Hurley receives update on legislative session and approve stage one fire restrictions

By Lynn Janes

The town of Hurley had a regular meeting April 14, 2026. Reynaldo Maynes, Ester Gil and Jason Cox attended. Aron Phillips and Robert Candelaria did not attend.

Senator Gabriel Ramos and Representative Luis Terrazas attended to provide a legislative update to the council.

Ramos started by introducing his new assistant, Andy Gomez. Working at the Legislature with Terrazas had made things work well because they can help each other passing information and knowing what will be coming up. He thanked everyone that showed up for Grant County Day it had meant a lot to them.

The legislature had a green energy bill that did not pass but had called for zero emissions that would have killed the copper industry along with oil and gas. It would have also affected the chili farms. "It was extreme zero carbon. We could not have met that kind of standard." He didn't understand why they keep bringing those kinds of bills in front of them because of their absurdity. They had a bill that would have affected the second amendment rights and put many small businesses in southwest New Mexico out of business. It would only allow for the large companies like Cabela's. Even though that bill had been killed, he said it would come back.

Ramos highlighted a good bill they had been able to pass that would address the malpractice issues in the state. In 2023 they had a bill that caused the state to lose 30 percent of doctors within six months, and in time 40 percent had been lost. It put zero caps on malpractice and caused the insurance for doctors to increase extremely. With this bill that passed, it will hopefully bring doctors back. They had also passed a bill for medical compacts that allow doctors licensed in other states to practice in New Mexico and vice versa.

It had taken a lot of reaching across the aisle and working together. He felt fortunate to have worked on both sides and thought it had helped the process. Ramos wanted to honor the work of Representative Jennifer Jones, Senator Crystal Brantley, Senator Joshua Sanchez, Representative Rebecca Dow, Representative Gail Armstrong and Representative Terrazas. They all work together to help the area south of Interstate 40 and west of Interstate 25. They all have the largest rural areas in the state.

Ramos said he did stand tall for the support of closing the borders. People need to be brought in legally. It stops criminals from coming into the country. He has been talking to Border Patrol regularly and thought it was  better now. "I know we need immigrants, but it needs to be done legally so they can be vetted." He added that they did need to make the process easier.

Ramos acknowledged that running a small town can be hard. He grew up in Hurley and lived there for the first 30 years of his life and had been a council member. He asked them to not hesitate to call him.

Maynes asked when the bills would take effect. Ramos said usually on July 1, unless they go through a process to start them right away.

Terrazas thanked the mayor and council for allowing them to present this update. He spoke on some of the bills that they had put in front of them. One had to do with the second amendment, and he felt it took the wrong approach by hindering the law-abiding citizen and not keeping guns out of criminals' hands. "The conversation takes place over and over and takes away from the importance of other bills. The ones that support public safety, law enforcement, local governments and the things needed for them." He has sponsored a number of public safety legislation bills. The people arrested have been in a revolving door and let go over and over. "We want our parents, grandparents, spouses and kids to be safe."

Zero emissions would come at a great cost at a time with great inflation. A lot of people have been struggling and that needs to be recognized along with the people on fixed incomes. Those people would not be able to afford to buy a zero-emissions vehicle. It also would not be practical for many in the rural areas to have electric cars and currently the infrastructure has not been available to support the change. "We have to be practical. I am not against it, but a balance needs to take place." Society had gone through this before moving from the horse to the car. Some could not afford a car, but they also had to put infrastructure in place such as roads, tires, oil, gas stations and it takes time for that transition. "I don't think we should force it on people."

Terrazas said 27 projects had been funded through capital outlay in Grant County in the amount of over $15 million. He had worked with Ramos and other representatives and another senator to obtain funding for Gila Regional Medical Center to purchase a machine needed for the cancer center. This would not only help people in Grant County but also Hidalgo, Luna  and Catron counties.

Another big project had been to help in the repurpose of Jose Barrios Elementary and Sixth Street Elementary schools, working with Western New Mexico University and Aldo Leopold Charter School.

Terrazas spoke to the medical malpractice legislation they had passed. He had cosponsored this legislation. He had voted against the legislation that took off  the caps of malpractice, and the state then lost a tremendous number of doctors due to the high increase in their insurance.

Next, they will be working on their grow funds but have been stalled for a time due to new rules from the state. They do have a rough draft on how they will be helping the community with those funds. He and Ramos have dedicated about $600,000 for Grant County. Part of it will be to help law enforcement and hopefully have some retention and recruitment support.

For the past two years Terrazas has supported property tax changes for veterans. Some changes in language had to be made but it had passed. It provides more deductions for veterans with their property taxes.

Terrazas said, "We are only as strong at the people behind us." Grant County has had the highest in attendance of all 33 counties. The support gives them a lot of leverage.

In closing, Terrazas wanted everyone to know about their office at First American Bank. He and Ramos both have one there. They have tried to work out a schedule so either Bruce Ashburn, Terrazas's assistant or Gomez, Ramos's assistant will be there. If people have issues or needs, they may come and speak with someone. Also, appointments will be available.

Cox had a question for either Terrazas or Ramos. He knew of some changes coming from DPS (Department of Public Safety) that will have some requirements for the police department and wanted to know if they would receive additional funding. Neither of them had heard anything about this. Terrazas added that sometimes legislation passed has unintended consequences. Ramos suggested the chiefs come to them and let them know the problems. They had been meeting already on how to best solve the problem with not having enough police officers in the mining district. They hoped to have something in July to present. The clerks have been meeting regularly for the project. Ramos said, "We have the best clerks in the state here and the mining district deserves to have 24-hour police service."

Terrazas said he thought one of the biggest things Hurley needed would be a building for the police department. Ramos said they had been working on that since he had been on the council and had the GO building donated. Ramos said, "What we probably need to do is come together and get an update of funding that you currently have because I know you have funding. I just don't know exactly how much you have, and we need to figure out how much it's going to cost to rehabilitate that building. Hopefully we can do it in phases where we can do the bottom floor first and start working our way up. Hopefully we can look at historic building funds that we can gather some funding there also and not just depend on the state. If we depend on the state, we're not going to get all the funding. We need have an actual building as soon as possible." Terrazas agreed. He did point out to the council when they change course they have to pay for more engineering and lose funding. He agreed that it would have to be done in phases.

Both Ramos and Terrazas expressed their thanks to the council and mayor.

Public input none currently.

The council approved the stage one fire restrictions. Jay Madrid, fire chief, said he had spoken to the police chief and knew that the other municipalities and Grant County had enacted stage one fire restrictions. Maynes read over the restrictions. Stage one fire restrictions prohibited activities, no building or maintaining campfires, no open burning to include burning of yard waste, tree limbs and weeds. Propane grills with appropriate covers, lids will be approved. Any other outdoor wood or charcoal burning device shall have a protective fire screens and prior approval from the Town of Hurley fire chief or assistant chief. Underground fire pits for the use of meal preparation shall have appropriate covers such as screen, metal siding and or dirt fire used to prepare hot coals must have a protective screen and a five foot clearance around the entire bed. Fire pits must have prior approval from the Town of Hurley fire chief or assistant fire chief who will issue the burning permit.

The council approved the purchase order from Dement Electric for installation of solar panels at the water tanks. Darlene McBride, town clerk, said they had already purchased the solar panels the year before with funding they had available. Currently they do not have any backup power for the tanks. Now they have capital outlay funding to finish the project. Cox suggested they provide a maintenance plan. Maynes said they had put together a maintenance plan. Cox wanted to know how many batteries they would have.

The council approved the purchase of Dell computers for the clerks' office, mayor and maintenance. McBride said all of their computers have been very outdated and the mayor had never had one. The maintenance department uses a computer to read the meters. It will bring everyone up to date. Candelaria had worked with Dell to make sure they purchased the right computers they would need.

The council approved the purchase order from Chalmers Ford for the purchase of an animal control/code enforcement unit. Kevin Vigil, police chief, said the current vehicle has continued to to need repairs. The quote he provided the council would be for $48,885.61, total cost with equipment installed. It will be a 2026 Ford Ranger. Because it will be smaller than the current F-150 it will be easier to load up the larger dogs. Cox had comments and wanted to verify some information such as crate size.

The council approved the attendance of a police officer to the DARE conference in Ruidoso. Officer Aaron Ordonez spoke to the conference and his attendance. He acknowledged that no one may attend any training before the probationary period has been served. This training will allow him to maintain his certification as a DARE instructor. If he does not keep it up, he will have to start from the beginning, which would require him to travel out of state for two weeks. He has plans to bring the program to Hurley and would help with community outreach. The DARE program no longer has been just about drugs but now vaping, making good decisions, bullying and being a model citizen. "I believe it would be a great benefit. I love teaching."

The council approved the exposure control plan for the Hurley police department. Vigil said when reviewing all the policies this had been missing. This plan covers things that might be detrimental to an officer's health and would cover the town. It lays out plans in writing how to take hazards and mitigate them to be safe. It will also include incident reporting protocol. He pointed out the many large trucks coming through with hazardous materials and not just to the mine but even Walmart. It will include vaccination initiatives. Maynes said he thought it had been a great idea and glad Vigil had brought it to them. They will be looking into this for the rest of the town staff, and Vigil said he would be glad to help. Gil wanted to know if they communicated with the mine. Vigil said yes and if they do have a crash that constitutes a hazmat situation, it will be immediately turned over to the state police.

The council approved the hiring of an animal control/code enforcement officer. Vigil had done multiple interviews and Miguel Misquez, had interviewed well. He has been working on a temporary period for the past week and Vigil said he had done very well. He has started working on his certification. Vigil recommended his hiring and said he had hit the ground running. He had already had a dog bite.

The council approved the consent agenda that included March 17, 2026, meeting minutes, maintenance, clerk, fire department, animal control, code enforcement, police and judge's reports. It did not include the library report as none had been submitted.

Mayor and council reports

Gil did not have a report currently.

Cox had a couple of things he wanted to report. He has started attending the solid waste authority meetings and it had been an interesting process. Many municipalities have been traveling to Lincoln County to look at a process they have. He attended a training put on by the Gila Community Foundation and it will be a three-part series. The next ones will be about capital outlay and procurement. The training had not cost the town anything. He spoke to the requirements coming down from DPS, and they need to start discussing how they will do these things. It will affect the whole town. He suggested a workshop, so they do not violate the open meetings act. Cox said if they didn't comply the police department would be shut down. Vigil said the state had not had the staff to enforce this in the past but now does and will be enforcing it all. Many don't even know what had not been in compliance.

Maynes said they had decided concerning the animal ordinance to do a resolution instead of changing the ordinance for the TNVR (trap neuter vaccinate release) program. Hopefully both parties will work with the program. Those who wish to volunteer their time may. Some of the verbiage in the ordinance will change as well as the fines. This will be brought to the council at the next meeting. He had attended some meetings with Freeport McMoRan (FMI), and they have asked for our support at an April 21, 2026, meeting 6:00 pm at the Grant County Veterans Memorial Business and Conference Center.

The next regular meeting will be May 12, 2026, at 5:00 pm
A workshop will be held before the next meeting and will be announced.

Meeting adjourned.