By Lynn Janes

The town of Hurley had a regular meeting August 12, 2025. Mayor Ed Stevens, Robert Candelaria, Pete Ordonez and Aron Phillips attended. Mayor Pro Tem Reynaldo Maynes did not attend.

Public input

Anselmo Tellez said it had been a while since he had come but he had seen a drastic change. He thanked the mayor and councilors. He said they have been appreciated. Tellez had seen on the agenda the consideration for Darlene McBride, town clerk, to attend a housing summit in Albuquerque. He thought it would be a wonderful idea. He had been involved in the housing industry for thirty years. Recently people have been receiving their insurance renewals and have noticed them going through the roof. Tellez said AI has been involved and he had talked to his insurance agent and said it was called 360 AI. It tells them what to charge. He wanted more than McBride to be sent if the budget allowed. "It will be a wonderful investment into the future."

Tellez spoke to the water and sewer costs that come up at the end of the year and cited the CPI (consumer price index) currently falls at 2.73 percent. This came up last year and the town found a way not to raise rates on the residents. In closing, he said he hoped they could do that again.

The council approved the consent agenda that consisted of minutes from three meetings. Also, in the consent agenda were reports from maintenance, clerk, fire department, animal control, code enforcement, police department, judge and library.

McBride said the community cleanup had been a huge success. They had hauled off 12 dumpsters, residents' trash, appliances, yard debris and trees. Copper Collaborative had organized the event that had happened in Santa Clara and Bayard also. Freeport McMoRan had paid for the dumpsters and provided food for the volunteers. The Patio had donated water and thanked a lot of other people who had helped in some way.

The American Legion had given a citation of appreciation to the businesses for flying the American Flag. Hurley maintenance always puts the flags out for holidays and special dates.

McBride reminded everyone to contact the Community Forestry group to provide comments on the plan and what they would like to see.

The council tabled the consideration for a business license application for Jenny's Green Cleaning. The applicant had not attended, and the council wanted more information.

Steve Proper from Comcast attended the meeting online to answer questions about the consideration of the cable television franchise agreement. This would be for cable only. The franchise had actually expired last year, and they have been operating on a month-to-month basis. This had to do with the use of right aways. The fees have been set using parameters set by federal rules and allows the community to assess a franchise fee based on the revenues that the cable operator generates in that community. The cap at the federal level will be 5 percent. The old one that expired had been 3 percent. It has been passed through the customer and remitted to the town. In the last four quarters it had generated around $4,200. This agreement has been done every 10 years. The town did not have to take it to the 5 percent, and it could remain at the 3 percent. The council approved leaving it at 3 percent for the franchise fee.

The council approved the Axon contract for the police department tasers and cameras. Kevin Vigil, police chief, said through Axon they have contracts valid for five years. This would be a renewal of that contract. The total cost will be roughly $4,900 a year for the next five years. The cost would be paid with law enforcement funds. The department would be receiving new tasers and the old ones sent back. It ensures the equipment will be up to date.

The second part would be the dash cams that work in conjunction with the body cams and tasers. The dash cams record everything happening outside the vehicle but also, they have a rear-facing one for detainees that helps to alleviate false allegations. He explained what would trigger all of these cameras and how they would work in unison. If the taser activates the cameras activate and begin recording. This would also be a five-year contract at the cost of $14,100 a year paid with law enforcement funds.

The law enforcement funds come from the state yearly. Vigil added that as a supervisor he could log on anytime that an event happens in real time and can direct officers better with this technology. By state law they must have body cameras, but this will be an added layer of protection.

The council approved resolution no. 9-2025/2026 for the regular election that lists all of the positions that will be on the November ballot. The candidates filing deadline was August 26, 2025.

The council approved McBride to attend the 2025 New Mexico Housing Summit in Albuquerque in September. McBride said with everything going on with housing currently this would be in depth training with a lot of information. Southwest New Mexico Council of Governments has been working with Santa Clara and Bayard to attend to obtain as much guidance as possible on affordable housing and opportunities available. She offered to send the agenda for the summit to the council.

Mayor and council reports

Ordonez and Phillips did not have a report currently.

Candelaria said the mayor had asked him to look into camera systems for the city. He had found a few options. He went over the options and one of the vendors had offered to come and do a presentation on what they had done in other small towns. These systems would also be able to help police.

Stevens wanted to address the construction on Anza Street. The residents have had problems accessing their driveways and one had been Phillips. Phillips said he had talked with his neighbor, and they would be bringing some of the concerns up to the engineer on the project. It had to do with the design of the curve and flooding issues. Specifically, one yard owned by one of the engineers, Richard Maynes.

Stevens said he had a meeting scheduled with Freeport McMoRan (FMI), with Ty Bays. The town does not have a definite wellsite south of town at this time. Two-and-a-half years ago FMI had donated 200 acre-feet of water rights to the town. They must start moving forward with the project.

A few months ago, Stevens had been approached about the cannon at the American Legion building and the cannon has a lot of history. The veterans group at Fort Bayard would like to have the cannon. Stevens said that would not be his decision and he felt it should be the council's and town's decision. They said the cannon has a very interesting history.

The next regular meeting will be September 9, 2025, at 5:00 pm.
Special meeting/workshop August 27, 2025, at 5:00 pm

Meeting adjourned.