The Taos Lesson: Fineberg Terminates, KCEC Fulminates
Sing Kumbaya: Fugitive Flies Home
According to Flavio, the Director of Planning, Louis Fineberg, for the Town of Taos has fled back to Colorado. He got the Taos Lesson in the standard two-year time frame, mas y menos. After hitching his hopes to Bellis, the deep-throated baritone got a raspberry for his trouble. Fired or resigned, nobody knows.
Below Town Councilor Judi Cantu in an email exchange with the Town Clerk wants to know why. But the Town’s White Elephants are stonewalling Cantu’s request until after the crucial June 27 vote on the high-rise Holiday Inn Express.
The pachyderms in Town chambers appear to despise this feisty woman and have censored her for speaking out of turn. Think Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren shut down for questioning the Trump proxy, i.e. Cracker Jack Sessions from Alabama. See Mayor on left leading the chorus.
BTW: despite a $500,000 taxpayer grant at the Don Fernando Inn, the weeds and detritus continue to give the former Holiday Inn a mean and hungry look. There are a few vehicles and a dumpster or two parked in the vicinity. Has Batra matched state largesse with a similar amount from his pocket? Or is he roller-skating round the requirements of the grant? Pierce the skyline and bow to Batra, the latest savior of the Town.
Here’s the clerk’s response to Judi’s request for information:
“RE: PUBLIC RECORDS REQUEST of June 14, 2017, Reference # W000499-061417
Dear Councilwoman Judi Cantu,
The Town of Taos received a public records request from you on June 14, 2017. Your request mentioned:
“I would like to receive the email with the complaint filed by Louis Fineburg pertaining to Town Manager Rick Bellis. Thank you, Judi C”
Additional time will be needed. Therefore, the records you requested will be available on or before June 29, 2017. You will be notified when they are available.
Sincerely,
Renee Lucero
Town Clerk
(575) 751-2005”
(The group picture above on KCEC’s web site is symbolic of the Coop’s inert state: four of the above members have long since left the Coop. Front and center facing the camera on the left side of the sign is the youthful Chris Duran in mustache and dark hair: the “enforcer” physically addressed Virgil Martinez’s complaint, the latter barely visible in white cowboy hat.
Grand Solar Plans
Intervener Link Summers reported back from the KCEC dog and pony show at the annual meeting on Saturday June 10. Only about 250 members showed up at an event that once attracted almost 1000 members for some 16 years straight. Apparently the Guzman Renewable Energy Partners and their grand solar plans were introduced.
Said plans include building a series of one-megawatt solar energy plants for $10 million each (about $10 per kilowatt). Link, a licensed electrician, announced to members that he is currently working on a “do-it-yourself” design for private home solar installation, costing about $2 or so per kilowatt.
The price of Solar Panels appears to be falling rapidly and self-sufficient Taosenos can investigate and construct their own energy systems with the aid of a couple of journeymen electricians, according to Link. As with the high tech but increasingly expensive and semi-obsolete Broadband venture, everything costs the Coop five times as much for five-times less service, compared to existing technology. Phone Link at 512-423-7693.
P.S. Home solar installation appears to be following in the direction of the mainframe computer from huge machines to desktops, to laptops, to smartphones. That lucky old sun rolls round heaven all day and the energy waves are free for the taking to those with some practical ingenuity.