Grant County Commissioners heard additional county reports.
[Editor's Note: This is the third of a multi-part series of articles on the Grant County Commission work session, July 12, and regular meeting on July 14, 2022.]
By Mary Alice Murphy
At the Grant County Commission work session on July 12, members continued to hear county reports from department heads.
Jason Lockett, Facilities and Grounds Maintenance superintendent, presented the General Services report, in place of GS Department director, Randy Villa, who is currently serving as interim county manager.
Lockett noted that the Federal Aviation Administration annual Grant County Airport inspection was underway. He reported the work on the bleachers at the Cliff Fairgrounds Arena was 90 percent complete. "The playground equipment for Cliff and Gila has arrived, and we are starting concrete projects for the site. Gila Community Center building repairs are ongoing."
He said the Detention Center backup generator was under repair due to not starting the way it should, taking a long time.
The DWI program is in the midst of a new client database transition and is preparing for prevention programs in the local schools starting in August, as well as preparing for training. Corre Caminos has one open driver staff position, but the department is still waiting on signage for busses.
Lockett reported June fuel sales at the airport of 75,264 gallons of jet fuel sold, for gross sales of $496,430.33. "All aerial firefighting resources have left Grant County."
For future projects, he said the airport runway/taxiway maintenance has been awarded to Maxwell Asphalt, for a total project cost including construction, engineering and administration of $745,945. The airport received FAA Airport Improvement funds of $300,000 and "we also received an additional $312,000. State and local funding of $61,200 left the project $81,745 short, but New Mexico Aviation has agreed to reallocate the balance of last year's grant for apron repairs of $90,153, covering the balance needed."
Future projects include removal of the standby generator at the Detention Center, stuccoing the front pillars of the Courthouse, completing the manager's officer Covid-safe remodel and getting bids for the Quality of Life grant applications.
The DWI program will create a float for the Lighted Christmas parade and the program is working on accreditation for the misdemeanor/compliance program.
Lockett also noted Corre Caminos is working with maintenance to get new bus stop signs installed and new bus shelters put up at predetermined locations.
District 1 Commissioner and Chair Chris Ponce said he has had constituent concerns asking for Corre Cantinas service out toward Hanover and Fierro. "It's not an every weekend thing, it's a now and then request. They want to come into town and have a few refreshments. They are trying to do the responsible thing."
Villa said he has been working on a solution, for maybe a demand type of request.
Ponce said on the Covid-safe remodel, he has problems with carpets in offices anywhere in the building. "I think they are not as sanitary."
Lockett said the plan is to replace the carpet in the manager's office with the same kind of tile as is in the Red Room, so it's easier to clean.
He said they are also looking at replacing the carpet in the Commissioners' meeting room. "The problem with tile in here is that carpet really keeps the echo down, so it doesn't mess with the sound system. We would probably put carpet back in here."
Villa said about 90 percent of the building is tiled.
District 3 Commissioner Alicia Edwards said one of the bus stops has been graffitied. Her second comment addressed the remodel improvements, "which have changed the level of noise in offices and in the building. Maybe get some feedback. I don't disagree with replacing carpet for sanitary reasons, but introducing a lot more noise into people's work areas is not good."
Ponce said the county still has some ARPA funds, so "we need to have these discussions sooner rather than later to decide what we want to do with the funds."
Finance Director Linda Vasquez presented her short report. "We are working on the final budget, and we will review expenses as part of the final budget." She also confirmed that she would have the final budget to commissioners prior to the July 26 meeting, when it would need approval for submission to the state.
Road Department Superintendent Joe Grijalva said the chip sealing is going "pretty well. We're ahead of schedule. Our blade men are back into routine, as well as blading troubled areas and answering complaints due to rain. The road crew addresses complaints as they come in. Hopefully by the end of July, we expect to start the curb and gutter in North Hurley and Agua Blanca, as well as setting culverts on Little Walnut."
Ponce reminded those listening: "As always we ask for patience and understanding from the public, as the Road Department works to address work orders."
District 5 Commissioner Harry Browne mentioned the meeting held a few weeks ago about the Burro Mountain Homestead Road. "Another Mr. Brown, co-owner of the homestead, pulled me aside and told me: 'The blade man who works that road does the best job I've ever seen.' Please pass along that positive feedback."
"I certainly will," Grijalva said.
Information Technology Director Adam Baca said one of the current projects his department is working on is the site-wide implementation of the remote monitoring and management tool. "It will allow us to check on every desktop, laptop and server on the network in the county and keep them upgraded and as secure as possible. We will be doing the updating, say, at 2 a.m. Saturday. This has not been done, so we are looking to formalize this and get our machines working as smoothly as possible. We've also been working on a site-wide anti-virus solution, and though we have one with Spectrum, we are looking to replace that with one so that the IT department can exclusively manage our system. We are doing a pilot program with just a few computers to see what happens. We want to see if it excludes certain files, quarantines them or to see what it does in the environment. So far, it's fairly stable, but we have had a few instances of software being quarantined, so we've gone back in and performed exclusions. We are also going to work on a backup solution for the entire infrastructure environment, primarily on our servers. We have 11 servers, so we will work on backing them up. We are doing all this inhouse without relying on Spectrum for backups. Once we have all the tools in place, we will do the fine-tuning. We will be using a tool from the Center for Internet Security, a CAT Pro Assessor, which will and run everything against the current system to see where we need to improve and make it a more secure environment. It will bring back a report telling us how it stands up to internet security standards. It's an annual process we can use."
He said he and the IT specialist have been going through and will continue training and consultation for the remote monitoring tool, as well as for the anti-virus solution. Baca said he also attended the New Mexico Secretary of State IT Roundtable, "which was pretty good. Most of the conversations lately have been around cybersecurity and insurance."
District 2 Commissioner Javier "Harvey" Salas asked if the backups would all be on the inhouse servers or also the cloud.
"That's what we purchased," Baca said. "A server that has onsite backups, as well as cloud backups. The intention is to have the offsite backups, in case something happens to the onsite server."
Edwards noted that Baca, as long as he's been with the county, has been trying to get the IT off of outside contracts. "But one of the things that occurs to me is that the county cannot run without its IT. What if something major happened that would impact the capability of the county to handle its services? What if we can't handle getting it all back up inhouse?"
"What we're able to do right now is use the Spectrum backups," Baca said. "But that is not to say that we have to exclusively go with that sort of backup. I'm interested in working with other groups to purchase consultation hours ahead of time in case of instances like this. But it's more on an as-needed basis. I plan to do that, but right now, we're needing to build the foundation of things."
"I appreciate your forward thinking on the IT department," Edwards said.
Villa in his report as interim county manager, introduced Justin Gojkovich as the new emergency manager. "Randy Hernandez is now the new Planning and Community Development director. And we're working on getting an executive assistant and working on the final budget."
Gojkovich said he started with Grant County 2011 with the Detention Center, where he worked for a little over six years. "I then got the safety officer job at Fort Bayard, for about a year and a half. I was promoted to Fort Bayard emergency and safety manager by the state. I was there about five years, and now I'm back with the county, full-circle. I'm happy to be back. I'm working on getting emergency management back up on the county. I have a lot of contacts, and I want the voices of the rural areas to be heard."
Villa talked about the Quality of Life grant. "There's about $45 million available, but, of course, there will be $145 million in wants. We have to provide a narrative to get that grant. With Randy Hernandez and Justin, we have a good team."
He also mentioned the manager's office remodel. "We understand the noise. We want to make it convenient for the public, as well as for our staff."
"I'm still Fire Management Officer and an ARFF certified (aircraft rescue and firefighting resource) officer," Villa said. "I've been working with Airport Manager Rebekah Wenger on the inspection. It's all going well. There were some hiccups with the ARFF vehicle. It's just up in age, but we got a grant to get a new one out there."
He noted that one of the events that the Legislative Finance Committee would be having during their meetings in Silver City at Western New Mexico University on July 19-22, would be a subcommittee on the large fires in the state, the Hermit's Peak-Calf Canyon and the local Black Fire. "We will learn how we can apply for some of those disaster grants and how we go about it. Justin and I will be attending at least part of that session on the first afternoon. Corre Caminos will be assisting by taking them to events."
Browne asked if it was the appropriate time to ask questions about flooding as a result of the Black Fire. "I got an advisory yesterday about the potential for flooding in the Diamond Creek area, with potential for 30,000 times normal flows. Have you heard anything about that?"
Villa said not that he was aware of. "What they are trying to do is warn people not to let their guard down, especially those ranchers living in the area and the hikers that get into the gullies. They have to be careful. We haven't had any major flooding in Grant County. I know Catron County has, but not in Grant County."
Gojkovich said he is working with NRCS (Natural Resource Conservation Service) on monitoring Knight Canyon and the Mimbres area for flooding from the Black Fire and back into the burn scar from the Silver Fire. "NCRS personnel go into the areas and assess the soil and the potentials for flooding. What they found was about three areas where they need to perhaps build berms, but the major part is happening in Catron County. They went with the BAER team (burn area emergency response) to check out areas."
Villa said: "There haven't been flows like was mentioned, but sometimes, you won't see them until the next year or two, where you get the really heavy rains. We're still looking at a year or two down the road."
Gojkovich said the Forest Service provided sandbags. Villa said there were around 1,500 and "they're all gone."
District 4 Commissioner Billy Billings said he should have brought up the question with Grijalva was there, but "I got a call about a concern about the Royal John Mine Road bridge. Is that county owned? Trees are growing up around it and the danger of it washing out with a large flood."
Villa said he would work with Grijalva and Gojkovich to see that it is taken care of.
The next article will report the presentations at the regular meeting.
For the previous articles, please visit https://www.grantcountybeat.com/news/news-articles/73119-grant-county-commission-holds-work-session-071222-part-1; and https://www.grantcountybeat.com/news/news-articles/73149-grant-county-commission-holds-work-session-071222-part-2 .