Taos News stories that made an impact in 2022
Taos Pueblo officials extend terms for first time
By RICK ROMANCITO
For the first time in the tribe’s modern history, the Taos Pueblo tribal council announced early this year that it had decided to retain its entire government staff appointed in January 2021 through 2022, despite a longstanding precedent of one-year terms.
“This is the first time as far as we know in our lifetime that an administration has been appointed to serve a consecutive term in office,” a statement from the Taos Pueblo government read. “We understand that change is difficult for many, but it is inevitable …”
In its reasoning, the tribe cited the COVID-19 pandemic, which prompted Taos Pueblo to close to the public in 2020 until reopening this past summer, as well as a desire to allow officials time to follow through on initiatives they commit to when they assume office.
Mask mandates lifted By GEOFFREY PLANT
(Feb. 24)
When Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced in late February that New Mexicans would no longer be required to where face covering while indoors, it signaled a turning point for the pandemic in the state.
It also came as a surprise, not only because the announcement followed the adjournment of the 30-day legislative session, but because it marked a sharp shift from the governor’s largely-restrictive public health mandates through the first two years of the pandemic.
Voters shake things up STAFF REPORT
(March 3)
Taos, Questa and the Village of Taos Ski Valley all saw new mayors take office on April 1, marking major shifts in the political futures of each municipality.
The shift was perhaps the most dramatic for the Town of Taos, where 34-year-old former town councilor Pascual Maestas unseated two-term mayor Dan Barrone Sr. in a landslide victory. Prior to Maestas’ win, Barrone’s town manager throughout his two terms, Rick Bellis, announced he would not seek reappointment to the role, which Maestas filled with another former town councilor, Andrew Gonzales.
Taos Ski Valley saw a previous mayor, Neal King, return to the role after he was beaten in 2018 by this year’s incumbent, Christoff Brownell. After King died in August, TSV village councilor Tom Wittman was appointed mayor pro-tem.
Questa saw a tight race between two lifelong residents, with challenger John Anthony Ortega scoring a victory over incumbent Mark Gallegos by just 30 votes.
Rec cannabis goes on sale By WILL HOOPER
(April 7)
Ahead of the April 1 start date for recreational adult-use cannabis sales in New Mexico, Mario Vargas, longtime cannabis grower and owner of the horticulture consultation company Taos Monte Grown, told the Taos News that “Taos has been known for having the best cannabis — hands down — in New Mexico and the Southwest.” Two recreational retail shops opened for business on April 1, and the industry has continued to gather momentum here. The town’s eighth dispensary opened its doors downtown in November. With a 20.6-percent tax on all recreational sales, the Town of Taos stands to benefit from the additional revenue. Statewide, New Mexico saw $5.2 million in total cannabis sales over the first weekend.
Questa man sues housing authority
By SOL TRAVERSO
(April 14)
Communities across Taos County struggled with the increasing shortage of rental and affordable housing in 2022; meanwhile, the state lifted its pandemic-era moratorium on evictions.
One Questa man, 68-year-old Roger Chavez Jr., a disabled man, returned to his home of 20 years from a knee surgery in late 2021 to find a warning letter advising him to sign a new lease within seven days; postmarked the same day was an accompanying eviction notice. He signed a lease, but received another eviction notice and warning that his longstanding memorial to his son was in violation of his lease. He sued the Northern Regional Housing Authority and eventually was granted a restraining order against the housing authority.
Taos County provides shelter to wildfire refugees By GEOFFREY PLANT
(April 28, May 12)
Before the massive Calf Canyon–Hermits Peak wildfire burned through San Miguel County and Mora County into Taos County in May, Taos county residents stepped up to help some of the thousands of people displaced by the blaze sparked in mid-April by two outof-control prescribed burns in the Santa Fe National Forest. The wildfire wasn’t declared contained until Aug. 21.
As vulnerable Northern New Mexicans evacuated their homes in April and May, finding refuge at Sipapu Ski and Summer Resort and in the Peñasco High School gym, the fire moved north and east, ultimately forcing people to evacuate from the shelters in southwest Taos County. Evacuees, some with little more than a vehicle and the clothes on their backs, filled the Juan I. Gonzales Agricultural Center, RV parks and hotels in the area. The Town of Taos declared a civil emergency on May 19 that carried the threat of fines for price-gouging. Many evacuees ended up in Albuquerque and Santa Fe.
At the end of June, the Taos News released an award-winning short film, “Inside New Mexico’s Largest Wildfire,” which portrayed the scale of the disaster; and the uncertainty, fear and anger felt by its victims. The blaze and the floods that followed transformed over 500 square miles of North Central New Mexico forest and private land, destroyed critical infrastructure, and burned thousands of structures, vehicles and agricultural equipment.
Town reaches impasse with local beaver
By GEOFFREY PLANT
(May 26)
The Town of Taos had battled beaver dams before. But when public works crews tore out a section of a dam in Fred Baca Park in May, there was an outcry from Taos birders. “It’s nesting season, so it’s bad timing,” said birder Charlie Woehler.
Mayor Pascual Maestas immediately promised to plug the hole in the dyke. “I will be their beaver mediator,” he said. By October, true to Maestas’ word, volunteers were installing two pond-leveling devices in the marsh at Fred Baca Park under the watchful eye of Danny Mondragon, the town’s onsite caretaker of Fred Baca Park. A keystone species, the beaver of Fred Baca Park may now shore up their dams in ignorant bliss as a so-called “beaver deceiver” quietly keeps the marsh water level away from two town sewer lines that run through it.
Longtime Taos News cartoonist retires
By GEOFFREY PLANT (Aug. 4)
Bill Baron’s psychedelic underground light shows were purchased by Playboy Club in the 1960s. He became a successful graphic designer and then fell into creating some of the most influential toys of the 1970s, 80s and 90s. What did he do in retirement? He sharpened his pencil and become the Taos News’ editorial cartoonist.
After a quarter-century of illustrating the folly and foibles of local Taos County politics and culture, Baron sharpened his last editorial pencil in August and swore he’d dedicate himself to his fine artwork. But those who felt the sting of Baron’s editorial cartoons, which lampooned officials in Taos, Taos County and on local school boards, along with utility providers, hospital administrators, animal control officers and even, for a time, the town’s parking enforcement officer, will not soon forget how pointed his editorial pencil could be.
Hospital CEO fires popular surgeon before retiring
By GEOFFREY PLANT
(Aug. 4, Aug. 25)
Before he retired in September after seven years on the job, Holy Cross Medical Center CEO Bill Patten made an executive decision that, to put it lightly, was not popular with community members. With the consent of the hospital’s board of directors, he fired Dr. William Dougherty, a popular and versatile surgeon who is credited by his patients and colleagues with saving numerous lives and performing medical procedures that no other Taos surgeon was capable of. Despite scores of letters and phone calls from patients and physicians in support of Dougherty, as well as a petition that garnered more than a hundred hospital worker’s signatures, Holy Cross’ leadership stood fast behind the decision Patten made on his way out the door.
Just before Patten’s departure, the board of directors hired a new interim CEO, James Kiser, who came highly recommended by hospital management company Quorum Health Resources. Kiser immediately began making inroads with local elected officials and, at the same time he asked for more public funding to be directed to the hospital, pledged to fulfill Holy Cross’s past promises for consistent and transparent financial reporting with regard to how the hospital spends its public funding.
Taos residents show support for Ukraine
By GEOFFREY PLANT, WILL HOOPER AND JOHN MILLER
(March 10 and 17)
When Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, the ripple effects of that international aggression reached every corner of the world, including Taos County, where county residents gathered to show their support for the Ukrainian people. The Taos News published stories about an immigrant father and son who escaped and traveled all the way to Questa, a young Jewish boy from Taos who escaped from Dnipro as bombs began to fall and a former IT worker from Taos who found himself stranded near Kriv. The Taos County Sheriff’s Office, among other local organizations, gathered donations to send to overseas. Today, nearly a year since it began, the war continues.
Taxpayers on the hook for Questa mine cleanup
By GEOFFREY PLANT
( July 14)
In a major decision in July, a federal judge ordered that at least $300 million in cleanup costs for the closed Questa molybdenum mine Superfund site be shifted from Chevron to taxpayers.
Chevron Mining, Inc. had previously been responsible for nearly all of the cleanup of the nearly100-year-old mine, which for a stretch beginning in the 1950s was the United States’ second-largest producer of the metal used in steel manufacturing. Upon the mine’s closure in 2014, Questa’s mining economy collapsed. “Without the encouragement and involvement of the United States, Molycorp’s open pit mine and second underground mine likely would not have been developed,” Senior U.S. District Court Judge Paul Kelly wrote in his opinion, adding that Molycorp “was not coerced by the United States into this mining activity” and therefore bears the bulk of the financial liability for the cleanup. The cleanup costs, which are projected to top $1 billion, will be split 70-30 between Chevron and the federal government.
New school campus in the cards for Peñasco
By GEOFFREY PLANT
(Aug. 18)
In August, as the Peñasco Independent School District was working on its first-ever facilities master plan, the state’s powerful Public School Capital Outlay Council requested an agenda item be placed on the Peñasco school board’s meeting agenda. It’s purpose? To alert the district that it was among the state’s top 20 districts in need of “full replacement” of it’s buildings. The list, which is updated on an annual basis, will be released on Jan. 7, 2023. Peñasco’s schools were previously ranked between 153rd and 379th among nearly 700 public schools across the state.
Taos Municipal Schools faces security concerns, financial investigation By GEOFFREY PLANT and WILL HOOPER
(Sept. 22)
It was a tumultuous year for the Taos Municipal Schools District, which saw a mid-year spike in lockdowns and a violent stabbing by a 27-year-old man in September that seriously injured a track athlete in the Taos High School parking lot. Longtime superintendent Lillian Torrez’s successor Valerie Trujillo oversaw a school board that invested in heightened security measures meant to prepare the district’s schools for a worst-case scenario, including the deployment of new surveillance cameras and fully-equipped “lockdown buckets” to try and ensure that staff and students are prepared in case a worst-case active shooter or other threats materialize in the future.
In October, Trujillo announced that state police had been onsite at the district’s administration building in relation to “one or more investigations related to executive staff,” and that the district had notified the Office of the State Auditor of a pending forensic audit. Several highranking district employees were suspended. The district was — and still is — keeping a lid on the possible extent of what Trujillo described as “financial fraud, waste and abuse” within the district.