By Lynn Janes

On April 23, 2026, the commission held a regular meeting at the city annex building. Alex Brown, chairman, called the meeting to order.

New business

Raymond De la Vega, Stantec, had an update for the commission. They have submitted phase two of the project to the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED), and they will be reviewing the documents. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) had contacted them and given approval to do geotechnical testing and some of the property may be under Santa Clara which would help. De la Vega said they have been working on the Hanover water station and have been waiting to hear back from three companies that could provide the interface to be able to charge customers for the water at the station. The company will need to be able to interface with Santa Clara and their software. Stantec wants to have everything ready to go so as soon as funding has been received so they can start construction. He cautioned that now they have to wait on NMED and that may take time. Pricilla Lucero, Southwest New Mexico Council of Governments director, said if he didn't hear back from them within a few weeks they should contact them to try to have it move forward.

John Shoemaker had done testing on the well in Hurley and it had all come back good. Now they will do a pilot well to confirm they have the right area. Richard Maynes said that the well tested had been the slag well and they went about 50 feet and think it might be connected to the aquifer but will have to drill a well to find out.

De la Vega spoke to the wells at Santa Clara and said they would be having a well driller come and remove the equipment and perform tests to make sure it will comply with NMED requirements. It may need some rehabilitation after so many years of use. Several spoke to the challenge of finding well drillers and very few left to call.

Sheila Hudman, Santa Clara village administrator, said when the last 40-year water plan had been done, they recommended the village lease land from the state to put wells on which had been down by the rest stop and Santa Clara has been paying on that since then. She spoke to now dropping that because it has come at a cost of $6,000 a year. They had not received the latest 40-year water plan.

Stantec had not had a water operators subcommittee meeting yet.

Lucero spoke on funding opportunities and how to move forward on those quickly and how to have the grants approved and executed although the project has not come to that point yet. Currently the funding may take extensive time and hold up the process. Jesse Shapiro, Interstate Stream Commission, understood Lucero's concerns and would carry that concern back. Lucero and Shapiro spoke to resolutions being one thing that could slow things down and how they could have them done sooner. They continued with some of the other things that hold up projects that could be worked on.

Lucero continued to list the different funding opportunities and when they would need to apply for the grants. They will need to be ready to look at these and come up with a plan of action. The JPA (joint powers agreement) will be very important to have in place at that time.

At the next meeting Karl Pennock of RCAC (Rural Community Assistance Program), will be doing a presentation on the rate study for the regional project.

Next meeting will be May 28, 2026, at 3:00 pm

Adjourned