City Of Rio Rancho – Page 2

February 15, 2012December 20, 2022

Animals dumped in Rio Rancho

A KOAT article “Animals Run Wild In Rio Rancho, Retired Officer Says” says that stray animals from the rest of Sandvoal County are being dumped in Rio Rancho.

“They’re either being brought by the citizens, who are dumping them in Rio Rancho, or they’re wandering in, and that’s just a burden in Rio Rancho,” he said.
Sandoval County leaders said the only animal control officer was transferred after he was involved in a criminal incident that was still under investigation.
Sheriff’s deputies were expected to continue to respond to certain animal control calls. Because they cannot transport animals, county leaders asked residents to take stray animals to local shelters to help with the problem.

January 29, 2012

The Village At Rio Rancho Will Be Here Some Day

The Village At Rio Rancho, a Albuquerque Uptown style outdoor shopping center, is still coming soon. According to the Rio Rancho Observer the city planning and zoning was to approve the plan on January 24th (and they did) which would allow the developer to start work on the Cinemark movie theater.

Building a new movie theater so close to the recently built Premiere Cinemas is a mistake according to me. I’m more interested in having the rest of the complex built where I predict there will be an Apple Store.

June 20, 2011

Pacheco Canyon Fire In Santa Fe, New Mexico

Santa Fe, New Mexico Pacheco Canyon Fire As Seen From Rio Rancho by gregjsmith, on Flickr — Santa Fe, New Mexico Pacheco Canyon Fire As Seen From Rio Rancho

Say hello to New Mexico’s newest fire, the Pacheco Canyon Fire In Santa Fe. The fire was visible from my house in Rio Rancho on the day it started but I haven’t been able to see it since Saturday. On Sunday there was too much smoke from the Arizona Wallow fire to see much of anything.

InciWeb says the fire has burned over 3000 acres and describes it as extreme.

June 4, 2011

Arizona's Wallow Fire In Albuquerque

The view of the Sandia Mountains from my front window the last few days has been obscured by smoke from the Wallow fire near the New Mexico border in Alpine, Arizona. This fire is affecting the Albuquerque area by creating a cloud of smoke which besides the smell has caused some ash to fall from the sky.

Normally I have a clear view of the Sandias except when we have a storm.

It’s bad enough that the last two nights I have had to turn off the cooler because it was filling the house with the smell of forest fire.

This is going to be a bad year for fires unless we get some rain, which the Albuquerque area hasn’t received a significant rain storm since early this year.

The Arizona Republic as a good FAQ on the Wallow Fire and An image from the NOAA shows the smoke plume (I don’t know if the NOAA has a direct source to this image).

Wallo Fire Smoke NOAA

Update 06/07/2011: The trend for the last few days is the smoke goes away during the day and settles back in during the evening. It feels like a nuclear winter. Here are a few pictures I took from the office building last night, note the red dot which is the sun.

While the smoke here in Rio Rancho and Albuquerque is bad, it’s not nearly as bad as for those who actually live where the fire is. The local paper The White Mountain Independent has information about all of the evacuations in the area.

Latest map from the NOAA.

May 23, 2011

Car Vs. Cow Accident In Rio Rancho

From local TV news station KOAT “Man Shaken Up After Slamming Into Cow“

A Rio Rancho man said he’s lucky to be alive after his car crashed into a cow that walked into a busy street.
Action 7 News has detailed the cow crossing problems in Sandoval County for years, but reports of cow incidents have spiked in recent weeks.

Last Friday, Action 7 News reported on several cows that’d been getting through a cut fence line near King Boulevard in Rio Rancho. That cut fence line is just down the road from where Gill’s accident occurred.

Hard to believe that there’s enough out in the desert of Rio Rancho for cows to eat, but there are many of them out here, epecially near this area which is which is supposed to be downtown.

March 11, 2011

Cows And Guns In Rio Rancho

Back in October, the local news station KRQE recently two stories about Rio Rancho. I like living in Rio Rancho, I like being on the edge of civilization and I will deal with the occasional scorpion, dust storm. Or cows.

When I moved here 15 years ago I used to drive around in the desert that is now Northern Meadows. There were cows then just like there are cows now.

Residents in Rio Rancho’s North Meadows say they don’t know what to do with a growing problem. A cattle herd has been traveling from the west ends of the city limits into neighborhoods causing car crashes and eating gardens at some homes.

Another thing I did when I moved here was to go out and shot guns at the end of Southern Blvd. Then there wasn’t a house in site but now that the area has developed, people, not me, are still out there shooting.

That’s because Sara–who asked News 13 not to use her real name because she fears retaliation–lives in an area that is a popular but illegal shooting range. She said she often hears nonstop gunfire, especially on weekends, from people shooting weapons in the desert near her home at the far west end of Southern Boulevard near 38th Street.

Having people guns near and at your house makes having a cow problem not so bad.

March 10, 2011

South Side Gate Replacement

Residential fencing in albuquerque and Rio Rancho used to be made of wood until the last 20 years or so. While they build fences of block now I have a older house and all of the fencing and gates are made of wood. For whatever reason a large amount of it has decomposed and fallen down mostly since I moved in.

The gate on the south side of the house is the worse and it’s also the primary access to the back yard with a vehicle. I decided it was time to get off my butt and replace it with not only a fence that isn’t falling but with one that has more privacy.

I didn’t go into this project with any detailed plans. I knew I wanted to bring the gate to be flush with the front of the house, the old gate sat back about 6 feet. I also wanted a short gate for people and a long gate for vehicles with a 5 foot fence section at the edge of the property.

I started by adding a single post on the first day to get an idea of what I was doing. I dug a hole, leveled a 4×4 redwood post and anchored it with some quick setting cement. That was it for the day. The next day the City of Rio Rancho inspector came by and red tagged the house due to the old falling gate and “debris” they could see in my back yard.

I found the timing strange and I have to wonder if someone called or the inspector just saw the work I was doing and decided to complain.

It took another day to build the corner which consisted of the 5 foot fence section and tying into the old fence. The biggest difficultly was positioning the sections of 2x4s around a rather large yucca. The plant is nice looking but very pointy and I left quite a bit of blood on the plant.

The main part of the fence was completed 2 days after I started. I had to go back at least three times and redo the position slats since I screwed up the level. I know several ways not to level fence slats.

The continuation of this project will be to clean up the river rocks on the side and level the ground. I also need to continue with the 6 foot fence along the south side of the property.

March 1, 2011

Dumbshits Who Live In Rio Rancho, New Mexico

Every city has people who are not very intelligent. Rio Rancho, New Mexico has the appropriately named James Dickie.

Dickie allegedly burnt the dog, burnt his scrotum, burnt his testicles, in order to save himself the expense of possibly having the dog neutered by a licensed veterinarian,” said John Francis of the Rio Rancho police. Police said two days before the incident, Dickie was seen violently beating Charlie in the yard. According to the police report, Dickie drop-kicked his dog several times and threw the animal into a yucca plant.

Mr. Dick-ie was arrested and faces a 4th degree felony. The dog had $700 in hospital bills payed by a neighbor. A follow up indicates that Mr. Dick-ie has more dogs and the Rio Rancho Police can’t do anything about it. He will probably have them taken away when he is hopefully sentenced.

At least one neighbor is clueless.

One neighbor told Action 7 News that the accusations against Dickie do not paint a fair picture of him, and that he takes good care of his animals.

December 8, 2010

Rio Rancho City Government Gives Up On Green2V While The Rest Of Us Did Months Ago

Green2V logo

Here we are in December of 2010, where is Green2V which hasn’t broke ground this summer as promised? I was skeptical of Green2V from the very beginning. A company no one had heard of with no website (and still doesn’t have a website) decided to build a new factory in my hometown of Rio Rancho, New Mexico with a very aggressive schedule.

An article from Rio Rancho Observer says that the city is giving up.

On Dec. 15, the Rio Rancho City Council will consider two measures repealing the city’s incentives in trying to lure the green energy start-up company. “We think that based on where we are right now, it’s been eight months since we first received those assurances (of funding), the documents are a bit stale,” said City Manager James Jimenez. City Councilors are being asked to repeal the Green2V industrial revenue bond inducement resolution the city passed in April, and the city’s economic development act it had with Green2V.

The article goes on to say that the city was promised 3 times that the money was coming and that the city of Rio Rancho trusted former Intel executive Bill Sheppard. There’s a quote from City Manager James Jimenez that I think is true as well.

“We pride ourselves as being competitive when it comes to economic development and aggressively pursuing (projects). Frankly, I’m well aware that we would have been criticized heavily if Green2V had been able to get its financing together and locate in Arizona if we knew we had a chance to bring them here and didn’t – for whatever reason – aggressively pursue them.”

The Albuquerque Journal had an article in May titled “Betting on Solar … Again” about the poor track record of OCS capital who was supposed to originally finance Green2V.

OCS lists numerous clients and industrial revenue bond financed projects on its website that have never materialized, among them the $16.5 million Big Event Amusement facility and Beach Waterpark in Albuquerque; the $210 million Nuchick poultry processing plant in Artesia; and a $22 million project to build an aircraft manufacturing plant in Odgen, Utah. The website does not mention that none of these projects came to fruition. Although the OCS name appears on a letter included in the bond application Green2V submitted to the city, Housley said Green2V never paid OCS money and terminated its relationship because it found another company to work with.

Then Green2V switched from OCS capitol to GP3, Ltd. The New Mexico Watchdog couldn’t find that either OCS Capital or GP3, Ltd seem to exist.

New Mexico Watchdog has learned that no limited partnership called GP3 exists in California according to the records of the California Secretary of State. The only limited partnerships with the term “GP3″ in their titles have had their partnership status canceled. One was GP3 Asset Acquisition, LLC, which was formed in 2007. It traces back to an Ann Arbor, Michigan, address, but is no longer a recognized limited partnership in California. The other was entitled Walton 425 GP3 IV, and traces back to a Chicago address. But its status as a limited partnership in California has also been canceled.

I can’t blame the City of Rio Rancho going forward with this based on the recommendation of the governor but clearly all of those involved should have done more research on the company. It doesn’t appear that the city is out of a significant amount of money. Hopefully the City will do a better job in the future of bringing in high tech companies.

July 3, 2010

A Rio Rancho Wireless Provider's Tower Comes Down

http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/tDrp0F_UB5g&hl=en_US&fs=1

A video on YouTube show the Roadrunner Wireless WiFi tower on Tulip Road in Rio Rancho, NM, being taken down by the City of Rio Rancho in late 2008. The poster of the video suggests a conspiracy by the city to prevent private business from operating freely.

A communications tower belonging to Roadrunner Wireless Services in Albuquerque, NM supplied wireless Internet to the citizens of Rio Rancho and Albuquerque, NM. This tower was taken down involuntarily on November 24, 2008. The Rio Rancho government illegally interfered with an Albuquerque business, stopping them from supplying wireless Internet to the citizens of Rio Rancho, NM. Now the citizens of Rio Rancho and Albuquerque have no wireless Internet for their jobs, education, etc. They were denied this access because the Rio Rancho government wants an outrageous and unfair amount of money in exchange for the right to deploy wireless Internet. Rio Rancho, NM is now a nationwide joke and embarrassment.

The poster of the video exaggerates the reasons for the towers disassembly. The Rio Rancho Observer says the tower was forceable removed because it did not have a permit and violated ordinances.

The city says the tower must come down because of an order issued by the 13th Judicial District Court in Sandoval County on May 23. The city sought this order from the court because when the tower was erected, it was done so without a building permit and subsequent inspection to ensure safety. The tower is also in violation of city ordinances for height and setback requirements for structures placed within a residential area. The height restriction is 32 feet, plus an additional 10 feet for roof-mounted structures such as chimneys and antennas.

While I support the ability of private business to do business in Rio Rancho, I certainly cannot support them doing it in a way that circumvents safety or city ordinances. This was near my house and as far as I can tell they haven’t tried to installed one legally two and a half years later.

Having looked at the possibly of subscribing to a city wide wireless provider, I found Roadrunner Wireless substandard. Their website used to look like it was mad in 1995 with a flashing star background, tables layout and broken images. Their website today is only slightly better but their coverage map of Rio Rancho can’t seem to load images.

The other city wide wireless provider, Azulstar, barley has coverage.