By Alexis Rico

The City of Bayard Council met for a regularly scheduled meeting on February 22, 2021, via Zoom at 2:00 p.m. Present for the meeting were Mayor Chon Fierro, Mayor Pro-Tem Raul Villanueva, 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 next section of the meeting addressed the items resulting from the closed executive session that was held on February 22, 2021, before the regular meeting.

"The recommendation is for continuing to have Mr. Cody Dove on paid administrative leave until the completion of the investigation," Bayard Clerk/Treasurer Kristina Ortiz said. "Mr. Dove is required to complete and comply with all policy and procedures and the procedures of such regarding the investigation. As said, at any time if Mr. Dove fails to comply, employment will be immediately terminated."

This item was approved without further comments from the council.

The council then approved the consent agenda without any further comments.

Included in the consent agenda were:

• Approval of the Minutes of Regular Meeting on February 11, 2021.
• Approval of the Minutes for the CDBG Close Out Public Hearing on February 17, 2021.
• Approval of the Accounts Payable Report for February 22, 2021
• Approval of the Police Reports for December 2020 and January 2021
• Approval of attendance to Level 4 Wastewater Testing for Robert Terrazas as testing becomes available.

The next item on the agenda was discussion and approval of the 2021 Local Government Road Fund (LGRF) Project Application.

Ortiz explained to the council that this application is for street improvement funding from the Department of Transportation.

"I have two potential projects that we can submit applications for," Ortiz said. "The first project would be for the second portion to initiate for the engineering phase of the North Bose Street improvement. The other option is to utilize the funding toward pothole street improvements and repairs."

Ortiz explained that the maintenance department compiled a list of the potholes within the town that need to be repaired.

"We are looking at $120,000 worth of pothole patching," Ortiz said. "This funding will only give us $40,000. This would also be dependent upon the route we go whether we get a contractor or use our employees when we hire more people."

Ortiz explained that the grant agreement would not be done until September or October, which is hitting the cold weather. We will not get the grant agreements until September or October. So the project may not begin until next spring more than likely.

Ortiz stated that she will be working on the advertisements for the 3 vacancies that they have in that maintenance department.

The council agreed that the potholes were the more important project to focus on. The item was passed with the application being for repairing the potholes.

The meeting was properly adjourned at 2:15 p.m.

The next regular scheduled meeting for the City of Bayard is on Monday, March 8, 2021, at 2:00 p.m.