Albuquerque Journal from Albuquerque, New Mexico • Page 17

METROPOLITAN Wednesday, October 5, 1983 Albuquerque Journal Page 1, Section Tests Show West Mesa Ground Water Free of PCBs containers. Gutierrez said he bought the waste oil from Baseman's firm. Nuclear Engineering Services. Secretary McNeill said the Pronto site was discussed Monday at the first meeting of his task force set up by the governor to deal with South Valley water contamination problems He said he will meet with legislators, county and city officials later this week to brief them on plans of his group, dubbed the South Valley Public Health Emergency Response Task Force we felt we could get." Extremely high levels of both PCBs and toxic solvents had been found in soil 14 feet below the pit. Initial water tests in August put health officials at ease about the spread of solvents to the ground water, but definite results on PCBs were not released until Tuesday.

The monitoring wells that yielded the information will continue to provide samples of water for EID testing, Hester said Last month's cleanup was done by the EID with money from the U.S. Environ Ground water below a PCB-tainted oil recycling pit on the West Mesa appears to be free of the cancer-causing agent and of 40 other dangerous chemicals, according to test results released by the state Environmental Improvement Division on Tuesday. EID hydrologist Dennis McQuillan said the spread of contamination was apparently "nipped in the bud" by an emergency cleanup of the pit at Pronto Services last month. Oil and contaminated soil were scooped up at the site, a mile north of Coors and Bridge SW, to relieve downward pressure that could force groundwater contamination. Still, Health and Environment Secretary Robert McNeill stressed that problems at the sfte have not been eliminated, and water testing will continue.

The EID drilled two wells last week to see if the pollutants had reached water sources 70 feet below the pit. One of the wells was within 25 feet of the site; the other was 50 feet away. EID spokesman Nolan Hester said 25 feet was "as close as mental Protection Agency's Superfund. Oil from the pit and oil-laden soil around it was sealed in containers and shipped to an EPA-approved landfill in Beatty, New Pronto owner and president Charles Gutierrez said he bought about 2,500 gallons of oil in 1981, not knowing it was contaminated with PCBs, sold some of it and disposed of some of it on his property. Vernon Baseman, 48, of Antigo, was fined $2,000 last month for distribution and wrongful disposal of PCBs and PCB 6jl! Life I IkuTi (iwTi CRESS, epfesOTSS Hs raw Louie Huiiing Follows Role Of Ancestors By ARLEY SANCHEZ Journal Staff Writer LOS LUNAS Louie Huning, the boyish-looking scion of the Los Lunas pioneer business family, sat in, the 200-year-old Huning home on Main Street.

Portraits of his ancestors hung on the walls. Wearing an open-necked, pin-striped shirt and gray jeans, the 34-year-old mayor of Los Lunas discussed his family's role as business and political pioneers in this riverside village south of Albuquerque. "I'm very proud of my family because through the years, they have always tried to give service and PUEBLITOS 'Little Villages' An Occasional Series 'MM Jivrul ltitp Jim Kistar Los Lunas Mayor Louie Huning in Huning Mercantile Store Business and Political Pioneers, the Hunings Are Still Influential leadership to the community and area," Huning said, looking at a portrait of his great-grandfather Louis Bismark Huning, who first came to New Mexico in the 1840s. Leading a visitor on a tour of the Huning hacienda, located behind the equally venerable Huning Mercantile Store, Huning pointed to a cast-iron fountain with peeling white paint and baroque curves obviously unused for many years and an ornate metal bench in an enclosed courtyard between the home and store. Huning said both were delivered by ox cart from St.

Louis in the 1860s by his great-grandfather, as a gift for his wife Henny, formerly of the Busch family of St. Louis, who were then establishing a tradition of their own in the beer-brewing industry. Louis Bismark Huning was one of four brothers who came to New Mexico at that time and established various commercial enterprises in the hostile environment of territorial New Mexico. Louis and Henry became partners in the mercantile store. Brother Franz established a flower mill in Albuquerque and built the landmark Huning Castle in what is now the country club area of Albuquerque.

The home was sold by Franz and demolished in the 1950s. Another brother, Karl, returned to Germany after a brief partnership with Franz. back of the store, the younger 1 lunmg who likes to listen to Barbara Mandrell. the Oak Ridge Hoys and the Beatles said it was exactly that kind of progressive leadership exhibited by his grandfather that he hoped he could emulate when he decided to ran for mayor "I felt we needed to begin to solve some of the problems being brought on by our growth, and I felt to do that, we needed more energetic leadership." Huning said 1-os Lunas, he said, is still a quiet, quaint community where life is slower paced, but that is changing "The area offers a tremendous way of life, but I is Lunas is growing quite rapidly and we have to be ready for it," he said "It's not that things have changed that much It's still a quiet, small town You can still walk down the street and everybody knows each other." "They were all hard-working, thrifty German people who had a way of getting along well with the local people," Louie Huning said of his ancestors. Meanwhile, Huning Mercantile in Los Lunas became an important commercial center serving area farmers and ranchers and was an important supply depot in El Camino Real.

Today, occupying the same dirt lot where covered wagons and oxen carts once parked, the mercantile store is still an important commercial center for the area. But its customers have changed. "We're still serving farmers and ranchers, but we have a whole new generation of shoppers: homeowners who have moved into the area," Huning said. The Hunings today are still important economic and political influences in Los Lunas. The mayor's father, Fred D.

Huning and uncle, John L. Huning, are partners in the mercantile store and in the vast Huning ranching operation, located on thousands of acres of ranchland west of Los Lunas and Belen. Louie Huning was elected mayor of Los Lunas in 1982, following in the footsteps of his grandfather. Fred Huning the longest serving mayor in Lunas history. His administration spanned 1936 to 1952.

Under the elder Huning's administration, 1O.s Lunas had some of its first streets paved and its first sewer lines laid. Electric and gas service first became available to village residents. And Huning was one of the organizers of the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District "I remember him as a kind hearted, progressive-thinking kind of person who was admired by the Anglo and the Spanish people of the village," Louie Huning said of his grandfather. Sitting in the brick-floored, viga-ceilinged hacienda Former Shoe Salesman Denies Van Robinson Robbed Him 5-foot-11 and 6 foot 1. PO to 1S5 ixiuiuls.

medium build and wearing dark clothing, sneakers and a dark ski mask that left only his eves and mouth exposed. Iwanski also said the robber had either a missing or chipped tooth on the right side of his mouth Robinson subsequently stood to show the jury that hi' also has a chipped tooth, but Iwanski demonstrated on his own mouth that the gunman's chipped or missing tooth was farther to the side. Iwanski cited other differences between the appearances of the gunman and Robinson Schiff attempted to discredit Iwanski hv eliciting from him and other witnesses detads of Iwatiski's behavior after the shooting described as "wild" by one witness and details of incidents in which Iwanski felt he was harassed by police. In other testimony Tuesday, Wessell. owner of Wessell Motor Co a used car dealership formerly at 8014 E.

Central, said he believes that an automobile he saw fleeing from the scene was a 19S gray Buick Regal or Buick Century Wessell, who has been in the automobile business for about 38 years, acknow ledged he has said it could have been an Oldsmobile Cutlass but believed then and still believes it was a Buick. but city police were not interested. Prosecutors have maintained that the getaway car was a 1975 Oldsmobile Delta 88 that belonged to Robinson's foster brother, Barry L. Foster. Robinson is being tried on a charges of fii st degree murder in Chacon death and armed robbery of the Kinney store.

The trial will continue today. Robinson, now 24, was convicted of the crimes in 1981 but the state Supreme Court in April overturned the convictions after determining that prosecutors' questioning of Iwanski was prejudicial. Chacon, 36, was fatally shot in the parking lot of a Winchell Donut House after responding to a report of an armed robbery at the nearby shoe store. Chacon; a community relations officer, was giving a speech at a battered women's shelter across the street from the shoe store when children there reported the robbery Iwanski, who was a witness in Robinson's May 1981 trial, testified Tuesday that he and the store manager were preparing to close when a man walked in, said "Gentlemen, I'm here to rob you," and ordered them to put the money in a women's handbag he brought. After they complied, the man fled out of the store's west door, Iwanski said.

Iwanski described the man us black, between By SUSANNE BURKS District Court Writer A former shoe salesman testified Tuesday that he is positive Van Bering Robinson is not the man who robbed him and fatally shot Albuquerque policeman Phil Chacon the night of Sept. 10, 1980. But Brian Iwanski, who worked at the Kinney Shoe Store, 8900 E. Central, admitted under questioning by District Attorney Steven Schiff that he had said three years ago that Robinson was not the gunman without first seeing the suspect. Iwanski also admitted that he was upset after the robbery and felt that he was being harassed by police.

Iwanski was the second prosecution witness called as Robinson's retrial got under way before state District Judge Joseph F. Baca. Schiff said in an opening statement that Iwanski would be called despite his claim that Robinson wasn't the man because of other testimony he could give. In another development Tuesday, defense attorney James Toulouse said in an opening statement that he has learned recently that a man named Enoch Jackson, not further identified in court, reported the Sept. 9, 1980, theft of his car, a gray Buick that matched witnesses' description of the getaway car, mmimmtmmmmklmmmm Journal Photo by Mark Poulsrn Van Bering Robinson Listens to Testimony Descriptions of Killer and Car at Issue $2.6 Million To Be Distributed To Tome Heirs by Lale November State Takes Over Responsibility For Disposing of Calf Carcasses Scuffle, Shooting Put Holdup Suspect In Critical Condition A scuffle Tuesday morning between a suspected i gun-wielding holdup man and the proprietor of a Southeast Heights jewelry store resulted in the shooting of the alleged offender, police reported.

According to investigators, Felix Martinez had just opened his shop, at 1045 San Mateo SE, when a man entered and demanded money and jewelry. The two fought and the gun, a .357 Magnum, discharged one round into the intruder's mouth, knocking out teeth and nicking his jugular vein. Martinez fled to the street and flagged down Sgt David Keylon of the Southeast Area who radioed for paramedics and an ambulance. The suspect, in critical condition at Iwelace Medical Center, was identified as Charles J. Gutierrez, 26, of 2324 Milton Court NW.

Plans are proceeding to disburse most of $2.6 million being held in trust from the 1968 sale of the Tome I-md Grant to about 3,500 heirs by late November, a court official said Tuesday. Meanwhile, Special Master Vernon Salvador said a deadline of 4 Friday has been set for any persons wishing to claim they are heirs and are eligible for a part of the sale proceeds Claimants must show they descend from one of about 200 grant heirs established by an 1892 court, and must have been 21 or older at the time of the sale Nov. 4, 1968. Salvador and officials of the First National Bank of Belen, the trustee for the sale, have computerizing rec ords and identifying eligible heirs A hearing for the latest group of persons whose claims were denied has been tentatively set for Nov. 9 before District Judge Edmund H.

Kase in the Bernalillo County Courthouse. In a related matter, the court is preparing to inform about 350 former stockholders who received payments that they must repay the money. The grant, northeast of Belen, was sold for $4 7 million, and about S2.5 million was paid to the former stockholders. A 1978 state Supreme Court ruling established that the now-defunct Tome Iind and Improvement Corp. was void at the time of the sale, and ordered that the stockholders repay the money.

Payments to the former stockholders varied $8,600 to $15,000. contract with someone who can. I imagine we'll have to dig a hole and bury them. The scope of project is unclear." McNeill said he wants the disposal to take place today if possible. It is important to dispose of the carcasses before worrying what level of government is responsible, he said.

He said he believes that the above-ground dumping is against state law. Some officials speculated that the dumping violates Bernalillo County ordinances if it can be proven that the dumping has been a chronic problem and is a public nuisance. The calves were dumped on private land west of Nine Mile Hill prompting neighbors to complain of the odor the carcasses produce. From the Journal's Capitol Bureau SANTA FE The state will assume responsibility for disposing of the carcasses of about 100 unbranded calves dumped on private land west of Albuquerque, Robert McNeill, secretary of the state Health and Environment Department, said Tuesday. McNeill said he is directing Deputy Secretary Robert Lovato and the Environmental Improvement Division to take steps to dispose of the carcasses.

"There's clearly an environmental problem a stench. And if they remain there certainly could be a be I' ird," he said. do the job ourselves, but if aave the manpi'wer, then we'll.