Water district opens account for previously-barred customer

The Eldorado Water and Sanitation District has agreed to open a new account for a customer previously barred from receiving service on the grounds that her boyfriend still owed money for water the couple had used when they lived together.

A judge granted Shaun Fisher a restraining order in June to keep the utility from disconnecting the water at her new residence while she disputed the issue.

Court documents indicate Fisher's former boyfriend David Cordova had an unpaid water bill of about $1,829 from a previous home, which had ballooned to $6,797 with the addition of late charges.

Fisher argued that bill was not in her name — and that Cordova planned to dispute the legality of the late fees.

The case was set to be heard in state District Court, but the parties filed a joint motion to vacate the hearing Tuesday.

Fisher said she felt the water district didn't have a strong case, so she called the utility last Friday to propose a settlement, and the utility agreed to grant her an unencumbered account in her own name. The general manger for the utility did not return a call seeking comment Wednesday.

Unlike state, city to grant Fiesta leave

As in previous years, Santa Fe municipal employees will get their Friday afternoon off for the start of the Fiesta de Santa Fe as paid leave.

Due to budget constraints, state government managers recently decided that state employees will have to tap into their own personal leave if they want to have the afternoon off on Sept. 10 to attend the state fair or Fiesta gatherings.

However, Mayor David Coss said Wednesday that the city is not changing its plan to grant four hours of administrative leave to hundreds of employees that afternoon.

"Fiestas is a special time for the city of Santa Fe," he said, "and we have negotiated contracts with the unions and approved our budget, and we are not asking for any furloughs or anything like that. I think it is important to the city since it is a city co-sponsored event."

City Hall and other city government buildings will close early that day.

Santa Fe County officials said last week that they will grant the traditional paid leave that afternoon to nonemergency employees who work during the morning of Sept. 10.

State gets about $65 million in education funds

New Mexico will receive $64.9 million in federal money to support education jobs in the state, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced Wednesday. The money, distributed to states based on their funding formula or their district's share of federal Title 1 funds, will save the jobs of 1,000 teachers in classrooms around the state, according to U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman.

Beverly Friedman, public information officer for the Public Education Department in New Mexico, said the state is awaiting federal guidance on when and how it can use the money. She expects the money will be available by mid-October.

Santa Fean receives Nepal literature award

Ann Hunkins of Santa Fe has been given the 2010 Devkota Century Award in recognition of her contribution to the literature of Nepal.

The award is named after Laxmi Prasad Devkota (1909-1959), one of the most celebrated writers in Nepal.

Hunkins, who has translated a number of Nepali works into English, has a National Endowment for the Arts grant to translate Ramesh Vikal's Aviral Bagdacha Indravati (On Flows the Indravati), and has a collection of 19 stories about Nepali women forthcoming from Vajra Books.

A photographer, videographer and poet in her own right, Hunkins in 2006 worked in Nepal as an interpreter for the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights, translating for torture victims and war crimes witnesses.

Hunkins and Lauren Camp will give a poetry reading 3 p.m. Sept. 11 at Teatro Paraguas. Camp, an artist and educator as well as a poet, is the author of This Business of Wisdom, published by West End Press. Teatro Paraguas is at 221 Richards Lane, Suite B. For more information, call 424-1601.