Wednesday, Oct. 14, 1998

Park-and-Ride program one step closer to re-starting

The Española City Council last week endorsed the state Highway and Transportation Department's Northern New Mexico Park-and-Ride program. The action brings the commuter bus service one step closer to re-starting.

In two separate resolutions approved by the council, the city pledges to seek local funding for the commuter bus service or provide unspecified in-kind services if funds can't be located.

A companion resolution pledges that the city of Española will begin the process of establishing a municipal transit system in Española. Establishing a city bus system would enable the city to apply for federal mass transit funds, said Dan Stover, a management analyst in the Public Transportation Programs Bureau of the state road agency.

Stover said no decision has been made on a start-up date for the park-and-ride program, or on other details such as rider fares, route schedules and dropoff and pickup points in Los Alamos, Santa Fe, Española and Pojoaque.

Highway officials have been meeting with Española city officials since last summer to confirm their participation in the program, said Stover. Española joins Santa Fe and Los Alamos and the Department of Energy and the Laboratory as partners in the commuter service.

The Santa Fe City Council last summer agreed to give $100,000 to the state Highway and Transportation Department, joining DOE, the Santa Fe County Commission and the Los Alamos County Council, all which had earlier this year agreed to provide an equal amount to the state road agency for the park and ride program.

The DOE-Lab funds can be used only for "infrastructure" costs. Infrastructure costs could include purchasing or leasing land for dropoff and pickup lots, buses, salaries of bus drivers and mechanics. It can't be used to subsidize bus fares for employees and subcontract personnel who work at the Lab and ride the bus to work from Española, Pojoaque and Santa Fe, Stover said.

All told, the state road agency has $400,000 in local government funds for the park-and-ride program, $500,000 from the highway department and about $2.2 million in federal and private funds and grants for start-up costs.

The federal and private grant funds can be used only for capital outlay expenses, such as the purchase of compressed natural gas engines and retrofitting buses to accommodate these engines.

In a related development, late last week, a House-Senate conference committee in Washington, D.C. approved $2 million in federal funds for the Northern New Mexico Park-and-Ride program. The money was part of larger transportation spending bills the committee approved.

During a two-week pilot of the commuter service in August 1997, the highway department charged riders $1 per trip, and nearly 12,000 people used the commuter bus service. State officials have said about 7,000 of that total was Laboratory employees in Santa Fe and Española.

The commuter bus service was well received by Lab employees and subcontractor personnel and called largely successful by state highway officials (see the Aug. 15, 1997, Daily Newsbulletin).

--Steve Sandoval

Modifications being made on Otowi Building parking lot

Modifications are being made to the parking lot on the east side of the Otowi Building. Construction has begun to remove and reshape some of the curbs. Parking will be somewhat restricted through the month. The two-hour parking will be eliminated and spaces for two-hour parking will be designated directly across the street to the east. Handicapped parking and the loading/unloading parking will be relocated further south, toward the Badge Office.

 

UC professor receives Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

On Monday, it was announced that Louis Ignarro, a professor in the department of molecular and medical pharmacology at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Medicine, was one of three recipients of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Ignarro shares the prize with Robert Furchgott of the State University of New York Health Sciences Center at Brooklyn and Ferid Murad of the University of Texas Medical School in Houston.

The three American pharmacologists' research led to the discovery that nitric oxide is used as a signal molecule by the cardiovascular system. The discovery has led to the development of new medical treatments. The Karolinska Institute, which awards the Nobel prize, cited Ignarro for his work in determining the chemical nature of the signal molecule EDRF (the endothelium-derived relaxing factor).

In a statement following the announcement, UC President Richard Atkinson said, "The work of Professor Ignarro and his colleagues has opened fields of inquiry that have important implications for improving health and saving lives around the world. A distinguished teacher, Professor Ignarro has now won the highest honor a researcher can receive. I am pleased to congratulate him on behalf of the university and to say how proud we are to share in the reflected glow of his accomplishment."

Monday's announcement brings to 33 the number of UC faculty who have won Nobel prizes. No other public university system worldwide has won more Nobel prizes than the University of California. Ignarro's award is the ninth physiology or medicine Nobel won by a UC faculty member.

Following is a list of UC Nobel Prize winners as of October 1998:

Berkeley

Irvine

Los Angeles

San Diego

San Francisco

 

Employees required to attend termination presentation if leaving the Lab

Compensation and Benefits (HR-1) reminds Laboratory employees that they are required to attend a termination presentation if leaving the Lab or going on casual status.

The presentations are at 8:30 a.m. every Thursday at HR-1 on the second floor of the Otowi Building.

At the presentations, employees can learn about options pertaining to benefits coverages, retirement, and or savings plans, said Angela Jaramillo of HR-1.

Call the New Hires and Terminations Office at 7-8622 to obtain a checkout list and to sign up for a termination session. For more information, call the Benefits Office at 7-1806, or write to benefits@lanl.gov by electronic mail.

--Steve Sandoval

 

Deputy Secretary of Energy testifies before House Subcommittee on Military Procurement

Deputy Secretary of Energy Elizabeth Moler testified Oct. 6 before the House Subcommittee on Military Procurement, Committee on National Security, on the foreign visitors and assignments programs and policies at the three weapons laboratories. A transcript of that testimony is available online. go to

 

Hiker rescued near TA-33

Los Alamos firemen rescued a hiker from Massachusetts who was stranded on the mesa near the Laboratory's Technical Area 33 on Tuesday morning. Robert North, center, receives help from Los Alamos Fire Department personnel Ed Hunter, right, and Joe Baca, left. North was dehydrated and slightly hypothermic, but refused transport to the medical center. Photo by Ed Vigil

 

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