Duran retires midterm, town considers new library, 6-day ordeal ends happily
– 10 YEARS AGO – ‘Mayor Duran retires midterm’
By Patricia Chambers Nov. 20, 2008
Taos Mayor Bobby F. Duran apparently surprised few council watchers when he announced his retirement at a meeting two years before his term was up.
Duran read a four-page statement explaining his decision that included recounting “the contributions of his mentors,” which included previous mayors during the 17 years that Duran served as a town council member, a mayor and one term as a state representative.
In his statement, “Duran alluded to contention with current council members Darren Cordova and Rudy Abeyta, which has been less evident since Eugene Sanchez and Amy Quintana were elected to the council last March,” reported Patricia Chambers.
“I once told my wife Cleo that I would serve as mayor as long as it was fun, challenging and I enjoyed the people that I served with. Two of these components are no longer there,” Duran said. “In making the decision to retire, I finally decided that the enjoyment of the job has greatly diminished. I feel I have fulfilled my civic obligations, and I also feel that the citizens of this community deserve unity in the government body.”
Interestingly, Abeyta, who was one of the councilors Duran reportedly had clashed with while mayor, was Duran’s pick to replace him on the council in 2004 when Duran became mayor by filling out the term of Mayor Fred Peralta. Peralta left office after he was appointed Secretary of Tourism by Gov. Bill Richardson.
Cordova was appointed to fill out Duran’s term and had earlier announced his intention to run for mayor anyway in 2010.
Some of the big projects that were completed while Duran was a council member included the library, the Taos Community Auditorium and the swimming pool at the Youth and Family Center, said Meliton Struck, who served on the council with Duran. Duran was 69 years old when he retired.
– 25 YEARS AGO – ‘New library on town list’ By Mike Stauffer
Nov. 18, 1993
Stauffer started his article with a long list of what was wrong with the current library:
“Welcome to the Taos library: the wall-to-wall shelves are filled, the roof leaks, contaminating both books and equipment; the wiring is inadequate, if not downright dangerous; and the handicapped space in the five space parking lot is usually filled by someone who isn’t handicapped. Adding insult to injury the rent: $38,000 a year.”
So the news that the town of Taos was one week away from authorizing the issuance of nearly $3 million in gross-receipts tax revenue bond to build a new library must have brought cheers from the reading public across Taos.
Apparently, this is a town of bookworms. The library director in 1993, Tracy McCallum, told the council that use of the library had risen close to 300 percent in the past 20 years as the collection size had doubled and the annual circulation of borrowed books and other media was 70,000.
The library had simply outgrown the 5,700 square-foot space it rented from the University of New Mexico at the Harwood Foundation complex. The new library on Town Hall Drive opened its doors in 1996, three years later.
– 50 YEARS AGO – ‘6-Day ordeal in snow ends happily for two men’
By Keith Green Nov. 21, 1968
The “new” stretch of US 64 between Tres Piedras and Tierra Amarilla apparently wasn’t as “marked and passable” as they had been told.
Ross Glaze, a rancher from Amarillo, Texas with a spread in Springer and his foreman, Louis Fernandez of Springer, spent six days in a cow camp with nothing to eat but a few raw potatoes after Glaze’s car was stuck in snow and ice in a creek bed.
It all started Nov. 13 when Glaze thought he’d like to check out some cattle for sale in Tierra Amarilla. He had never been over the new stretch of US 64, so in Tres Piedras he stopped to ask if it was passable and marked. It was snowing.
The problems began at the unmarked fork in the road west of Tusas. The two later realized that they chose the wrong road when they decided to head due west. It was the other road that went to TA. But by then it was too late and the car was stuck.
They found the cow camp, the potatoes, some matches and a piece of rug they slept under near the fire they built. On Saturday they spotted another camp and although they found nothing to eat, they stayed there. On Sunday, after praying all night, they walked 8 miles in the snow to a camp they later learned was called Lagunitas. They found canned food and burned fenceposts to stay warm.
Monday afternoon they saw a search plane, but it was too far away to signal. The Civil Air Patrol and many volunteers had been searching for days. But it wasn’t until Tuesday morning that two Texans in the search plane spotted Glaze’s car and targeted the search. Not long after Sabino Trujillo of Taos, a Forest Service employee, saw two men walking toward his jeep on a snow-covered road.
Glaze said: “I sure hope they put up some road markers up, especially at that fork.”
Fernandez said: “We thank the Lord we got out alive.”