Billy The Kid Letter

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Small bird could knock wind out of turbines B6 ABqjournal.com

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NEW MEXICO THE SUNDAY JOURNAL

Agency Faring Well In Turmoil

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August 9, 2009

Research Centers Continue To Thrive

from an outlaw

Lawmakers’ $3 million gamble in 1983 pays off

Land Commissioner Claims Flat Budget

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By Martin Salazar

By Dan Boyd

Journal Staff Writer

COURTESY FRAY ANg ELIC O CHAVEz HISTORY LIbR ARY/ THE ASS OCIATED pRES S

Journal Capitol Bureau

SANTA FE — While most of New Mexico’s state government agencies could be facing furloughs, salary reductions or fewer workdays in light of revenue shortfalls, at least one state office seems to be sitting pretty despite the economic turmoil. Public Lands Commissioner Pat Lyons said his office has downsized its staff during the last six years and operated under a flat budget. During the same time, overall New Mexico state government spending has grown by about 40 percent, driven in large part by increases in employee compensation and the size of the total work force. LYONS: Cut“I just think backs in Land it’s a different Office seem philosophy in unlikely government,” Lyons, a Cuervo rancher and Republican who was first elected in 2002 and was re-elected in 2006, said in a recent interview. “You can’t just increase the size of government in good times or you end up in a bad situation.” Unlike most state agencies, the independently elected commissioner of public lands and his State Land Office don’t rely on the Legislature for operating expenses and the commissioner has more freedom to set his own budget. The Land Office takes its annual budget of nearly $14 million from revenue generated for public schools and other beneficiaries. The revenue comes chiefly from leasing state trust land and subsurface mineral rights. During the recently completed budget year, the Land Office earned $537 million through royalties, leases and other land deals. More than 90 percent of that revenue — which is the secondhighest figure in the agency’s history — came from the oil and gas industry. Under Lyons’ administration, the Land Office has increased the number of oil and gas wells operating on state land, which has helped revenue numbers stay at a high level despite a drop in the prices of oil and gas. Lyons recently informed employees in the Land Office that they likely won’t be forced to cut back on hours or take unpaid days off, regardless of how lawmakers decide to plug a budget gap that some fear could exceed $300 million. Currently, 155 people are employed by the Land Office statewide, a figure that’s two positions fewer than when Lyons took office. Meanwhile, the state’s executive branch grew by more than

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written by BILLY THE kID Library Has Legendary Gunslinger’s Notes to the Governor By Deborah Baker

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The Associated Press

ANTA FE — The handwritten letter to the governor is polite, articulate and to the point. “Dear Sir,” begins the missive. “I wish you would come down to the jail and see me.” The sender of the letter to territorial governor Lew Wallace was none other than Billy the Kid, the legendary gunslinger who was being held in the Santa Fe jail at the time. Just four months later, the Kid was gunned down by Sheriff Pat Garrett.

But in a boon to history lovers and Billy the Kid buffs, that March 1881 letter and an earlier letter to the governor from New Mexico’s most famous outlaw are now in a state history library in Santa Fe and available for public viewing. Bob McCubbin of Santa Fe, president of the Wild West History Association, said the letters are an absolute treasure. “Anybody that has any interest in Billy the Kid would be thrilled to see a letter that he actually wrote,” McCubbin said. The letters have been out of the See LIBRARY on PAGE B4

ABOVE: This photo provided by the Fray Angelico Chavez History Library shows a letter dated March 1881 written by Billy the Kid to New Mexico Gov. Lew Wallace. This and another letter are now in a state history library and available for public viewing. LEFT: This undated ferrotype picture is believed to depict William Bonney, also known as Billy the Kid, circa 1880.

Their cutting-edge research is setting the stage for smaller computers and faster Internet. It’s being used to determine how to safely transport potentially hazardous materials and to make air bags safer. Then there’s the diamond manufacturing. It’s all in a day’s work for scientists at centers for excellence at the University of New Mexico and New Mexico Tech. Much of the nationally recognized research at UNM’s Center for High Technology Materials and New Mexico Tech’s Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center likely wouldn’t have been possible without seed money provided by the state Legislature 26 years ago. “It was absolutely critical,” said Steve Brueck, director of UNM’s center. “The center would not exist without that BRUECK: seed money. There’s Startup monabsolutely no ques- ey was critition about that.” cal to center Brueck added that the $1.65 million allocated by the Legislature in 1983 to establish his center allowed UNM to attract internationally known faculty. In Socorro, where the Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center has grown into the university’s largest research division, Research Vice President Van Romero tells a similar story. “We would not be where we are today without that money, and I would say that has resulted in at least 150 full time jobs in the Socorro area as a result of that investment that was made back in the ’80s — permanent jobs,” Romero said. The center created at New Mexico Tech in the ’80s eventually merged with an existing center at the Socorro school to form what is now the Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center. But Romero said the $1.3 million in seed money from the Legislature allowed Tech to move beyond its work in support of military operations and to branch out and conduct research on such things as commercial explosives. “It added the research aspect to the testing facility that already existed,” he said. Romero said Tech took the seed money and recruited international experts. As UNM prepares to celebrate the 25th anniversary of its center, which it refers to as the CHTM, it is crediting state lawmakers for taking a gamble and providing the startup money. According to UNM, the Legislature allocated $7 million for five centers for technical excellence based at the state’s three research universities. Another center set up at UNM eventually became the heart of the Mind Research Network, which is dedicated to brain imaging, neurodiagnostic and mental illness research. Two centers set up at New Mexico State, meanwhile, are no longer operating. UNM’s center has attracted more than $100 million in contracts and grants since it was established. Its researchers have been awarded 65 patents, and eight companies have started from research that began at See RESEARCH on PAGE B4

See LAND on PAGE B4

Actors Take Their Place in the Scenery

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athan Gleason is one of the hardest working actors in the business. Though he’s been in more than 100 films, you probably don’t know his face. But films like “Wild Hogs” and “3:10 to Yuma” wouldn’t have been the same without him or a handful of others who have carved out a niche as professional background actors. “Back when they did ‘Elvis Has Left The Building’ some people said, ‘Yeah, I worked on that,’ ” Gleason said. It was all new to him. He’d never thought of working as

Reel N.M.

DAN MAYFIELD Of the Journal

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an extra before. “I saw a casting call for one called ‘The Longest Yard’ and I went and got 20 days of N.M. days, work, 12-Reel and 14-hour

and I did pretty good. Right away, boom, the same casting director called me up and then for a while I worked on 20 movies, boom, boom, boom.” He’s a guy in the crowd, or walking down a dusty street, or running from a building, or sitting in a car. Casting director Gwyn Savage of www.filmsavage. com, said she’s found about 30 reliable full-time extras. In her files though, she has hundreds of head shots and résumés of people who do an occasional stint as a background extra.

“It doesn’t mean they work every day, but they make a living,” Savage said. The pay isn’t great, and can start as low as $7 an hour, though Savage and others say they don’t like to work on films that pay less than $8.50-an-hour for background work. Savage said she and others in the casting world have worked to increase pay for background talent, especially the reliable workers. The hours are long. The food on the set can stink. The directors don’t always have

jIM THOMpSON/jOURNAL

Nathan Gleason, left, and Nathan Simmons are full-time backSee ACTORS on PAGE B5 ground extras for the movie industry in New Mexico.