Nick Seibel, editor and publisher of the Silver City Daily Press, covers top stories each week in the Silver City Report. This week, he talks about an assault against the Cobre Consolidated girl's volleyball coach, a new housing development for the unhoused and a seed for a Moon tree to grow in Silver City.
Susan Morée:
Nick, the girls volleyball coach at Cobre Consolidated was assaulted. What happened?
Nick Seibel:
Yeah, it's a time of year when you want a lot of positivity in your athletics program. I mean, you always want that in high school athletics. But the Cobre volleyball team qualified for the state tournament. In fact, they are headed there this weekend up to Albuquerque for the tournament. And unfortunately, the season was kind of marred here towards the end when last Thursday night, three people basically assaulted the volleyball coach at Cobre High School after a game there that took place at Cobre High. Two women were arrested as a result of the incident where they actually followed the coach into the locker room where the team was and assaulted the coach in front of the team members. There's also an arrest warrant out for a third person, a man that was apparently also involved in the incident.
Susan Morée:
Is the coach okay?
Nick Seibel:
The coach is apparently okay. In the assault, she was struck on the back of her head several times before they were separated. And then the man for whom there is an arrest warrant yelled at the principal of Cobre High School. There are felony charges there in that incident.
Susan Morée:
And do we know why the coach was assaulted?
Nick Seibel:
We do not know what the incident was.
Susan Morée:
That sounds terrible. Let's hope the coach is okay. And the Cornerstone Apartments, what's going on there?
Nick Seibel:
Yeah, kind of an exciting project taking place on the 32nd Street bypass next to Tu Casa, which is the county-owned behavioral health treatment facility that right now is kind of in limbo. It's also across the bypass road from the Ben Altamirano Sports Complex. But it's a major project. Construction is expected to take about 13 months. It's being developed by Cornerstones. They are from up in Albuquerque where they have other supportive housing projects, including a recently owned complex there in Albuquerque. It's kind of an exciting project. The idea, a number of one-bedroom apartments, 30 one-bedroom apartments, as well as an apartment for an onsite property manager. And the idea is supportive housing that will primarily be focused at folks that are unhoused and helping them get access to services, treatment, and get a roof over their heads, basically. It's not going to be necessarily transitional housing in that you're not going to be pushing people to move out on a set timeline, but basically helping folks get access to what they need and hopefully be able to stay off the streets.
Susan Morée:
Okay, and a moon tree has arrived. Tell us about that story.
Nick Seibel:
Yeah, Harrison Schmitt Elementary School, of course, is named for the Apollo astronaut who grew up in Silver City. And the moon tree that was planted last week at Harrison Schmitt actually came from an unmanned probe that orbited the moon and returned to Earth, Artemis spacecraft, a few years back, like in 2022. And so the seed that was for seed from that mission that orbited the Moon was donated to Harrison Schmitt to be planted there by the students. They had a little program last week and talked about the theme of growth and how students like the tree can grow to do great things. It is Silver City's second Moon tree. Our original moon tree is still growing in Gough Park, the sycamore tree that was planted in 1976 that actually went to the Moon on the Apollo mission back in 1971, Apollo 17.
Susan Morée:
And I imagine that that's pretty rare to have two moon trees in a small town.
Nick Seibel:
They say that Silver City is one of just a handful of communities so small that we had the list in the newspaper. Troy, Alabama, Tucson, Arizona, Tallahassee, Florida, Eugene, Oregon, and Olympia, Washington are the other communities that have trees from both of those missions. Kind of a cool little thing. Another little wrinkle there is the original moon tree in Gough Park. There are actually two sycamore trees in the park and no one, so far, knows which one is actually the moon tree. That's something that some folks in the community are investigating to answer that question definitively.
Susan Morée:
All right. Well, here's hoping they get a moonshot for that.
Nick Seibel:
I see what you did there. Good job.
Susan Morée:
And where could readers find these stories, Nick?
Nick Seibel:
You can find all this and much more at scdailypress.com.
Susan Morée:
Alright.
