By Lynn Janes

The town of Bayard held a special meeting October 16, 2023. Attendance included Mayor Chon Fierro and Councilors Frances Gonzales, Eloy Gonzales, and Jose Diaz(by phone). Eloy Medina did not attend. Gabriel Ramos, city clerk, also attended.

George Esqueda of Stantec attended the meeting to update the council on projects and address the approval of an award for a project.

The council approved the bid for Global Marvin Enterprises out of Las Cruces for the NM 356 sidewalk and ADA improvements. They had received two bids and Global had been significantly lower and still met all the requirements. Their bid allows for a contingency fund for unseen expenses. Bayard had a budget of $467,258.76. The bid came to $418,381.43.

Diaz asked when they could start. Esqueda told him in fifteen days they would do a preconstruction discussion and conference. The first part of the project would start in November, and they would have 45 days to complete. The finding will expire December 31, 2023.

Diaz asked if they had been able to get all the property owners to provide easements. Esqueda said they had needed two easements and they had been obtained and recorded. He did add they could have some problems with the property on highway 356 and Hurley Avenue. The resident has been worried about the possibility of causing more of a drainage problem. "It will not fix the problem, but it will improve it."

Esqueda went over the agreement they had entered with Stantec to do the general service RFP (request for proposal). It expedites projects so they don't need to do an RFP each time.

Esqueda will create a construction budget that he will provide to the council showing the costs of the project with Global Marvin showing the contingency funds.

The wastewater project ended in August with Morrow Construction. Stantec will complete the documents and do the closeout with New Mexico Department of Finance. The project funding came from capital outlay funds, , community development block grant (CDBG) and the city of Bayard paying the match funds.

The bids for the North Foy Street all came in much higher than the budget earlier in the year. At the time Esqueda said he had recommended waiting until the end of the year to put it out again in hopes the companies would be finished with their current projects and submit a lower bid. The current funds expire in June of 2025.

They have been awarded funding for the Alta Vista Street project and have until June of 2026 to use. This one will require a 5 percent match. They have submitted a match waiver and won't know if it will be accepted for two months. They will be doing a budget for the project and putting it out for bid in January 2024 and construction should start in March 2024.

The 1 million-gallon water tank rehabilitation currently has been advertised for construction. The funding for this came from a legislative appropriation and covid relief funds Bayard had left over. The bidding will open on October 31, 2023, and be awarded in November. Esqueda said he should have an award by the November 27, 2023, council meeting. The project should be complete by April 2024.

They have a colonias award for water improvements that expires in January of 2025. The improvements will be for PRV (pressure regulator valve) replacement in the well field.

The city has the design funds for the wastewater improvements at the lift station on the end of Oak Street. They currently have been working on the preliminary engineering report (PRE). Next, the city will need to find the funding for the construction. They have started meeting with Freeport McMoRan to see about moving the easement to make construction cost considerably lower in the future.

They had conversations about the wastewater treatment plant and Medina had asked to know how much they need total to do the project and Fierro said $10-$15 million.

Esqueda gave them a list of all the grants they had received and when they expired. On November 30, 2023, they would need to have a presentation ready for the Prospectors giving them the top projects they want considered for the capital outlay funding. The 2024 colonias applications will be coming up. They had lost the 2023 award for the new chlorination funding due to the audit not being done on time. Esqueda said they had to make sure the audit will be done on time.

Next regular meeting will be held October 23, 2023

Meeting adjourned.