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Category: Front Page News Front Page News
Published: 05 October 2021 05 October 2021

By Lynn Janes

The town of Bayard held its regular town meeting September 27, 2021. The meeting started with Mayor Chon Fierro calling the meeting to order and the Pledge of Allegiance.

Attendance at the meeting included Mayor Chon Fierro, Mayor, Pro tem Raul Villanueva, and councilors Charles Kelly and Adrian Ortiz, Eloy Medina.

The agenda for the meeting was approved.

Public Input

Mayor Fierro reminded everyone that they had five minutes each for public input.

A gentleman came forward with a comment. He said it concerned the letters sent out about cleaning up their properties and the alleyways that were on city property. He said that they needed to remember the peonage act passed after the civil war. The alley way was owned by the city, and they could not force people to take care of property that was not theirs. They had to pay people. He said he had given the information to them to look at and he wants to keep them out of trouble. He said he wanted the board charged with human trafficking. He was not aware of any of them being guilty, but it has happened to other employees. Two employees of the city were humped by another, and it was all settled on the "QT." He also brought up that $20,000 was missing from the 1990s, and no one was talking about it. He was not playing the game anymore and to leave him and his property alone. He went on to point out the city has several properties that are full of weeds and debris and are far worse. He has contacted the police chief about those violations. He said you now want old people that have health issues to get out and clean weeds and such. People should not have to pay to clean alley ways that belong to the city. It is against the law to force people to work on land the city owns without paying them. He referred to the peonage act of 1867 again. He said if he is forced, he will charge the city $100 an hour and sue them if they don't pay it. There are people doing remodeling and not getting the permits from the city and state that are required. Businesses are required by law to get licensed plumbers and electricians and can't do the work themselves. He also referenced an article in the Press that stated the ambulance would not come if called. He paid his gross receipts tax and if no one came if he had a heart attack his wife would sue them. He had been turned in for violations because his trash was near the fuse box. The fire marshal had not seen any problems.

Alfred Gonzales agrees and disagrees with the previous person. He said he has been talking to Mayor Fierro about the lights for years and nothing has been done. He calls Kristy and she gets them turned on, however they are off again. Ortiz said the problem is with the electric line. When it rains it trips the breaker. It is supposed to be repaired soon. Fierro said they had been trying to get hold of the people in Florida that are the new owners of the rail line. They were here once but need to come back and do more work. Gonzales asked about the railroad crossings and when those would be fixed. Fierro said they had sent out pictures five or six years ago and have not had any response from them. They rarely use the rail line and don't seem to care. The railroads come under federal government and the local government has no jurisdiction. Gonzales said maybe an article in the paper explaining the situation would help. Fierro said he had asked Freeport if they would be using the railroad line anymore, but they didn't seem to want to answer. Mr. Wilguess explained some things about the railroad since he had retired from there. He went on to say it seems to take a death to make anything happen. He suggested they ask Freeport to help them with the problem. Fierro said he had met with Polumski in 2007 and he said that in a few years the property would revert to the town. Fierro said they have not heard anything.

Next public input was from a gentleman. He felt that this push to have people fix their yards was unfair. His neighbor expects him to be able to fix his yard to look like his yard. Another man stood up and said he was the neighbor that he was talking about. All he was asking was for him to clean up the debris and stop the public urination from the people living in the RVs.

A woman came up to give her input. She said she appreciated all of them. What she liked about Bayard was "we are all like family and we need to keep communication going to solve all the problems." She said she had a masters degree and had a hard time understanding the letter sent out about the yards. She asked what about the people that are incapacitated physically or emotionally and the monolingual Spanish speakers. Many are elderly and cannot get out and do that kind of work. It is on the news every day that no one wants to work. "We need to encourage and help each other." She said she remembered awhile back the code officer going to a person's home that had recently had a heart attack and was recovering. The code officer said he had to clean up his yard and that was crazy.

Fierro noted that he was happy to see people participating. Many meetings it is just himself and the council. He said: "We care about Bayard and know that when people come to these meetings they also care."

The next public input came from a woman commenting on the citations given out for yards that needed cleaning up. She said she wanted to know if there had been any responses and mostly the Vesely property on Virginia Street. Ortiz said it was in the court's hands now and she could check with the court clerk, the council does not have anything to do with judgements. Fierro said he drives by that property every day and knows it is a problem. Villanueva agreed that it is a problem. The woman went on to say there are kids living there with no supervision and she doesn't know what to do. She said she has waited months, and nothing is happening. Ortiz said someone used to live on the property and take care of it, but no one was living there now to keep it up.

The council approved the agenda for the meeting.

Old Business

The property donated by the county has to a have a stated use to make the transfer. Any property transaction over $25,000 must have this for state approval. Fierro said he had no idea at this time. The donation was tabled for another meeting. The council approved the motion.

New Business

Work order #8 for Trumm Engineering to perform work for the wastewater discharge permit for a maximum fee of $22,000 excluding gross receipts tax needs approval. Ortiz explained this was a yearly thing and it would not necessarily be $22,000 but would not exceed it. The council approved the work order.

Reports

Villanueva said he wanted to thank the maintenance department for an outstanding job keeping the water on during the recent problem. Sometimes it was slow, but it was going. He said he had been driving around and many of the properties were looking much better. He went on to say that all these ordinances were old, and it was nothing new. They wanted to beautify the town. The city was starting to clean up their properties and was leading by example.

Medina and Kelly started talking about the pothole problem. Silver used blue hot bags and why can't they do that. Ortiz said she was not sure if what she had on order, cold mix, was the same thing but they had not received it yet. The cold mix had been on order since August. She also said they were waiting for their state funding to do all of them. The maintenance department will start again fixing them as soon as the rains stop.

Medina said many people are coming to these meetings with legitimate concerns. They want change and not "our hands are tied," "We are not serving our people well. We are failing as a governing body; we are here to make lives better. Everyone works hard but we need to figure out a way to help people and give answers." Medina was glad to have the owner of the auto shop talk with him. Mr. and Mrs. Gabaree called him and told him about the problems with the men urinating on the neighboring property in front of their young daughter. He said wrecked cars are one thing but if someone was peeing in front of his daughter that is another. Their concerns were genuine, and they deserve answers. "Mr. Carlos and I speak every day and we can't keep saying our hands are tied. We must have resolution. We are a governing body, and we are public, and we are the public. We must make it well known to the people what we are doing, and it can't be our hands are tied. Mr. Wilguess was very helpful giving us information we had not known before now about the railroad."

Villanueva said at last meeting he had asked for residents to report to the police when they had problems. He said: "We have no control if we don't know." Gabarees said they had called but by the time an officer got there they were back in the house, and he couldn't do anything.

Medina said he didn't want Kristy and the other girls in the office to have to be confronted with these things. Fierro said people were afraid to report problems in fear of retaliation.

Ortiz said maintenance was behind because a few people had been on vacation.

Medina asked Ortiz about the hiring of a police officer. She said they had advertised and had a few candidates. Joe had been trying to contact the WNMU instructor for recommendations but has not connected with him. With recommendations they are certifiable. If they take someone that is not certified they must pay them to go to the training academy in Santa Fe for several weeks. They have done this before and the people quit after. Medina said: "Maybe we can offer tuition reimbursement with a two-year employment requirement. We need officers, and we need to act." Ortiz said Joe was gone all week to Albuquerque for training and Arron was in Albuquerque for a doctor's appointment. It was an on-job injury and they had to send him to Albuquerque because they could not find a doctor in Las Cruces that would honor workmen's comp insurance.

Medina said: "I work for a CEO that is always saying to his leadership 'know your business.' We must know our business as a governing body."

Ortiz said they had a lot of phone calls about the clean-up letter, and she has been taking notes. She has to ask if the letter is the first one or the certified one. In October they are still picking up trash for free if the resident calls in and sets up a day. She said she also wanted to thank the maintenance department for keeping the water going during the problems. They went above and beyond the call of duty.

The next regular meeting will take place October 12, 2021.

Meeting adjourned.