By Alexis Rico

The City of Bayard Council met for a regularly scheduled meeting on March 08, 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 a brief overview of the meeting.

The meeting began with the review and the approval of the meeting's agenda. Bayard Clerk-Treasurer Kristina Ortiz stated that it was recommended to add for discussion only - Police Department Employee and property acquisition to the Closed Executive Session portion of the meeting. This was approved by the council.

For public input, Cody Dove requested an opportunity to be transferred to the maintenance department. Dove also wanted to make sure that each City Councilor had received his letter.

The council then reviewed and approved the consent agenda.

Included in the consent agenda was;
• Approval of the Minutes of Closed Session and Regular Meeting of February 22, 2021.
• Approval of Fire Report for February 2021

Under the New Business portion of the meeting, The council discussed the possible approval of an amendment for engineering services for the Highway 180/356 Lighting Project. This amendment includes services for design to project closeout with Stantec Inc.

George Esqueda was present during the meeting to represent Stantec Inc. Esqueda presented an amendment for engineering services on the project. Esqueda stated that this amendment is used for the engineering services from design to project close-out for the amount of $76,302.94.

After the presentation, the council approved the amendment to proceed with the project.

For the Mayor's report, Fierro asked the council about the railroad crossing and if the city had been able to make contact.

"I left another message with Jeff Weeks last week," Ortiz stated concerning the inquiry.

Anthony Aveles asked the council about being able to have a youth training program established with the city.

"Discussions will be held after the city receives program information," Fierro said.

Ortiz updated the council on the GRT pull back and the small cities assistance received this year.

"The assistance may be smaller the following year and be detrimental to the budget," Ortiz said.

Ortiz presented information on the amounts per fund to be pulled back based on the assistance and how it would affect the budget.

The council then went into a closed executive session to discuss personnel and property acquisitions.

When the council went back into the open session, they had no statements to make about the topics discussed during the closed session other than to certify that only personnel and property acquisitions were discussed during the session.

The meeting adjourned at 3:39 p.m.