50 Centstrinidad Colorado

Proudly Serving Southeastern Colorado and Northeastern New Mexico • www.thechronicle-news.com

~Vol. 139, No. 69

tuesdayapril 7, 2015

APRIL 7THE SAMARITAN CLINICTUESDAY (9 a.m.-4 p.m./1st and

3rd each month) Here to serve the un-der-insured and non-insured communi-ty with free health care and low-cost lab work, 1st and 3rd Tuesday each month at 413 E. Frost. Info: 719-846-3536.

Las Animas CountyTUESDAY (9 a.m.) Board of County

Commissioners meeting is in the Las Animas Courthouse, 200 E. First St., Room 201. Information: 719-845-2568. COUNTY COMMISSIONERS: Gary Hill (719-845-2595), Mack Louden (719-845-2592), and Anthony Abey-ta (719-846-9300).

Trinidad City Council TUESDAY (7 p.m.) Regular ses-

sion will be held in Council Chambers, City Hall, 135 N. Animas St. Informa-tion: Audra Garrett, 719-846-9843. CITY COUNCIL: Mayor: Joe Reorda and Council Members: Carol Bolton, Joe Bonato, Pat Fletcher, Anthony Mat-tie, Michelle Miles, and Liz Torres.

Today’s Quote“Destiny is not a

matter of chance. It is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be

waited for. It is a thing to be achieved.”

~Epitaph

APRIL 8Piñon Water Sanitation WEDNESDAY (8:30 a.m.) District

meeting will be in the Century Financial Building, 109 W. Main. Information: Dana Phillips, 719-846-2080.

Tourism BoardWEDNESDAY (9 a.m.) Commit-

tee meets in the City Hall Third Floor Conference Room, 135 N. Animas St. Information: City Clerk, Audra Garrett, 719-846-9843.

Stonewall FPDWEDNESDAY (5:30 p.m.) Board

of Directors meets in the Stonewall Fire House. Information: Dana Phillips, 719-846-2080.

VFW Post 984 WEDNESDAY (7 p.m.) Veterans

of Foreign Wars Post 984 will meet in the Elks Club Banquet Room, 120 S. Maple St. New members need to bring their DD214. Information: Post Com-mander John Rios, 719-846-6094.

PUBLIC SERVICETRINIDAD’S GOT TALENTTHURSDAY (6:30 p.m.) Singing and

dancing talent with acts to amaze — fun for the whole family at this annual event at the Trinidad Middle School Auditorium, 614 Park St. Info: 719-846-4411.

FLEA MARKET & BAKE SALEFRIDAY (8:30 am.) Sayre Senior

Center will be hosting their annual Flea Market and Bake Sale fundraiser at the Center, 1222 San Pedro. Info: Anna Ris-ley, 719-846-3336. Proceeds help sup-port the Center.

GREAT GATSBY MYSTERYFRIDAY (5-7 p.m.) Wear your 1920s

costume and join the effort to solve the murder that’s happened at the Carnegie Public Library, 202 N. Animas St. Info: Felicity Boepple, 719-846-6841.

ART SHOW OPENING GALAFRIDAY (6-8 p.m.) Trinidad Area

Arts Council’s opening reception for “Primal Dance: Movements in Color,” an exhibition of art by Roxanne Regan-Briggs will be held at Gallery Main, 130 E. Main St. Info: 719-846-1441.

EASTER CONCERTFRIDAY (7 p.m.) Second perfor-

mance of “A Celebration of the Resurrection” musical presenta-tion by the Choir and TUMC Gospel Combo will be held at the Methodist Church, 216 Broom St.

SPRING FLINGSATURDAY: Come out for the an-

nual Holy Trinity Academy Flea Market and Craft Sale fundraiser for the school. Call for vendor info: 719-846-4522.

LOVE & LOGICSATURDAY & APRIL 18 (9:30 a.m.-

4:30 p.m.) This outstanding parenting program will be held at the Mt. Carmel Community Center, 911 Robinson St. Registration & Info: 719-845-4894.

ALL ABOUT GIRLSSATURDAY (11:30 a.m.- 1:30

p.m.) An exciting musical luncheon will be held at Mt. Carmel’s Primero Café, 911 Robinson St. Tickets and info: 719-845-4822.

Stonewall FPD AuxiliarySATURDAY (2 p.m.) A general

membership meeting will be held at the Stonewall Fire Hall. Info: 719-868-2249.

the Fine print

Weather WatChTuesday: Sunny, with a high near 73.

Breezy, with a southwest wind 10 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 35 mph. Night: Mostly

clear, with a low around 38. Breezy, with a southwest wind 10 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph.

Wednesday: Sunny, with a high near 68. Windy, with a southwest wind 10 to 20 mph increasing to 20 to 30 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 40 mph. Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 32. Breezy, with a west wind 20 to 25 mph decreasing to 10 to 15 mph after midnight. Winds could

gust as high as 35 mph.Thursday: Mostly sunny, with a high near

58. West wind around 10 mph becoming north in the afternoon. Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 31. North northeast wind 5 to 10 mph becoming west after midnight.

Friday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 64. South southwest wind 5 to 10 mph. Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 36. South-west wind 5 to 10 mph.

river CallPurgatoire River Call as of: 04/06/15. Hoehne ditch: Priority # 20 --- Appropriation date: 10/07/1865.

Trinidad Reservoir Accounting:Release 37.31 AFInflow 127.28 AF -- 64.17 CFSEvaporation 10.97 AFContent 20,271 AFElevation 6,184.02Precipitation 0

Downstream River Call / High-land Canal: 05/31/1866.

the ChroniCle neWs

Workbegins

Bright and early Monday morning the construction work to rebuild Com-mercial Street began. Funds for the project came from a DOLA grant and matching City funds. Look for partial road closings, a block at a time, over the next several months.

Photos by Eric John Monson / The Chronicle-NewsCOMMERCIAL ST.

ADVANCED & UPDATED PROGRAMING

Computer Kernel offers technology solutions, service for area usersBy Steve BlockThe Chronicle-News

Many people are only too fa-

miliar with that dreaded moment when their computer freezes up, crashes or just runs too slowly. Computer Kernel is one of Trini-dad’s newest businesses, and of-fers a complete package of soft-ware programs to fix computers and keep them running smoothly.

It derives its unique name from a computer kernel, which inter-faces between the three major computer hardware components, providing services between the ap-plication / user interface and the Central Processing Unit (CPU), memory and other hardware In-put / Output devices, according to the website: www.techopedia.com.

The team at Computer Kernel includes Kris and Paula Alworth and Billy Robb, but the key player is Hayden Alworth the 16 year-old, home-schooled tech whiz who has

developed a software program called “PC Popper,” that prevents unwanted programs from opening automatically when the computer starts up. They can work on, and if necessary replace, any of the components of a computer’s hard drive.

“We can do the hardware re-placements,” Kris Alworth said. “Our main focus is speeding things up and making the operating sys-tem function more smoothly.”

The team concentrates on the various Windows operating sys-tems, though they will have a look at Apple computers and see what they can do. Computers get dirty when too many software programs are downloaded onto them and they can get so slow it isn’t even worth turning them on. It took young Hayden about 2.5 years to develop the PC Popper program, which he started when he was try-ing to fix the Alworth’s own home

Steve Block / The Chronicle-NewsThe Computer Kernel opened in January at 827 Arizona Ave. Billy Robb, left, and Kris Alworth of Computer Kernel work to make computers run more smoothly and effectively. Continued on Page 3 ...

Staff ReportThe Chronicle-News

WALSENBURG — Contempt of court charges filed against Third Judicial District Attorney Frank Ruybalid were dismissed Thurs-day, March 19, after a brief hear-ing in District Court, reported the Huerfano Journal last week. Last week was also the first week attor-ney Terry Ruckriegle began his monitoring of Ruybalid’s office as part of an agreement, after sanc-tions, with the Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel.

Ruybalid faced the charges of

contempt when no attorney from the DA’s office appeared in court for three criminal hearings on Thursday, December 11, 2014. The court dismissed the three separate criminal cases against defendants Noah A. Graf, Jodie Howard and Michael Montez when they were called due to the lack of a pros-ecutor in the courtroom. District Judge Claude Appel had to dis-miss the cases and cited Ruybalid for contempt of court. Ruybalid later, as way of explanation, cit-ed a misunderstanding between he and fill-in Deputy DA, Steven Jones.

Graf had faced 10 local charges including: two counts of posses-sion of a controlled substance with intent to manufacture or distribute, one count was a class 2 felony, the other a class 3 felony; first degree aggravated motor vehicle theft, class four felony; second degree criminal trespass, a class four felony; criminal mis-chief, a class four felony; vehicu-lar eluding, a class five felony, obstructing a peace officer, class two misdemeanor, driving under restraint, eluding a peace officer and speeding.

Howard, in a companion case

with Graf, had been charged with theft over $20,000, a class three felony, possession of a schedule II controlled substance with intent to manufacture or distribute, a class three felony and vehicular eluding, a class five felony.

Montez had been charged in association with an assault at the Huerfano County Jail in late November 2014. The charges dis-missed against him were retalia-tion against a witness or victim, a class three felony and assault in the third degree, a class three mis-

Contempt of court charges against DA Ruybalid dismissedOFFICE MONITORING BEGINS

Continued on Page 2 ...

page 6over the pass

Tuesday, April 7, 2015 Page 3The Chronicle-News Trinidad, Colorado

Spring BreakBlowout

Miller Lite, Miller Genuine Dra� , Coors, Coors Lite 12 pk Bottles $9.99Budweiser & Bud Lite Bottles $9.99

Growers Supply NOW OPEN!!

SRG’s Landscaping & Growing Supply2400 E. Main Street • Trinidad • 719-846-2050

SRG’s Landscaping &

Potting SoilGrowing Media

FertilizerHydroponic SystemsLighting Accessories

Portable Garden RoomsNutrients &Supplements

Computer Kernel offers technology solutions, service for area users ... Continued from Page 1

computer. The Windows operating sys-tems use registry keys in order to organize their data, and sometimes those registry keys get broken and a technician has to go inside the hard drive and replace them so the computer can be directed to the proper link. Hayden began developing new soft-ware programs and eventually PC Popper was born.

“You basically take out the broken link and put in a new one,” Kris said. “He started building up a library of that and then all of a sudden he started developing software that would do it automatically. Then he took it to the next level with the PC Popper pro-gram. It will catch the potentially unwanted software and get rid of it completely, totally out of the system, as opposed to some of the other software that will just take por-tions of it out so it’s not operable. With this program he tries to get it completely out of the system. Then he deals with the startup menus. Many programs start up as soon as you start the computer. He likes to set it up so that nothing starts up unless you want it to start up. It’s on-demand software.”

Paula Alworth said that some software programs, such as Adobe Shop, tend to el-evate themselves above other programs. All software companies try to do this with their programs, she said, and with multiple soft-

ware programs opening automatically on startup it can cause the computer to slow down or crash.

Team member Billy Robb said the tech-sters at Computer Kernel seem to prefer the Windows XP operating system, feeling that it’s a more stable platform to work with than the other Windows systems, though they will work with any Windows platform.

The team members will go directly to a business or a home whose computers aren’t working properly though that costs a little more than if the computer owner can bring the computer in to the store. They can also work on a computer remotely from their Trinidad office, as long as they have that computer’s identification information.

“For example, we have a customer in La Junta,” Paula said. “We visited her once, and since then we have worked on her com-puter from our office. That saves time both for her and for us.”

Robb said his biggest challenge in the new business is getting parts, with some of them having to be shipped in all the way from China. If the wrong part is shipped, the customer has to wait for the correct part to be shipped. Robb said he’s been working on getting the technology he needs to replace broken cellular phone screens, thus add-ing a new component to the business. The

techs can also fix broken cell phones and computerized tablets, which Robb said are a rapidly growing area in the computer in-dustry.

Many computer users thoughtlessly download software programs from the Internet, and wind up with spyware, mal-ware or adware on their computers, which can severely damage a computer’s perfor-mance, Paula said. It helps to think before you download anything.

The team members love the challenge of digging into a broken computer, and bring-ing it back to peak performance. Having their own software program that can do that, as developed by Hayden Alworth, cer-tainly helps a great deal.

The Computer Kernel software can be downloaded at the website: www.down-load.cnet.com, for a cost of approximately $20. The facility is located at 827 Arizona Ave. and the phone number is: 719-859-6493, while the e-mail address is: www.Com-puterKernel@yahoo.com.

BUSINESSHELP WHEN YOU NEED IT

Photo courtesy of TSJCHayden Alworth, 16, is also a student at Trinidad State Junior College (TSJC). Pictured above, Alworth, tests sensors to put on TSJC’s autonomous robot, which competed this past weekend in a science competition. He also regularly assists electronics professors at TSJC. Alworth hopes to seek a graduate degree once he gets his bachelors degree in the science and engineering fields.