Attendees: Bart Roselli, Ted Presler, Allyson Siwik, Lucy Whitmarsh, Bryan Hyde, Kitty Clemens, Karen Beckenbach, Lee Gruber, Alexa Tubbs, Andrea Warner, Eric Ockerhansen, Steve Chavira, Kristen Warnack, Abigail Klpp, Robert, David Chapman, Brenda Tozier, and Charmeine Wait

MainStreet Report: Charmeine –We have three Clean and Beautiful Grants. In spring, the Visitor Center will have plants, irrigation, and bird, butterfly, and bee interpretation station for Tourists and Locals. Carlos Callejo did a mural on New Mexico Folk Art on the side of Encore. And, across the street from Encore we have our 3rd project in the parking lot to change the rain water to water the trees and a pergola for the rose tree that make it look a lot nicer as well as an interpretive sign that was recently installed.
We just received a grant from Freeport McMoRan Foundation to put in lights in the Big Ditch and the lights are ordered.
We are also working on an Outdoor Trails+ grant for Lion’s Park improvements.

Silco Theatre Report: Charmeine - Silco Theatre opened in October and is doing very well. Spiderman will be playing for another week since it did so well. We will be going after Capitol Outlook funds to improve the space and open the balcony. Three Medify filters added to clean the air as well as limiting seats and requiring masks to help keep everyone safe.

Visitor Center Report: David – In October we averaged 43 visitors per day. In November, we averaged 30 visitors per day. In December, we averaged 29 visitors per day. The lobby was decorated for the holidays. The hat tree from Silver City Knitters for those in need of a hat was a big hit with the visitors. In December, $2,500 MainStreet Gift Certificates sold.
We are looking for more volunteers and if you have any information please contact David at david@visitsilvercity.org. If you have any events please add them to visitsilvercity.org

Discussion:
Allyson Siwik The Silver City Watershed Keepers – Next Toss no Mas event on Saturday, January 22 from 9AM to noon. Any organization can plug in to help with a cleanup, adopt a median, or adopt a waterway. Also on January 22 at 6PM will be a Webinar on getting to know your watershed.
NM Clean and Beautiful grants, the Outdoor Recreation Plus Grant, and a grant from 30 Something is allowing them to build rain gardens on the steep slope in the Big Ditch. JB working with youth on a project. Tree work and drainage issues from Lions Park to the Big Ditch, towards the walkway will happen in January. Planting will continue in the spring.
April 23, Earth Day, will have events in Gough Park and community projects. The planning meeting will be on January 14 at 2PM.
The 18th Annual Gila River Festival will be September 16-18 and the kickoff meeting will be on January 13 at 10AM. www.gilariverfestival.com
For more information go to www.silvercitywatershedkeepers.org

Lee Gruber SWNMACT – Co-Starters has 12 people registered for the January 25th group. Fifty people have completed the program and half already have small business loans.
5 Points initiative – Waterworks building was cleaned and looking great due to the Clean and Beautiful Grant. Americorps along with Stream Dynamics worked on the area of the campground. And coming will be composting toilets, outdoor teaching programs, and the design of Silva Creek.

Ted Presler Southwest Word Fiesta –JJ Wilson will be stepping down and taking over WNMU’s Mimbres Press. Ted will be taking over this position. February 23 and 24 creative voices symposium topics on the Gila. Regional authors and skits by Aldo Leopold school at the commons. presrub@gmail.com

Karen Beckenbach GCCCA – 1st Armored Division Band was a big success. They came out and decorated the stage with poinsettias for the holiday show. Was a lot of work but amazing. Next year may do this or part of the band. Thanks to the American Legion for feeding the group. David Morrison in the new contact at the Legion. Next up on February 25 is the Diamonds; in March is Thalea String Quartet who will also be doing an Education Outreach Program. In May, is Yjastros, a Flamenco group, who will also be doing an Education Outreach Program. Next season is about set and one of the bands will be a Beach Boys Tribute.

Kristen Warnack Little Toad Brewery – Lots of great music going on. January 6 is Aspen Anonda who is an Indy Pop singer and on the 7th The Roswells from Albuquerque. January 14 was going to be a DJ but holding off on this until a dance party can be done more safely and will have another local band playing instead. Rudy Boy Experiment is coming January 29 playing some Southwest rock and Blues. For more details on events go to https://www.littletoadcreek.com/events
Starting January 18 every Tuesday will be Trivia night.
In April will be the Toad Fest for their 10-year anniversary.

Andrea Warner– Farmers Market Saturday January 8 is the first Farmers Market of the year and will be every other week at their current location until the Co-Op starts construction. The EBT double-up program comes from a Federal Grant that goes to our farmers to grow local food. The program has been increasing each year with 2021 being the best yet! If you have a flyer, you want to put up at the market for an event, go to the info booth.
Give Grandly leadership meeting kick off at the Commons on January 20 at 11 AM.

Abigail Kipp Silver City Public Library – Every Friday from 3PM-5PM is a weaving class. On January 13 from 3PM-5PM is a game day with an assortment of games for all ages and a raffle at the end. January 20 from 3PM-5PM is a Future Engineer class where you build things with legos. January 27 from 3PM-5PM is Minecraft event.
Come out and visit the library to read and so much more! https://silvercitypubliclibrary.org/events-and-activities/

Alexa Tubbs Project Coordinator for the Clay Festival – 11th Annual Silver City CLAY Festival: July 11-17 2022 www.clayfestival.com
-Follow us on Instagram! @clay_festival We'll follow you back :)
-We'll be featured in the most popular issue of Southwest Contemporary, the Field Guide

-We're looking for local businesses to collaborate with and partner during the festival. -We would love to share local clay-based artists and CLAY related content on our social
media platforms, please send to clayfestival@swnmact.org

Eric Ockerhausen Grant County Art Guild – The year 2021 was a record year for the Grant County Art Guild Gallery. Our sales in 2021 were better than 2019 and 2020 combined. The new Annex and Artisan Market are developing into a space that we hope will serve the community, area artists, and vendors. We are working to make improvements for the Gallery and the Annex and hope things continue to grow.
We have two new Artists at the Gallery. Deb Hutchings, a painter, and Vicki Gadberry, a fiber artist. We also added Guild only members: Ron Roland, painter, Suzanne Ens who paints and does mixed media and fabric, and Nan Noaken, needle felting, and animation short films.
Besides the weekly Saturday Artisan Market from 9 to 1, we are also hosting an Artist Swap and Sell for art supplies at the Annex on Sunday, January 16, and Monday, January 17 from 10 to 3. A person wishing to sell any excess art supplies they have can get a table for 10 dollars a day. Interested people may contact Susan Rice at 575-388- 1082 or email her at spiritglass4@gmail.com
We are still holding the Open Studio every second and fourth Thursday of the month from 10 to 1. This is a drop-in event with a suggested donation of 5 dollars.
WehaveapouredpaintingworkshoponMonday,January24,at10am. Moredetails about this will be on our website.
We are currently working towards holding some workshops and classes in the Annex. We have another poured paint class in the pipeline, a Plein air painting multiple day workshop, silk dying, a welded metal poppy workshop, and will be doing Valentine’s cards for children and adults in February as well as some Make and Takes during the Artisan Markets.
Our December workshop for children was a success. We have pictures and other information about that on our website.
We are building an email list to notify people about coming events, classes, and workshops and we are using our website and other social media to get the word out to the community. Anyone wanting to be on the email list or who has any questions about the Annex may contact Eric Ockerhausen at annex@gcag.org

Robert, Palace Hotel – October/November were the best months in two years. Gage has been promoting them on Facebook.

Jason, Pierre Bistro - Looking into opening food options inside the Palace Hotel or looking for a new location. Started a GoFundMe page to help get them back open.

Lucy Whitmarsh Murray Hotel – Lodging tax is paid by guests and is 5% of room rate. This tax is used for promoting the area. Overall draw for visitors is for outdoor recreation and looking to bring in birding groups.

Bryan Hyde Design Committee SC MainStreet – They sell Silver City t-shirts at the Silver City Marketplace and the Marketplace did really well in December.

Kitty Clemens SW NM Council of Governments – Hidalgo County has a co-starter class starting on the 13th, in Luna on February 24, and working starting one in Catron County. They have four new facilitators starting on January 18. They are rebuilding their website as well and looking for Graphic Design artist to update their logo. Will discuss this with Bryan Hyde.
Will be at the Bayard Public Library every Wednesday to help people with resume writing, job search, and applying for jobs online. 575-956-1292

Steve Chavira Workforce and Economic Development – Roundtable discussion with elected officials in regards to current and future visions. February 9 at 7AM next roundtable. Working on small business and rebuilding trades. Roundtable open to businesses. steve@gcweda.org 575-312-9250

Virtual Tour of the Gila can be found on the Chambers Facebook page.

Bart Roselli Silver City Museum – It was a really good year with Unpacking Silver City and had more than 800 logged in and panels who answered questions.
The Ice Cream Social and Victorian Christmas had to be altered this year but still did really good.
The newsletter has expanded to eight pages with stories about history and has been moved to a hard copy that is delivered four times a year to members. They have two new staff members – Shannon Wilson is the new volunteer coordinator and will relaunch a school program. Curator Javier Marrufo has joined the staff as well.
Unpacking Silver City Exhibits...Boom and Bust (economy) with concurrent “Community Conversations” Series at the Silco and online.
The Chihuahua Hill project continues and will be listed in the El Paso Times.
In November the New Mexico Museum Conference will be held locally. Territorial Charter Day is in the works and will be Saturday February 12

Alexandra Tager WNMU Director of Cultural Affairs – She has recently been promoted to this position and is looking for someone to replace the Program Coordinator position which can be found on their website.
January 18 7PM at Light Hall will feature Rahim AlHaj Trio – Iraqi oud virtuoso composer joined by Iranian santour maestro, and a world famous percussion master.
January 20 6:30PM Milner Women in the Arts Lecture and Exhibit Series at the Francis McCray Gallery
Fiesta Latina will be June 17, 18, and 19. Hoping for hand crafters from Mexico.
https://admin.wnmu.edu/cultural/

Meeting adjourned

Next meeting will be Thursday, February 3, 2022 at 9am, invitation to follow the
week before.

Content on the Beat

WARNING: All articles and photos with a byline or photo credit are copyrighted to the author or photographer. You may not use any information found within the articles without asking permission AND giving attribution to the source. Photos can be requested and may incur a nominal fee for use personally or commercially.

Disclaimer: If you find errors in articles not written by the Beat team but sent to us from other content providers, please contact the writer, not the Beat. For example, obituaries are always provided by the funeral home or a family member. We can fix errors, but please give details on where the error is so we can find it. News releases from government and non-profit entities are posted generally without change, except for legal notices, which incur a small charge.

NOTE: If an article does not have a byline, it was written by someone not affiliated with the Beat and then sent to the Beat for posting.

Images: We have received complaints about large images blocking parts of other articles. If you encounter this problem, click on the title of the article you want to read and it will take you to that article's page, which shows only that article without any intruders. 

New Columnists: The Beat continues to bring you new columnists. And check out the old faithfuls who continue to provide content.

Newsletter: If you opt in to the Join GCB Three Times Weekly Updates option above this to the right, you will be subscribed to email notifications with links to recently posted articles.

Submitting to the Beat

Those new to providing news releases to the Beat are asked to please check out submission guidelines at https://www.grantcountybeat.com/about/submissions. They are for your information to make life easier on the readers, as well as for the editor.

Advertising: Don't forget to tell advertisers that you saw their ads on the Beat.

Classifieds: We have changed Classifieds to a simpler option. Check periodically to see if any new ones have popped up. Send your information to editor@grantcountybeat.com and we will post it as soon as we can. Instructions and prices are on the page.

Editor's Notes

It has come to this editor's attention that people are sending information to the Grant County Beat Facebook page. Please be aware that the editor does not regularly monitor the page. If you have items you want to send to the editor, please send them to editor@grantcountybeat.com. Thanks!

Here for YOU: Consider the Beat your DAILY newspaper for up-to-date information about Grant County. It's at your fingertips! One Click to Local News. Thanks for your support for and your readership of Grant County's online news source—www.grantcountybeat.com

Feel free to notify editor@grantcountybeat.com if you notice any technical problems on the site. Your convenience is my desire for the Beat.  The Beat totally appreciates its readers and subscribers!  

Compliance: Because you are an esteemed member of The Grant County Beat readership, be assured that we at the Beat continue to do everything we can to be in full compliance with GDPR and pertinent US law, so that the information you have chosen to give to us cannot be compromised.