Just how transparent —and legal— are Village Council deliberations during pandemic limitations and online meetings? More precisely, have members of the council engaged in the illegal practice of a “rolling quorum” in discussing matters that may come up for a vote at a future meeting? Ostensibly as orientation for the newest member of the council, Tyson Parker, explanations of what constitutes a “rolling quorum” were given by Village Attorney Randy Autio and Village Clerk Aaron Gjullin at the council’s February 9 Zoom session.

Gjullin warned that infractions of the State’s Open Meetings Act...

Funds for Corrales from the N.M. Legislature last year that had been withheld have now been released. Money is now available for Casa San Ysidro Museum, Animal Control, Police Department offices, Fire Department water tanker and to extend water lines for fighting fire.

At the February 9 Village Council meeting, Village Clerk Aaron Gjullin reported “We have finally gotten, official, in-writing, bona fide grant agreements for capital outlay money that we weren’t sure we were going to get.” Gjullin said he had received word earlier that day that appropriations are approved for the following:
• Casa San Ysidro waste water and fire suppression lines - $25,000;
• Animal Control vehicles and equipment - $40,000;

Music in Corrales’s next virtual concert, “Boyd Meets Girl,” features Rupert Boyd and Laura Metcalf, a classical and contemporary guitar and cello husband and wife duo. They performs an eclectic and engaging repertoire, from Debussy and Schubert to the Beatles and Beyoncé. Their on-demand concert, created exclusively for Music in Corrales, will be available for ticket buyers to view anytime from Saturday, February 20 through Sunday, February 28.

In addition to the concert, ticket purchasers will receive a Virtual Backstage Pass for a live conversation and a question and answer session with the musicians via Zoom at 6 p.m. Saturday, February 20.  Ticket buyers will receive their concert ticket link along with a link for their Virtual Backstage Pass 12 to 24 hours prior to Saturday, February 20.  Tickets are $15/person for links to the concert video and the Virtual Backstage Pass.  Tickets can be obtained at https://www.musicincorrales.org/concert/boyd-meets-girl-concert.

Perhaps this is yet another scene in Corrales’ medical marijuana card holders’ Waiting for Godot moment…calls to Southwest Organic Producers, SWOP, in Albuquerque asking when the Corrales retail outlet would open revealed “I have no idea…they keep saying ‘in two weeks,’ every time we ask. ‘In two weeks.’” The end of last year there was a brief burst of increased activity at the eastern end of the former Kim Jew property at 4604 Corrales Road, as it appeared that the retail cannabis dispensary was almost ready to open. A SWOP source said in December that “furniture, including display cases” were being bought for the Corrales site.

A graduate of Corrales Elementary and Cibola High is leading discussions in Europe and elsewhere about avenues for legal action to assign responsibility for human rights abuses and environmental violations.

Jeff Handmaker, Cibola class of 1988 and University of London graduate in law (1994) who also holds a doctorate in the sociology of law from Utrecht University, Netherlands (2009), now works in The Hague, at the International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University. He also teaches at Leiden University. He is now leading a team researching legal strategies to hold governments, individuals and corporations accountable for human rights, environmental and other legal violations.

Handmaker and four others were awarded a five-month fellowship through the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the  Humanities and Social Sciences in Amsterdam. Their focus is “the strategic potential and challenges of legal mobilization” to ensure consequences for illegal or inappropriate corporate behavior.

The latest Corraleño to be named a local hero is John Perea. Mayor Jo Anne Roake made that announcement at the January 26 Village Council meeting. She noted he has served on several municipal committees and commissions, including Parks and Recreation and Farmland Preservation, and has served the broader community for years in various ways.

The family business, Perea’s Restaurant and Tijuana Bar, has hosted countless community gatherings over decades. The mayor pointed out that Perea, a former Peace Corps volunteer in Nicaragua, has been a consultant for several Pueblo governments, representing them in Washington DC.

Roake began an effort to recognize villagers as local heroes last year, starting with Red Cross volunteer Linda Crowden, and then Corrales ...

After its usual winter hiatus, Casa San Ysidro Museum: The Gutiérrez-Minge House, across from Old Church, is once again up and running, with COVID-19-safe tours, five-person per tour, New Mexico residents only, via timed tickets available for purchase only online through Hold My Ticket. And, according to Site Manager Aaron Gardner, the museum also is offering a full roster of online programming. You can get each relevant Zoom connection by going to http://www.cabq.gov/culturalservices/albuquerque-museum/events
• February 13: The Unique Legacy of Abraham Lincoln in New Mexico
Abraham Lincoln spoke very little about the far western territory of New Mexico. Yet, during his presidency, two different wars were fought here and the territory’s landmass was divided in half. Lincoln signed into law legislation that would eventually...

Villagers will have to decide soon whether they want to keep municipal elections on the first Tuesday of March every other year or switch to the date of general elections in November.

The question, which involves complications related to timing as well as funding, was debated at the February 9 Village Council meeting, with no clear answer. The over all purpose was to eliminate conflicts and standardize schedules and procedures.

In 2018 , the N.M. Legislature passed the Local Election Act which allowed municipalities to retain their schedules for elections on the first Tuesdays in March in even-numbered years or to opt-in for consolidated elections on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November of odd-numbered years— that is, the traditional date for November general election.

Responding to villagers’ concerns that Corrales’ long-standing one-home-per-acre policy is consistently being circumvented, the Village Council has imposed a six-month moratorium on permits to build secondary dwellings on lots and on applications to operate short-term rentals. After substantial public comment at its January 26 session, the council voted five-to-one to impose the 180-day moratorium noting that “the size of accessory structures is virtually unregulated, sometimes resulting in what appears to be two homes on one lot,” and that such residences “are being utilized for the commercial purpose of providing short-term rental accommodations.”

At the February 9 Village Council meeting to be zoomed starting at 6:30 p.m., an update will be given on the farmland preservation program. The briefing was requested at the January 26 session by Councillor Zach Burkett, who responded to a request forsuggestions for the next meeting’s agenda. “Can we get an update on conservation easements —just if there are any other properties that have been identified as interested? I have heard rumors...

As if we needed more pandemic-related issues to consider in 2021, it appears that even the minimal recycling efforts we may be making are likely doomed to failure. Lee Dante, president of Roadrunner Waste Service Inc., which has served Corrales since 2004, says what he calls “commingling” of multiple so-called recyclables in one bin is a major issue.

Plastic grocery bags, pizza boxes, unwashed fast food/takeout containers, no. Unrinsed tin cans, no. And the Earth Institute at Columbia University reports that “Single-stream recycling, where all recyclables are placed into the same bin, has made recycling easier for consumers, but results in about one-quarter of the material being contaminated.”

At least, though, as Dante puts it, “the public finally has learned to recycle, with New Mexico at least 20 years behind many parts of the...