[Editor's Note: This is part 2 and the final article of the special meeting of the Grant County Board of Commissioners on July 27, 2021. It covers the bids received for RFPs, as well as action after the executive session.]

By Mary Alice Murphy

Grant County commissioners heard, at the special meeting on July 27, 2021, from County Procurement Officer Randy Hernandez about the bids received from two requests for proposal.

The first was a bid for Bandoni Drive drainage improvements. Hernandez said one bid was received from Southwest Concrete and Paving for $428,000, and with gross receipts tax totaling $456,087.50. The project will be funded by a New Mexico Department of Transportation grant in the amount of $750,000. Hernandez recommended approval and noted that the engineering estimate came in at $520,000, so the bid came in under the estimate.

District 3 Commissioner Alicia Edwards asked if "we have ironed out issues with the one property owner." [One property owner did not agree to the right-of-way on her property.]

Planning and Community Development Director Priscilla Shoup said the engineers had redesigned the project around the property owner.

The second bid was for management of the county-owned child-care facility, known as Baby Bootcamp at 2609 Camino del Bosque. "The current provider's license is expiring," Hernandez said. "We received one proposal from El Grito Inc. for a cost sharing of the property at $161,080, which is 50 percent of their proposal. Because of the complexity, we asked for an in-person presentation to the evaluation committee. In discussions with the awardee, we recommend a contingent approval. It is contingent on the use of ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funds. Without the use of these funds, the county could not support this endeavor. We recognize there is a need in this community for childcare. When the lease expires, it is our understanding that the current provider will be closing the doors and 32 kids will be displaced without another provider. The second contingency is approval by the New Mexico Board of Finance. Depending on the lease structure, any lease for more than five years and more than $25,000 has to go before the state for approval. These are our recommendations, including from interim county manager (Randy Villa), previous county manager (Charlene Webb) and the evaluation committee. Vicki Barnett and Priscilla Lucero were on the committee. Misty Pugmire of El Grito is here if you have questions."

District 1 Commissioner and Chair Chris Ponce made a motion for discussion purposes and District 5 Commissioner Harry Browne seconded it.

Browne then asked for an explanation of the lease provisions.

Hernandez said that it is Ms. Pugmire's belief that she can get the facility sustainable after the first year, and she needed some help to get it up and running the first year. "I would assume it will be a standard five-year lease like the current provider."

Browne said he was confused. "We own the building, but we are paying the contractor to perform these services?"

"Not entirely," Hernandez replied. "The way the structure was built, the lease was done 10 years ago, with the building in exchange of services to the community. This is to help them get it started up again."

Pugmire said the way it worked out was that "we were approached by the state. They realized there was a possibility we could take it over. I said I would not consider it until the county put it out in an RFP. So, when the county did put out the RFP, it came to me. We came to this with our heart, not our pocketbook. We are not in this to make one dime off this. We are a non-profit program, and we want it to be a non-profit center. I came into it as a non-profit in a collaboration with the county to make the facility viable for the families. The closure will displace 32 families. There is no place in the county for infants up to two-years-old to go. To make childcare affordable you have to have 4- and 5-year-olds to make it sustainable because of the cost ratio. It is 4-to-1 ratio for infants and two-year-olds and it is a 10-to-1 ratio for 3-5-year-olds. When you take out the 3-5-year-olds, it's a problem. The state put the 4-year-olds into the schools. The 3-year-olds program went to us at El Grito. I wrote several grants over the years, so that every 3-year-old regardless of family income can go to El Grito. That put her (the current provider) in a position where she could not viably continue to operate. To be honest, when I saw the situation, I had already put in for a license, because it takes a while at the state. I knew the county needed this; I knew the families needed this, so that's why I went in with a proposal for collaboration. I would like a year to process it out. The RFP came out May 4. Every single grant I wrote was due in March."

She explained that some of the pre-school grant funding can be used at the facility, and the statewide 3-years-old grants can be put into those slots. "Then July 1- I stay on top of these things- childcare subsidies increased to 350 percent. Where before a family of four could qualify at $54,000, now they can qualify at $93,000, which means almost everyone in the facility can now qualify for childcare. They just have to know how to apply. With my team, we will make sure every one of those families is putting the application into the state. I need a year for salaries to set this up. We've never collected money at El Grito. We've run on all grants. But do I believe we can do it? I absolutely do believe we can. Those are our teachers' children, they're our firemen's children, because they have to pay for services. We were the only applicant, and I told Randy we would probably be the only one. I want it as a collaboration with the county. I looked at this deeply with all the numbers to make sure what we can do. I wanted a year to make sure it will work."

District 4 Commissioner Billy Billings asked how many children Pugmire expected to serve at the facility.

"Right now, it's 32," she replied. "But when the families see the quality, that will change. The building is licensed for 64, but that was including the 3- and 4-year-olds with the higher ratio. I'm guessing we will do 45-50."

Billings said he had already talked to her and knew the answer but asked it for the public. "This is a year-round program?"

"Yes, it is year-round," Pugmire replied. "We only run at El Grito for the school year, but this program would run year-round. We also run extended hours in our program, but this will be year-round starting at 7:30 and going to 5 p.m. Most of the time it was 7:45 and by 5:15, we didn't have any more children. I will be honest, before I came here, I talked to Freeport-McMoRan and I'm on the ECD (Early Childhood Department) panel, to make sure that they are aware of what we're doing. We will look at funds to make this work, but it has to be a solid collaboration with the county. We have your Santa Clara building and have been in it for 12 years. We had drainage into the building. I told Mischa (former Planning and Community Development Director Michael Larisch) about it, and he said the county didn't own the building. And I said, 'yes, you do,' but being a good tenant, we took care of the issue. There is a lot of maintenance that has to be done to this building before we walk in the door in order to stay licensed."

Edwards asked how the maintenance would be taken care of. Pugmire said it was part of the collaboration that she wrote into the proposal.

"That will be above the $161,000?" Edwards asked.

"That will be forever," Pugmire replied. "The county will maintain the building."

Edwards clarified the $161,000 is for the first year, and "then you will evaluate it and decide whether it is viable." Pugmire confirmed it.

"I can't tell you how much we appreciate you for stepping up," Edwards said.

District 1 Commissioner and Chair Chris Ponce asked Pugmire to give quarterly reports to the commission.

"I will," Pugmire replied. "I want to grow the program."

Browne asked when she would need the funding, Hernandez replied, sooner, rather than later.

"I need to get licensed," Pugmire said. "I started the process in March. She (the previous provider) closed the doors on Friday."

Hernandez pointed out that one of the purposes of the ARPA is to keep childcare facilities open and licenses up-to-date.

Browne asked Villa what the maintenance issues are.

"It has some issues with roof leaks, and some of the windows have issues," Villa replied.

Jason Lockett, facility maintenance and grounds superintendent, said there is a lot of deferred maintenance in the building. It would cost up to $50,000 to do the repairs, but they might find other problems.

Edwards asked where kids are going to get service in the meantime.

"Nowhere," Pugmire said. "I don't have a facility to put them in."

Terry Anderson of the Community Partnership for Children said the group has helped get some of the infants and toddlers into other home-based programs. "We hope they will have families that can support them in the meantime. I'm happy Misty is taking it over. Montessori has a program for infants, but its numbers are pretty full. Because Misty has funding for early Headstart for infants and toddlers, the families will be happy to know the program will continue, although they may have some lag."

Pugmire said the building must come back to code before it can be licensed. "They are doing a walk through on Aug. 3 to know the minimums that we need to get the doors open. I visited with the former provider's staff, because we will have to hire some staff, and I will move some of my staff over. The program will be quality, or we won't do it."

Billings asked how long it might take to get it up to code. Lockett estimated about a month.

Hernandez said based on the need for the childcare, the county will try for a contingent approval on the lease, similar to what was done for Tu Casa, then do the lease.

Pugmire said: "Lt. Gov. Howie Morales is 100 percent behind us, the ECD is behind us. Once we get the building where we need it, we will start."

Billings asked Pugmire if she believed the $161,080 the county would provide would by next year be replaced with grant funding.

"I absolutely believe it will," Pugmire replied. "Freeport was willing to push me forward with more grant funding. They know how important this is, as well. If we do it correctly with childcare subsidies, parents won't be paying $$175-200 a week, but more like that amount a month. If we can't make it work in a year, we'll all smile and walk away and be very sad we have no childcare."

Ponce said he believes it is good for the community.

Edwards asked Hernandez if they were waiting for the ARPA funding to do it.

Hernandez said all that is required at the meeting is approval by the commissioners, as the county is ready to do the draw down for the funding now.

"While we're waiting on the ARPA money, are we prepared to do what we need to do on the building?" Edwards asked. "You just need our commitment?"

To an affirmative answer, the commissioners unanimously approved the bid and collaboration.

None of the commissioners had a report and they went into executive session. After coming out of the executive session having taken no action, a motion was made and approved to go into contract negotiations with one of the county manager applicants.

After adjournment, Edwards told the Beat that the commissioners were advised by the attorney not to announce the name of the applicant until the contract was accepted.