county might have trouble collecting the additional $10,000 per municipality, noting that the City of Belen is six months behind on its payments to the county jail, owing nearly $17,000.

The Belen City Council last night unanimously approved a resolution that gives five city vehicles to the Rio Metro Transit District, a state agency that’s taking over public transportation in Valencia County.

Rio Metro will get two 2010 Glaval Universals on Ford E450 Chasis-26’s, a 2000 Dodge Para Transit, a 2007 Ford Startrans Mini Bus, and a 1994 Ford Champion.

While the city won’t get money for the vehicles, the city is likely to get money to continue parking the vehicles on city property, if Rio Metro agrees to lease city property for that purpose.

Previously, Rio Metro agreed to move staff from Belen’s public transportation to Rio Metro, saving the city money it would otherwise allocate for salaries and benefits.

The city agreed to cede control of its public transportation service to Rio Metro last September. The Village of Los Lunas did the same in January.

Rio Metro has been developing new bus routes in Valencia County to provide better service to residents across the county.

All of the changes in local public transportation are the result of a tax passed by voters in November 2008, which funds regionalized improvements in three counties, including Valencia County.

The Belen Consolidated Schools summer food service program will start on June 7 at more sites for local families to get meals.

Meals will be free for children 18 years old or younger.

Families can get meals at Belen High School, Rio Grande Elementary School, H.T. Jaramillo Community School, Logsdon Hall Park, Anna Becker Park, Willie Chavez Park, Timan Park, Jose Gallegos Park, Tome-Adelino Fire Station, Calvary Chapel, Abo Baseball Field, and the Belen Community Center at Eagle Park.

The program will run from June 7 until July 30.

For more information call 966-1714.

Valencia County’s Teen Court program, which provides alternative sentencing to teens, is being taken over by the State of New Mexico.

According to county officials, the change is the result of dissatisfaction with the direction of the local program, including that the program’s board wasn’t chaired by a district court judge.

Now the state will fully fund the program, though Valencia County will continue to pay for housing of juveniles in detention.

Because of the takeover, the program has been eliminated from the county’s new budget, which means the county will no longer fund the position of juvenile justice administrator.

Teen Court began hearing cases for primarily first-time offenders in September 2007.

The City of Belen and Valencia County have in recent weeks been independently discussing how best to provide solid waste pick-up for their residents and businesses.

The city has mandatory curbside pick-up in Belen, with the service contracted to Waste Management Inc.

While Waste Management has the contract to provide the service, the city bills residents and businesses and provides logistical and other support to the company.

With the city’s budget deficit now at $250,000, down from $3.2 million, the mayor and city council debated as recently as last week about whether or not the city should further privatize the service.

While Waste Management and the city both receive an amount from the fee paid by residents and businesses, in the past the city has provided a city-employed solid waste specialist to help Waste Management manage the service.

The administration and council have been slightly split on the issue.

Some see a potential financial benefit to the city if the city can make the program run more efficiently, so the city makes a profit from the fees it collects.

Others think the program can be better managed by Waste Management, seeing the potential for reduced rates for Belen’s residents and businesses if a layer of the bureaucracy — the city — is removed from the service.

Valencia County is having a similar debate.

Last night, commissioners debated the merits of having a county-run mandatory curbside pick-up program.

Commissioner Pedro Rael said the county could create as many as 50 jobs should the county run a solid waste program that includes curbside pick-up.

Taking into account the current economy and layoffs, he said 50 jobs would help county residents who don’t have work.

Commissioner Ron Gentry, on the other hand, said the capital investment for things like polycarts, trucks and a staging area, would be too much for the county.

“It’s a huge business, as big as the county itself,” he said.

He also warned against the county creating “a giant Conejo,” referring to the county-operated Conejo Convenience Station.

The county will consider a solid waste ordinance at its meeting next week.

County officials said the ordinance is the final step before sending out a second request for proposal to service providers.

County Manager Eric Zamora said garbage trucks could be on county roads by early 2011 as a part of the mandatory curbside pick-up service.

The City of Belen and Belen Consolidated Schools have begun collaborating with one another in a renewed relationship that could better both city and educational services.

The new partnership was formed after each government reached out to the other to begin finding areas where the city and district can work together.

So far, the city and district have joined forces on summer recreation, helping to keep local summer programs funded and available to youth.

The first collaboration involves the district’s swimming pool.

The city is expected to provide in-kind services to the district to keep the Belen High School swimming pool open this summer, pumping approximately 350,000 gallons of water into the pool free of charge.

Earlier this month, Dolores Quintana, a school board member, and Frank Ortega, the head of district maintenance, asked the city council for the water. At Monday’s council meeting, the city council will consider the in-kind contribution.

Both the city and district agree that this is the first of many collaborations.

Volunteers have come to the aid of the City of Belen to help the city remove glass from the Eagle Park baseball fields.

Over the weekend, volunteers coordinated by Magistrate Judge Danny Hawkes, cleaned the fields. The group has committed to cleaning the fields regularly.

The volunteers swung into action knowing that the city’s Parks Department, which oversees the baseball fields, has only one employee after the reduction in force two weeks ago.

Councilor Jerah R. Cordova discovered the glass during a visit to the baseball fields.

The site of the fields was at one time a glass dump. When the fields were constructed, the soil wasn’t properly excavated to remove the glass, which has resulted in some of the glass remaining in the soil. It has since been rising to the surface.

With the help of volunteers, the city is conducting regular maintenance of the fields to ensure their safety.

The city also continues to be concerned with gopher burrows affecting the outfields.

Regular maintenance will address that problem, while the city continues to seek a more permanent solution.

The hours at the Belen Public Library and the Belen Community Center have changed because of employee layoffs.

The City of Belen Recycling Center has been closed until further notice, also due to employee layoffs.

The new hours for the Belen Public Library are:

Monday -Closed
Tuesday – 10:00am to 5:00pm
Wednesday – 10:00am to 5:00pm
Thursday – 10:00am to 8:00pm
Friday – 12:00pm to 5:00pm
Saturday – 12:00pm to 4:00pm
Sunday – Closed

The new hours for the Belen Community Center are:

Monday – 8:00am to 8:00pm
Tuesday – 8:00am to 6:30pm
Wednesday – 8:00am to 8:00pm
Thursday – 8:00am to 6:30pm
Friday – Closed
Saturday – Closed
Sunday – Closed

The Belen Community Center can still be opened at other times for scheduled events. The Belen Recreation Center, located on Main Street, will only be opened for scheduled events.