By Lynn Janes

The Silver City Town Council held a regular meeting July 8, 2025. Attendance to the meeting included Mayor Ken Ladner, Mayor Pro Tem Guadalupe Cano, Nicholas Prince, Rudy Bencomo and Stan Snider.

Council comments

Cano said she had attended the policy committee meeting for the New Mexico Municipal League. This meeting sets the legislative priorities for the following year session. This year they had been the same as normal. One priority has been making sure more funding has been put into the water trust board. They also will be hoping that some changes will be made to the IPRA (Inspection Public Records Act). People from other states and countries have been requesting sensitive video. Police departments across the state have been having a lot of problems with this. They want to make them accessible to residents only.

The Fourth of July event had been amazing. The Chamber of Commerce along with Bruce Ashburn worked really hard to make it an excellent celebration for everyone. "It was great to see so many families out enjoying themselves." She had seen multiple generations of several families. They did have one problem; some of the vendors had ramps making it hard for disabled people. She asked Alex Brown, town manager to add a clause in the application from the vendors that says they cannot have ramps because of accessibility. She thanked Romeo Cruz, chamber director, and his staff for all they had done to make it a great event. She also thanked the police department for having a much bigger presence at the event, a lot of people had made comments that they felt safer.

Bencomo thanked the public for being considerate and not lighting a lot of fireworks. He had not heard any in his neighborhood. He thought people had but for the most part had been pretty considerate.

Last thing Bencomo wanted to add was to keep Texas in your prayers due to the flooding they had, and the families and victims affected. Because of the large fire this area just had Bencomo said, "We need to be careful with flooding, and we need to take it seriously and not take chances."

Snider thanked the first responders, firemen, forest service and everyone that worked on the Trout Fire. They had done a good job. He mentioned a program called Firewise that will be about protecting your home with a 30-foot space. "We want to make sure there is no woody vegetation in that space." He also said all trees needed to be limbed up to six to ten feet from the ground.

Prince wanted to echo the kudos to the Chamber of Commerce. "It was my favorite Fourth of July since I moved here fifteen years ago. The efforts were phenomenal." He had heard good reviews from the community. He thanked code enforcement for the handling of the traffic and thanked the police for their presence.

He wanted the public to understand the emergencies still being seen in New Mexico and referenced Ruidoso. "I want to make sure folks are paying attention to see how other communities are responding."

The council approved the minutes from June 24, 2025.

Reports

Brown said HMS (Hildalgo Medical Services) has decided not to continue with the senior services. The town had been working with the county the last couple of weeks and AAA had come up with a plan for the continuation of the program and who would be operating them. Santa Clara will be operating theirs which also serves Bayard and Hurley. He had been working with the county and the town will be taking the lead on operating the Silver City and Grant County centers. AAA will be the granting agency, and the services will not cease.

Brown wanted to acknowledge this council meeting will be the last one for Captain Woods, Silver City Police Department. He will be leaving on early retirement at the end of the month. He wanted to thank him for everything he had done for the town over the years and had done an excellent job rising through the ranks at the department.

Woods thanked Brown, the council, mayor and administration that had been supportive of him throughout his career.

Ladner personally thanked him for the job he had done over the years. "Your presence is always noticed around town."

Cano commented on a situation where Woods had taken one for the entire department but had done it with such class and dignity. She had such respect for him after that. "It saddens me you are leaving but I hope you have a great experience in whatever you do next."

Assistant Town Manager Jacqui Olea let the council know that the ribbon cutting for the new recreation center would be July 17, 2025, and the governor and lieutenant governor would be there. On that day they will also be providing tours of the new facility. At that time Olea said they still didn't know when the grand opening would be.

New business

The council approved moving the next regular meeting from July 22, 2025, to July 29, 2025. Brown had asked for the delay due to the upgrade in the utility billing system. They have had some problems with gathering the information for the budget. He also asked that a work session be set up sometime between now and then to make a presentation of all the information for the budget. The council approved the change.

The council approved resolution 2025-19 to participate in the local government road fund administered by the New Mexico Department of Transportation (DOT). Brown said this had been something they participate in each year and use the funding for chip seal projects. This funding will be used for the area around the university and the match on this funding will be $30,779.

The council approved resolution 2025-20 adopting the 2027-2-31 Infrastructure Capital Improvement Plan (ICIP) for the town. Olea had provided the council with a project summary for the fiscal year 2027, which had been organized by priority. Brown wanted to explain how the town did the prioritization. They also consider if they have access to other funding sources for projects. That will be why some have been prioritized higher or lower.

Cano had a comment she wanted to make for the public. At a previous meeting Shawn Aguirre had come to speak during public comment on the safety issues at Scott Park Sports Complex. The ADA improvements had been added to the ICIP. Brown said they have been putting together a plan to make those upgrades and do them all at once or in phases, and the project will start in the fall or spring.

Bencomo had some things he wanted to see moved up, Penny Park improvements and Fowler Avenue improvements. Some confusion ensued at what would be moved and to what number on the list. Prince abstained from making that change because it would bump another project and ask why the demand on Fowler Avenue.

Snider wanted to say, "I am really behind the Silver City wastewater treatment plant lab improvement. The plant is going on 50 years. "He felt an evaluation of the plant should be done. Brown said they have included it on the ICIP with a $500,000 request for the assessment of the entire facility. Upgrades had been done through the years multiple times. They do understand many new technologies would be available and new requirements that need to be looked at. Snider then asked that the wording be changed in that item to better reflect what Brown said. Cano wanted to point out that this year the Water Trust Board would be funding wastewater projects and that would be a different source of funding than the ICIP. Brown said they had planned on applying to the Water Trust Board on this project.

Snider still wanted the wording changed from Silver City wastewater treatment plant new lab to Silver City wastewater treatment plant lab assessment. A great deal of confusion on the wording took place for the motion. The council approved the change.

Ladner said he had a side comment, not a criticism. In the future when the council wants to make motions to something to please speak with Alfred Sedillo, town clerk, before and have the motion written out so the council can have a copy and Brown can have a heads up of what will be coming.

The council approved resolution 2025-21 adopting the Grant County 2025 hazard mitigation action plan for the town. Olea said this plan had been created in collaboration with the county and municipalities in the mining district and Silver City. Fire Chief Milo Lambert had represented the town on the panel as well as Olea. It will allow the town to access federal funding in the event a situation such as a natural disaster came up, particularly FEMA (federal emergency management agency) funding.

Prince said based on what they had seen in the past month with all the things affected by fire and flooding he commended their efforts.

The council approved the recommendation to reappoint Tony Garcia to the local labor management relations board. Brown said annually they must appoint someone to the local labor board because the town has chosen to adopt a local labor board. "I've appointed Garcia because he was a former president of the fire union as well as former administration under Bencomo." He knows both sides of the job. The unions had appointed Eddie Mendoza Sr. as their representative.

The council went into closed session to discuss bargaining strategy preliminary to collective bargaining negotiations.

The council came back into open session and said nothing else had been discussed except what had been stated and no decisions had been made.

Meeting adjourned