[Editor's Note: This is part 1 of a multi-part series of articles on the Grant County Commission work session of Dec. 10 and the regular meeting of Dec. 12, 2019.]

By Mary Alice Murphy

The Grant County Commission work session of Dec. 10, 2019 heard no public input, so it began with county reports.

Mike Carillo, Grant County Detention Center administrator:
We have three vacancies and updated the accreditation process before Officer Burkheiser left. We have 75 Narcan kits to give to released inmates. About 50 people attended the recent Narcan training. I attended the Stepping Up meeting. From Nov. 1-26, we had an average of 80 inmates in the jail, with 76 on Nov. 26 and 74 today.

District 5 Commissioner Harry Browne:
What is this item of walk-ins?

Carillo:
They are instructed by the judge to turn themselves in.

Earl Moore, Road Department superintendent:
We are starting over with roads. They are a mess. We are trimming trees. We will sign off soon on Rosedale and will probably put the North Hurley project out to bid in January. The Tyrone Bridge is awaiting the contract. We will have to use some of the GO bond funding for that project. We have received questions on the North Hurley Road project. It will extend from the Hurley city limits to where it ends before the part that will be the Phase 3 project.

District 1 Commissioner and Chairman Chris Ponce:
We get phone calls. Thanks for addressing the questions. How far do the snow and rain put you back?

Moore:
Once it dries out some, we get all six blades out. We get the school bus routes done first. On top of the last event, the ground is pretty saturated.

General Services Director Randy Villa:
We had a fire on Thanksgiving Day. The Silver City Fire Department and the Whiskey Creek Fire Department responded. It's winter. Make sure not to leave a wood stove burning when you're asleep or not at home. There was also an accident on New Mexico 90 due to the weather, and a couple of people got hurt. The Airport Terminal building renovation is ongoing. We are tweaking this facility's roof and HVAC management system. We'll start doing the analysis for savings on both. Corre Cantinas is sometimes misunderstood. A person can get on the bus to go to a bar or event, but the bus can also take someone from their house to another house and/or back home. It's $3.50 one way. When the weather is bad, it's hard to keep the buses running. Corre Caminos has a Facebook page to let people know if there are problems. On snow days, the Corre Caminos buses run on the same schedule as the school buses.

Browne:
On the energy efficiency data, can you compare it to degree days from year to year?

Villa:
Yes, when there's occupancy in the facility, Ii takes into consideration whether vents are open. (Jason) Lockett can work it from anywhere, as long as the lighting systems get going. They will also help.

Planning and Community Development Director Michael "Mischa" Larisch:
The Tyrone ADA project is continuing. The Whiskey Creek Volunteer Fire Department station got its certificate of occupancy. The parking lot replacement is being done by Hamilton Construction and Southwest Concrete. They will start by the Sheriff's Department side first. They are out there today and will start removal tomorrow, so everybody needs to park on the west side of the lot. We put in a letter of intent to the Community Block Development Grant program for trails. We got an invitation to apply. From the Water Trust Board we got funding of $567,000 for Bandoni, but not yet Fleming Tank, but I hope to hear on that. For Colonias Infrastructure Fund, we put in a notice of intent for multiple projects, including asking for $197,000 for Arenas Valley Road, $300,000 for the Truck Bypass culvert and approximately $300,000 for Little Walnut Road. We are waiting on the estimate. I asked Alex (Brown, Silver City town manager) for the typical layout for what is already done. The North Hurley Road, phase 3 project is, in the original design, north to just past the access road off US 180. We still have to design it. We have two projects to send to Colonias for sewer and roads in Silver Acres and Indian Hills. We estimate about $550,000 to eliminate septic tanks. The wastewater treatment plant is so close to Silver Acres, but it's not attached. Colonias will require a 10 percent match and 10 percent loan to the grants.

District 3 Commission Alicia Edwards:
Why was Bandoni chosen over Fleming Tank?

Larisch:
My best guess is because Fleming Tank will cost about $850,000. We are finishing the design on Fleming Tank, and we will try for Colonias funding. We want it to be shovel-ready for hopeful legislative transportation funding.

Hidalgo Medical Services Chief Executive Officer Dan Otero presented the first presentation of the session:
This is our monthly update. Tu Casa opened in October for 24/7 coverage. We are working on full-time staffing. Our No. 1 challenge is recruiting. We have learned we don't need as many professionals, so we are ramping up with nurses and M.A.s and will close it out with security. We plan to have the crisis intervention fully staffed and trained and in place by March 1, which may be optimistic. For the past month we had 126 unique individuals, as compared to 118 the previous month. We made an offer for a director of Tu Casa and we’re waiting to hear if that candidate accepts. Our residency program is going well. We have two new ones, who are doing their first year in Las Cruces right now, and two will graduate in June. HRSA (Health Resources and Services Administration) looks at the 1500 plus federally qualified health centers across the country. We got four awards, one for clinical quality improvements; our health center is in the top 20 percent of the clinics, which recognizes our 244 employees; and an award for advancing IT. Once again, we were rated a medical home under HRSA. We have onboarded four new practitioners. We had two very qualified applicants to replace Dr. Neal Bowen and have interviewed them. We are in the selection process. For Senior Services, whenever there is a change in administration of the program, the Area Agency on Aging does a complete assessment. We were told we are the second best performing in the state. We're shooting for first. We have 541 seniors being served, with 9,000 congregate meals and 18,000 home-delivered meals. The Mining District clinic is ready to be put on the permanent foundation. We had a delay getting power, so we are working to get it up and running. We have had challenges. We've been working on the New Mexico Quality of Excellence program. We applied for Roadrunner status but didn't make it. We got our second Piñon Award.

Browne:
Wy do you need fewer mental health professionals?

Otero:
We thought we would need them 24/7, but we don't.

Becky O'Connor of the Grant County Lodgers Tax Advisory Board gave the next presentation:
Sunny 505 is working with us, as well as with Silver City. There is no overlap between the two boards. Sunny505 is focusing in the digital space, especially in Facebook. Sunny got us a grant for $46,000 for marketing, which costs us a $23,000 match, and will pay 50 percent of ads in New Mexico Magazine and full pages in the Tucson Desert News. We already have ads on buses in Tucson and digital ads in the Tucson airport. We will be doing a two-day video shoot and a one-day still photo shoot. This grant is more money than we have ever received from the Department of Tourism and has gone toward ads in El Paso, Tucson, Las Cruces and West Texas. We will be using Instagram and YouTube. We, as a volunteer committee, couldn't do all this, but Sunny is helping us, especially with social media. We will put ads on YouTube for the 35 years and older adventure seekers and outdoor enthusiasts. Sunny estimates that 750,000 people will be reached during the fiscal year. We don't have our own Facebook page, so we use the Silver City Facebook page. Our committee fully believes it is better to have one effort and not splinter off. We are doing other marketing, with one-third of a page in the Cornell University Department of Ornithology Living Bird magazine, which has been a much better fit for us than the American Birding Magazine. But we continue to use the American Birding Magazine for their travel guide, which works well for us. We profile a unique bird, but also talk about other opportunities in Grant County. We do daily promo spots on Tucson radio and get a 20-second plus spot every day. Our next board meeting is in January.

District 4 Commissioner Billy Billings:
Does the committee have any way to measure the effects of your advertising?

O'Connor:
Sunny tracks it, but my feeling with Sunny is that they need more time to collect data.

Edwards:
Why are you targeting the 35 plus age group?

O'Connor:
When we talk to lodgings, they say the 35+ age group are the ones with the money to do the adventurous trips.

Edwards:
A comment. Anecdotally I hear that downtown there is nowhere to park and people see a lot of out-of-state license plates.

O'Connor:
The Grant County Lodgers' Tax receipts are almost 100 percent up. It's been a good year.

Edwards:
Are they spending more than just for lodging?

O'Connor:
They usually spend a day in the galleries and shops, and yes, they are spending money.

Lee Gruber, former owner along with her husband David DelJunco of Syzygy Tile, gave a presentation on the Five Points Initiative:
Just a bit of my history here. We were told that our tile business wouldn't make it here, because we were too remote. We were extremely successful, with 140 distribution points throughout the U.S. and Canada. We recently sold it to a long-time employee. Now to the Five Points Initiative. It's about revitalizing communities. We were given a USDA grant to go throughout the county to determine if the county could afford more makerspaces or business incubators. We visited wonderful buildings. We have such a wealth of historic sites in the county. Some are vacant and falling apart, but we wanted to determine how to raise the pride of the communities. It is a huge idea, a huge initiative, but when we talk about it, eyes light up. We have chosen five buildings that we want to teach young people about restoration and how to restore these buildings. The idea is to find money to allow each community to choose its place, not only for tourism, but also for people in the county to restore pride in their communities. The Rural Economic Development initiative grant has recognized us. We have also received a letter from Freeport to present for a Community Investment Fund award and have applied to the McCune Foundation and the Architects of America. This is not only economic development, but also workforce development for young people, job creation, historic preservation, green building, repurposing, the creative economy, outdoor recreation, and we want to use the Youth Conservation Corps and Americorps, as well as involve the schools. We have talked to all the principals and they are in. It is an idea whose time has come. It's a way to grow the county and make use of the historic attributes we have.

Browne:
I think this is brilliant. It combines so many things we want to develop in the county.

Gruber:
I had a wonderful meeting with all the mayors and town managers. There was so much good energy in the room. Not one was against it. We have a lot of enthusiasm. We would look at the Silver City Water Works building first, because it is farther along, and it can connect to the Continental Divide Trail.

Edwards:
I echo what Commissioner Browne said. It's absolutely brilliant. Thanks for putting it together.

[In a handout, the Five Points include the Silver City Water Works Building, the old Hurley schoolhouse in Arenas Valley, the Bradley Hotel in Santa Clara, the Union Hall in Bayard and the train station in Hurley. All are located in proximity to U.S. 180.]

Edwards gave the next presentation, a Powerpoint, 100 percent Community:
Childhood trauma does not end in childhood. I went to the AnnaAgeEight.org conference in Las Cruces. All of us came away on fire with what we learned. The ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences survey) asks eight questions of children, including whether they lived with a parent or guardian who became divorced or separated, lived with a parent or guardian who died, who served time in jail or prison, who was mentally ill or suicidal or severely depressed, or who had a problem with alcohol or drugs; where the child witnessed a parent, guardian or other adult in the household behaving violently toward another; or whether the child had been a victim of violence or witnessed violence or experienced economic hardship somewhat often or very often. Each yes answer has a point. In New Mexico, 18 percent of children from birth through age 17 experienced between 3 and 8 of these ACEs. According to the Annie E. Casey KIDS Count report of 2017 for Grant County, 30.6 percent of families with children aged 0-17 were living in poverty, nearly 20 percent or 2,351 households received SNAP benefits and there were 14 percent or 378 households with children and no working parent. 25 percent of NM children don't know where their next meal will come from. In Grant County, that's 1662 kids. Kids suffer toxic stress, which doesn't always have to be tragic, but would qualify as fight or flight. Toxic is when it is in the home all day every day. It changes brain architecture and even DNA. I'm not making this up. If you are raising a child with all these ACEs, they can have children with DNA changes, as a result of the ACEs. New Mexico is the worst in the country, with only 48 percent not having at least some of these ACEs. The key findings at this conference were that one in 10 nationally has a child with three or more ACEs. In New Mexico, it is one in seven. The original study in 1997-98 was done by Kaiser Permanente and was mostly white kids of 75 percent college-educated parents. With three or more ACEs, the child will have significantly adverse health effects later in life. It is a public health crisis. ADHD (attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder) is a toxic stress response. At a clinic in San Francisco, a child came in with severe asthma, but the doctor couldn't figure out what was triggering it. While looking for patterns, it came after the dad would punch a hole in the wall. Students can be in a constant state of flight or flight. I've been working for 14 years with food insecurity issues among people in Grant County. We all sometimes have feelings of being overwhelmed, but many of these people feel absolutely overwhelmed all the time. It can be mitigated by support. My brain was making interactions with issues in the county. The county has a lot of social adversity. Trauma is predictable and preventable. Ending trauma requires 10 sectors working 100 percent. Survival services include food, housing, medical/dental care, behavioral healthcare and transportation. Thriving services include parent supports, early childhood learning, community schools, youth mentors and job training. Ensuring the services requires collective impact. Many are already happening, but there are lots of duplication and a lot of territoriality. Doña Ana County is really behind this effort, with one of their councilors behind it. The one thing missing for Doña Ana County is businesspeople. The county is using outdoor resiliency. The program, Anna, Age Eight is a data-driven prevention of childhood trauma and maltreatment. The call to action is free of charge to download at AnnaAgeEight.com. Dr. Nadine Burke Harris gave a TED talk and did an interview with Amanpour & Co. on PBS. Burke Harris, a pediatrician with a master's degree in public health also wrote a book titled Deepest Well.

Browne:
This seems to have some similarity with the health council model. How is this different?

Edwards:
I've been on fire about this since Tuesday. I have heard that it is similar to health councils, but this is more focused. There are a lot of questions right now about where the health councils are going. I'm not seeing that health councils are taking the lead.

Villa:
What is the role of business in Doña Ana County?

Edwards:
They are struggling with workforce readiness. The business community can support that issue. One of the first things the county did was a survey. The business community is ready to get started.

Carillo:
It's an integral part of what we're trying to accomplish at the Detention Center. In my opinion, the majority of the inmates have been victims of ACEs or are the cause of ACEs. I hope we can get this going. We need this.

Edwards:
I make lists and draw maps. I see all the work we're doing now. They are all part of the sectors. I see it all working but see it as a structure to bring it all together. What is significant to me is the scientific basis of how it will continue to affect families generationally.

The next article will get into a review of the regular meeting agenda.