By Lynn Janes

On September 28, 2023, the Grant County Water Commission had a regular meeting at the city annex building. Chairman and Silver City Town Manager Alex Brown led the meeting.

Priscilla Lucero, Southwest New Mexico Council of Governments director, said they had the funds to start paying for the PER (preliminary engineering report).

She had spoken with some of the regional representatives for Senator Martin Heinrich. They will be taking advantage of the regional border commission in Las Cruces. At that point they could apply directly to them for funding. She has been having conversations with some state Water Trust officials about getting funding from the New Mexico Unit Fund for planning and designing. "I will be meeting in Las Cruces with Maya Clifford, who will be moving that initiative forward."

Lucero said she had talked to Peter Russel, and they are scheduled to present on December 6, 2023, in Truth or Consequences at 9 am. "We all need to go and let them know where we are with this project, and we will have a power point presentation for them." She will also continue to look for other funding opportunities. The state does have some funding available for underserved communities that she will look at.

Brown said once they start getting some good budget numbers for construction, they can start putting things together. George Esqueda, Stantec, said he would look into the Colonias funding status.

Raymond De la Vega, Stantec, gave an update on the PER. They have finished Section 1 of the report and that includes updating the location and environmental information that the original PER had. They had looked at the entire area and the two pipeline areas and had gotten the calculation estimates. The data from the census (2020) shows a decline in population. "We will be looking at any master plans or comprehensive plans from the county that would show some expected areas of development." He asked for help from anyone with information that would allow them to show at least a maintaining of population.

Kristina Ortiz, Rural Partners Network, said that October 1, 2023, they would have all new numbers for population available.

Randy Ellison, Freeport McMoRan Inc. (FMI), wanted to point out that in 2020 Chino shut down and they lost 200 employees and that could have affected the census. In 2024 they will be at around 900 employees.

Brown suggested talking to some of the major employers for information and De la Vega agreed. Lucero asked him if he had done any research on bureaus of economic research on any of the data and told him they should have new data available in November. She also suggested using Stats America that she uses many times. She told him she would talk to him later about some housing projects she has been made aware of possibly happening. She also brought up the Silver City subdivision that has 56 lots and has 6 occupied. It should move quickly when they get the infrastructure funding. Brown said Fowler Brothers has two subdivisions in town and they will be developing them.

Karl Pennock, RCAC (rural community assistance corporation) had an update. They had started collecting information at the beginning of the month. He thanked everyone for supplying him with the rate information he needed to do the financial analysis.

De la Vega said they would be on track to finish the PER by the end of the year. Section 1 would be ready the next day. He said another section would be done November 3, 2023. He wanted them to meet before that to talk through the alternative path for the water line. He and Brown suggested that for the October meeting the water operators from the municipalities attend.

Brown asked if they would have some numbers by the end of the year and De la Vega said yes.

Lucero brought up that November 30, 2023, they would hold the annual Prospectors Forum. "This will be a project you will want to present as a group to show them how much the water commission has accomplished in the last nine months." Brown said he thought that would be a good idea along with FMI attending.

Ortiz asked Lucero to let her know what federal funding opportunities she would be looking at so she can coordinate with the federal partners and get their support.

Next meeting will be held October 26, 2023

Adjourned