By Lynn Janes
On April 25, 2024, the Grant County Water Commission held a regular meeting at the city annex building.
Karl Pennock of RCAC (Rural Community Assistance Corporation) attended to give the commission an update on the revenue and financial analysis he had done for the water security project. He has been working on the project for a few years. For the past six years, he has worked on the financial end to do analyses of many other projects. The presentation he provided outlined the costs associated with the project based on Stantec's preliminary engineering report (PER) and the next steps.
The project will provide water security for the area, and he went over some of the funding sources and the project cost of approximately $91 million. The analysis covered a multiyear-period assessment of revenue needed, incorporating inflation, increase in connections, funding, and financial performance.
Pennock went over the revenue sources, costs of the operation, and measurement of financial capacity. He identified the operational costs and revenues for six years. The analysis represents a beginning and a preliminary look at the needs and requirements. He will be looking for feedback and will be updating information as it changes. Financial capacity and rate assistance will be addressed as needed.
At this time each connection would cost approximately $5.10, based on Pennock's analysis. Alex Brown, Silver City town manager, said this would be the worst case scenario. He pointed out that Hurley's would probably decrease in cost. All will depend on the funding.
Kristina Ortiz, Rural Partners Network, said she would be developing a list of questions for the commission. She added that each community will only be charged for water used but they would always have a base cost to be collected.
Priscilla Lucero, director, Southwest New Mexico Council of Governments, gave an update on the funding. They had not applied for any colonias funding since the project will not be ready for construction but will be next year. She said they had submitted a pay request for the EPA award. Lucero went over some of the other funding opportunities they have been looking at.
Brown asked that Bayard take care of sending a letter to the ISC (Interstate Stream Commission) to have their allocated $1.35 million transferred to the project.
Raymond De La Vega, Stantec, joined by phone and said they would have the topographic information, subsurface conditions, and work on Santa Clara and Hurley wells by May 17, 2024 for the first phase of the project. They will also be submitting it to the EPA for approval.
Next meeting will be held May 23, 2024
Adjourned