By Lynn Janes
The Silver City Town Council held a regular meeting November 14, 2023. Attendance to the meeting included Mayor Ken Ladner, council members included Jose Ray, Nicholas Prince, Guadalupe Cano, and Rudy Bencomo.
Proclamations
The Silver City Rotary and National Rotary celebrates 100 years of service and received a mayoral proclamation for the milestone. The organization was chartered in Silver City on October 12, 1923. Rotary has the moto "Service above self." The organization supports youth, quality of life programs and has shown a commitment to service in the community.
Council comments
Ray congratulated Stan Snider for his win to be the next district 3 councilor.
Prince congratulated Bencomo and Snider for their wins and thanked Ray for his years of service. He went on to thank Patricia Cano for being integral in bring the officials from Farmington to discuss what they have been doing to mitigate the issues with the homeless, substance abuse and mental health. He looked forward to the follow up meeting being held December 5, 2023.
Bencomo thanked all the voters that supported him and all the people that voted. He attended the Chihuahua Hill exhibit at the museum. "It was special to me because I grew up there." He enjoyed the presentation by the officials from Farmington. He did mention that their community has a little different demographic but was sure it would be a good place to start. He attended the cemetery committee meeting and said Peter Pena had done a very good presentation. Bencomo brought up when he had been campaigning, he encountered some citizens concerned about some weeds in an area. He contacted the town and the maintenance department had gone out to clean them up. While there the city employees encountered a homeowner in the area that yelled at them and flipped them off. She went on to tell them they were "uneducated, dirty Mexicans."
"I thought we were past that kind of stuff," Bencomo said. "Please don't abuse our city employees, they are just doing their job."
Cano had attended the Outdoor Recreation Conference. A lot of the communities had tables with information at the event. "I hope next year we can have one." It will be in Las Cruces, so she hoped to see a lot of participation from the Silver City community. She also attended the Housing for All Conference put on by Coalition for the Homeless. Cano felt it had been a good conference and in one of the sessions she attended Taos did a presentation on what they will be doing to address their issues. They plan to open a campus with an emergency shelter and another place for other services. "Their model could work for our community, and I look forward to watching how their plan comes together."
Cano reminded everyone about the follow up to the Farmington presentation town hall meeting December 5, 2023. "It will be hosted by myself and Chris Ponce." The town hall will take place at the Grant County Veterans Memorial Business and Conference Center at 6 pm.
Cano thanked Bencomo for bring up what he did earlier. "Our city staff are people and need to be respected like everyone else; they work extremely hard." She added, "The mayor says this is a city of unconditional love, not there yet and this is an example."
Ladner congratulated Bencomo and Snider and recognized those that had run. He also thanked Ray for his service.
Public input
Raul Turrieta spoke to the council about the upcoming Tamal Fiesta. It had started in Silver City and ran for 16 years before they handed it to Santa Clara. This year will be the sixth year, and new this year it will be held at Fort Bayard. He went over all the events, and they would also have food, music, and tamales.
Candice Green Lee had met with the mayor when he had "Coffee with the Mayor," and he asked her to come to the council and present her idea that they spoke about. She also spoke for several other people with the same idea. She had used the town pool as did the others and wanted to see it stay in the same place. Some type of covering for all-year-use would be a must. "It already exists, and we don't need to reinvent the wheel." The meeting the city had with an architect to build a whole new pool would cost many millions of dollars the city does not have. "I wonder what the cost for the architect was to the town. I'm sure it was not cheap." She presented some alternative ideas on how to make the current one work and be better.
Reports
Officer Vicki Toney, code enforcement, gave the council an update on the vacant properties they had been working on. The town will be getting prepared to clean up 1005 Grant Street. The Old Mill Road railroad property will be ready for cleanup and currently just waiting on a contractor to do the job. An appeal has been made for the 209 Mountain View property. Cano asked what the next steps will be. Jim Reynolds, town attorney, said it would be going to Santa Fe and the process could take several months depending on the direction it goes and went over the process.
Alex Brown, town manager, said that he had met with the General Services Department in Santa Fe, and the medical insurance would be going up 10 percent for the town and employees in January. He noted that they had never increased in the middle of a fiscal year. He recommended to the council that the town pay the extra 10 percent charged to the employees until the beginning of the next fiscal year in July 2024. This will cost the town $80,000.
New business
The council approved the affirmation of a local board as required by the state of New Mexico public employees bargaining act. Brown said this has always been an annual requirement to keep the local labor board. They all want to continue to keep it local and not taken to Santa Fe.
The council approved resolution 2023-25. This amends the budget for municipal purposes. Brown explained it further. The budget needed to have some transfers because of a fire truck that they purchased. They received a $300,000 grant and had sold the old truck for $100,000. This transaction had already occurred and had been expected.
The council approved resolution 2023-26. This authorized the execution and delivery of a Colonias Infrastructure Fund project loan grant agreement between the New Mexico Finance Authority and the Town of Silver City. This will be for the design of the regional water project that will provide a secondary water source for the area by tying them all together. The loan will be $3.3 million with a $330,000 match. Once the project is up and running the Grant County Water Commission will be responsible for the payment of the match. Currently they have two routes for the water line that will be considered and should be decided the end of the year. The water commission will choose the option.
The council approved the recommendation of the mayor to appoint Carol Coleen Huron to the municipal museum community advisory group. They had one applicant and Huron had been recommended by the museum director. Cano commented that she had been on the advisory group for two years and they had never met. To her understanding the last meeting took place 2019.
Meeting adjourned.