Bayard police chief presents three letters of recognition

By Lynn Janes

The town of Bayard held a special meeting May 21, 2025. Attendance included Mayor John L. Ojinaga, Mayor Pro Tem Eloy Medina councilors, Frances Gonzales, Eloy Gonzales and Gilbert Ortiz (came in later). Martha Salas, city clerk, also attended.

Proclamations

Cobre High softball week. Ojinaga said Cobre has been putting Bayard on the map. This had been for the girls softball team.

Public input

Police Chief Hector Carrillo had two letters of recognition had wanted to present. Shavelle Ortiz and Isenya Silva had been co-op students that had worked for the city of Bayard. The letters thanked each of them for their hard work and dedication. They had been appreciated for their positive attitude and willingness to learn. These students had made a great contribution and hoped their experience had been meaningful and valuable.

Carrillo said they had done a project on law enforcement that had been well thought out and presented. He had no idea they had done this project until he saw it. One had been on criminal investigation and the other on mental health of police officers.

Carrillo had one more that he would present later when they arrived.

The council approved the consent agenda that included minutes, accounts payable and department head reports. It also approved attendance to a municipal court clerk conference by the court clerk.

New business

Senator Gabriel Ramos had not been able to attend.

The council approved the fiscal year 2026 interim budget presented by Salas. They had done several budget workshops and Salas had made adjustments from those. Some salary increases had been included but they had just focused on the lower paid employees. Insurance would be increasing.

They will have total revenues of $9.5 million and expenditures of $10 million. The expenditures will be above that because some of the money that they have now from capital outlay will be covering projects coming up. They will be required by department of finance to have $112 thousand in reserves.

The final budget wase due July 31, 2025.

The third person Carrillo wanted to recognize had arrived. Ariana Estrada, a third grader from Central Elementary, had donated four boxes of Girl Scout Cookies to the police department. It had made their day. They thanked her for her generosity and thinking of them.

Archi Padilla from New Mexico Borderland Animal Rescue Coalition (BARC) came to make a presentation to the council. She thanked Ojinaga and Salas for meeting with them and Best Friends Animal Society. Twelve years prior she and Scott Saville had worked to help build the Hurley animal shelter with the intent of making it a no kill shelter. She had volunteered for six years and had been on the committee that helped rewrite Hurley’s animal ordinance. For the past seven years she had helped neighbors in the mining district take care of their pets by providing dog houses, straw in the winter, assistance with vet bills, spay/neuter, dog food, rehoming animals and even cremation of a pet. Some others had been doing this independently until they came together last fall and formed the nonprofit organization BARC. “It is a 100 percent volunteer organization dedicated to ending the killing of animals in southwest New Mexico.”

She provided them with a brochure that had the information on how BARC could help. Although Bayard, Hurley and Santa Clara have part time animal control officers (ACO) they do not have a shelter technician. Keeping the shelter clean and the animals cared for requires more time than a part time ACO can provide. BARC can help in that capacity. A couple of months ago they had been able to empty all three shelters and transport the animals to shelters that had foot traffic and all the animals had been adopted. They have been working to find foster homes to lessen the load.

Padilla said that 95 percent of the animals that come into or have been surrendered to the shelters have not been spayed or neutered. State law requires that no animal will leave the shelter unless they have been spayed or neutered or an agreement signed to do it in 30 days.

BARC has partnered with Best Friends out of Utah. They have been on a mission to make the entire United States no kill by the end of the year. Their journey on this mission started nine years ago. Best Friends, a nationwide organization can provide enormous help to small rural shelters. Ojinaga and Salas had met with them. Padilla strongly encouraged them to sign up as partners.

BARC supports the mining district shelters by helping keep the kennels clean, walking the dogs and socializing them. The most important thing they do will be to poll the dogs and transfer them to no kill rescues and organizations. It included getting to know the dog, taking photos, writing files, socializing, teaching them to ride in a car, taking them to vet appointments and finding rescue places to take them.

They would also like to start a TNR (trap neuter release) program, and the animals would also be vaccinated. It would be a humane program for feral cats. “We need the cats to control the mice population but don’t want to be overrun by them.” BARC would work closely with the ACO and do the work themselves. It would show the state and Best Friends they had committed to humanely spaying and neutering cats. This will allow them to apply for more funding. Recently HB 113 had been signed by the governor. The animal welfare program and trust fund has provided $5 million to help shelters with welfare programs for dogs and cats for the first time. She encouraged the town to apply for funding to improve the shelter conditions. They need another building for cats to separate them from the dogs. In addition, they need a separate building to be a quarantine for animals that their vaccination status is not known.

Senate bill 57, animal shelter act, provides funds for spay and neuter. It comes from fees collected on pet foods. A small shelter like Bayard would not qualify for much but Padilla suggested maybe partnering with Hurley and Santa Clara to have a larger impact. In the meantime, BARC can help residents spay and neuter their pets.

She asked Bayard to budget more funds for pet food. Currently the majority of the food comes from donations.

In summary, New Mexico BARC would like to work with the shelter on an official basis such as a memorandum of understanding (MOU). It would just be to continue what they have been doing.

Salas said she had increased the budget significantly for the shelter. She asked Padilla about how to become a member of Best Friends. Padilla said they had to agree to provide them with the statistics. It is how they keep track of who has become a no kill shelter and who has not. No kill does not mean you never put an animal down. What it means would be you don’t just because they have ringworm or an unadoptable dog. “We should do everything to save them. It comes to about 95 percent." Padilla would provide the necessary information for Salas.

Frances Gonzales addressed the ordinances and the need to update. She also thanked Padilla for all her work. Padilla said Best Friends also has an attorney that could help with animal ordinances at no cost.

The council approved the elimination of the temporary salary increases. Medina said they had discussed this in a budget meeting and Salas said she had never seen this done in any other municipalities.

Salas said it seems every time a department loses a member, they want a 5 percent increase or $5 an hour raises. It could be impactful on the budget. The policy does say that if a supervisor has been out for more than a week who ever becomes the interim receives a pay increase so that would stay. Recently departments have been short one or two people and they ask for increases. Currently the maintenance department has been short two people, so everyone in that department has been receiving $5 an hour more.

The council postponed action on a new bank account for fire department fundraisers. Gabe Gonzales said in talking to the fire marshal they needed to do something different and anti-donation laws needed to be looked at.

The council approved the Bayard library to apply for the outdoor equity fund and LOR foundation field work grant. Cindy Renee Provencio, head librarian, said neither grant depended on a fiscal sponsor. The LOR would be a grant that looks for any ideas that improve mental health in rural communities in innovative ways. She thought this could be for the community garden. It could also provide funds for someone to care of the garden and could also have programs to teach people about gardening.

The second grant would be the outdoor equity fund and that could be up to $40,000. She said her predecessor had been working on an outdoor gear lending library. They already have some items but need to add to it to make it complete. The funding would not be just for the gear but how to use it.

Frances Gonzales thanked Provencio for looking outside the box. Medina thanked her and said it can be hard to go out and look for grants. “It is tough to find them, especially when you are competing against multiple others.” Any money brought into the library would be greatly appreciated. “It’s not just about you and the library. It’s about the kids and the community you serve.”

Carney Foy, Foy Inc. reached out to Bayard about donating some lots to the city. Ojinaga and Salas had gone out to look at them. Michael Paez, maintenance director, also went with them. The council had been given a map of the proposed lots. Paez said he had not been able to find any surveys on record for them. Foy Inc. had three parcels on highway 180 and some others surrounding. Some would be on the side of a hill and another area would be in a flood plain. Foy knew these issues and wanted to city to look at then before making a decision.

The council discussed the land for some time and the locations. They had concerns of possible liabilities. At the end they decided to postpone until the council could view the areas.

The council approved the annexation of the recent Foy land purchase. It will be a total of 675.43 acres and will be for the purpose of economic, community and infrastructure development.

Medina wanted some kind of public notice and signage about the creek. When it runs it can be ten feet wide and four feet deep. Something needs to address that so people know they will be entering at their own risk, and the city of Bayard does not monitor it.

Carrillo asked about the departments responsibility to patrol and cover the new area. Some clarification will be sought.

Old business

The council approved the repair of the old fire station door by Benny’s Garage Door LLC. Salas said she had brought this to the council three times. The EMS truck had backed into it and a police report had not been done at the time. The police department has been investigating and will be doing a report. Either way it needed to be fixed, and they could decide how to handle who would pay later or how they split the cost.

The council approved the bid for the capacitor band with the reactors project. This bid had been put out three times. Trumm Engineering had recommended the bid that came from AB Powers LLC out of El Paso. The total bid with GRT will be $356,346.38. Capital outlay money will be used for this project.

The council postponed the joint powers agreement for the consolidated public safety answering point for Grant County. Salas said she and Ojinaga had attended the meeting on this earlier. All the municipalities had attended. The county has still been trying to work some things out. The smaller municipalities still have some concerns. Currently in the county budget lists they want each municipality to pay $51,000, currently Bayard pays $16,000. A lot of conversation went on with the council and police chief. The police chiefs had not been at the meeting, but Carrillo said they had their own meeting with dispatch. They agreed the chiefs needed to be at the main meeting also.

The county will be looking at different ways to charge. Maybe per call. Dispatch will be hiring four dispatchers, and they will be receiving new equipment.

Department head reports

Carrillo said they have continued to work with the schools and graduation would be the next day. The department would provide the best security they can for graduation. Other departments would assist.

A situation had happened on Fahey Street that resulted in charges. It would be under investigation and had been a shooting. The individuals involved have been charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. This week they had received new information. The Bayard officers have taken it and did not receive assistance from the sheriffs office. A detective did come out and help and Carrillo wanted to thank him.

Freeport McMoRan (FMI) has been helping the department with radios, and they have returned the other radios to the fire department. Carrillo spoke to the problems with the towers and FMI would be helping but needed access to the towers. FMI had set aside $10,000 to help in that endeavor. The people would be coming from Las Cruces and Medina suggested they have it all ready so it could be done in one trip because they would charge $430 for travel.

The code enforcement officer has been citing squatters. She has been citing the same one every day. Carrillo has instructed the officers to start working sections and has split the city into four sections. They do still patrol everywhere. It has been working to stop some things.

Paez said they had purchased the radios the council had approved. They have been waiting for Sierra Communications to come out and reinstall the antenna back on the tank that had been removed during the project. The final inspection of the tank will be coming up.

Salas said the city could not expect the employees to use their personal phones.

Paez said he had received a proposal for security cameras. A few adjustments needed to be made. They will need to apply for funding. Salas said she had reached out for help on the matter. Paez said security cameras have become a hot topic with the environmental department and state drinking water bureau. Within the next few years, it will become a requirement.

David Terrazas, wastewater director, said he just is glad they have a bid, and it has been accepted and after they finish the project, they can move forward with other projects.

Provencio said they had not been chosen for the 30 Something grant for the outdoor kitchen. It had been a popular idea but didn’t have enough votes. Frontier Food Hub did win the grant to start community gardens near the fire station in Bayard.

The library will have summer reading programs. She continued with a long list of programs they would have coming up.

Chuck Gray, beautification committee chair, said the Bingo had been a success and had raised some funds for the committee. They will be participating in the cleanup to be held June 6, 2025. Santa Clara happened last month, and Hurley would be done in July. It has been a tri-city effort with all helping each other.

Gabe Gonzales had provided a fire department report to the council. They had five fire calls and 25 EMS calls within the city limits. They had done ten others to Hurley. Training sessions had been held three times in the previous month. Rescue one has some repairs being done and they have the mini pumper back and in working order. He continued with a detailed report.

Gonzales said the New Mexico fire marshal had come and done an inspection and they had done well.

Salas said they had been awarded the Colonias funding of $1.2 million for the lift station. They can now start the construction because the design had already been done.

She and the deputy clerk had attended a training in Silver City the previous week with Department of Finance and the state auditors office. Other than that, they had been working on the interim budget and issues with the water meters. As soon as that issue has been figured out Salas will bring it to the council. She brought up the clean up on June 6, 2025, that Gray had spoken about. She will put out a possible quorum notice for that day. Salas and Ojinaga went over the plans for the event.

Ordinances and resolutions

The council approved the intent to adopt an ordinance providing the annexation of certain land contiguous to Bayard. This will be posted, and the public has fourteen days to give their input. Next meeting they will have the ordinance ready for adoption.

Action for personnel

The council approved the appointment of Gabe Gonzales as fire chief.

The council approved the hiring of Joseph Chavez and Joseph Gabaldon for maintenance.

Mayor and councilors reports

Frances Gonzales wanted to point out a bill had been signed in the legislature this year that provides $500 million to solar projects. She asked that they apply for it for their buildings. The notification should come out in July. She thought it might also include individual people to apply.

Ojinaga requested that the council be present for the June 6, 2025, clean up spoken about during the meeting.

Next regular meeting will be held June 18, 2025.

Meeting adjourned.