By Mary Alice Murphy
In the first order of business at Thursday's Grant County Water Commission, Silver City Town Manager Alex Brown was unanimously chosen to remain as chairman. Hurley Town Councilor Esther Gil was chosen as vice chairwoman.
The commissioners approved the Open Meetings Act resolution.
Priscilla Lucero, Southwest New Mexico Council of Governments executive director, presented a spreadsheet she had developed showing the funds that have been awarded to Hurley, North Hurley, Bayard, Hanover, Santa Clara, Arenas Valley, Tyrone and Silver City toward the Hurley Regionalization Project, also known as the Regional Water Distirbution Plan.
The total awarded funds to date are $12,181,565. Awarded and expended funds that have been put to use over the past few years for various water-related projects in the county total $7,616,848. Needed funds to complete the projects equal a bit over $10 million.
For Phase 1 of the Regional Water Plan to get water to Hurley, which has no water rights of its own, about $6.1 million is required. The mining company has provided water to Hurley for many years, but the town was notified several years ago that the company would no longer provide water to the town after 2018.
"I created this spreadsheet upon request from the New Mexico Environment Department, when we presented an application for funding," Lucero said. "This is the list of water improvements you've done in the area. It shows the inter-connectivity between systems. Overall in the evaluation of funds, Hurley has received or been awarded $4,848,482 for water projects."
The Freeport McMoRan Community Investment Fund awarded Hurley $40,000 to put toward regional planning, she said. "The original request was for $25,000, but they upped it to $40,000. Hurley also received a $100,000 capital outlay this year."
Lucero said each community on the spreadsheet is also talking to USDA for additional funding. "We were using the spreadsheet for Colonias to show the investment already put into the project. Since then, the project has received interest from the Drinking Water Revolving Loan Fund. We need a little more than $6 million for Phase 1. If Hurley can get the load, it could take on 10 percent of the loan. The most we can get is $1.8 million from Colonias."
Donna Maestas from New Mexico Finance Authority said the capacity of the town is for 10 percent of the loan. "There is no problem to qualify. We looked at the $6 million and there is not enough capacity for revenue to pay that much off. We scaled it down to $4.1 million to do it in phases." The subsidy becomes available at 75 percent at $3 million. "Maybe we can do $2.7 million for the 25 percent subsidy, which would offer $1.25 million at -+ percent interest up to $600,000 and the rest at 2 percent interest. The town would need gross receipts tax for an annual payment of $59,000."
"If we apply to the New Mexico Planning fund, we will need funding for assessing the water rate analysis," Lucero said. "From my angle, we had the regional representative of the federal Economic Development Fund in town for the public works side of things. I toured her to see projects around the area. We need to hear if this is a viable project. They are looking to put money in southern New Mexico, tops is $1 million for the EDA. If Colonias, it's $1.8 million tops.
Brown asked Gary Berg of Engineers Inc. how much the first phase would cost. Berg said about $7.5 million. Brown did some quick calculations, adding the $2.1 million as allocated by the Interstate Stream Commission for the project, another $1.8 million from Colonias and the other funding at $4.1 million, bringing the total to about $8 million.
"So we have the opportunity to get Phase 1 going if we receive all this funding," Brown said.
"That's why it's important to move forward on the revolving loan fund," Lucero said.
Maestas said the NMFA is expecting $2.6 million in subsidies, but some funding might be reverting in July. "You have an application in and if the Drinking Water Fund would score it high, you could get the subsidy."
"We are working it to maximize the 75 percent subsidy," Lucero said. "It might be time to approach the Rural Utilities Service."
"We need to show as many funding sources as possible to get enough funding," Brown said.
Lucero said a workshop was going to take place between the USDA and EDA. "I will present this to the USDA. We've made quite a bit of progress."
Brown said in a further update that Silver City and Hurley had signed lease agreements for Silver City to provide 270 acre-feet of water to Hurley at no cost. "We will with the continuation of the project get it to Bayard and Santa Clara, too."
"We are making a lot of headway and getting to the point of construction," Brown said. "Then when it gets to operations, we may need to revamp this board, which is not designed for operations. We'll stay together until we get the ISC $2.1 million. Maybe we need a memorandum of understanding among Hurley, Bayard and Santa Clara."
Bayard Mayor Charles Kelly said: "If we have enough funding to start, how long will it take to get the money and start putting in lines?"
"I'm guessing construction will take about a year," Berg said. "We have three separate functionsG