By Lynn Janes

The town of Bayard held its regular town meeting October 12, 2021. The meeting started with Mayor Chon Fierro calling the meeting to order and leading the Pledge of Allegiance.

Attendance at the meeting included Mayor Chon Fierro, Mayor Pro tem Raul Villanueva, and councilor Charles Kelly. Councilors Adrian Ortiz and Eloy Medina were not in attendance.

The agenda for the meeting was approved.

Public Input

Manny Garcia stood up and said this was his first meeting that he attended. He had come to voice his concerns about all the potholes. Garcia said they have been ignored for years. Mayor Fierro answered, they were short of staff and having a hard time getting the asphalt needed. Someone from the maintenance department said they had equipment problems and had fixed many potholes, but they just come back and are trying to keep up. Kristy Ortiz, clerk said they had contractors that would be doing the larger holes sometime in the next eight months. Fierro replied that when maintenance has potholes and water leaks to fix, water leaks come first. He said he was aware there was a problem. Ortiz said that this year they were given $108,000 for fixing potholes whereas in the past they had only received $30-40,000.

Someone else commented on the gravel in the road after the rains and having to clean it up. Fierro told him he didn't have to do that and to call the city.

Frances Gonzales from Bayard Beautification Committee introduced herself and invited the council and community to come to the next meeting. It will be held the third Wednesday of the month at 5:00pm in the same building.

Mr. Garcia ask about a previous meeting concerning Mr. Wilguess's comment about the legality of requiring residents to clean the alleyway because of an old law called Peonage Act. Ortiz said they had not heard anything from the legal department. Fierro said the residents own the alley and just give the city easement for trash pickup and utilities.

Council approved the minutes for the regular meeting September 27, 2021, Accounts Payable Report for October 12, 2021, and Wastewater Report for September 2021. The council also approved the attendance of online training for Jason Jaeger in November.

The council discussed the potential solar project for the wastewater facility. It was decided to put out for a bid to see what the cost and potential benefit it would be for the city.

Ordinances and Resolutions

The council approved Resolutions 19-2021 and 20-2021. Resolution 19-2021 is a road project on north Foy Street. Starts at Cooper housing authority to Alta Vista to improve street and drainage. The city received a grant from NMDT of $63,130 and had to match with $3,270. Resolution 20-2021 concerned the donation of the Mill Mine Union Hall from the United Steelworkers Local 9424.

Approval of appointment to the beautification committee was given to Scott Siville, Chuck Gray and Helen Schruf.

Mayor and councilors reports

Villanueva asked the chief of police Joe Carlos to give an update on the yard ordinances. Carlos said it was moving forward but not as quickly as he would like. Next week he will be interviewing for an ordinance officer. He says this will help. He has seen a lot of improvement all over town. Villanueva said he had also seen a lot of improvement. Carlos said he had been reaching out to the schools and maintenance department about city properties and getting them cleaned up as well. Villanueva asked Carlos about the problem on Virginia street. Carlos said citations had been given and there is change starting to happen. Maintenance said they had taken ten dump truck loads of debris to the dump. Villanueva asked if contact about the Gila Regional and old bank property had been made to get it cleaned up. He said it was on the "main drag and very noticeable." Ortiz said she had not contacted them yet but would. She also said she needed to contact DOT about cleaning up the intersection in that area.

A thank you was sent out to Siville for his help with animal control issues.

Councilor Charles Kelly said the streets are a mess and "it needs to be our number one priority." Maintenance gave a brief report on everything they were working on.

Chief Gonzales gave a report on the school fire prevention class. He said he had cancelled it because of Covid. Someone in the meeting said the road to the fire department needed to be fixed and gravel was filling up the drain.

Ortiz announced that the police, fire, etc. needed to bring in their radios to be reprogrammed. Advanced Communications would be there on October 26. They would be adding a new channel.

Someone asked about the repairs on the police and fire department buildings. Ortiz said they were waiting on the engineers and expected something next week.

Superintendent Avilles said the loader was still not working. They didn't know what was wrong with it and need to do diagnostics. The loader was built in 1987 and maybe they needed a new one. The cost would be $150-200,000. He said maybe they should investigate leasing one, the county and state do it routinely. Ortiz said she didn't know anything about it but would investigate it. Someone in the meeting suggested talking to Freeport and maybe they had something.

Someone brought up the crosswalk at Snell and that it needed a crossing guard. It was asked why the school didn't have anyone out there. Fierro said the city has always helped with that in the past. The school says it doesn't have any budget for it. Fierro said he would have himself put on the agenda for the next school board meeting and address the issue. The next meeting will be October 18,2021.

Ortiz said she had good news and bad news. Freeport through their local grant funds gave $16,000 for the design of the new wastewater project. The town was awarded $55,000 from the Community Investment Partnership but it is not enough. However, it gives them an avenue for other grants. She said they would be looking for state and federal grants for the rest of the funds needed.

A gentleman asked about the sign (Welcome to Bayard) coming into town from Hurley and when it would be replaced. Fierro said they were held up on it because of Covid but were going out soon to measure and locate a different spot. He said they were also going to replace the one on the west side of town.

The next regular meeting will take place October 25, 2021.

Meeting adjourned.