Santa Clara still without a judge.

Category: Front Page News Front Page News
Published: 24 April 2024 24 April 2024

By Lynn Janes

The Village of Santa Clara held a meeting April 11, 2024. Mayor Arnold Lopez called the meeting to order. Mayor Pro Tem Albert Esparza and Trustees, Olga Amador, Peter Erickson, and Ralph Trujillo attended.

The council approved the department head reports after some spoke on the reports briefly. Larry Montoya, animal control officer and fire chief, went over the dogs and cats they had and the citations and warnings he had done. Montoya said he had been working with the fire department in Mexico on the donations. They had recently had an ISO (Insurance Service Office) inspection and dropped a point which will help the residents with their fire insurance rates. Angel Granadino, maintenance supervisor, said they had mostly been taking care of weeds and cutting trees. Lonnie Sandoval, police chief, said they had held back on citations due to not having a judge at this time and have just been more of a presence. They have had one arrest and have been dealing with burglary and criminal damage cases. Rosemary Arciero, code enforcement officer, said she had been busy with permits and had 12 citations. She also has been focused on vacant buildings and compliance.

Mayor's report

Lopez welcomed the new officer, Clinton Ford, and said they have three certified officers, and the other one will be certified soon. Cement for the new Mercado location will be poured in the following week and then they can do some landscaping. Yvonne Gonzales, village attorney, updated the council on the properties they will be acquiring. One has been more complicated because one of the people resides in Germany and they have many other people involved that must sign off for the sale. She said it had been a little complicated but will be closing in the next week or two. Lopez said they have been working on a lot of projects and Sheila Hudman, village administrator, has been working on the funding to do the many projects. The work on the Bradley Hotel will not start until June.

New Business

The council approved the task order with Bohannan Houston for the sidewalk extension on Maple Street in the amount of $78,982.00. Hudman said this would be for the design portion of the project and be for the north side of the street going east to west.

Ordinances

The council approved the intent to adopt an ordinance amending part of title eight, public utilities of the 2014 Santa Clara code that establishes the rates charged by the village for utilities. The last time the village had a rate increase had been 2021 at 4 percent. This increase will be 5 percent. Hudman said it would be an average of $2.50 to $2.60 increase a month to each household.

The council approved the intent to adopt an ordinance amending chapter one, three, four, five, six, six A, and seven of title one of the Santa Clara Village code. Gonzales said this had to do with ten years of adding and amending the code and many things had been repeated and some written a little differently. This will define all the codes to better explain each one. Some of the job descriptions needed to be added. In the future imconing mayors and trustees will get a raise in their stipend, it had not been raised since 2001. The public meeting information had been incomplete. "It will make all of the code clearer, clean it up, organize it and make it more efficient."

The council went into closed session.

The council came back from closed session and said no action had taken place.

The council approved removing Steve Edwards from his probationary period. His salary will increase to $17 an hour. Lopez said he had a good evaluation from the department head.

The council approved the hiring of Christopher Marquez for the maintenance department starting at $17 an hour with a six month probationary period.

Second regular meeting will be held Thursday April 25, at 6:00 pm
First regular meeting will be held Thursday May 9, 2024, at 6:00 pm

Lopez thanked the employees of the village that work hard every day. "We want to move forward and stand out." He thanked Hudman and Gonzales for all the work they do.

The speed sign will be installed soon, and Lopez thanked Sandoval for his work and said he appreciated him.

Meeting Adjourned

Content on the Beat

WARNING: All articles and photos with a byline or photo credit are copyrighted to the author or photographer. You may not use any information found within the articles without asking permission AND giving attribution to the source. Photos can be requested and may incur a nominal fee for use personally or commercially.

Disclaimer: If you find errors in articles not written by the Beat team but sent to us from other content providers, please contact the writer, not the Beat. For example, obituaries are always provided by the funeral home or a family member. We can fix errors, but please give details on where the error is so we can find it. News releases from government and non-profit entities are posted generally without change, except for legal notices, which incur a small charge.

NOTE: If an article does not have a byline, it was written by someone not affiliated with the Beat and then sent to the Beat for posting.

Images: We have received complaints about large images blocking parts of other articles. If you encounter this problem, click on the title of the article you want to read and it will take you to that article's page, which shows only that article without any intruders. 

New Columnists: The Beat continues to bring you new columnists. And check out the old faithfuls who continue to provide content.

Newsletter: If you opt in to the Join GCB Three Times Weekly Updates option above this to the right, you will be subscribed to email notifications with links to recently posted articles.

Submitting to the Beat

Those new to providing news releases to the Beat are asked to please check out submission guidelines at https://www.grantcountybeat.com/about/submissions. They are for your information to make life easier on the readers, as well as for the editor.

Advertising: Don't forget to tell advertisers that you saw their ads on the Beat.

Classifieds: We have changed Classifieds to a simpler option. Check periodically to see if any new ones have popped up. Send your information to editor@grantcountybeat.com and we will post it as soon as we can. Instructions and prices are on the page.

Editor's Notes

It has come to this editor's attention that people are sending information to the Grant County Beat Facebook page. Please be aware that the editor does not regularly monitor the page. If you have items you want to send to the editor, please send them to editor@grantcountybeat.com. Thanks!

Here for YOU: Consider the Beat your DAILY newspaper for up-to-date information about Grant County. It's at your fingertips! One Click to Local News. Thanks for your support for and your readership of Grant County's online news source—www.grantcountybeat.com

Feel free to notify editor@grantcountybeat.com if you notice any technical problems on the site. Your convenience is my desire for the Beat.  The Beat totally appreciates its readers and subscribers!  

Compliance: Because you are an esteemed member of The Grant County Beat readership, be assured that we at the Beat continue to do everything we can to be in full compliance with GDPR and pertinent US law, so that the information you have chosen to give to us cannot be compromised.