This document provides information about various community events occurring around Valencia County, New Mexico. It announces an Independence Day celebration in Belen including entertainment and a fireworks show. It also lists a block party in Los Lunas sponsored by Youth Development Inc. featuring food, games and a skating competition. Additionally, it mentions that the Belen Art League is holding a sidewalk sale and that the Los Lunas police will have increased DWI enforcement in July. It provides details on a car wash fundraiser for the Valencia High Jazz Dance Team and notes that the Los Lunas Parks Department is accepting parade applications for their July 4th parade. Finally, it states that the School of Dreams Academy still has some openings for the

1. Classified 3C
Editorials 4A
Databank 2A
Days gone by 2A
Deaths 6A
Caliente 1C
Noticias 4B
Record 6A
Sports 1B
INDEX
News digest
Independence Day
celebration in Belen
An All American Independence Day
and Music Fest will be held on
Saturday, June 27, from 6 p.m. to 11
p.m. in the Heart of Belen. A National
Anthem contest will be held from 6 to
6:30 p.m. There is no entry fee. For
more information, call Lenore Pena at
966-2742.
Other entertainment includes the Rio
Grande Community Band at 5:30 p.m.,
Junior Jazzercise performance at 6:30
p.m., Music by Red Wine at 7 p.m.and
at 8:15 p.m., Lori’s Boardwalk
Gymnastics performance at 7:45 p.m.,
and the National Anthem and fireworks
at 9 p.m. Food will be sold throughout
the event.
Block party to be held
at YDI in Los Lunas
A block party will be held from 6 to
10 p.m. on Friday, June 26, at 428 Los
Lentes Road in Los Lunas. It’s spon-
sored by Youth Development Inc. Face
painting, food, skills tests, Guitar Hero,
door prizes and a pie-eating contest
will be featured. Skating competition is
planned. For information, call Victoria,
352-3480, or Angela, 352-3478.
Belen Art League
holds sidewalk sale
The Belen Art League will be hold-
ing its annual sidewalk sale on Friday
and Saturday, June 26 and 27, from 8
a.m. to 1 p.m. in front of the building
located at 509 Becker in Belen.
DWI checkpoints in
Bosque Farms, Isleta
Numerous DWI checkpoints and sat-
uration patrols will be conducted by
both the Bosque Farms Police
Department and the Isleta Police
Department throughout the month of
July.
VHS Jazz Dance Team
to hold car wash
A carwash to benefit the Valencia
High School Jazz Dance team will be
held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday,
June 27, at Peralta Elementary School.
A yard sale will be held, and hot dogs
will be sold as well.
Los Lunas parade
applications available
The Los Lunas Parks and Recreation
Department is accepting applications
for the 4th of July parade in Los Lunas.
The parade will start at the Valencia
“Y” at 9 a.m. on Saturday, July 4. You
can submit your entry online at loslu-
nasnm.gov, faxed to you, or you may
want to pick one up at the Visitor’s
Center, 3447 Lanbros Road. Call, 352-
3584, for information.
SODA still accepting
applications for fall
School of Dreams Academy vacan-
cies have been filling up quickly, but
there are still a few openings available
for grades 7, 8, and 9 for the upcoming
school year. If you are interested, appli-
cation forms are available online at
www.schoolofdreamsacademy.com or
they can be picked up at the Valencia
YDI office at 428 Los Lentes Ave. For
information, call 352-3482.
Serving Valencia County
since 1910
www.news-bulletin.com
Call us: 864-4472
I See Ceremony, Page 6A I See Arsenic, Page 6A
I See Sentencing, Page 6A
Julia M. Dendinger-News-Bulletin photos
SPECIALIST ELIZABETH P. KRAMM salutes as the National Anthem is sung during a yellow ribbon ceremony for the
New Mexico National Guard 515th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion. Kramm and 77 fellow soldiers are bound
for Iraq as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
KAITLIN HORTON and her parents, Jenny and Michael, traveled up from Truth or
Consequences to take part in the yellow ribbon ceremony held at the Heart of
Belen on Saturday for the New Mexico National Guard 515th Combat
Sustainment Support Battalion. Kaitlin’s uncle, Specialist Michael Harding,
shipped out with the 515th and serves the battalion as a chaplain’s assistant.
BY JULIA M. DENDINGER
News-Bulletin Staff Writer
jdendinger@news-bulletin.com
BELEN
People arrived early to the gazebo
at the Heart of Belen Saturday
morning. Armed with umbrellas and
jackets against the cool drizzle,
close to 50 people found a dry spot
under the gazebo in preparation for
Belen’s first ever yellow ribbon cer-
emony nearly 90 minutes before the
ceremony began.
As the hour approached, the
crowd swelled to over 200 people
wanting to say goodbye to their
family and friends in the New
Mexico National Guard 515th
Combat Sustainment Support
Battalion (CSSB). American flags
large and small fluttered in the
breeze, and yellow ribbons adorned
everything from suit jacket lapels to
pony tails.
The unit traveled to Camp
Atterbury in Indiana earlier this
week for further training before
their final deployment to Iraq as
part of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
The 78 soldiers are expected to be
overseas for at least 12 months.
As the ceremony began, Cpt.
Jason Peete noted that the battalion
was following such glorious compa-
ny as the “battling bastards of
Bataan” into the service of their
county.
“The 515th will do its best to fol-
Bid approved
for arsenic
treatment in
Los Lunas
BY MELISSA HUBBELL
News-Bulletin Staff Writer
mhubbell@news-bulletin.com
LOS LUNAS
It’s been eight years in the making, and
the implementation of an arsenic treatment
project is at the beginning of the end.
The Los Lunas Village Council unani-
mously approved a request for a bid award
to RMCI, Inc. for $2,380,871 for arsenic
treatment systems and buildings. The vil-
lage went out to bid on June 9 and recieved
seven bids.
On January 23, 2001 the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
lowered the Arsenic Maximum
Contaminant Level (MCL) to 10 parts per
billion (ppb). Previously, federal regula-
tions regarding drinking water stated water
systems could have up to 50 ppb of arsenic
in the water.
When the regulations changed, all four
of Los Lunas’ water wells were below the
Woman to
serve prison
sentence for
vehicular
homicides
BY JULIA M. DENDINGER
News-Bulletin Staff Writer
jdendinger@news-bulletin.com
Two years and one day after a drunk
driver killed two men, a judge sentenced
the driver to more than a decade behind
bars.
District Judge William Sanchez sen-
tenced Rhonda Trujillo, 38, of Belen, to
23 years in prison for two counts of
homicide by vehicle (DWI) and one
count of child abuse, suspending nine of
those years for a total of 14 years in
prison.
Sanchez determined that the two
homicide counts were serious violent
offenses, which added four years to the
two six-year terms. The enhancement
means that Trujillo will have to serve 85
percent of her sentence before she can be
considered for parole.
Trujillo plead no contest in April to
Counterfeit bill used to pay water bill in Belen
BY CLARA GARCIA
News-Bulletin Staff Writer
cgarcia@news-bulletin.com
BELEN
An alert Belen city water clerk discovered a
counterfeit $100 bill in their till this week after
she realized something odd about the currency.
Belen Police Detective Sgt. Joe Portio said
that an unknown person went into city hall on
Tuesday and paid their water bill with a $100
bill. He said out of about 100 people that day
that went into pay their utility bill, about 30 paid
with cash.
“One of the clerks, who actually used to
work for a bank, was going through the money
the next day to get the deposits ready, felt the
bill,” Portio explained. “To me, or to any
untrained person, it would just feel that it was a
bill that got washed in the laundry.”
The detective said the clerk, who has had
training in detecting possible counterfeit curren-
cy, investigated the bill further after noticing the
odd texture. Portio said she lifted the bill up to
the light and noticed the hologram on the right
side.
“In this case, the hologram was a picture of
Abraham Lincoln, which is on the $5 bill and
the bill in question is $100 bill with a picture of
Benjamin Franklin,” Portio said. “That was the
biggest clue that this was counterfeit. She veri-
fied the rest of the money she had and turned it
over to us.”
Not only did the hologram raise flags, but
also other markings on the bill itself made
detectives determine that it was counterfeit.
“At this point, we’re investigating six differ-
ent counterfeit reports, which we’ve already
incorporated the U.S. Secret Service to help,”
Portio said. “This is the first one that the city of
Belen has encountered as far as being a washed
bill and being reprinted on the cloth material in
which a legal tender is actually printed on. The
rest have either been copied or made from a
template.”
Portio explained that whoever made the
Clara Garcia-News-Bulletin photo
THIS $100 BILL used to pay a water bill at Belen City Hall last
week was discovered to be counterfeit. Belen police are asking
that everyone, especially business owners, check all the currency
they receive.I See Counterfeit, Page 3A
Somber send off for soldiers
MIDWEEK EDITION, JUNE 24, 2009
News-BulletinVALENCIA
COUNTY High, 92
Low, 65
Vol. 99, No. 50
RELIGIOUS RETABLOS
Matt Baca creates
historic Spanish art
¡CALIENTE! I 1C
WATER LOGGED
Hurricane swimmers
improve their times
SPORTS I 1B
LANDMARK LODGINGS
Historic hotels offer
legendary accomodations
AMERICAN PROFILE I 9
Weather
50 centsCopyright © 2009,Valencia County News-Bulletin
# #