If the Village Council approves it, a 12.8-acre tract at the north end of Corrales between the Main Canal and the Corrales Lateral ditch will be preserved in perpetuity as farmland. Using at least $960,000 of the $2.5 million generated by sale of general obligation municipal bonds approved by voters in 2018, the Village would acquire a conservation easement on the land owned by Brad and Deborah Haslam southwest of the intersection of Corrales Road and Kings Road.

A frequent bike rider in the Corrale Bosque Preserve, Guy Spencer recently came across a less frequent visitor: a bobcat, right on the trail. “I’m an avid mountain biker, and throughout the years, I’ve certainly come across and run into many cool things and experiences,” Spencer recalled after the July 15 encounter.  “This however quite possibly falls into its own little bucket.

“I was out on the bosque this morning, getting a cool, quiet ride in around 6 a.m.  I often ride during this time, selfishly taking advantage of the solitude and grace the bosque so unselfishly offers to many of us early bird-ers.

Night time recreational use of the Corrales Bosque Preserve has been restricted due to ongoing concerns over fire danger. On recommendation from the Bosque Advisory Commission , Mayor Jo Anne Roake set an earlier closure time for visits to the preserve. From April to October, evening use must end by 9 p.m.

The revised closing time is now 7 p.m. from November through March. Signs are being posted at entrances to the preserve. The commission wanted to change to be consistent with rules for the Rio Grande Valley State Park to the south.

Commissioners noted that reports have come in about small fires being started in the bosque and about people entering the preserve around midnight and even later. The preserve had been posted with a closure time of 10 p.m. At their June 11 meeting, commissioners were reminded that no allowable uses of the bosque need to be done after dark. Concern was also expressed that visits to the preserve at night raise potential for personal injury with diminished capacity for public safety personnel to respond.

Commissioners have also learned that someone deliberately damaged the most popular footbridge into the preserve. Metal straps securing...

By Scott Manning
Part 2
While a new group is beginning to research possibilities for a mixed-use recreational area along the Corrales Interior Drain, the City of Albuquerque in conjunction with Bernalillo County is currently implementing a somewhat similar project along the Alameda Drain in the North Valley.

That project in Albuquerque and in Bernalillo County territory is an ambitious plan to transform the ditchbanks along the Alameda Drain. Like the situation in Corrales, the drain in the North Valley is an important piece of ...

Mary Davis, historian summa cum laude of Corrales and beyond, just did her first book promo Zoom for fans of her newest book, Hometown Corrales: A Family Album, courtesy of Bookworks in Albuquerque.

She decided to sit in front of her randomly filled bookshelf for her remote chat, as is now customary among celebs and the litterati. This hour-long virtual event June 21 attracted just over a dozen possible customers/readers. Coming July 28 at 1 p.m. is Davis’ second Zoom appearance, this one for members of Village in the Village. For more information, call 274-6206.

As reported by Corrales Comment the end of last year, “Ten years of researching, interviewing, hair-pulling and collating later, Mary Davis has completed a second book about Corrales, an effort aided and abetted by the skills and commitment of Carolyn O’Mara, graphic designer, as well as by members of the Corrales Historical Society. This new project is called Hometown Corrales: A Family Album, and its primary focus is people —59 family names, and as many as 200 people, representing a tapestry of interwoven names and families.

As Davis put it, “This book is the answer to those who asked “Why is my family not in the book?” Her first such volume, Corrales, put out in April 2010 by Arcadia Publishing, was part of the series “Images of America.” And yet, even after all this, Davis admits there are “numerous families I know nothing about.’”

During the ongoing pandemic, Davis has been staying close to home with her husband Paul, retired University of New Mexico professor and author of numerous books, whose days are firmly focused on creating remarkable wood block prints that capture the essence of the novels of Charles Dickens. These 18 by 18-inch Dickens evocations are not for sale.

A long-proposed trail connection between the City of Rio Rancho’s paved Thompson Fence Line trail along the edge of the escarpment and the end of Sagebrush Drive in Corrales was presented at the June 16 Village Council meeting. The plan was explained in a Powerpoint presentation by the Corrales Bicycle, Pedestrian Advisory Commission. The council meeting was held via internet, as such meetings were over the past two months.

The commission has held discussions with Rio Rancho officials, the Southern Sandoval County Arroyo Flood Control Authority and Corrales Public Works several times over the last five years. Public Works has estimated the trail link could cost around $74,000 including engineering and installation.

“The time is now,” the commission’s presentation urged. “A Parks and Recreation survey indicated residents want opportunities to exercise outside

The call of the cool waters of the Rio Grande recently has brought to its shores people launching swimming pool floats… flotation devices utterly unsuitable for river rafting.

The killing of a large pony in its corral near Cabezon Road and Caminito Alegre at the south end of Corrales late at night June 25 shocked villagers and led to a fundraising effort for a reward for information. The crime is being investigated by the N.M. Livestock Board; donations for a reward are being channeled to Crimestoppers in Albuquerque.

Donations to the “Justice for Rocky” reward fund can be sent to Corrales Horse and Mule People at https://gf.me/u/yc589h or mailed to CHAMP, PO Box 1064, Corrales NM 87048 with Justice for Rocky in the memo line.

Corralitos 4-H had “so many plans for this year and so many new members, it is really a bummer we have not been able to meet or do any of our community service projects,” reported 4-H leader Lacey Bendzus. New Mexico State University 4-H “cancelled all face-to-face 4-H activities until August 8, so we have not been able to do anything together, even with social distancing, at all,” she added. The Sandoval County Fair, a key event for Corralitos 4-H members, scheduled to run in Cuba from July 29 through August 2, has been cancelled. So organizers are creating a Virtual Livestock Show and Virtual Junior Livestock Sale.  The sale will be open to everyone.

Corrales crops dependent on ditch irrigation should survive to harvest despite the drought, meager flows from southern Colorado’s slopes and extreme temperatures. In mid-July, the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District successfully sought permission from Texas and Colorado through the Interstate Stream Commission to use about 38,000 acre-feet of stored water.

Otherwise, MRGCD officials said the Rio Grande would have dried up along this stretch of the river and depleted water flowing to irrigation ditches. On July 17, the MRGCD issued a statement that it “was anticipating running out of its general irrigation water supplies in upstream reservoirs by Saturday morning [July 18] that would have led to extensive river drying and devastating crop losses throughout the middle Rio Grande valley.”

State Engineer John D’Antonio, who serves on the Rio Grande Compact, said the agreement specifies that the “borrowed” water be used judiciously to prevent catastrophic cross losses and minimize impacts to endangered...

By Scott Manning
How confident are you that your vote in the November elections will be protected against hacking and that malicious software intrusions will be blocked?According to Corrales’ Bob Perls, upcoming elections in Sandoval County and in much of the United States remain vulnerable to the same kinds of threats that jeopardized the 2016 election.

The report by Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller proved that Russia engaged in a coordinated campaign to influence that election. The Russians coordinated a social media campaign to spread misinformation and hacked voter databases. Although the impact of Russian election meddling is unclear, Russian efforts demonstrated that the U.S. election process is susceptible to outside influence. And there is reason to believe that Russia could try these kinds of tactics again: Russia was caught attempting to meddle in elections throughout Europe just last year.

Primarily to better secure the November 2020 election process, Perls, a former U.S. Foreign Service officer, ran for the office of Sandoval ...