By Lynn Janes
On March 12, 2026, the commission had a regular meeting at the city annex building. Jacqui Olea, interim town manager, called the meeting to order.
New business
Raymond De la Vega, Stantec, had an update for the commission. He presented the commission with the 90 percent plan for the project. They still had some information to be verified and decided on. One being the water stand information. He needed to coordinate with Santa Clara on what they wanted to do. The water stand he referred to would be the one located at Hanover. De la Vega wanted to put it out there to see if the water operator had any issues they could foresee.
De la Vega also wanted permission to start talking with the New Mexico Environmental Department (NMED) on behalf of the commission. Permits would need to be filed, and he needed to know what kind of system he would be applying for —transient and non-transient.
He had an update from PNM. They will be ready to bring power to the site at a cost of $25,000. Once they have received an ok, they will engineer the line and install it. It can be done ahead of time and not energized until the service will be needed. They said it would take four weeks to engineer. If the commission has the funds that can be started. Pricilla Lucero, New Mexico Southwest Council of Governments director, asked who he had spoken to at PNM and asked to be copied on the emails. She had also been speaking to people at PNM and wanted to coordinate the efforts.
De la Vega said they still needed to finalize the forest permits for special use on highway 152. They had been meeting with the Department of Transportation (DOT) and Rural Community Assistance Corporation (RCAC) on some logistics.
Although De la Vega did not need formal approval to speak to the NMED and U.S. Forest Service, the commission all approved.
Indira Aguirre, RCAC, asked if they needed any other financial aid besides Hurley, Bayard and Santa Clara. She did not have Arenas Valley MDWA (mutual domestic water association) or Rosedale MDWA. They determined for the time being they only needed the ones they already had.
De la Vega didn't have any updates on the water operators sub-committee, but since they have a 90 percent design .they will start having some meetings.
Lucero said the JPA (joint powers agreement) sub-committee from what she understood had meet and Bosque Advisors and Linda Melendrez, of Melendrez and Melendrez Law Firm had attended. They had discussed the best way to structure the commission. The town clerks from Hurley, Bayard and Santa Clara had also attended. They had looked at the Albuquerque Bernalillo structure as a blueprint although they only have two entities, and Grant County will have to be more expansive. Melendrez agreed with the summary Lucero had provided. She had also looked at Eastern New Mexico because it had been a little more detailed because of multiple entities, and she felt that template would work better. She currently will be working on the template for them to start working on with the legislature.
Lucero addressed funding priorities. The prior day had been the signing day for capital outlay projects. Santa Clara had received $1 million for the transmission line to Hanover plus an additional $75,000 to help with repairs. The New Mexico Unit fund has been doing public input meetings and will be consolidating that data. They had received some great input and will be modifying the policies to help support small communities more because they had been looking at numbers and not budgets. The commission will be submitting an application in July. Some concern has been expressed that they can't obtain enough funding, but Lucero said it didn't have to be a standalone project, and they could also, if needed ,look to the Water Trust Board and Colonias to find additional funding. She continued with funding information.
Currently Lucero has been looking to obtain funding to hire a person in her office to help the communities with the processes. It will also provide oversight to ensure the funds and projects will be moving in a timely manner.
Next meeting will be held in April of 2026. Date to be announced later.
Adjourned
