By Alexis Rico
On September 24, 2020, the Village of Santa Clara met for a regular meeting through Zoom at 6:05 p.m. Mayor Richard Bauch, Trustee Olga Amador, Trustee Patricia Montgomery, and Trustee Arnold Lopez were present for the meeting. Mayor Pro-Tem Albert Esparza was absent from the meeting.
The meeting began with the approval of the agenda, the minutes for the regular meeting held on September 10, 2020.
The Council then discussed the monthly committee reports.
For the Safety Committee report, Bauch stated that there had not been any trainings done because of the COVID virus. Everything is currently on hold at the moment. There also had been no accidents.
For the Action Committee, Bauch also stated that things are on hold for the moment in the committee. The Council did briefly discuss the Lighted Christmas Parade event. The event is expected to be held on the first Saturday of December.
Village Clerk Sheila Hudman stated that she is still looking into what they can do for the parade to practice safe social distancing and to keep people safe.
"We talked about it briefly and have a few thoughts on what we can do about it," Hudman stated. "But nothing has been decided."
The Council did spend some time discussing the different routes that the vehicles can take to participate in the parade.
For the Cemetery Committee, Bauch stated that there had been a clean-up over the past weekend and that it had gone well.
"The Mayor Pro-tem said a few volunteers went and it came out very nice," Bauch stated. "There are still a few areas of shrubbery. This is the first of two cleanups that we do for the cemetery. I want to thank AmeriCorps for coming and helping us out with that. Their last day is tomorrow. The cemetery is looking really good thanks to them and the volunteers."
For the Mercado Committee, Councilor Patricia Montgomery stated that there had been several people letting the Mercado be used for different things.
"My niece Lisa is using the Mercado for four weekends in November for a rummage sale," Bauch stated. "I think it will be nice. It will be good to see the Mercado being used."
For the Senior Advisory Committee, Bauch stated that there was nothing new to report. The Council had no idea when the senior center will be able to open again.
"It probably won't open for a while," Hudman stated.
Bauch stated that when the Senior Center would be ready to open, then the Council will be ready as well.
For the Mayor's Report, Bauch stated that there were a couple of sad things that he had to report to the Council.
"We applied to the CDBG this year and we were not awarded it," Bauch stated. "This is not necessarily a bad thing. We have been fortunate to getting the CDBG for the past couple of years. We can reapply next year and hopefully will get it. By this time next year, we will have more set plans for the design for the project.
"The Build grant for South Bellm, we're going to use this to help with the million-dollar grant that we received for the water grant, but we were not selected for this grant either," Bauch said. "The same thing, we will have more set plans and the water line grant by the time we can reapply for this grant."
Bauch stated that a lady with the Action committee approached him about wanting to purchase some trees. She had stated that she is wanting to get a specific type of tree that only blooms in spring and does not get too big.
"She advised us to look into getting the clean and beautiful grant," Bauch said. "This can be used for landscaping and fixing up this area. I think we should look into the grant."
Under New Business, the Council discussed the request purchase of a 20ft trailer to move the excavator and bobcat in the amount of $5120.00 from Tip Top Trailer sales in Las Cruces.
"Trailer has been properly designed for the bobcat, so this will make it safer to move the bobcat to and from places," Bauch stated. "Especially when we need it for waterline repairs and things that need to get fixed."
Bauch stated to the Council that he had contacted several people in different parts of the State about quotes for a trailer for the bobcat and this was the best price that he could find.
"The place in ABQ had a trailer for a similar price but they would have had to order it and it would take three months for it to come in," Bauch said. "At least this is a good price and it is fairly close to us."
"Since the cost is over $5,000, we have to bring it to the council for approval," Bauch said. "This way the council can be informed of what is going on."
After the discussion, the Council agreed to approve the request to purchase the trailer.
The next item discussed by the Council was the intent to adopt an amendment to Title 8 of the Municipal Code - Public Utilities - Chapters 1 through 3 and add additional Chapters 4 and 5.
"This is a code that we had passed a month ago and has gone through the period of public comment as well," Bauch stated. "We are at the point that we can adopt this, but I would like to table this so that we can go through the document and fix the wording and some of the typos. We have a good council that is very thorough in the documentation and have noticed a few typos, so I would like the time to fix this."
The Council agreed to table the ordinance for the next regular meeting.
The Council then went into a closed session at 6:28 p.m. to discuss some items.
The Council went back into open session at 7:19 p.m.
"Only legal items were discussed during the closed session," Bauch stated.
The Council then agreed to accept the resignation of Bill Hudman as the Maintenance Supervisor.
"It is with deep regret," Bauch said. "I wish that we did not have to accept this resignation, but he has made the decision to leave."
"My recommendation is that the council assign Rodney Rodriguez to temporary maintenance supervisor with a pay increase of $1.00 an hour, starting on Monday, September 28," Bauch said.
The Council approved this recommendation.
The meeting was adjourned at 7:22 p.m.
The next regular meetings will be held on Tuesday, October 8, 2020, at 6:00 p.m., and Thursday, October 22, 2020, at 6:00 p.m. via Zoom.