By Lynn Janes

The town of Bayard held a regular meeting October 15, 2024. Attendance included Mayor John L. Ojinaga, Mayor Pro Tem Eloy Medina, councilors, Frances Gonzales, Eloy Gonzales and Gilbert Ortiz. Martha Salas, city clerk/treasurer also attended.

Consent agenda

The council approved the consent agenda that included minutes, police department report and accounts payable.

Department head reports

Robert Terrazas, wastewater director, reported he would have an electrician come install the new equipment. He has also continued to work with Trumm Engineering and will work to secure the needed funding for repairs and upgrades.

Hector Carrillo, police chief, reported the department had been very busy. The officers had attended the domestic violence training Dolores Charon had invited them to attend and will attend as many of the events for the month as they can. The department helped the high school by blocking off the road for them to paint the "C" on the hill. Carrillo asked for volunteers to help block off roads for the high school homecoming parade coming up. They will also be participating in the Trunk or Treat events at the fire department and high school.

Michael Paez, maintenance director, reported the million-gallon-tank project had started. The tank will be offline until the project has been completed. Bayard will be using the 250,000 gallon tank until that time. He went over that schedule for the project.

Cindy Renee Provencio, head librarian, reported the events they had during the fall break and said all had been successful, especially story time. The rest of the month had many events and workshops planned and she listed them out to the council. They would include a Halloween costume contest and events surrounding Dia de los Muertos. Frontier Food hub would be having a pumpkin carving contest. Provencio said she has been looking for a shade structure for the garden and all had been over the budget she had available so she would be seeking additional funding. She had met with some people on ways they could improve the garden, and those people would be doing a presentation for the council at a later meeting.

Cordell Jones, planning and zoning, didn't have anything to report but asked if the council knew anything about the car wash, he had heard someone wanted to do. Salas said he had called the office and asked questions but had not done anything else.

Salas reported they have the yearly audit underway and will be doing that for a while. The following week she and Tanya Ortiz, deputy clerk, would be attending training for a week.

New business

The council approved the letter of intent to purchase the land from Foy Inc. To qualify for funding, they had to provide this letter of intent to the New Mexico Finance Authority.

The council approved the Grant County Day sponsorship. Salas had received a letter from Priscilla Lucero, Southwest New Mexico Council of Governments, and this would be the first time they have asked municipalities to sponsor the day. They have been behind on obtaining the necessary funds. The sponsorship Bayard approved would be $2,000.

The council approved the proclamation for Domestic Awareness Month.

Ordinances and resolutions

The council approved resolution 18-2024. This authorizes the execution and delivery of a colonias infrastructure project loan agreement. It funded the design and construction of the new chlorination system. This closes out the project. Medina wanted to make sure that the match money would be covered and suggested that they use the flow chart system Gilbert Ortiz had spoken about several times. Paez said the contractors and engineers do flow charts and he went over the process. The project had been ahead at times and at times it fell behind for different reasons. The council discussed some of the past problems they had on projects and things not being done. Gilbert Ortiz said not only did they need to keep a flow chart but have policies in place. Medina said, "We seem to always be taken advantage of by contractors." Gilbert Ortiz suggested they keep a file with contracts, letters, emails, documented phone calls and hold them accountable. He said they needed checks and balances. Salas pointed out that if she did not bring them information they would not know. "You have to hire people you trust to follow procedures and that would be their checks and balances."

Gilbert Ortiz changed the conversation to how much employees could spend. Salas explained the process when an employee must purchase anything and said that had been the reason for the procurement policies. They all discussed for some time the policies and procedures for purchases.

The council approved the completion of the introductory period for Daniella Sedillos, accounts payable clerk. Salas said she had been doing a great job and taken on added duties. Her pay will increase to $15.75 and hour, a 75 cent raise with the completion.

The council went into closed session

The council came back into open session

The next regular meeting will be November 12, 2024

The meeting for October 28, 2024, had been cancelled due to the clerk and deputy clerk attending training.

Adjourned