By Lynn Janes

On March 21, 2024, the commission held a regular meeting at the city annex building.

Raymond De La Vega of Stantec said they have done the final draft of the preliminary engineering report (PER) and have sent copies to everyone and will be waiting for comments before it will be sent to the environmental protection agency (EPA). They want to make sure they have all the correct information.

Stantec will be preparing the scope and fee for design. One of the main timeline restrictions happening will be the necessity of using some of the funding by March 2025 [corrected]. "We want to make sure all the preliminary data needed will be done as soon as possible. "

In the next few weeks, they want to have a workshop with the members to go over the projects and make sure all the elements in the design scope have been addressed. The plan will be to start the portion of the design in the next month.

The final design will be paid for with a colonias grant received by the town of Silver City last year. Alex Brown, town manager, said they had received $3.3 million. The next step will be to look for funding for the actual construction of the project. The project will be done in phases as the funding comes in.

Brown said phase one should be the Hurley well donated by Freeport McMoRan (FMI) and connecting it. Most of the funding will be in place with the $1.3 million that Bayard requested be moved over to the water project. Hurley also has some funding from FMI. He hoped to see that started by the end of the year.

The next step should be the Santa Clara wells. Brown said, "This is not set in stone." He has identified the phases but is the information he has currently. Richard Maynes, Stantec, said that doing it in phases made sense.

De La Vega said the ability to get the full amount at once for the project would not be realistic, so doing the project in phases would be an excellent approach.

Brown said the phases would only be a recommendation and the commission would have to make that decision. He asked them to go over the PER and have their staff go over it and make sure all the information on their portion is correct and let Stantec know about the corrections. Brown said he found a few things concerning water rights to be corrected earlier that day.

Hurley Mayor Ed Stevens said earlier in Brown's comments he had referenced the funding Hurley had available to do the well. A stipulation for the use of the $1 million funding had been the well had to be a production well. Well 3 has been tested by a hydrologist and FMI should have not problems and will not have the problems that the others have caused. They have said this area would be a good source.

Next meeting Priscilla Lucero, director, Southwest New Mexico Council of Governments, can give an update on funding sources. She had not attended the meeting due to meeting with funding sources for this project at the same time. Karl Pennock of RCAC (Rural Community Assistance Program), can give probable rates.

Next meeting will be held April 25, 2024

Adjourned