By Lynn Janes

On July 23, 2026, the commission had a regular meeting at the city annex building. Jacqui Olea, interim town manager, called the meeting to order.

The board approved the agenda and minutes from June 25, 2026.

New business

Priscilla Lucero, Southwest New Mexico Council of Governments director, had an update on NMFA (New Mexico Finance Authority) legislative oversight committee meeting in Alamogordo in September. The water commission will be providing a presentation at the meeting about the project.

Bruce Ashburn, Louis Terrazas legislative aide, asked Lucero if she had any other information on presentations that would be done, and she said she didn't have dates yet.

Several members asked if they would need to be present for these presentations and Lucero said they would like a person from each local government to be there in support. Tony Trujillo told them to plan for an hour because that would be the usual time allotted for the presentation.

Lucero addressed the lead applicant for the New Mexico Unit Fund. She had put a lot of thought into this and had discussions with Santa Clara, and they will be taking the lead. This will be the part that will extend a water line from Santa Clara to Hanover. The application process for this will be simple and easy to submit. She will also have Hurley apply for the Water Trust Board for remaining planning and design and it will be a 100 percent grant. They talked about when these applications must be done, the turnaround time for them and documentation required by each one.

Old business

Raymond De la Vega, Stantec, had an update for the commission. They have still been coordinating with PNM and hope to have the project done in the coming week. The surveying has been moving forward, and he listed the areas they would be working on. The 90 percent design has been in review internally and then they will proceed with the 100 percent after that has been approved. At that point they will be able to put the first phase of the project out for bid.

Stantec has also been negotiating with an individual for land to put a water tank on in Hanover and said they have been amenable to Stantec surveying a parcel in exchange for the half-acre needed for the tank. They will have to do some surveying of the area anyway.

De la Vega did not have an update on the water operators' subcommittee because they had not met.

Lucero told the commission they needed to be ready to apply for Colonias Infrastructure Funding,  if needed. She pointed out that one of the challenges with the New Mexico Unit Fund would be six to nine months before anything could be finalized to move forward with the project.

Lucero said for the next meeting they needed to put the Water and Natural Resource Committee on the agenda.

Lucero and Laura Phelps, Community Development Manager, Freeport McMoRan, discussed the changes to be made to the presentation from the one provided to the Grant County Commission. They needed to define the meaning of economic development in the rural communities. Some misunderstandings came from the presentation. "We must make sure that they understand it's really for the sustainability of our communities." Phelps said she understood water to be foundational and would enable each community and municipality to decide their future and allow them the ability to grow. Lucero wanted to articulate to everyone that "how you define economic development in a rural area is very different from in a metropolitan area..We need to make sure that people understand how we define economic development." One thing as a water commission they have talked about resiliency, and they need to be mindful of that.

Ashburn said Terrazas and Senator Gabriel Ramos apologized for not attending. They had requested that if any changes would be made to have the changes to them within ten days of the next meeting. This will allow time for them to review and have feedback. Trujillo wanted to know if the attorneys had any feedback on the draft legislation, and Lucero said no because they had just received it. They also emailed the draft to everyone involved to review.

The next meeting would have been August 27, 2026, but the Municipal League Conference would be at the same time, so the meeting has moved to August 20, 2026

Adjourned