Santa Clara approves rate increase for most utilities

Category: Front Page News Front Page News
Published: 26 March 2024 26 March 2024

By Lynn Janes

The Village of Santa Clara held a meeting March 14, 2024. Mayor Arnold Lopez called the meeting to order. Mayor Pro Tem Albert Esparza and Trustees Olga Amador, Peter Erickson, and Ralph Trujillo attended.

Mayor's report

Lopez had been meeting with all the departments to get organized for upcoming projects. "We had good communication and I feel they had good plans for moving forward." They will be working on the outside of the Bradly Hotel in March or April. "I am focused on getting the town cleaned up and the new building ready to use." He turned the update on the Bellm project over to Sheila Hudman, village administrator, Mill Street would open Monday and they will move to the next street. The schedule has been slowed down some due to weather but should have the project complete by May. They need to move an electric pole. Lopez said they would be replacing the streetlights with LED lights.

New Business

Senator Siah Correa-Hemphill had been scheduled to give the council an update on the legislature but had to cancel.

The council approved the quote for the solar speed signs requested by Police Chief Lonnie Sandoval. He felt these would help slow people down within the village. He had received two quotes and they discussed both. The council chose the one that would be $5,995 for each sign for a year and then they could evaluate the effectiveness of them. Hudman said they would be using the law enforcement funds to pay the contract. The company will come set them up and maintain them and they will be able to move them. Lopez said those signs in other areas have slowed him down and made him aware of his speed. "They put me in check." They could be useful, and any deterrent would be a good thing. Sandoval said he has also been requesting quotes on cameras. With all the construction, the speed signs would be useful.

The council approved the $30,000 concrete slab at the mercado by Mimbres Construction using Freeport McMoRan funding. They had donated $60,000 to do the lot and slab. Hudman said she had to get the slab done as soon as possible because she had landscaping starting in June.

The council will be setting up budget meetings in the next month. Hudman said she would like to see one on the off weeks of the council meetings in April. She reminded the council she had to have the 72-hour notice to let the public know.

Resolutions

The council approved resolution 2024-05 that allows for the filing of an application for financial assistance to the New Mexico finance Authority for the Colonias Infrastructure Fund. Hudman let the council know what projects this would be covering. Well 4 had gone down in the past year and the emergency repair had cost about $50,000. Badger Western had advised the village to update the well. It had been installed in 2010 and had about a 10-year life span. The other project would be to repair and redo the water holding tanks. One had been done in 1950 and the other in 1980. They also needed to replace the water valves throughout the village. Some didn't work anymore and having them all working would make it easier to isolate leaks. The worst case scenario to do all the projects would be $2 million. They would not be able to get this much with capital outlay funds. The application would be to pay the 10 percent match required for colonias funding. Hudman said she didn't think they would get the $2 million but a portion of it. Lopez said they needed to do this while they could. Currently colonias has a lot of funding available.

Lopez said they could have a complete loss on any of the projects mentioned and water is the most important thing. Hudman went over all the infrastructure projects they had done in the past using colonias funds.

The council approved resolution 2024-06. This would be for an application to the New Mexico Department of Transportation municipal arterial program (MAP) fund to update the Oak Street Bridge. In 2013 the army corps of engineers had come in and done a flood survey. The survey showed Cameron Creek had too low a number of crossings because of the encroachment into the creek through the years making it narrower and causing the water to flow through faster during flooding.

Lopez said they may not get the funding because they had a lot of municipalities to compete with, but it would be good if they could obtain that funding. Hudman said all of this takes time and reminded them how long the Bellm Street project had taken. They worked ten years on it.

The council approved resolution 2024-07 that allows the donation of the used fire engine to Mexico. Larry Montoya, fire chief, said this fire engine no longer meets the state code. It can still be used, and they have some equipment they can donate with it that also does not meet code but can still be used. The village can donate this because of receiving a donated fire engine from Eddy County that meets all code requirements for the state. The fire marshal has approved the donation. Hudman said they would have to send the letter from the fire marshal and obtain approval from the DFA (department of finance) because of the value. Lopez said all decals would be removed and thanked Sandoval for all his work to get this donation moving forward.

Ordinances

The council approved the intent to adopt an ordinance amending part of title 8, public utilities, of the 2014 Santa Clara village code that establishes the rates the village charges for municipal utilities. Yvonne Gonzalez, village attorney, said it would just be a 5 percent cost increase across the board except wastewater. Hudman added that on average it would cost the resident an additional $2.58 a month. She said they needed to do this every year. They will be having to send out an RFP (request for proposal) for trash service and she knew that would cost the village more than they currently pay. Recently she had to ask the council for a $32,000 adjustment moving it from general funds to cover the additional cost incurred because everything had gone up. Hudman had wanted to do the increase before but the former mayor, Richard Bauch, had not wanted to drop it on the new mayor.

Lopez said 5 percent would not be a lot. Inflation has hit everything, and the village has had problems covering all the increased costs. "We are still the lowest in Grant County."

The council approved the intent to adopt an ordinance to amend several areas in the Santa Clara code. Gonzales said the village had adopted the code in 2014. At that time the former mayor, Bauch, had turned it over to a professional publishing company to put it together in a cohesive code. They have amended the code in many areas and added provisions and sections. They will just be adding definitions needed throughout. The ordinance amendment will be 22 pages. Lopez said, "In a nutshell we are updating things to make the wording easier and more complete." Gonzales said they will still be working on title 10 of the code.

The council went into closed session

The council came back from closed session and said no action had taken place.

The council approved the hiring of Larry Montoya as the animal control officer.

Second regular meeting will be held Thursday March 28, at 6:00 pm
First regular meeting will be held Thursday April 11, 2024, at 6:00 pm

Meeting Adjourned

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