By Lynn Janes
The Silver City Town Council held a regular meeting June 11, 2024. Attendance to the meeting included Mayor Ken Ladner, Mayor Pro Tem Guadalupe Cano, Rudy Bencomo, Nicholas Prince (phone), and Stan Snider.
Proclamations
The Town of Silver City proclaimed the week of June 17-23, 2024, First New Mexico Bank Wild Wild West Rodeo week. Ladner went over the rich history of rodeo in the southwest. The rodeo will be celebrating 32 years in Silver City and will be presented by the Southwest Horsemen's Association and Casper Baca Rodeo Company.
Mike Rocko, rodeo chair, attended to receive the proclamation. He thanked the town for the proclamation and recognition. He said rodeo has been a tradition for many years and invited everyone to come. They have been sanctified by the Grand Canyon Professional Rodeo Association and the cowboy channel will be attending to film for the channel along with a children's channel.
Council comments
Prince said he had stayed home because he didn't feel well. He went on to thank all the organizers for the past recent events. He also thanked all the town employees for their work.
Bencomo wanted to congratulate Fire Chief Milo Lambert and all the volunteer fire departments that fought the recent bad fire. "You did an amazing job. It could have been a major event." He also wanted to recognize the central dispatch for the hard work they do. He knew that had received many calls during that time in reference to the fire. The situation could have been much worse.
Bencomo said he had attended a meeting with the Department of Transportation. They had discussed what they foresee in the future, and he found it very interesting. "We have had a lot of fires statewide, and I ask that you be careful."
Cano wanted to announce that as of this night the council would be live on YouTube for people to watch that didn't want to come.
An employee of the town had been working very hard to make the downtown more comfortable. Cano to recognize Eddie Diaz for his efforts.
Cano had attended Fiesta Latina, Blues Fest and the 100 year centennial of the forest and wanted to thank all the volunteers for their work to put those events on.
She wanted to mention the recent bad fire for a little different reason. She asked people, "Please stay home and not be looky loos or put drones in the air." She added to be respectful.
She and Alfred Sedillo, city clerk, had been speaking about updating the city seal. The current one had been used for over 146 years. They thought that since they have been working on updating the website it would be a good time to address it. A few local artists have expressed interest in designing it. She will keep the council up to date.
Cano recently attended the Municipal League board meeting. They had been working for a year on the strategic plan and will be presenting it at the annual conference. "I am proud of this because I was one of only a few people to work on it."
Cano brought up social media and said a lot of people who probably never met anyone that works for the town think they just don't care. She referred to downtown specifically. "Because I have sat at about fifty meetings about downtown, we do care." She suggested a work session with no decisions made but do some public comment. Not for stories but solutions. "We can discuss and comply with the Open Meetings Act." She suggested it to take place at the convention center.
Snider said he thought the work session would be a good idea. He had attended the Fiesta Latina and thanked WNMU (Western New Mexico University) for having it there.
The council approved the minutes from May 14, 2024
Public input
William Woodward said he would be responding to the letter received by Alex Brown, town manager. He said he had been asked to be put on the agenda before to discuss the water contract with his family and town. They have had the same contract with the town for 57 years and no wording for a change in price. The letter he received says the town has outright ownership of the water rights. The writ is divided between them, and neither can have absolute claim. The letter says the family had the right to purchase water at an extremely favorable rate. "I was not raised to do back room deals. The public needs to know why they will have to pay a 60 cent increase in their water rates. Frankly, I don't trust manager Brown to tell you the complete story." He had copies of documents that he had handed out to the council, administration, and everyone in attendance so everyone would be on the same page. "All I am asking for is an adjustment for inflation."
Eric Vreeland attended to announce his new business, Peace of Heaven Granite and Memorial. The location is 1008 North Pope, and he will be having a grand opening June 14, 2024, at 11:00am. They offer memorial headstones and tributes custom made at an affordable rate.
Linda Ewers said she had come to talk about trash. She had moved her in 2015 and had been appalled by the amount of trash. She and a friend had attended one of the Mornings with the Mayor and let him know how upset they have been about the problem. The mayor shared their opinion and took positive steps to solve it. She went over the Toss No Mas program and ordinances. Ewers said she and her friend have been willing participants for the trash pickup. Ladner had also been instrumental in having signs put up on Ridge Road about covered loads and other proactive steps. "I live off Ridge Road and there is still a lot of trash, and it is excessive. Why, it is the route to the dump and people are not complying with the covered loads rule." She said law enforcement has not been issuing citations and the dump has not been charging for uncovered loads. She had checked to see if any citations had been written by the city, sheriff or state police in 2023 to currently. None had been issued by the city, sheriff and she has to wait to hear from Santa Fe for the state police. Zero fines, warning or violations had been issued. "I feel like an unpaid trash collector. Why should we work so hard with no support?" She did thank the town for the trash bags provided and the maintenance department for picking up the trash bags.
Reports
Brown said they had submitted the fiscal year 2025 budget. He provided documents to the council to review. Finance had used the past four years of gross receipts income to arrive at the amount used for this budget. They feel they will be receiving $17 million but to be conservative Brown said he used $16.6 million. The general fund would receive $13,5 million and the rest would be used in other funds such as police, fire, street, settlement fund, bonds and sanitation. He went over some of the other areas of revenue for the town, but most come from gross receipts.
Brown said he would be asking for a 5 percent increase in water rates. They have been struggling to keep employees in the water, sewer and wastewater departments. They currently have been down 6 employees in part due to them leaving for better paying jobs. He wants it to increase the starting pay by $2 an hour.
Another reason for the budget increase would be due to the salary increases agreed to.
He would also be requesting a 5.5 percent increase in sanitation fees. This would be because the landfill rates will be increasing.
The total budget in 2022 had been $46,416,000, in 2023 - $58,205,000, 2024 - $64,975,000 and this year the total will be $70,111,000.
Snider said that would be a significant increase and wanted to know why. Brown said they had major grants and the staff had been good at obtaining those grants. He added that the Southwest Council of Governments had also been instrumental at obtaining grants for the town.
Prince said this would be the second rate increase in two years and asked that the public be notified in a press release. Brown said he would do that.
New business
The council approved ordinance 1323. Jim Reynolds, town attorney, said they had already approved the publishing of this in the past and this would be to pass it. This cleans up the current ordinance and clears up some of the language.
The council approved resolution 2024-2011 that supports the application to the New Mexico Department of Finance. Lambert said the state legislature had recently set aside funds for salaries and recruitment of firefighters and emergency technicians. Bencomo and Cano had questions that Lambert addressed.
The council approved resolution 2024-12 for the participation in the local government road fund. Brown said this had been done every year and they use it to do chip seal projects. Using these funds the town has been able to have all roads done every seven years. It will require a 25 percent match costing the town $30,230 with an award of $90,848. They have already received the award. Brown said the town spends about $250,000 on chip seal every year and this award pays half of that.
The council approved the purchase of a piece of land from Neil and Mary Parish that is located behind the Parish building on Pope Street. The tract of land will cost $40,000 and will be 0.186 acres. Brown said they had been negotiating for this for a while and it will be used by the police department to park cars and equipment. The title company required the council's approval.
The council postponed the vote on a contract for marketing services at the request of Brown. He said he found possible issues that needed to be reviewed. Cano added that she wanted a presentation from the people offering the contract also.
The council approved the reappointment of Nancy Stephens for a second term with the municipal library community advisory committee.
Meeting adjourned.