Badminton clinics in Bernalillo

The Bernalillo Badminton Club is hosting badminton clinics for experienced adult players from 9:00 a.m. to noon and for adult beginners from 1:00 p.m. until 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, September 30, at the Bernalillo Recreation Center. There is a limit of twenty participants and a cost of $20.

The hands-on clinic with Cristina Raduca, athlete development/public relations specialist for USA Badminton, will focus on warming up, drills, footwork, racket techniques, and tactics of the game.

For more information, contact Bernie Linnartz, at 771-4355 or www.empowermentexperts.com, or Gary Hansen, at 505 867-2829 or ghansen110@comcast.net.

Free peer-counseling training offered

—CINDY ANDERSON, PROGRAM MANAGER, SANDOVAL SENIOR CONNECTION
Are you a senior (age fifty-five-plus) looking for something to do for others? Are you looking for friends, and a feeling of satisfaction? Do you want to learn about aging issues, and some counseling techniques? One of our clients, E.S., says, “your program (Sandoval Senior Connection) made my world come together!”

Sandoval Senior Connection matches volunteer peer counselors to other seniors who are isolated, tackling health issues, facing retirement, depressed, and experiencing other problems common to this life stage.

This program offers training sessions, travel to beautiful sites in Sandoval County, fun interactions, and mileage reimbursement for our volunteers. We ask our volunteers for a two-to-three-hour per week commitment for a year following training. However, anyone in the public may attend most of our training sessions. Whether you intend to volunteer or not, our sessions are free of charge.

Please join us this fall—we'd love to have you! Sessions will be held in October and November at senior centers and other sites throughout Sandoval County. Our clients reside in Sandoval County, so our peer counselors must be able to travel to Sandoval County clients.

For more information, please call Debbie Trujillo, administrative assistant, or Cindy Anderson, program manager, at 243-2551. Or e-mail us at dtrujillo@outcomesnm.org or canderson@outcomesnm.org.

UNM campus in Rio Rancho approved in principle

The University of New Mexico Board of Regents has unanimously ratified a letter of agreement detailing a land exchange that will pave the way for a future UNM campus in Rio Rancho. The letter of agreement in principle was signed August 17 by the state land commissioner, Patrick Lyons, and the acting UNM president, David Harris.

The anticipated closing for the land exchange is October 1. In a deal being negotiated with the state Land Office, UNM would receive 216 acres near the future City Centre in Rio Rancho in exchange for land worth approximately $6 million, from various parcels of excess land that the university owns around the state. Regents will vote on the final agreement prior to the closing.

Regents president Jamie Koch says he will invite a motion at the regular regents’ meeting in September to inaugurate a master-plan competition for the Rio Rancho acreage, inviting participation from New Mexico and national planning experts. “We have an opportunity with this vacant land to incorporate the best ideas for a campus, “ said Koch. “Until the master plan is in place, our development there will be on hold.” Koch also said the needs assessment currently being done for the project must be completed so the university will know exactly what route will be taken in Rio Rancho for the next several years.