Luna County officials have proposed alternative arrangements for the federal government to consider instead of closing the Columbus stockyards on a permanent basis.

The livestock gate at the Columbus international port of entry was closed recently after the U-S Department of Agriculture restricted its veterinarians from crossing the U-S-Mexico border because of safety concerns.

Before animals are allowed to come into New Mexico, they have to be inspected by a federal veterinarian to ensure they are disease-free.

County Manager Kelly Kuenstler said one solution would be to allow U-S-D-A veterinarians to use an existing gate between the U-S and Mexican sides of the cattle crossing -- an option that limits the travel of U-S-D-A employees to only a couple of hundred feet into Mexico.

Another, more complex solution, involves relocating dipping pens to the U-S side of the border so the veterinarians never have to travel into Mexico.

County budget and procurement director Joanne Hethcox said Luna County loses three-dollars per head of cattle imported from Mexico each time a load of cattle goes elsewhere.

Kuenstler said revenues last fiscal year collected from the Columbus Cattle Crossing were over 163-thousand dollars -- not including fuel tax and gross receipts taxes collected.

Roxann Pearson, age 53, was arrested for shoplifting at Walmart...

Jesus Hernandez, age 18, was arrested on two Magistrate warrants for failure to appear and was cited for possession of marijuana and having an expired registration... Guadalupe Romero, age 34, was arrested on a Magistrate warrant for failure to pay fines... Perla Haro, age 25, of Sunland Park, was arrested on a Dona Ana County warrant for failure to appear... Emily Cleary, age 54, was picked up on a Sierra County warrant... Eleanor Grogan, age 20, was cited for possession of less than an ounce of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia... Pedro Martinez-Aceves, age 18, was cited for minor allowing self to be served alcohol... and a 16-year-old boy was cited for minor allowing self to be served alcohol.

Also... shots were fired at an unoccupied mobile home parked off East Birch... a back window valued at 200-dollars was damaged on a vehicle parked off South Zinc... a tire valued at 100-dollars was damaged at a location off South Tennyson... and counterfeit 10- and 20-dollar bills were discovered at two Deming businesses.

Deming High School F-F-A judging teams did well Saturday at the Las Cruces Judging Invitational.

Sophomore Brannick Sweetser was the high point individual in the Farm Business Management competition. Sweetser and teammates placed fourth in the Farm Business Management team event.

Deming's Meats team placed second and Courtney Hurt was the second-high individual... the Landscape Design team placed second and Keri Hays was the third-high individual... the Pasture and Range team placed second with Jason Lewis placing fourth and Brandon Brabson placing fifth in the individual rankings... the Crops team was second with Lyndsie Peterson as fifth-high individual... and the Homesite team was third and Brandon Brabson was third-high individual.

Deming F-F-A Advisor Larry Von Tress said there are two weeks until the District competition which will take place in Deming and Silver City... and most F-F-A students will spend their spring breaks this week studying and practicing for the upcoming district and state contests.

Von Tress said all of the judging contests -- or Career Development Events -- are related to agriculture and are designed to allow students to grow in knowledge of agricultural careers.

The Deming City Council will meet in regular session today.

Included on the agenda is the swearing in of newly re-elected city councilors Linda Enis and Joe "Butter" Milo and Municipal Judge Frank VanGundy.

The councilors also will elect a mayor pro tem... appoint temporary and part-time city administrative employees.. and make appointments to city commissions and committees.

The councilors also will consider two proclamations: the first for declaring the month of April 2012, as Fair Housing Month... and the second, declaring May 3rd, 2012, as A National Day of Prayer.

The meeting is set to begin at 6 tonight in the council chambers of the John Strand Municipal Building on South Gold. The meeting is open to the public.

A closed session to discuss the sale, lease or option to purchase industrial real estate... the disposal of rural property with improvements.. and the sale of farm property will follow the open meeting.

And a workshop to discuss agenda items will precede the open meeting at 4 this afternoon. No action will be taken during the workshop.