By Lynn Janes

The town of Bayard held a regular meeting October 14, 2026. Attendance included Mayor John L. Ojinaga, Mayor Pro Tem Eloy Gonzales, and Councilors Eloy Medina, and Charles Gray. Martha Salas, city clerk, also attended. Gilbert Ortiz did not attend.

The council approved the agenda.

Proclamations

Bayard proclaimed October Domestic Awareness month and urged all citizens to observe and be aware of domestic violence and supporting those who work towards its end. Dolores Charon accepted the proclamation.

Public input

Kim Clark had come on behalf of the Grant County Copper Collaborative mining district cleanup they had the past weekend. They had hauled five full 30-yard roll-offs to the landfill. Five teams of volunteers had participated. Between the maintenance department and wastewater employees they had the most volunteers. Bayard's clean up would be coming up the coming Friday and starts at 8:00 am. Only 8 people had signed up and she hoped to have more. They following week would be Santa Clara.

The council approved the consent agenda that included meeting minutes, accounts payable and department head reports.

New business

The council approved the purchase of equipment for GBoyz through the rural business development grant. Salas said they had three quotes and she presented the lowest. It will be for freezers. It had been a $45,000 grant for GBoyz and $55,000 grant for Mi Ranchito. The city will purchase the freezers and then be reimbursed by USDA (United States Department of Agriculture).

The council approved the return of the remaining grant for GBoyz. Salas said the grant had been awarded in 2022 and they had to meet certain criteria to obtain the full funds. They could not meet it all but had used $20,000. Because of a previous ordinance on this it will be on the agenda twice. The agreement included equipment purchase and they had to employ seven full-time employees but could not meet that.

Planning and zoning

Cordell Jones, planning and zoning chair, presented a request by Martha Jimenez of 418 Oak Street to place an enclosed double entry carport. Jones said it would be detached from the home, and they had reviewed the request and didn't find a requirement for any variances. It will meet all setback requirements, and the committee voted to approve it with the requirement to provide a building permit. The council approved the request.

Ordinances and Resolutions

The council approved the notice of intent to adopt an ordinance repealing ordinance passed for GBoyz. Salas said she had spoken to this earlier. It will be to allow for them to revert the non-expended grant to the USDA.

Action for personnel

The council approved an increase in wages for the employees in maintenance and wastewater passing levels of certification. The council discussed this for some time and agreed that the certifications required work and benefited Bayard. Salas needed guidance as to what the council wanted to do. They currently have two that have passed level one and working towards level two. The council decided on $1 increase for level one and the subsequent levels would be $1.50 increase. Eloy Gonzales abstained to vote on one of them due to conflict.

Department head reports

Stephen Estrada, wastewater director, said they had been focusing on maintaining reliable plant operations, responding to unexpected issues, preventative maintenance and planning for upcoming infrastructure improvements. He went over all that had happened recently and their actions to fix issues and general maintenance of the plant. Estrada addressed studying for their tests to increase their levels of certification and said it included a lot of microbiology and chemistry.

Sam Arellano, public works director, went over all the projects they have had and a lot of weed control. They recently had an inspection and did not have any findings. It had included samplings, water storage tanks, wells, maintenance plan, emergency response plan, water flushing, etc. Arellano also addressed those working on their level certification.

Hector Carrillo, police chief, said they have been busy with the schools. They have all animals from the shelter in Hurley and animal control has been working from there and had five dogs and two had been adopted.

Carrillo addressed the MOU (memorandum of understanding) he had presented at a Hurley council meeting to provide police coverage to Hurley. He had dropped out of the offer and wanted to report to the council the reason. He had not been able to negotiate with the mayor of Hurley because of his charge of speeding, resisting and evading an officer. He had sent a letter to Hurley on the matter and would be revising the current MOU they with Hurley after he has done some research. Hurley had passed an MOU with Santa Clara for service using their officers on their day off. This leaves some concern as Bayard has been a 24-hour service and always asked to respond. The last MOU had been done in 1980 and needed to be revised.

Ojinaga said he had been talking to Carrillo about combining the Bayard and Hurley police departments. He addressed that sometimes Bayard has been the only one to have officers on duty. He didn't see how Santa Clara could cover Hurley when they didn't have enough officers to cover their own.

Helen Schruf, with the beautification committee said on October 31, 2026, noon to 6:00 pm they would have the Folkloric Dancers from Deming preforming and two musical guests. They would also have food vendors.

Salas asked Clark since she had attended to provide a housing update. Clark said they had applied to Workforce Solutions for a housing grant. It had been for seven units total, but the application had not been approved becasue they didn't like the cost ratio. Last week they had another meeting with them and since they have excess funding will look at it again. Clark said they could also make some changes in the application if need be.

Clark, Priscilla Lucero, Southwest Council of Governments director, and the three mining district clerks had been meeting with developers, a total of seven, showing them parcels of land in the mining district and Silver City. They had been trying to find out if projects would be feasible. One had liked what they presented and owns a construction company, modular housing and mortgage company. She said they would be meeting again. Interest had been shown in the Santa Clara industrial park and Fort Bayard. Lucero said the state would be putting money towards Fort Bayard. Clark said they had a lot of things in process and money for housing available. Lucero had been frustrated by the large amounts of funding being available but all being provided to the urban areas. She has been calling and trying to have them prioritize the rural areas. "We don't have a lot of capacity but if you give us a shot you will see what we can do."

Gray asked about some land cleared near Food Basket that could be used for housing. Clark said they have been working on that one. In conversations with developers, they had expressed the concern of cost because of lack of a work force locally to do the building.

Because of this they have been looking at modular housing and the cost per square foot. Clark said that now modular housing has become pretty and spoke to a builder of them in Roswell. In a meeting in Las Cruces with Workforce Solutions they expressed a focus on modular homes. In the conversation she and Lucero had said Grant County would be a good place for a modular housing plant. The federal government has been recognizing modular housing will work well for rural areas.

The homes would be brought in without a chassis and dropped and for all intent purposes it would be a site-built home. "There is a lot of stuff going on in housing right now." Clark, Lucero and the clerks had been working to make state government realize the importance of the rural communities.

Clark added they would be facing a real housing crisis soon. Freeport McMoRan will be opening 100 jobs at Tyrone and a natural gas pipeline that will have 5000 jobs. Salas thanked Clark for the update.

Salas wanted to also report they had a bid out right now for cattle grazing on the Foy land purchased. It will be done until they begin to develop the property. The bids would be due by October 28, 2026. All bids will be opened and read that day in the presence of those that submitted them. The next council meeting the bids will be presented to the council.

Mayor and council reports

Eloy Gonzales said something funny had happened at the post office. A resident had come and thanked him for getting Blake's Lota Burger open. He had gone over, and they had still been working on repairs. He thought they would be open soon.

Gray said he had been approached by one of the "more fussy" residents. This time they had been pleased with the performance of the city. Apparently, a suspicious person in dark clothing had been loitering around his property at night. He had called the non-emergency dispatch and had an officer respond in minutes and ascertained the guy had been there legitimately. Gray said the report the department provided said the police had responded to 232 calls but sometimes they lose sight that each of those calls has a story. He continued to speak to the importance of focusing on recruitment and retention of the staff, especially the police department. "We are functioning just the way we are supposed to." The residents have a good sense of wellbeing, especially "very fussy residents".

Ojinaga wanted to let the workers know they all had been doing an excellent job and went over all they had been doing well. Passing the water certification made the city look great.

He had one issue and had a policy he handed out to the council on what their duties would be and asked them to follow it. He instructed them if they had a problem with a department to come to him first and he would address it to that supervisor. If he sees a problem, he speaks to the department head and not the employee. It will be the department head responsibility to address it with the employee. He asked them, "Follow the policy because everybody can't be telling everyone what to do. Nothing will get done because they don't know who to answer to."

Next meeting will be held November 18, 2026

Meeting adjourned.