Village Hall pleads ignorance

Capitan Village Clerk Kay Strickland, and her deputy clerk, Shirley, presided over the early voting to the March 4 election. Turns out, they didn't require signatures, against state election code, for those early votes. Turns out, those early votes heavily favored the incumbents, while the voting was much closer on March 4. Strickland told Judge Martha Proctor, who canvassed the vote, she just didn't know better. Turns out, Strickland and Shirley have both been to Election School. Of course, they know better. Is Capitan Village Hall perpetuating a cover-up of election practices? What's your take?

Abuse of power

Last week, Capitan residents received their March water bill, several days earlier than usual. It was accompanied by a letter from Mayor Sam Hammons, which amounted to a campaign endorsement of incumbent trustee Lilly Wood, who was criticized in a letter to the editor printed in the Ruidoso News on April 22. Instead of responding to the newspaper, the mayor used taxpayers money to defend an incumbent running for office in the March 4 election. Everyone I've talked to says this is illegal, and an abuse of power. We are looking into it at the state level to get a definitive ruling.

This is just one more example of the dirty politics from this arrogant mayor, who has presided over a puppet board of trustees. What are your thoughts? Is this an abuse of power, or was the mayor within his legal rights?

The price of paradise

Paying for upgrades to much of Ruidoso's infrastructure (new fire station, wastewater treatement plant, schools, hospital, etc.) falls almost entirely on residents, except for the gross receipts tax, which is helping pay off fire station bonds. Should visitors also ante up to maintain their mountain getaway? If so, any ideas on how to put some of the burden on them? Let us know.

Mill levy defeated

OK, the vote is history, and the hospital mill levy was narrowly defeated on Tuesday. Are you surprised? If another vote is held in a year, at the current 3 mills (not the 4.25 asked for this time), would you support it? Your thoughts, dear readers.

Mill levy

A historical moment in the history of the Ruidoso News. This is the first blog we have posted. It's from the editor, Marty Racine, and will be called The Front Page. As always, your input is critical to the success of the blog. I won't respond to all posts, but will as time allows. And if there are any bugs in the system, thanks for your patience. Please feel free to contribute. No profanity or name-calling, please.

Today, let's kick off a discussion of the upcoming mill levy vote for the hospital. Do you favor raising the levy from 3 to 4.25 mills? Do you oppose? Why?