By Alexis Rico

 The City of Bayard Council met for a regularly scheduled meeting on January 25, 2021, via Zoom at 2:00 p.m. Present for the meeting were Mayor Chon Fierro, Councilor Charles Kelly, Councilor Eloy Medina, and Councilor Adrian Ortiz.

The following is an overview of the meeting.

The meeting began with the review and the approval of the meeting's agenda.

The council then review and approved the consent agenda.

Included in the consent agenda were;

• Approval of the Minutes of Regular Meeting on January 11, 2021.
• Approval of the Accounts Payable Report for January 25, 2021.
• Approval of Wastewater Report for December 2020.

Under New Business, the council discussed the approval of December 31, 2020, Financial Statements and Budget Adjustments for the second quarter.

Clerk-Treasurer Kristina Ortiz presented to the council the December 31, 2020, Financial Statements and Budget Adjustments for the period of December 31, 2020.

"The gross receipts were coming in very low and monitoring will continue," Ortiz stated. "A more detailed analysis will be conducted within the next couple of weeks."

After the brief discussion, the council approved this item.

Under resolutions/ordinances, the council reviewed and approved the adoption of resolution 1-2021open meetings.

For his report, Mayor Chon Fierro stated that Bridgette Johns from Americorps will be contacting Clerk Ortiz in order to discuss projects that are able to be worked on and completed by the group. Fierro also asked about the status of the generator, exhaust pipe, cover, and completion.

Ortiz stated that the automatic switch that was installed was not working properly, but that a replacement had already been ordered.

Fierro also took the time to thank the Bayard maintenance department for the work they had done to repair the water line which had taken several hours.

Ortiz discussed the Highway 180/Highway 356 Lighting Project with the council during her report.

The council had discussed a way to make the project possible for lighting improvements on both highways with the funds of $600,000 that were awarded for the project.

Ortiz stated that the estimated costs to replace the lights at 100% would not allow for funding to pay for the engineering services that are required for the project. Ortiz recommended that all the decorative lights on Highway 356 could be replaced with something similar to what they have now and then they could add the power outlet and replace every other light pole on Highway 180 with poles that have the power outlet.

"But this would include light fixture replacement with LED lights on all of the new and existing poles," Ortiz stated. "This work would allow the engineering services to be included within the funding available."

The consensus of the council was to go with the Ortiz's recommendation for the project in order for it to progress.

The meeting was properly adjourned at 2:37 p.m.

The next regular meeting is scheduled for Monday, February 8, 2021, at 2:00 p.m.