Town of Silver City presented its 40-year water plan update

By Lynn Janes

The Silver City Town Council held a regular meeting October 14, 2025. Attendance to the meeting included Mayor Ken Ladner, Mayor Pro Tem Guadalupe Cano, and Councilors Nicholas Prince, Rudy Bencomo and Stan Snider.

Proclamations

The town proclaimed November 9-15, 2025, National Nurse Practitioners Week. Ladner read the proclamation. Patients depend on more than 431,000 licensed nurse practitioners (NP) in the United States to diagnose, manage and treat their chronic and acute health conditions. More than one million visits a year have been made to NPs. This honors and recognizes their contribution.

Karen deGenevieve CFNP, Pat McIntyre, GRMC (Gila Regional Medical Center) board member and Alan Cheverine CNP attended to accept the proclamation.DeGenevive said she had come here from Pennsylvania in 1988, and this had been the best part of her life. McIntyre said she had come here as a NP and been hired by the WNMU (Western New Mexico University) school of nursing. She announced that the university had admitted their first cohort for the nurse practitioner program.

Council comments

Bencomo did a shout out to Jason Lockett. He heads the county Facilities and Grounds Maintenance Department. Bencomo had received several calls about having Corre Caminos stop near El Refugio and Chihuahua Hill. Locket had also spoken to the mayor about adding some more stops. The town will be adding five new stops. Bencomo thanked him for adding them.

Snider wanted to remind everyone to vote and that early voting had started. Candidate forums would be taking place.

Prince wanted to share the information he had collected on the property tax increase. Some confusion had happened. If a home has a tax value of $100,000 the taxes would go from $606 a year to $759. If a home has a tax value of $150,000 it will go from $909 to $1,138. "I hope this clarifies some of the concerns and questions for, in my opinion, is a modest tax increase." He encouraged the public to check to see if they qualify for any tax breaks for their property taxes.

Prince went through a list of events he had attended. One being the Botanical Gardens, and he encouraged people to visit them. The following week a workshop will be held at the Grant County Veterans Memorial Business and Conference Center.  for the state capital outlay program hosted by the Grant County Prospectors.

Cano thanked the committee putting the Perros Bravos and Brewer Hill oral history project together. It came about because of the Chihuahua Hill oral history project and the people of that area wanted to do the same thing. It will be led by Rosemary and Robert Peru. Anyone growing up in that area have been encouraged to contact them. They may also contact Javier Marrufo from the Silver City Museum. An event happened in the neighborhood recently that had been very well attended. Cano thanked Snider for attending and learning a little bit about her district.

Ladner thanked Randy Hernandez, operations manager, who had been serving as an interface between the city and county on adding those bus stops that Bencomo spoke about. It had been done in part to serve some of the outlying areas and to add easy access to the new recreation center.

The council approved the minutes from September 23, 2025, meeting.

Public input none currently.

Reports

Alex Brown, town manager, spoke to the new billing system software they had recently converted to at the end of the fiscal year. As a result, they had become behind in reconciliation and have now caught up. With that he had identified that they would have to make an increase in sanitation rates. He didn't have a rate but would at the next meeting. A big part of the reason had been the landfill rates increasing 20 percent and the trash collection company contract allows for a 3 percent cost of living based on the inflation rate. "We will be slowing down spending until we know exactly where we are at."

New business

The council approved the 40-year water plan after a presntation. Brown introduced David Romero that had been working on this plan for 20 years. He has been a big part of the 40-year plan update. He and his firm had completed the water model of the upper Mimbres basin, which had been the reason for the recharge credits at the airport. "I want to thank him because I've worked with him for a long time and he has done a great job." Romero thanked Brown and said it has been a pleasure working with the town for the past 20 years.

Romero had a power point presentation for the council. The 40-year plan must be done by municipalities to maintain their water rights with the state engineer's office. He had a map that showed the Franks well field, Woodward well field and the Gabby Hayes well. The town has four water associations, Pinos Altos, Arenas Valley, Rosedale and Tyrone. The plan makes a projection into future water use. They look at the water levels in the wells and how they have changed historically and with that information they build a model of the aquifer system to project the next 40 years' water use.

With the projection they take into consideration the use of other entities, even a lot of mining use that currently has not been used, in the projection they assume it will be. "What we are seeing tis the aquifer is and will be in good shape."

After the water runs through the municipal system, it goes to the treatment plant, is treated and part of it will be discharged into the San Vicente Arroyo. That recharge provides some credit. He spoke to the water diversions and what had been taking place since 1945 to current time. Romero had a graph that he explained to the council. The town has a well not currently used called the Anderson well, but it had been used historically. The Gabby Hayes is the best well the town has.

In the mid-1990s to early 2000, the town used 2,500 to 3,000 acre feet a year. After 2010 the use declined and has remained stable.

Part of the water discharged from the wastewater plant has been used to irrigate Scott Park and a nearby ranch for irrigation. The remainder will be discharged into the San Vicente Arroyo. That water percolates into the ground and recharges the aquifer.

Franks well field has 1,100 acre-feet per year, Woodward well field has 1,600 acre-feet per year and the Gabby Hayes, one well, has almost as much as the other two. The total water rights the town has will be just over 4,500 acre-feet a year. The town has only been using about 2,500 acre-feet a year. The town also has a small amount of water rights at the airport, 193 acre-feet and with the groundwater credits they could increase that to 747 acre-feet a year. He added that had been approved when the town discharged more water into the San Vicente Arroyo.

Historically the town has seen a growth rate of 1.6 percent per year and use that for the possible growth in the future. Recently they town has not seen that growth and it has only been about a half percent. The plan will be redone every eight years to keep watching how the plan has progressed and continue to build on it.

The well fields in the surrounding area also have been taken into consideration when making the plan. The town has been involved in a lot of conservation using a plan done by another firm, Daniel B. Stephens. Automatic meter reading has helped along with the ability to detect leaks.

The 40-year water plan will be on the town's website.

Prince had three questions and three comments. He referred to a graph in the plan. It shows the Silver City projected usage and all other users. The town supplies water to 20,000 approximately and a usage of 4,100 acre-feet per year but all other users and cited people outside of the water system using 9,600 acre-feet per year. Prince said, "The size of those numbers is in my mind pretty significant, and I think speaks to how much residential users potentially are using versus industrial and commercial entities. We're using about a third while all of the users are taking up two thirds of our demand roughly." Prince asked Romero, "Can you comment on the impact of the mega drought and the kind of lack of snowpack that we're starting to see as far as what those impacts could look like on our aquifer?" He asked what the public and elected officials could do to keep an eye on it when it comes to the recharge rate and consumption rates.

Romero said this plan will be a very long projection and a simulation of water use by other water users including domestic and mines and assuming everyone will be pumping as much as permitted. This helps them understand the demand versus the supply. "It would be very uncharacteristic if all of a sudden everybody started using all they are permitted to."

He had been using studies done by people that have dedicated their whole careers to studying basins. Romero went into a long explanation of the acre-feet that go into the basin and what will be used. Through the years their simulation has remained constant. Some of the recharge goes to the Mimbres basin and after that the Gila River and Mangus Creek at the spring. He ended with the best thing they could do would be to keep an eye on how things operate, look at projections and make informed choices.

Ladner thanked Brown and his staff and previous community members that have worked hard developing this plan, making sure the community has enough water for future needs. He mentioned the new plan to connect all the communities. He and Brown had been working on a contract with Hurley, and Brown had commented, "This was important to make sure all of our neighbors would have an opportunity to have their water needs met. You know, these aren't just people in our area. These are our brothers and our sisters and our uncles and our aunts. These are our family members that we're working with." Ladner add ed that they needed to also thank James Marshall, past assistant town manager.

Prince wanted to make sure he made a statement, "We've been seeing very significant changes in the amount of water that's been falling in Grant County, and the amount that we've been having to save over the winter months, the eight to 10-year revision cycle, this will be something that potentially might need to be looked at more frequently. On top of that, just the amount that is being consumed, not by residents, not by individuals, not by families, if we're only using a third of it, and then the other two-thirds are going for industry, I just want to make sure we're acknowledging that."

The council approved the RFP (request for proposal) for legal services. Brown said they had only received one and it came from New Mexico Government Law LLC out of Albuquerque. The current interim attorney has been Charles Kretek, and he also works for the firm. Prince wanted to know how long the contract would be for. It can be negotiated for up to four years. Snider wanted to know what would happen if someone came in and asked to apply for the position, if they  could terminate this contract early. Brown said they could if needed. Snider wanted to know how much warning would be needed. Brown asked him what he meant. The odd conversation went on for a while and Brown finally agreed to Snider's comment about thirty days.

The council approved the bid for the Mill Road lift station and force main. This had been a rebid. In the past the town had received two bids, and both had been over the amount of funding available. Additional funding from Colonias had been obtained and now has a bid from J and S Plumbing in the amount of $1,284,100 plus gross receipts tax. Between the two grants they have the funds to cover the project.

Prince wanted to address that this had been a rebid and originally, they had $900,000 bid and now it came in at more. They now have $1.4 million for the project. Brown said yes and what they have left over will be used for electrical work they need done by PNM.

The council approved resolution No. 2025-30 ratifying the agreement between the town and Southwest New Mexico Council of Governments. Brown commented on how indispensable they had been at grant writing and support with state and federal agencies. Brown will be the main member, with the assistant town manager stepping in after his retirement.

The council approved resolution No 2025-31 authorizing the town to enter into the design funding agreement with the state of New Mexico Interstate Commission, Bayard and Santa Clara. Brown said this has to do with the colonias grant for the construction of the Santa Clara well that Freeport McMoRan (FMI) had donated. The match funds will come from the Interstate Stream Commission.

Prince, "Just because we have the same 40-year water plan. Do we have any preliminary estimates or any ideas as far as how much capacity we're going to be able to add to the system by going with the Santa Clara well?" Brown said it will be Santa Clara's well, not Silver City's and has 250 acre-feet associated with it provided by FMI.

The council approved the canceling of the November 11, 2025, meeting due to Veterans Day and November 25, 2025, due to Thanksgiving. The council will reschedule with one meeting on November 18, 2025, and adding a work session.

Meeting adjourned