Front Page News

By Lynn Janes

The Village of Santa Clara held a regular meeting June 12, 2025. Mayor Arnold Lopez called the meeting to order. Trustees Peter Erickson, Olga Amador and Ralph Trujillo attended. Mayor Pro Tem Albert Esparza did not attend.

The council approved the agenda, past meeting minutes and department head reports.

Mayor's report

Lopez said they had finished with a lot of the projects downtown including the buffer islands. The YCC (Youth Conservation Corps) kids had come in to do much of the work and maintenance had moved a lot of heavy rock. They had put in plants and trees that would not need a lot of water and had all done a really good job.

By Lynn Janes

(Writers note. This article only represents a portion of the meeting. They started the meeting early and the writer has not been able to obtain a recording or minutes to fill in the part that took place before 5:00 pm)

The town of Hurley had a regular meeting June 10, 2025. Mayor Ed Stevens, Mayor Pro Tem Reynaldo Maynes, Pete Ordonez, Aron Phillips and Robert Candelaria attended.

The council approved the attendance of Sonia Ray, police clerk, to a municipal court clerk conference in Albuquerque. Kevin Vigil, police chief, said this conference ensures Ray has the training needed to preform her job correctly. The funds for her attendance come out of the court fund.

Turkeyfeather Fire Update July 10, 2025

 Acres: 5,983                Start Date: Monday, June 30, 2025                    Location: 22 miles SE of Reserve, NM 

Personnel: 75                Containment: 0%                Cause: Lightning/Natural

Summary:   The Turkeyfeather Fire is actively burning in the northern Gila Wilderness. It is located west of the Middle Fork of the Gila River, south of Iron Creek and east of Cooper Canyon. A second nearby fire, the Chicken Fire, is also active in the area. Due to their proximity, the two fires could merge. Visitors to the Gila Wilderness should be aware that the fires are burning in the area of Lilley Park Trail #164, Iron Creek Mesa Trail #171, and Cooper Trail #141 and Turkeyfeather Pass.

Opens Dragonfly/Fort Bayard area, Georgetown area, Cherry Creek and McMillen campgrounds

PDF map at end of article

Silver City, NM, July 9, 2025—The Gila National Forest has once again adjusted the public safety area closure to allow use of additional recreational facilities and National Forest System lands around the fire area. The updated closure allows access to the Dragonfly/Fort Bayard/Big Tree trail network; however, the northern portions of the Woodhaul Wagon Road Trail #55 and Sawmill Wagon Road Trail #243 remain closed. Also reopened are Cherry Creek Campground, McMillan Campground, and NFS lands accessed by the Georgetown Road.

While containment is increased and the wildfire threat diminished, there is a continued need for public health and safety closure during suppression repair and post-fire recovery activities. The new area closure area includes National Forest System (NFS) lands south and west of New Mexico Highway 35 and east of NM Highway 15, as well as Forest Road 876 (Trout Creek Road) and lands within the fire perimeter west of Highway 15.

Gila Las Cruces Type 3 Incident Management Team MARCUS CORNWELL – INCIDENT COMMANDER

Notification for Public Health and Safety

Wednesday, July 9, 2025

Final Update for Panther and Trout Fires

By Mary Alice Murphy

At a recent Gila Regional Medical Center Board of Trustees meeting, Chief Executive Officer Robert Whitaker briefly mentioned that the hospital planned to open two new clinics.

During an interview on July 8, 2025, Whitaker confirmed the planned clinics. "The official opening of an outpatient behavioral health clinic, with Dr. Teresa Arizaga as the physician, will take place on July 14, 2025. She will have a Monday through Friday outpatient clinic seeing patients there. We have no plants for inpatient behavioral health services at all."

He emphasized: "There are things that we do that only we can do, and then there are things that we do that other people can also do. It's important to me to focus on the things that only we can do. That's where we start off as our core." He cited those that the hospital can do, as including the emergency room, the operating room, labor and delivery, the ICU (intensive care unit), the cancer center. "And we want to do those really well. Every service we provide, there has to be a physician or practitioner associated with it or we just can't do it."

"Because of the latter, it is really critical that we recruit and retain highly competent, qualified, great physicians and practitioners," Whitaker continued. "I am so happy that we could keep Dr. Arizaga in practice and help her with her clinical career, which is what she wants to do."

When asked where the behavioral health clinic will be located, he said it would be about a quarter of Pod 3, which was the former behavioral health unit at GRMC. Half of the area has been renovated as an orthopedic clinic for Dr. Roberto Carreon. "Our cardiology office for stress tests and echocardiograms takes up half of the other half, as the clinic across the street doesn't have room for all the equipment. So the remaining half of the half, therefore the quarter, will be where Dr. Arizaga will meet with outpatients. It's kind of on the east side of the east pod.The area has a small waiting room and an office for her. We already have staff for her, and we're just kind of tidying things up."

He noted that the first couple of days after the opening would be for training her and the staff to get them familiar with the electronic health records system at the hospital.

Whitaker noted the other clinic that has been approved by the board is a urology clinic. He said the individual hired for the clinic is Dr. Stan Swierzewski. He has accepted the offer and is working on obtaining his New Mexico medical license through the New Mexico Medical Board.

[Author's Note: The NM Legislature this year considered a bill that would allow New Mexico participation in multi-state medical licensing compacts, but it did not pass. The compacts would allow physicians that are licensed in other states and participate in the compacts to come to practice in New Mexico without having to go through the individual licensing now required in the state.]

Whitaker said they anticipated opening the urology clinic in the fall. "It's really dependent on the Medical Board and the licensing and how long that takes. We are anticipating putting the clinic across 32nd Street along with the surgical and rural health clinics."

Whitaker said the hospital has seen the need for a urologist. "If there's a way for Gila Regional to recruit physicians for specialities, we will do it. Sometimes it takes time." He said a second urologist was coming to the hospital to visit and interview, with the potential of also practicing in the clinic.

An additional article will address other items reviewed and approved at the Board meeting on July 2, 2025.

By Frost McGahey

Investigative Reporter

Dan Otero, CEO of HMS

According to a group of former physicians at HMS, when Dan Otero started as CEO, HMS had 17 medical doctors, including a psychiatrist, and 12 nurse practitioners and physician assistants. Now HMS only has 6 providers, plus one on the way when it used to have 29.*

They go on to state, “It wasn’t Covid; it was the malignant workplace culture created by Otero that made us quit.  HMS is shrinking while other local practices are growing. This is while he’s making $270,000 a year. The annual reporting system that shows the quality of health care measures shows HMS has fallen behind NM and national averages.”

Gila Las Cruces Type 3 Incident Management Team MARCUS CORNWELL – INCIDENT COMMANDER

Notification for Public Health and Safety

Update Tuesday, July 8, 2025

Progress Continues on Panther and Trout Fires

Panther Fire:

Acres: 80                        Start Date: Wednesday, July 2, 2025                Location: 10 miles west of Lake Roberts

Personnel: 61             Containment: 32%                                   Cause: Lightning

Trout Fire:

Acres: 47,294           Start Date: Thursday, June 12, 2025                  Location: 12 miles north of Silver City, NM

Personnel: 150             Containment: 96%                             Cause: Lightning