By Lynn Janes
The town of Hurley held a workshop and special meeting May 5, 2026. Mayor Reynaldo Maynes, Aron Phillips, Ester Gil, Robert Candelaria and Jason Cox attended.
The purpose of the workshop was to decide the projects they would submitt to the legislators for their infrastructure capital improvement plan (ICIP). Also, part of the discussion would be to review the fiscal year 2026-2027 budget.
Priscilla Lucero, Southwest New Mexico Council of Governments director, attended to assist in making the list and in the priorities of need. She has been helping them with the plan since 1993 and started with a software change that had happened at the state level for the ICIP and it didn't transfer over, so she had to recreate it and provided them with a list. The legislature typically will only look at the first three and in the past, the councilors had done the top five. This plan will also be updated yearly and submitted by July 1, 2026.
Lucero and the council went through the list and if the projects had started or had some funding already. They spoke to the GO building, water improvements, police vehicles, animal shelter improvements, generators, etc. Cox said he thought they could possibly obtain funding for the animal shelter through the recent Animal Care Act but had a deadline that they missed. Some items on the list could obtain funding from other sources and they discussed those.
Lucero and the council broke down the priorities in the list that she would be submitting for the ICIP. The American Legion building had brought in a grant for $300,000 for design to renovate it into a community center and recreational center, so it was further down the list because they would not be ready until the following year.
The end of the discussion they agreed on this list for the ICIP. This will be presented to the council with a resolution at the June council meeting. The list will also include the dollar amounts being asked for each item.
1 – GO building
2 – Security Systems – Information Technology
3 – Police vehicles
4 – Street sweeper
5 – Animal shelter
6 – Recreational center
7 – Water system improvements
8 – Wastewater improvements
9 – Technology information
10 – Street drainage
11 – Generators
12 – Cemetery improvements
Darlene McBride, city clerk, had the projected fiscal year 2027 budget to review with the council. Since they had some new people on the council, she would be looking at this as an initial discussion to explain everything and they would then have another budget workshop to pinpoint it better. In the packet she had also provided them with the second quarterly report she had to send to the state.
McBride pointed out that health insurance would be increasing 15 percent and the property liability would increase about 10 percent. She continued with some other increases such as streetlights. Regional dispatch has proposed a cost of about $15,000 a year but will also be based on call volume making that price possibly increase or decrease. Sheila Hudman, Santa Clara village administrator, also has taken on the senior center and has asked for a $20,000 a year payment to help support the service from each municipality in the mining district. She will be coming to make a presentation to the council. The utility rates for the residents had not been increased since 2019. The town had absorbed a number of increases since then. If using the CPI (consumer price index) the increase would be approximately $4.69 a month for each customer. She had met with Maynes, and they discussed some alternatives on the water, but solid waste would have to increase. In the past they had transferred money from the general fund to pay the shortages at the request of the past mayor. McBride addressed the wastewater and said Bayard had passed a 4 percent increase that would also affect Hurley.
Phillips wanted to know if they had explored any ways to cut some costs. They talked about a few things, but it would not work or would cost more such as insurance. Maynes said at this point they had to raise the utility bills. The water would only be raised 2.5 percent, but the others will be 4.7 percent. Once the town has its own water system the water will have to increase.
They adjourned the workshop meeting.
A special meeting had been called to have an executive session to discuss personnel matters related to the police department.
The council went into closed session for approximately one hour.
The council came back into open session.
Maynes said: "Let the record state that only the items listed had been discussed and no decisions had been made."
Maynes said as mayor he recommended the termination of Police Chief Kevin Vigil. None of the council made a motion.
Maynes then recommended Vigil be put on administrative leave until the next regular council meeting. The council had a tied vote, Gil and Candelaria voted yes and Pillips and Cox voted no. Maynes broke the tie with a vote of yes.
The next regular meeting will be May 12, 2026, at 5:00 pm
A workshop will be held before the next meeting at 4:00 pm
Meeting adjourned.
