Nick Seibel, publisher and editor of the Silver City Daily Press, covers top stories each week on the Silver City Report. This week we hear about an incident at the Grant County Detention Center, a WNMU Regents deciding not to raise tuition and a new program to engage children.
Susan Morée:
So Nick, there was a kerfuffle at the county jail. Tell us about it. What happened?
Nick Seibel:
Yeah, at the Grant County Detention Center, inmates kind of got upset over the quality of food and the portions being served to them, which led to a hunger strike and some other protest actions by inmates that took place just before and after Easter weekend. It kind of started, the inmates kind of became concerned about the food quality, and multiple inmates filed grievances using the system that the jail has, using tablets that inmates have access to. But that was shortly before Easter weekend. So, administrators were out of the office and didn't get a chance to see those grievances. And by the time they returned after Easter weekend, it kind of escalated into the hunger strike. A few days went by, and later in the week, inmates and one pod refused to turn in their food trays and made some comments that jailers interpreted as being threatening, which caused an escalation. They ended up evacuating the pod, collecting the trays themselves. At the same time, inmates in another pod were basically using water to flood the floor in their cells. This was all kind of happening at once. It sounds like a rough day at the Grand County Detention Center. The upshot of all of this, though, was jailers said that, you know, things like this do happen on occasion. They had experience in dealing with these sorts of things. It didn't escalate. And in fact, administrators have made some commitments to improve the quality of the food, to give out regular menus to inmates and make sure that the food that's served complies with the menus that are furnished. And jailers have said they're also going to work at visiting with inmates more during their rounds. And they've been trying the food themselves while it goes out to inmates and so both sides, both administrators and those inmates, have told us that things have improved.
Susan Morée:
Okay. And Western New Mexico University Regents had a meeting. What happened?
Nick Seibel:
Yeah, well, the biggest thing that probably happened in that Regents meeting was the decision by the Regents not to raise tuition or fees for students in the coming school year. That comes despite more than $2 million in the loss of revenue from reduced student enrollment. But university administrators said they have figured out how to balance that budget, and they feel like they can do it without raising tuition, which is something that legislators strongly encouraged all of the higher education institutions in the state not to do in the coming year. But they did say if things don't turn around, it's something that might end up having to happen in the future. Although Regents said that they didn't, they felt like, you know, raising tuition was kind of the worst way to deal with a decrease in enrollment because you're basically trying to balance your budget on the backs of the students that did show up. Also at the Regents meeting, the next president of the university was present in person. He'd spent the week in town, checking things out, visiting with the campus and community, and then got to talk to the regents at their meeting. That's Jose Cole, who starts his new job on July 1st and expects to be moved into the president's residence in advance of that.
Susan Morée:
Okay, and you've got kind of a sweet story for us about children. Tell us about that.
Nick Seibel:
Yeah, the Grant County Community Partnership for Children kind of had this idea to develop curiosity corners. The first one was placed last week outside Flowers on 11th, which is a flower and gift shop in Silver City. It's a small wooden bench that invites kids to create a bouquet from artificial flowers and other supplies, much like the employees inside the store do. The idea is to give kids something to do while their parents are maybe inside shopping. Also, to help those kids feel more connected to the community, the businesses that make it work, and just feel more involved in things while their parents are engaged inside the business. While the Flowers on 11th was the first, there's already one in the works to go outside Twin Sisters Cycling and Fitness, which is a bike sales and repair shop downtown. That one is coming soon and obviously is going to echo sort of the wrenching and the bike maintenance sort of things that go on inside that store.
Susan Morée:
And where can readers find these stories, Nick?
Nick Seibel:
You can find all that and more online at scdailypress.com.
