Business/Economy

Heads up all you beer enthusiasts, if you’ve developed the habit of going off “the Hill” for a good brew, you should know that there’s a plan in the works to fix all that.

Steve Watts, vice president of the Los Alamos Food Co-op board of directors, said he’s currently trying to start a brewery and taproom right here in Los Alamos. Set up along the lines of the food co-op, he’s currently looking for investors as well as people who are looking to become members of the new venture.

“The co-op model gives people the idea that they can really own it as well as have a say in the business,” said Watts, adding that the co-op model has helped them raise funds for the project, since people can readily buy a share in the business.

Watts said they are offering $100 investment shares that would eventually pay a dividend, as well as various membership plans, such as a Class A full equity share for $250, which gives buyers a direct share in the business. Other membership plans include an annual membership to the co-op for $50 or an annual Class B investment share for $100.

For more information and details on each of the plans, go to losalamosbeer.coop.

Watts said if the project gets enough funding, then they will go ahead and look for a location, buy equipment and hire employees.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama and his officials are doing their best to drum up public concern over the shock wave of spending cuts that could strike the government in just days. So it's a good time to be alert for sky-is-falling hype.

Over the last week or so, administration officials have come forward with a grim compendium of jobs to be lost, services to be denied or delayed, military defenses to be let down and important operations to be disrupted. Obama's new chief of staff, Denis McDonough, spoke of a "devastating list of horribles."

For most Americans, though, it's far from certain they will have a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day if the budget-shredder known as the sequester comes to pass. Maybe they will, if the impasse drags on for months.

For now, there's a whiff of the familiar in all the foreboding, harking back to the mid-1990s partial government shutdown, when officials said old people would go hungry, illegal immigrants would have the run of the of the land and veterans would go without drugs. It didn't happen.

William Enloe, who has served as chief executive officer of Trinity Capital Corp. and Los Alamos National Bank since 1979, announced his retirement effective last Friday in a letter to the bank’s board of directors.

In his letter, Enloe, who has been with the bank since 1971, said that he has watched the bank grow from a small community bank with just more than $11 million in assets to a bank with more than $1 billion in assets.

“I believe I leave as my legacy an institution that cares about its employees, its customers and the communities it serves and I believe that the board of directors, Steve Wells and the rest of the management team will continue to operate the bank in the same situation,” he wrote.

Enloe said his plans for the future are uncertain at the time but he intends to take some time off to rest and relax.

“I expect that I will find new challenges,” he wrote. “I have enjoyed the many years that we have worked together to make the Los Alamos National Bank what it is today.”

Wells said he has worked with Enloe for 28 years.

Pilots in New Mexico may have a fantastic views to look at when they are airborne and no doubt, the arid climate is a plus when it comes to preserving a plane’s condition. However, that’s just about all most pilots — and anyone else connected to the aviation industry in New Mexico — believes it has going for them.

According to some, the tax structure really comes down hard on a type of business that has yet to blossom in the state. Many of those in the aviation business find the state’s seven percent gross receipts tax on aviation supplies and services oppressive, especially when it comes to maintenance.

When the hail storm hit Los Alamos last October, all of the pilots affected had to ship their damaged planes out of state to a facility in Colorado because there is no aviation repair facility in New Mexico equipped to handle it — or at least one that would repair the hail damage for the right price, which is typically dictated by what an insurance company is willing to pay.

According to Los Alamos Airport Manager Peter Soderquist, 18 airplanes were damaged in the storm and many of those were considered a total loss. To his knowledge, not one of the aircraft was repaired in-state.