Heidi Erstad and Mike Moutoux talk about iNaturalist app (Photo by Mary Alice Murphy)

Today, Monday, April 27, 2026 was the last day for people to report the various bugs, animals, birds, plants and other critters that they observed in the Grant County area for the Nature Challenge. 

At the Silver City Public Library, several people gathered to hear Heidi Erstad demonstrate the app iNaturalist, where people can continue to report their photographic encounters with the flora and fauna of their neighborhoods or their  observations on their hikes in the Gila National Forest.

By Lynn Janes

The Silver City Town Council held a regular meeting April 14, 2026. Attendance to the meeting included Mayor Simon Wheaton-Smith, Nicholas Prince, Victor Nanez and Angela Salaiz. Stan Snider did not attend.

The council approved the agenda.

Ceremonies

The employee of the month for April 2026 will be Captain Antonio Carrillo. Freddie Portillo, police chief, said he had hit the ground running and has helped restructure the entire command staff and done really well. "We are moving forward in the right direction, and he is helping assist me in that." Carrillo goes above and beyond with compassion for everyone. Recently he had been part of bringing a presentation to Silver City that focused on anti-bulling called "I stand for the Silent". Both School districts had participated. "It was one of the best presentations I have ever seen." Carrillo thanked him.

Council comments

Nanez acknowledged Vicki Toney, code enforcement/animal control officer. It had to do with what Nanez described as alleviating the city of one of the biggest eyesores downtown and helping in the primary steps to beautify downtown. He had received a number of phone calls and emails from people who had not been complaining but happy.

Salaiz said her comments would revolve around the coal rollers in town. She had been dealing with them for well over a year at the protests held in front of Watts Hall. She now sits out there every time filming just incase something happens. She has a lot of videos. Many do it over and over again. She said the mayor had been coal rolled when he attended the past month. She had brought videos for the council to see and said these would be just a handful of what she had. "I was raised in Silver City and am 52 years old. I was not raised to behave this way." Many of the people at the protest have retired and don't deserve this. "They are not doing any harm. They are just standing there with their signs." Almost every Friday they have one or two coal rollers. "Quite frankly I am tired of it." She has started to work with the Silver City police department to put a stop to it. "I cannot say just how disgusted I am and how absolutely ashamed I am as a native of this town that this type of behavior is going on. All the videos I've got here, and I still have dozens and dozens and dozens more. Sometimes they'll swerve into the bike lane, which is kind of scary when you're standing there." She had provided many videos to the police department. She had seen it happen to others just walking down the street. "Those of us that live in town have heard the diesel pickup trucks and seen them coal rolling everybody." She will be working on a coal rolling ordinance with the mayor and police department that will include a noise ordinance. "I am tired of hearing the trucks and sports cars late into the night. I am sick and tired of it, tired of the behavior, disrespect and no consideration."

Prince wanted to remind everyone about the community priorities workshop and planning session the following week at the Murray Hotel. The comprehensive plan can also be viewed online. The last one dated back to 2017. "We're making plans and allocating public resources to solve public problems by hosting public meetings, crazy thought, I know. I just want to make sure that we get as much participation as possible. We are looking at having this comprehensive plan revision done by the end of this June."

Wheaton-Smith commented on the coal rollers and thanked Salaiz for her videos. He had attended a Rotary meeting. He had also met with some business individuals that asked if the town could streamline the permit process for serving alcohol at events. They asked that it be administrative and not have to run through the governing body. In research he found they could not do that because of statutes. He suggested doing special meetings to move the process faster.

A new committee will be started by Wheaton-Smith called Downtown Action Planning, consist of seven people and have a life of three years. The reason for the three years will be an action committee and to fix things. Currently they have committees with open positions Cemetery Board, Historic Design Review Committee, Economic Development Research and Lodgers Tax. The Museum Advisory Board he didn't have a clue what had gone on. They have not met for over a year, but he would like to have it back meeting regularly.

The Downtown Action Planning will meet once a month and proved a presentation to the council each month along with the other committees Wheaton-Smith had started. Coffee with the mayor will be the next Monday at the Grinder Mill at 2:00 pm.

Wheaton-Smith had attended a training by the Gila Community Foundation but said he would stop there and referenced Roberts Rules of Order and the variations that may be taught at municipal league. He went on to explain some of the differences.

The council approved the minutes from March 24, 2026, April 2, 2026, and April 8, 2026, after they had some discussion if they should approve them separately or together referring to Roberts Rules of Order.

Public input.

Joseph Smith, Gila Regional Auxiliary, will be having a raffle. Over the years they have had art donated by individuals and some will be retired due to space constraints, remodeling and redecorating. Beginning May 1, 2026, and continue for several months they will be raffling the artwork off that has been retired. He invited the public to view the items in the main lobby of the hospital and purchase tickets. The tickets will range from $1 to $5 depending on the art displayed with a limited number of tickets available. Drawings will be held every two weeks or until all the tickets have been sold. All proceeds with benefit the Auxiliary. Many of the pieces have been done by local artists and when know they will include the name of the artist, title and date of creation.

Paula Geisler said she would be asking questions but knew they could not answer. Would the council be forming a committee to select a new town manager? What happened to all the money the town of Silver City had? "It seemed like we were flush." She felt the people needed to know what happened.

Victoria Reese said she has been part of the Friday rallies for well over a year. They have several coal rollers every time. The fumes that come out of the trucks have poison and noxious gasses. "It goes all over the town and is a health issue." She also wanted to address the safety. They have the rally from 3pm to 5pm and the sun has been in their eyes. People seem to speed up in that area. "We are amazed there are not serious accidents every week." She thought they should be issuing tickets for speeding and reckless driving.

Reports

Reuse and Recycle Committee

David Stone attended to provide a report. He provided the council with documents and diagrams. He wanted to plant a seed in their minds about recycling and said the processes have changed and not what it used to be. He described collecting it all in a container and then it being picked up by someone and taken somewhere. The new model will be much more sophisticated. It has become a more technology driven process and highlighted some of the systems being used now. He wanted people to change their thought process from waste to resource recovery. Stone went into a detailed explanation of the technology available today to sort the materials. They will work with all parties, Southwest Solid Waste Authority, town of Silver City and Universal Waste Systems Incorporated a large waste handling company. They could save a great amount of material placed in the landfill making it last longer.

Chris Lemme showed the council a graph from the EPA (environmental protection agency) for the past 20 years. They had been spending a considerable amount of money sampling landfills all over the country and explained what it meant and how changes could eliminate a lot of the items in the landfill plus generate revenue for the town.

Prince said this could not have come at a better time and commended them.

Wheaton-Smith wanted to explain they actually have two committees that deal with reuse and recycling. One a formal committee that meets monthly with a council member non-voting and the informal that meets whenever they want to because they have been outside the scope of the towns control.

Managers report

Jacqui Olea, assistant town manager, reminded everyone about Toss No Mas Earth Day Pick Up on April 18, 2026. They will be doing municipal and open spaces particularly the Big Ditch. The town has been seeing a lot of illegal dumping sites.

Olea said the town has received $250,000 to do window and door renovation on the historic Waterworks Building. It came from the cultural properties division at the state level.

In March they had started the sewer bypass project with colonias funding.

Olea wanted to touch on some of the expenses the town has elected to deny at this point because of the state department of finance. The town has been exceeding the revenues they have generated and must do monthly reporting to ensure they can be fiscally responsible. Expenditures have been assessed based on priority.

Prince commended the finance department.

Wheaton-Smith went over what they had found out in January. All of the items they had elected not to pay had been discretionary and not in the budget. He had read an article in the paper in which someone said this had been their seed money and another said it filled in their budget gaps. Wheaton-Smith said, "Wrong choice that is not what this is all about." He added the Press never asked him or Olea for a comment on the matter.

New business

The council approved the expenditure report for the period ending March 31, 2026. Olea said they have done this to ensure transparency with public funds and would turn the presentation over to Lori Ortiz, finance director. Olea said it has been a lot of work administratively to compile this information, but they want to ensure the public knows how funds have been spent. Ortiz went over the reports they had provided the council. It had been broken down into three parts. The first part would be expenditures followed by accounts payable and the check register.

Prince thanked her for providing these reports. Nanez thanked them for the reports as well and said it has been very valuable information to help them oversee.

Wheaton-Smith had gone over the documents and commented he knew Ortiz had been working weekends to provide the information. He included Olea and Randy Hernandez, business operations manager.

The council approved resolution 2026-11 a revision to the community development department fee schedule. Susan Mittelstadt, community development director, said after taking the position in December 2025 she noticed the fee structure had not changed since 2012. She has researched other towns of similar size, economy and demographics and found the department had been charging half of what the others do. She had provided a detailed report of her research to the council. The business license fees would remain the same as they fell in line with the other towns she had researched.

Prince said the fees seemed reasonable compared to the others.

The council approved resolution 2026-13 to form a reuse and recycle committee for the town and rescinding resolution 2026-07 previously adopted.

The council approved the public celebration permit for two events, two different days for Open Space Brewery at the same location, 214 West Yankie, Seedboat Collective. One will be April 28, 2026, and the other May 2, 2026.

The council went into closed session pertaining to a threatened or pending litigation

The council came back into open session to confirm they had only talked about what had been listed for the reason of closed session.

Meeting adjourned

April 27, 2026
Pie Town, Catron County New Mexico

Livestock Producers/Owners and Catron County Residents:

Please be advised that there have been several livestock deaths that have been confirmed
as caused by Mexican Wolves in northern Catron County near the Catron/Cibola County
line. The most recent attack resulted in the death of a ranch horse. There are no collared
wolves associated with the depredations.

The latest attacks are occurring within 100-200 yards of homes.

The most recent depredations ar in the Ponderosa Vista Subdivision off York Ranch Road.

Please be aware of the Mexican Wolf activity in the area. If you have a livestock animal with
an unknown cause of death, please contact the Livestock Investigator at 928-521-6131. At
times there may not be an obvious sign of cause.

For additional information please contact the Commission Office at 575-533-6423

Another day of Red Flag conditions grounds aircraft on Hummingbird Fire 

Map Below

Acres: 2673 

Start Date: 4/20/2026  

Location: 15 Miles East of Glenwood, NM

Personnel: 197 

Containment: 0 % 

Cause: Lightning 

Summary: 

Photos by Mary Alice Murphy

Silver City, NM, the first designated Gateway City to the Continental Divide Trail, celebrated Continental Divide Trail Days, with vendors, local and from across the country, at Gough Park on Saturday, April 25, 2026. The day was blustery, a fairly typical April day in this part of the world, but the sky was overcast, not quite as usual. 

Vendors ranged from food —the Silver City Kiwanis Club offered a pancake breakfast until the food ran out—to clothing and gear for hikers, from local purveyors to ones from out of town, as well as many informational booths about the trail, the forest, as well as the environment.  One author selling her books is a recipient of a National Geographic  award. 

Southwest Desert/Mimbres Basin-
Including the cities of Deming and Columbus
723 AM MDT Sun Apr 26 2026

...WIND ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 9 PM MDT THIS EVENING...
...BLOWING DUST ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM NOON TODAY TO 7 PM MDT THIS
EVENING...

* WHAT...For the Wind Advisory, southwest winds 25 to 35 mph with
gusts up to 55 mph expected. For the Blowing Dust Advisory, visibility between one-quarter and one mile in blowing dust possible.

* WHERE...Southwest Desert/Mimbres Basin.