Corrales Comment

This time of year, Corrales is primed to harvest an abundance of fall festivities. With cooler days, chiles roasting, monsoon rains tapering off and leaves beginning to turn, it’s clear fall is in the air. But so is COVID. Even before Harvest Festival launches September 25, the village will open up for the Corrales Art and Studio Tour September 10-12; the Corrales Ditch Run (formerly known as Corrida de Corrales) September 19; the “Got Art, Corrales” fundraiser for the Corrales Arts Center at the Old Church September 11; a concert in La Entrada Park September 18 featuring trumpeter Bobby Shew; a September 19 presentation at the Old Church on New Deal artwork produced in New Mexico during the Great Depression; and a meet-and-greet for Pet Mayor candidates in La Entrada Park also on September 11. Mask-wearing will be required, if not strongly suggested, at each of these. The coronavirus is on a new surge here, as elsewhere, even though 77.1 percent of adult New Mexicans had been vaccinated by September 1.

Data from the 2020 census has been released indicating Corrales’ population remains well shy of 10,000. If the tally is to be believed, this village has grown by less than 500 people since the 2010 census. Corrales’ population was 8,329 a decade ago, up from 7,334 in the year 2000. The count last year puts us at 8,778, said to represent a 5.39 percent increase over 2010. The official U.S. Census recognizes Corrales as New Mexico’s 24th largest town. It remains a wealthy town, even by national standards. The median annual household income here is $85,580, substantially higher than the median household income across the entire United States, which stands at $65,712.

While the median household income is reported to be $85,580, the average household income here is even more impressive at $120,363. The median is found by establishing the income level

By Stephani Dingreville

Three hundred and ten students are getting back to a new normal at Corrales’ only public school, where some new programs are being developed. Corrales Elementary is following all Albuquerque Public School guidelines for a safe re-entry. According to Principal Liv M. Baca-Hochhausler, “APS has installed ultra-violet air purifiers in each classroom as a mitigation strategy, each classroom also has exterior windows and/or doors that are kept open to ensure adequate ventilation. “The generous Corrales Elementary PTA has purchased wearable microphones for each teacher to assist in saving their voices as we are all wearing masks and it can be difficult to speak loud enough (over the air purifiers, swamp coolers and muffling masks) for our students to hear.” Along with this new technology for the teachers, each student has been issued his or her own technical device, iPads for kindergarteners and first graders and Chromebooks for second through fifth graders.

Teacher Eugenia Danen, who has a bachelor's degree in science, has fully revamped the school’s “STEAM Den,” and will be

By Scott Manning
Second in a series

Given the ongoing drought and expected water shortages from the Rio Grande due to climate change, well water is being eyed in Corrales and elsewhere —even though the aquifers here are sustainably replenished only by river flow and snow in the Sandias. The drought has impacted the past two growing seasons for farmers here. Some Corrales farmers rely on available surface water to irrigate their fields. This past winter, the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District (MRGCD) anticipated further droughts and advised farmers to reduce their farming operations because access to irrigation water for the duration of summer 2021 was not guaranteed. These water restrictions are difficult for farmers, but there is an alternative: pumping well water from the aquifer below the Corrales Valley.

According to Mike Hamman, chief engineer and CEO of the Conservancy District, his office has not encountered many farmers who have applied to pump well water rather than irrigation with surface water. In contrast, more farmers use well water in the Elephant Butte Irrigation District. Hamman suggests that certain obstacles may stand in the way of farmers adopting well water pumping. First, the farmer would need well water rights. In 1956, the New Mexico Office of the State Engineer “declared” the Rio Grande Underground Water Basin, and closed the aquifer to new wells for large-scale farming. This policy limited large farm wells but allowed for domestic well drilling.

An illustrated talk about artwork in New Mexico produced through the federal government’s New Deal programs will be given Sunday afternoon, September 19 at the Old Church. The free talk event by the Corrales Historical Society and the N.M. Historical Society will be illustrated by images or murals, paintings, sculpture and posters produced for the New Deal over ten years starting in 1933. Kathy Flynn, executive director of the National New Deal Preservation Associtation, will give the presentation, starting at 2 p.m. The State’s COVID safety restrictions will apply

Re-named as the Corrales Ditch Run, the race along the valley’s ditch banks long associated with the Corrales Harvest Festival this year will be held the Sunday before, on September 19. More than 200 runners are expected. As in the past, the event includes a half-marathon, a ten-kilometer and a five-k race, all starting and ending at the Corrales Recreation Center. New this year is a one-kilometer race for the littlest runners, starting well after the bigger folks have dashed off. That will be a

The Corrales-based Health Security for New Mexicans campaign is collaborating with the N.M. Office of the Superintendent of Insurance to work through details of a plan to implement a state plan for near-universal health care. Corrales’ Mary Feldblum explained the current status in an email to supporters last month. “Representative Debbie Armstrong, Senator Jerry Ortiz y Pino, and several of us from the Health Security for New Mexicans Campaign met with the superintendent of insurance, Russell Toal, and some of his staff earlier in the summer,” she reported.

The Albuquerque International Association has hired Molly Roush as its new executive director. She has come from Saratoga Springs, New York, where she developed campus-wide programming for strategic initiatives within the Skidmore College president’s office. She holds a master’s in community development, a bachelor’s in international studies, and over a decade of experience in international education, including work across Asia and the Middle East.

She moved here with her husband, an industrial engineer with Intel. The association offers a program on The Louvre Museum, “The Art and Politics of a Civic Institution,” presented by the chair of the University of New Mexico Art Department, Susanne Anderson-Riedel, at the UNM Domingo Baca Center. The program starts at 5:30 p.m.

Tickets can be acquired at https://conta.cc/2Vhd0I1 Then on September 24 at 3 p.m., an online broadcast on “India/Pakistan Nuclear Issues” presented by MIT’s Vipin Narang.

Tickets can be obtained at https://conta.cc/3f6sqFZ.

By Scott Manning

In 2018 the City of Rio Rancho entered into a power purchase agreement with Affordable Solar, an Albuquerque firm, to use electricity generated from the large solar electric farm located in Corrales’ Far Northwest Sector to partially power the nearby Wastewater Treatment Plant #2. Through the agreement, Rio Rancho purchases about two megawatts of electricity from the solar farm at a reduced rate and uses this electricity to cover about 20 percent of the power needs at the sewage treatment plant. According to Annemarie Garcia, the Public Affairs Division Manager with the City of Rio Rancho, the City entered into the agreement because the project fits with the City’s goal of developing efficient public infrastructure to meet the current and future needs of its residents.

Volunteers are needed for two upcoming efforts to remove invasive plants and litter in the Corrales Bosque Preserve. On Saturday morning, September 18, the Corrales Bosque Advisory Commission will direct volunteer efforts to remove seed heads of the Ravenna grass in a willow swale east of the levee mile marker 1.0. “The Bosque Advisory Commission tries to do this project yearly in an attempt to reduce the number of seeds which will germinate in the spring to become new invasive plants,” the commission’s Joan Hashimoto said. “Even removal efforts of a few hours can be very helpful and make a difference.”

Bags to collect the seed heads will be provided, but volunteers should bring sun protection, gloves and hand pruners .The Ravenna grass seed head removal effort will begin at 8:30 a.m. and continue until 10:30. Then about a month later, on Saturday, October 16, the commission will lead a trash removal effort at the Siphon Road entrance at the extreme north end of the preserve. Volunteers should bring gloves, but collection bags will be provided. That clean-up will start at 8:30 a.m., Hashimoto said.

State Representative Daymon Ely has raised the alarm that consumers have not been compensated for losses incurred from “illegal door-to-door sales tactics that allegedly ensnared uninformed consumers into binding 20-year power purchase agreements that ended up costing homeowners more than they were currently paying PNM.” Corrales attorney Ely has filed a complaint with the N.M. Attorney General saying that office has allowed private attorneys to receive $700,000 which could have gone to people who he thinks were victims.

Native American Community Academy (NACA) has been awarded $20,000 by the N.M. Outdoor Recreation Division. This summer, students participated in growing crops on the Trosello farm at the north end of Corrales. The non-profit incorporates “land-based learning as part of a holistic learning approach. Many of the school’s students have experienced historical separation from their ancestral lands due to forced relocation and assimilation practices. Healing those relationships with the land is an essential part of enabling students to heal from the generational trauma of colonization and grow into holistically healthy adults.”

Geologist David Mayerson died in his home here July 8 at age 68, succumbing to pancreatic cancer after nearly two years. A regular early morning cyclist in the Bosque Preserve, he also enjoyed hiking and cross-country skiing with friends in the Jemez Mountains.

He volunteered with Habitat for Humanity and other non-profits. After studying at Harvard and Wesleyan Universities, Mayerson earned a master’s degree in geology at the N.M Mining and Technology. He traveled widelyboth for his profession and for pleasure with his wife of 31 years, Glenda Moore, whose dedication eased his last months despite the pandemic.