By Mary Alice Murphy

The Silver City-Grant County Chamber of Commerce Board Chairman Sabrina Pack opened the meeting and had everyone introduce themselves.

The monthly luncheon was held on a different date from the first Thursday of the month, because of July Fourth and took place on July 11, 2019 at the Grant County Veterans Memorial Business and Conference Center.

The featured speaker was District 38 Rep. Rebecca Dow. She said she would talk about economic development opportunities at Fort Bayard Historic Landmark, in addition to other topics.

"The Forest Service, mining and agriculture are all impacted by regulations," Dow said. "I'm working with Mr. Bright on issues in the funeral industry." She said she has been researching the issue and found that several state agencies and divisions are involved, and the business owner has a lot of maneuvering to do to get a process done.

"We often pass a bill that pulls the rug out from under a business or industry," Dow said. "Before I vote on a bill, I ask myself, does it preserve our freedoms and liberties, does it protect or grow our opportunities or is it restrictive? And if it's restrictive, there has to be a really good health and safety reason to support it."

She said one of the first great opportunities she learned about when she was first running for representative was Fort Bayard. "It's all about the historical value of Fort Bayard and all the different ways we can promote Fort Bayard. Santa Clara has said there is economic opportunity there. What can we do to renovate it? The first barrier is that it belongs to the state, which has done pretty much nothing to preserve it. It really belongs to us, the taxpayers. I'd rather try and fail than do nothing. Santa Clara said; 'Choose us, choose us.' But then the negativity started. Santa Clara is too small. It can't do anything. What Santa Clara wanted is transfer of property. It's a significant opportunity for the whole region. But transferring property requires legislation if it's worth more than $100,000. Legislation has not been successful. Another possibility is to transfer pieces worth less than $100,000, which does not require legislation. What the state has been willing to do is a lease, so Santa Clara can do subleases with the Forest Service, which wants to use some of the buildings. Maybe General Services could transfer a piece per month or per quarter, with each piece being worth less than $100,000. If Santa Clara can annex the 430 acres into the village, it would benefit from any GRT spent to renovate or repair the buildings."

The Legislature passed $800,000 to fix the water lines to the new Fort Bayard Medical Center. If Santa Clara has annexed the property, $79,000 in GRT would mean a lot to the village.

"What a pleasure it was to look inside the old buildings," Dow said. "The bones of the buildings are sturdy and the views of the Kneeling Nun. Oh, my gosh, the views. Santa Clara has already put a lot of investment into Fort Bayard with grants and fixing potholes and such. Fixing up Fort Bayard would create new jobs and bring people to the area. I hope everyone here is on board as an advocate for Fort Bayard. Silver City is putting grant funding into working on the lease language that the village is negotiating with the state. I am blown away by the woodwork, the inlay, the crown moldings, the original clawfoot tubs in the houses. There is so much opportunity out there."

She said she would be happy to answer questions.

Ted Pressler asked when Dow's twin was coming to visit. "How can you do everything you do with only one person?"

"I am very blessed," Dow said. "When my husband and I got married we decided to live on one income. I did go to work building the early education facility in T or C. But in January, I decided to quit my job and become a full-time volunteer legislator for at least the near future. I really think District 38 needs a strong advocate. The rural voices need to be heard in Santa Fe. It's rural versus metro. In March, I passed 12,300 miles on my car, and it's my third car since I've been in the Legislature. It's an honor and a pleasure. It's amazing what a few voices can do. That mining bill would have had a large impact on Grant County, but the citizens pulled together and stopped it. I hope you are all following me on Facebook, because if something is coming up, I try to post it and let people know about it. Those bills are coming back, with names like Clean Drinking Water for Children. They try to fool you with the titles. They're talking about at the base of the mine, it has to be potable. That's not possible. So, you have to really be paying attention to the language in the bills. A different legislator might not have caught it. The ones who support these bills live in concrete cities."

Kim Clark said the Interim Water and Natural Resources Committee is coming to Silver City in October.

"Yes, it is," Dow said. "I talked to Chairman Cervantes about that. They are coming here, and they are also going to Sierra County. They are talking about mining and permitting at both sessions, as well as the watershed bills we passed this year. There are a lot of issues in this area."

John Sterle, American Legion Post 18 commander, asked if there were any effort to create a voter ID bill.

"There are always efforts," Dow said. "You know that you can now register and vote at the same time. But the problem is that IDs don't require citizenship. Student IDs, Social Security IDSs, they don't require citizenship. The Legislature passed a bill, but it doesn't have the citizenship requirement."

Anita Williams asked how much voter fraud there really is.

"We don't know, because there is no prosecution," Dow said. "Some people say none; others say a lot. I can tell you I get calls and emails from people who said they are registered, but when they go to vote are told they are not registered, or they go to vote and are told that they have already voted, so someone else voted for them. Or they go to vote and are told they already filled out an absentee ballot when they had not. So, I don't know. When I was knocking on doors, I was going to an address that I figured was an apartment building because several names were registered there. When I got there, it was an empty lot. Did they vote, I don't know. Did their vote get counted, I don't know. I have pulled up to the schools, the Presbyterian Church on Swan, the physical address of the post office. I am going to their physical address to ask for their vote and that's where they are registered. I've knocked on doors where the citizens are 112 years old. The opportunity is there. I can't tell you it's happening. Sierra County has a proactive approach to look at the addresses. I don't know what the process is in Grant County. I know there are more than 20,000 registered in Grant County for a population of about 30,000, which seems like a lot. It's something that could be looked at."

Terry Anderson asked about the new Childhood Education Department.

"I voted for the intent behind it to bring together the different agencies," Dow said. "Right now, early childhood is in different departments. CYFD is huge and has seven bureaus under it. They are always putting out fires on abuse and neglect. They don't have time for high quality early education. The Department of Health was over the early intervention part of early childhood education. Behavioral Health Services deals with a parent with mental health issues. The Public Education Department was over pre-kindergarten. The idea was to put the prevention items into one agency. The language did not have new language in it for that. I'm not sold that a new agency will bring collaboration, as it was required under other acts before this one. The PED was edited out of the bill, so it no longer has to come around pre-K. Our state only subsidizes public education, to the detriment of the Headstart programs or Little Lambs or other private pre-school programs. In early education, New Mexico was 14th. Tell me where else we are 14th, but now the state has taken children out of the private businesses and put them into public education, so other businesses close. I want to be optimistic, but..."

Anderson said she would continue to advocate. "We are heard. We have a voice. We have to keep being the voice. A lot of things are affecting economic development. I'm worried about our very young children and public education being over-burdened to take care of them. Why were there different standards? To protect our children and now we won't have that. I feel blessed to have you there. We use your voice a lot."

"I have Grant, Sierra and Hidalgo counties," Dow said. "The new initiatives are always from Grant County. How many non-profits do you have? You are always active. The other two counties have a sense of hopelessness. It is always so energizing for me to come to Grant County."

Clark said the Prospectors are the organization that gets things done during the legislative session. "We have our Grant County Prospectors Day in Santa Fe usually the last week in January."

"It's always a great day for you to advocate for your particular industry, your family, your rights," Dow said. "Everyone goes to Grant County Day. Even staffers."

On the immigration issue, Dow said it's mostly federal, but "I want to say that I have met no one who thinks the people don't need to be cared for and loved. Even those who think we need immigration reform. They're the same people down there helping. It's been a hardship for non-profits. I have visited facilities in New Mexico unannounced and announced. So, many people go down to help and many have bought air tickets on their own dime for people to get to their sponsors. I know the hospital has taken in a lot of folks. I'm glad they're being reimbursed for that. I don't know the solution. I think of people who have to leave New Mexico. Our son wants to live in New Mexico, but he just moved to Washington state, so he could meet his own personal financial goal. I think of those people who choose to leave their home countries. Isn't our aid helping them? Where is it going? I think we need comprehensive reform. Once these people cross our border and are processed, they are choosing to go to these places we have set up for them. They are free to go. I haven't seen places in Texas or Arizona, but I know here in New Mexico, families are together and getting a lot of support to get where they are going. They are using port-a-potties, portable water tanks."

Sandy Feutz said they have been down to Deming several times, and the places the people are in now are much nicer than the aircraft hangars. "The people in Deming should be commended for what they've done."

Dow said she believes in the need for comprehensive immigration reform and secure borders, but "I don't know what the solution is."

Farmers and ranchers need the workers, but "we have a right to know who is coming in, what their needs are, what their health is for our own safety and security. But when they're here, I believe that we need to care for our neighbor."

Pressler said: "Economic development in Grant County as opposed to in Santa Fe. How do we get that? 1) Spaceport. What should we be doing to develop opportunities to take advantage of what's there?"

Dow said a lot of the things at Spaceport are centered around Virgin Galactic, but there is a broad array of things going on there. "I think we just have to pay attention. There are short-term projects and long-term projects. An outfit, Spin Launch, just came in and are planning to spend $40 million to develop a project there. They plan to launch with speed, needing only a little bit of fuel. They needed water; they needed contractors. Having the connections and wanting to work with them. We have to talk to the schools to make sure they are training the workers they need. For instance, they need a lot of certified welders. I've been a little frustrated with Spaceport America, because they have all their efforts in Las Cruces, but the work is from all over the state. I plan to pitch to them, not just to return back to Las Cruces, but also to do an MOU to come to T or C to have dinner and tell us their needs. Spaceport is negotiating 27 non-disclosure agreements right now. We want to find out what they need and what we can offer them. Space is a $38 billion industry. We want to partner with them."

Williams said she is not a contractor, but "I've heard many stories from people trying to build or renovate and running into permitting problems."

"You're preaching to the choir. My very first term, the first bill I sponsored was to streamline permitting, " Dow said. "I was tired of seeing empty buildings that the owners couldn't get permits to get fixed. The people that came out of the woodwork, saying 'You're taking away jobs.' I wasn't taking away jobs. I was trying to build a road map of where to go, to create a better way to maneuver the permitting process. It's a mess. It's through Rules and Regs. It's not even the construction division. The section called life safety, everything in the building code is related to life and safety. Santa Clara is a good example. The building across from the Splash Park. They couldn't afford the new insulated windows that were required by rules and regs. That was a life/safety issue they couldn't get away with. So they framed them in and put in little bitty windows that met code, but we lost the cool look of the old building."

Steve Chiang said another example is Adobe Springs, which moved to a new location downtown. "They kept being held up by inspections. There are only two restaurant inspectors in the south of New Mexico. I believe it. My wife works for Legal Aid and she's the only attorney in the southern part of the state."

Dow said Silver City Fire Chief Milo Lambert of the Silver City Fire Department said the building required 17 fire inspections from the beginning of construction until they could open. "Seventeen? They had to wait months. I know it's true, because in early childhood, we had to be inspected every year. We came close to losing our certification because we couldn't get an inspector to come. The New Mexico Environment Department is in charge of the food handlers' certifications. So, you're serving popcorn at the movie theater or a pickle in a package and you had to have a food handler's permit and a certified food manager within sight to handle any food. It took 2 ½ years to get that changed, so now only the primary job has to have a food handler's certification. I always ask myself about bills – do they restrict freedoms, and do they make life easier, not harder?"

After Dow finished, attendees had announcements.

Karen Beckenbach of the Grant County Community Concert Association said the group is sponsoring with Consilio that a person can buy a ticket for the season for $55 for a senior with a companion."

Cecilia Bell of the Fort Bayard Historic Preservation Society said the organization's new Visitor Center at the Santa Clara Armory is not just for out-of-town visitors. "We've collected thing to show and where you can look things up. On July 27, Bill Kupke will speak on the Buffalo Soldier that the statue in the middle of the parade ground represents."

Town Councilor Guadalupe Cano invited everyone to National Night Out on Aug. 3 from 4-10 p.m. at Gough Park to celebrate first responders and "let them know how much we support them. As part of the celebration, the Silver City Police Department has challenged other law enforcement entities to a Battle of the Badges, in a dodgeball competition. Come and watch and participate."