We don’t mean someone spray painted one building. A number of structures were hit — the former post office, a residence, Tabet Lumber & Concrete, the old Valencia County News-Bulletin building, Lowe’s grocery store and the First Community Bank building, to name the instances we noticed.

It was gang graffiti, the pathetic kind, where thugs scribble names on a building like dogs piss on fire hydrants to mark their territory.

Also this week another type of graffiti, if you will, popped up as it has before. Someone placed a hand-drawn panda bear named “Mr. E” on the side of the Trembly building on Main Street. Well, it’s a person in a panda costume.

Mr. E at the Trembly building in Belen.

Mr. E isn’t graffiti, by definition. It wasn’t spray painted on the building. The panda is painted on some sort of paper canvas and then pasted to the wall. (Saves time when trying not to get caught, we imagine.)

This isn’t the first time it’s been done. Someone pasted a face with the letters “AOK” on a brick utility building across from Wal-Mart, pasted a face or two on the side of the former Gil’s Bakery, and perhaps the same artists are responsible for the large “HOLYBLUR.” paint job on a farm structure in Los Chavez.

HOLYBLUR. in Los Chavez

Actually, guerilla art (also referred to as subversive art or street art) is a growing trend in the world, mostly in urban areas, with Bansky leading the way and others like the Graffiti Research Lab offering advice.

There are differences between this guerilla art — unauthorized, as it may be – and gang graffiti. It’s not necessary to explain the differences, really, because it’s all self-explanatory. Most important to note, though, is that guerilla art typically is temporary. It falls off the wall after weathering the elements for a while.

Whoever’s behind this local art — and we have our suspicions, though we haven’t caught up with them yet — should continue to do it, respecting private property, of course.

You may have seen on our website and read in the Valencia County News-Bulletin that Belen Mayor Ronnie Torres isn’t running for reelection as mayor. It gets interesting after that.

In our article, we pointed out that the mayor said (publicly, we might add) that he isn’t running for anything. The newspaper reported it differently, saying he’s “considering” running for council.

What we know for sure is that Torres wants to be a councilor. What’s unclear is how he wants to get a seat. There’s some speculation Torres doesn’t want to run for council — he sort of said so himself, as we reported.

The conspiracy theorist who called wondered if the mayor might resign soon, get a councilor appointed to the mayor’s seat (likely Wayne Gallegos) and then have that new mayor appoint him to the council.

That’s the safest option for the mayor, but it’s the most politically risky for Gallegos. You see, Gallegos has more than two years left on the council. If he became mayor, he’d have only months left as mayor before the next election, but Torres would take on Gallegos’ remaining two years. Such a move would be unpopular locally and Gallegos would likely suffer for it during the next election in March.

It’s unlikely to happen — but you never know.

What’s more likely is that Gallegos will run for mayor. Torres won’t run for anything. (If he ran for council, he might be up against his two allies and incumbents, councilors David Lopez and Terese Ulivarri, should both be running for reelection.) Once Gallegos wins for mayor, it frees up his council seat. Then, he can appoint Torres to it. It’s politically safe.

We’ve seen shenanigans like this before, and it’s usually about money.

Belen’s municipal judge, Kathy Savilla, retired and got appointed back to the judgeship so she could double dip and siphon a ton of taxpayers’ money from salary and retirement.

Some have speculated that some elected officials and candidates want cushy elected positions just for the health benefits. That’s not to mention that Belen’s councilors and mayor make a load of money — more than any other similarly elected officials in Valencia County.

Doesn’t seem newsworthy.

It would be great to find out why KOAT — complete with a live shot, — KOB and the Valencia County News-Bulletin (in tomorrow’s paper) all mention the innocuous case.

The coverage includes interviews with Belen police officials — all on a day when the more important story might be that a Belen police officer got into a wreck that could cost the City of Belen lots of money should a lawsuit be filed by the driver of the other vehicle.

A Valencia! reporter, driving home from a meeting just after 8:20pm tonight, saw two young children stopped by Belen police in Reinken Avenue’s median. Both rode their bikes into the middle of the busy four-lane roadway in front of the Diamond Shamrock gas station.

Think these two wandering kids will be on the news tomorrow?

The most recent high-profile example in Valencia County is Belen’s Municipal Judge Kathy Savilla, who retired late last year and was appointed back to her seat after a 90-day “retirement” vacation.

Larry Barker did a hard-hitting expose on statewide double-dipping that may have local implications.

New Mexico Attorney General Gary King is shown for a few seconds saying his office is interested in hearing about cases of double-dipping. One local group, Our Tomorrow: For a Better Belen, is ahead of the game, having filed a complaint on the issue with his office in late December.

Here’s Barker’s story:

Firefighters walk through smokey Tabet Lumber debris.

The heroes of yesterday’s fast-moving fire at Tabet Lumber & Concrete were the firefighters from Belen, Jarales, Los Chavez and Rio Grande Estates. They were able to quickly respond and stop the fire from spreading to lumber stacks and the apartment complex within feet of the flames.