[Editor's Note: This correction is necessary due to this editor's assumption. NEVER assume. ALWAYS verify. My bad!] 

By Lynn Janes

The Village of Santa Clara held its regular meeting July 27, 2023. Mayor Richard Bauch called the meeting to order and led the Pledge of Allegiance. Trustees, Arnold Lopez Olga Amador, and Peter Erickson attended. Mayor Pro Tem Albert Esparza did not attend.

The council approved the agenda for the meeting.

The council approved the minutes from the June 13, 2023, meeting.

Mayor’s report

Bauch told the council that the next day would be the last day for the YCC (youth conservation corps) kids, and he wanted to thank them for all the hard work and help they provided. They had done many projects and had done a good job. The next week would be the last week for music in the park. He thanked the action committee for how hard they had worked on it. The Bellm Street project had ramped up. Bauch said they had some concerns, but they would be doing the best they could to keep it all running well. He asked everyone to be careful because school would be starting and with the construction to be vigilant.

Sheila Hudman, village administrator, said the YCC kids had done a nine-hole golf course and designed the logo for it. It had a buffalo soldier with a sword and golf club. She invited the council to a going away party they would be having for them the next day. “We still have some work to do on the golf course, but it was almost finished. The kids did a really good job.” They had taken a 1964 map of the golf course that they received from the US Forest Service of what it looked like before it had been shut down and laid it out the same.

Bauch said it would be very unique, one of the few prairie golf courses. Hudman said in the United States the only other ones are two in Arizona and one in Utah. It has natural vegetation, rather than man-made watered grass.

New Business

The council approved the MOU (memorandum of understanding) between the village of Santa Clara and Cobre Consolidated Schools for the central drainage project. Cobre had gotten the funding through the Department of Transportation. The project would not cost the village.

The council approved the recommendation to move a 32 x 76, 2024 mobile home to 410 Hutchinson Street by Jaime R. Casares and Sonya A. Pena. Code enforcement reported they had met all requirements. The home has not been built yet.

The council approved the recommendation to move a 28 x 56, 2023 mobile home to 310 Manhattan Park Drive by Tammie Cisneros and Daniel Medina. Code enforcement reported they had met all requirements.

The council approved the sales agreement between the village of Santa Clara and Julie Koger Carpenter and Brian Koger to purchase lots 29 and 31 of block 6. The address is 431 and 433 Fort Bayard Street. The purchase price will be $10,000. The property location will be used for a farmers market and will be located near the walking bridge. The village had gotten $3,000 from Freeport McMoRan to pour a cement slab and do some landscaping.

In the past meeting Bauch had asked the council to think about what they should do about renting the Armory. They had been having problems with vandalism, leaving the facility dirty, the renters not cleaning it, broken chairs, etc. Hudman said they have had problems with the use of alcohol even though the rental agreement says no alcohol. They have also destroyed 30-40 chairs. She said she only rents on Saturday now because it usually needs cleaning before it can be rented again. The convention center requires a liquor license and security guards for an event to have alcohol.

Bauch said they had been contacted by someone interested in doing a startup restaurant in there because of the kitchen.

The council discussed the contract and what it said and how much deposit has been required. Hudman told them currently the deposit is $200. In the future they had been looking at an event center but that would be a year or two away. The rental income does pay for the building expenses. Hudman said, “We are booked until November.”

The discussion continued about the legalities of the renters using alcohol and what could be done to stop the problem. Bauch said he didn’t want to consider allowing alcohol at all. They needed to increase the deposit and fee. They decided to keep it all the same until November and then they would increase the deposit and cleaning fee to $500.

Hudman said they even had problems with them stealing the cleaning supplies, so they had to put them all in a locked cabinet. Hudman would put together a new contract with the increase and bring it to the council.

Tom Caddel wanted the council to revisit the agreement between Santa Clara and the water development project. He wanted changes to the agreement or the repeal of the agreement. Caddel went over the waterlines already in place going to Hanover. “Why are we building a whole new line?” He wanted to know if Hanover would be disconnected from Bayard now. Bauch said this agreement didn’t have anything to do with that. The agreement had to do with Freeport McMoRan (FMI) donating 250 acre-feet of water rights to the village. He told him the water commission would be where he needed to address his concerns. They will be overseeing the project. None of the plans had been developed yet for the project. “The PER (preliminary engineering report) currently is being done.” The agreements include Hurley, Bayard, and Santa Clara and only address providing water. Caddel continued the discussion about the water lines. Bauch continued to explain the agreements and why they had been done. It would tie all the mining district together and provide backup for everyone. It would loop the systems together. Bauch said he had looked, and one acr- foot has been going for around $25,000 and he said that meant FMI had donated about $6 million to the village. “The agreement is for water rights and has nothing to do with what you are addressing.” Caddel questioned what wells the village had and Hudman and Bauch explained each one and why some no longer have been used. Bauch asked Caddel if all his questions had been answered and he said yes. Caddel’s concerns about FMI continued. Bauch said the project would be good for all the mining district.

Old business none currently.

Resolutions

The council approved resolution 2023-11. This had to do with the agreement between Santa Clara and Southwest Council of Governments. Bauch said they do the membership every year because the organization helps the village with accessing funding for projects. Hudman said previously the membership had cost $1,032 but had gone up to $1,164 for the year.

The council approved resolution 2023-12. This had to do with the quarter 4 budget adjustments. Hudman said at the end of the year they must make adjustments to bring everything back to zero to balance out. Some of the adjustments had to do with grants that had not been used. The water and sewer account had been overspent by $60,000 as discussed in previous meetings. They must pay for projects out of general funds until the funding comes in, so it then requires adjustments. She said now that they had increased the sewer and water fees that fund should be fine.

The council approved resolution 2023-13. This had to do with transferring funds from the general fund to cover negative balances in other funds. This mainly addressed the water and sewer shortage and capital outlay projects.

The council approved resolution 2023-14. This had to do with the final quarter financial report ending June 30, 2023.

The council approved resolution 2023-15. This had to do with the final budget adoption for fiscal year 2023/2024.

Proclamations none currently.

Ordinances none currently.

Public comments

A resident wanted to speak and Bauch asked him to state his name and he would not. “You know who I am and why I am here.” Bauch said he didn’t. “We talked about the property behind me and next door.” He went on to say they didn’t know who owned the property and he said, “I am tired of cutting the weeds in someone else’s yard.” He said when the owner had been alive, he had asked permission to do it. He said Bauch had told him he would do something about it. Bauch said “I am sorry and will have code enforcement look into it.” The resident continued to express his irritation at having to do it for years. It was brought up that the previous owner had been Caddel’s wife’s uncle. Caddel refused to say if they owned it or not. Caddel said, “What this man said is a bold-faced lie, I take care of that property.” Disagreements went on for a while between the two, Caddel and the unnamed resident. Caddel said the problem with the person had to do with his wanting to buy the property for little or nothing. “He has done this before.” Caddel wanted to point out the man had been encroaching on city property for some time with a building and nobody had done anything about it.

Bauch asked code enforcement to identify the owner of the property that the resident had complained about.

Hudman asked Caddel about the building encroaching on city property he had referenced and how long it had been there. Bauch said they would also look into the building Caddel had identified.

The council did not go into closed session.

Hiring, raises, terminations, etc. none currently

Next meetings

First regular meeting will be held Thursday August 10, 2023

Second regular meeting will be held Thursday August 24, 2023, at 6:00 pm

Meeting Adjourned