By Mary Alice Murphy

At Tuesday morning's Grant County Commission special meeting and work session, Chairman Brett Kasten asked for a moment of silence for slain Alamogordo police officer Clint Corvinus.

The special meeting was held to certify property tax rates.

"We set the rates and certify them in June," Assessor Raul Turrieta said. "Then in September, the state gives us five days to certify its results."

The state results include copper production taxes, bringing the total county taxes to $841 million. Turrieta said the revenue was up about $18 million.

2016 tax rates are based on the state debt service at 0.001360, Grant County residential rate at 0.006314, non-residential at 0.011850, and county debt service at 0.001138. Residential for 2016 went down from 2015's 0.006334.

Other tax rates are shown in this image:

He said Hurley's property taxes increased by about $400,000, because of some sales and personal property. "I comp out sales. What a home is worth, I put on the books."

The work session featured a review of the regular session agenda to be addressed on Thursday, Sept. 15, at 9 a.m. at the Grant County Administration Center.

Two public hearings will take place to hear input from residents and will be approved or not after the hearings.

The first addresses the new animal control ordinance. Attorney Abigail Robinson explained the committee went through concerns heard at a community meeting. "The committee made a few revisions. The most substantive one took out some language in Section 4.7, which listed when pets could be off leash. The committee felt the revision included more people. The second major one added a requirement to the litter permit section, requiring anyone giving away or selling puppies or kittens to make their litter permit visible to interested persons. We also corrected a few typos."

Public Hearing No. 2 will address an ordinance authorizing the issuance of Grant County, New Mexico Department of Health Lease appropriation refunding bonds for the Fort Bayard Medical Center. The series 2016 bonds will be in an aggregate principal amount not to exceed $55 million for the purpose of defraying the cost of refunding and redeeming the county's outstanding 2008 bonds that financed the cost of designing, acquiring, constructing and equipping a healthcare facility.

County Manager Charlene Webb noted that this ordinance does not address the lease agreement with DOH, which will be addressed at a later date.

Randy Hernandez, accounts payable, gave the financial report. The expenditures since last month's meeting totaled $3,316,996.92, which includes two payrolls for a total of $428,655.77.

Extraordinary expenses (all amounts are approximate), as reported by Hernandez, included $32,000 for a project at the Bataan Memorial Park for the Veterans section; fuel, $23,000; debt service payment of $872,000; volunteer fire departments insurance for $404,000; jet fuel for $16,000; road department diesel, $13,000; a fire apparatus for Tyrone Volunteer Fire Department, $396,000; software, $51,000; three Dodge Chargers for Sheriff's Department, $73,000; and for the conference center $153,000.

Under new business, two proclamations will be considered. The first declares Sept. 21-14, 2016 as Grant County Fair Days, and the second will declare October 2016 as Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

Richard R. Maynes has requested time on the agenda to promote the use of side-by-sides and UTVs on public roads within Grant County.

Agreements to be considered include:

• A professional services agreement with Bohannon Huston Inc. for completion of a comprehensive plan this year, an asset management plan for next year and for grant application support;
• A joint road maintenance agreement with Pyramid Peak Mining LLC for road maintenance on Carlisle Road and Summit Peak Road;
• An inmate housing agreement with Sierra County to house inmates in the Grant County Detention Center; and
• A similar inmate housing agreement with Hidalgo County.

Commissioners will consider six resolutions.

The first will address the formation of a loss prevention committee, which will consist of five and no more than nine members representing elected officials, managers, supervisors and employees. It shall include at least a sworn member from the Sheriff's Office, a detention officer, an employee from public works, maintenance and general administration. The committee shall serve as an advisory committee to the county manager on all matters related to the County Risk Management program. Members shall be nominated by management and will serve for a term of one year, but may be reappointed.

Commissioners will approve or not the vacation and abandonment of the San Ysidro Street property in San Lorenzo and authorizing the sale of it.

Planning and Community Development Director Mischa Larisch said the property is in an estate now. "The estate is using part of San Ysidro Street and wanted to buy it." Authorization of vacation will authorize the county to implement the sale of the property at appraised value of $1,850.

Also under consideration is support for the New Mexico Association of Counties priorities for the 2017 legislative session. The four priorities requesting support are:

• Revisions to the whistleblower protection act, which amends definitions and narrows the list of those individuals to whom a complaint may be communicated;
• A revision of the New Mexico 911 Act to ensure all technologies utilizing 911 services are contributing equally to the New Mexico 911 Fund;
• Amendments to the Forfeiture Act that remove unreasonable burdens placed on law enforcement agencies, allow law enforcement to retain forfeited property under limited circumstances, clarify appropriate use of forfeiture and ensure that due process rights of parties involved are honored; and
• Recommendations that allow local boards of county commissioners to accept, approve and review non-governmental entities' capital outlay funds and their fiscal impacts to county's finances prior to submission to the state Legislature; suspend acceptance of 2017 legislative session capital outlay funds for purchase of vehicles, information technology, and any capital outlay expenditure of less than $50,000; and authorize the collection of a 3 percent administrative fee.

A resolution adopting the required Community Development Block Grant annual certifications and commitments will be considered. The certifications include a citizen participation plan.

Also under consideration is the vacation and abandonment of the alley lying adjacent to Lot 9 of the B & H Subdivision Property and authorizing the sale. "The home uses it as access to the garage," Larisch said. "The property is not needed by the county and the owner is willing to purchase it at the appraised value of $900."

The last resolution would allow the county to accept roads within the Rio Mimbres Subdivision for maintenance. "They had Fowler Bros. lay base course," Larisch said. "We are satisfied," Road Superintendent Earl Moore said.

Commissioners will approve or not a bid to Silver City's Sacaton Construction to build the LS Mesa Fire Station, at the base bid of $477,369.10 and include a 30-kilowatt solar system, as the area is off the grid, for an additional cost of $43,000.

Webb said Pinos Altos Fire Chief Lucy Whitmarsh has indicated that the department has a $400,000 New Mexico Finance Authority loan for $400,000 and extra money for the additional costs, including a well and generator.

A request for proposal for professional services for a Grant County Multi-Jurisdictional Mitigation Plan for emergency management will be considered. Grant County Emergency Planner Gilbert Helton, General Services Director Randy Villa and Larisch reviewed the one proposal and recommended the bid be awarded to HazAir.

As the Grant County Indigent Hospital and Health Care Claims Board, commissioners will consider approving the 15 August 2016 health plan claims, 14 to Gila Regional Medical Center for $12,694.35 and one claim for ambulance service for $548 to total $13,242.35. All claims came from the County Detention Center.

The subsequent article will cover county reports.