Student transfer time for SFPS

Santa Fe Public Schools will accept student transfer requests for elementary school students from Feb. 6 to Feb. 17. The lottery for these students will take place at 5:30 p.m. March 22 at the district's Educational Services Center, 610 Alta Vista St.

Parents/guardians must complete the Elementary Student Transfer Request Form, available at the ESC or online at www.sfps.info. Parents/guardians will receive formal written notice upon approval of student transfers, and they must in turn return that notice to the district indicating acceptance of the transfer.

Manage the bandstand

The city of Santa Fe Arts Commission is accepting applications for a contractor to manage the 2012 Summer Music Festival on the Plaza, which features a variety of musical acts between July 5 and Aug. 23. Santa Fe County individuals or organizations with a music-arts programming background are eligible to apply. Visit www.santafenm.gov/bids.asp for the Request for Proposal, or call/email Julie Bystrom at 955-6707 or jmbystrom@santafenm.gov for more information.

The Summer Music Festival originated as Summer Scene back in the mid-1990s. Outside In Productions has managed the event for many years, but the city is required to bid it out every three years under the state's purchasing law, Bystrom said.

Hearing set in water case

SOCORRO -- A hearing is scheduled next week in Socorro on a proposal to pump what would amount to billions of gallons of water from the San Augustin Plains in central New Mexico.

On Tuesday, a hearing officer with the state engineer's office will consider motions to dismiss a 2007 application by the Augustin Plains Ranch commercial venture to pump 54,000 acre-feet of water from the basin.

The company proposes moving the water to the Rio Grande Basin, where it could be used or sold.

More than 200 residents are protesting the application. More than 80 are represented by the New Mexico Environmental Law Center and staff attorney Bruce Frederick.

He says the application doesn't comply with state law because Augustin Plains Ranch has failed to identify exactly how and where it intends to use the water.

Park gets grant to purchase tree seedlings

RATON -- Northern New Mexico's Sugarite Canyon State Park has been awarded a grant that will help it purchase more than 10,000 tree and shrub seedlings.

The seedlings will help with restoration efforts after last year's Track Fire. The blaze burned a big portion of the park near Raton.

Seedlings will be purchased from New Mexico State Forestry's Conservation Seedling Program. They will include aspen, ponderosa pine, white fir, chokecherry, mountain mahogany and other shrubs.

Sugarite Superintendent Bob Dye says the planting will be done in the fall by volunteers and park staff. They plan to focus on areas hit hardest by the fire.

The grant comes from the Arbor Day Foundation's National Reforestation Program. Since 1990, the program has facilitated the planting of more than 32 million trees in state and national forests in the United States.

Town accused of racial profiling

LAS CRUCES -- The New Mexico League of United Latin American Citizens is accusing the Mesilla Marshal's Department of conducting racial profiling in order to enforce U.S. immigration laws.

The Las Cruces Sun-News reports that the civil rights group recently sent Mesilla Mayor Nora Barraza a letter about racial profiling complaints from residents and tourists.

Paul Martinez, immediate past state director of the group, said in the letter that the complaints came after the town moved to allow its "law enforcement personnel to enforce U.S. immigration laws with impunity."

Barraza said she'd be willing to meet with LULAC officials. She called LULAC's charges "false accusations" and said the town has nothing to hide.

Mesilla is in the second year of a three-year federal grant involving U.S. border security.