By Lynn Janes

The town of Bayard held a regular meeting July 22, 2024. Attendance included Mayor John L. Ojinaga, Pro Tem Eloy Medina, councilors, Frances Gonzales, Eloy Gonzales and Gilbert Ortiz. Martha Salas, city clerk/treasurer also attended.

Public input

Chuck Gray, beautification committee chair, came to update the council. They had planned to do trash clean up but instead painted over some graffiti. Some remains but it had been done on private property, so they have contacted the owners for permission to paint over it. The committee had worked on the small park next to the library. Maintenance will be doing the perimeter of the little park. A resident cautioned them on the sycamore trees planted there and that they will become very large and cause problems. Frances Gonzales said they had used grant money to purchase and plant those trees.

Glen Claire said he had lived in Bayard for three years and resides near Fahey Street and Royal Street. He had received a letter from Bayard saying he owned the arroyo. He advised the council he had brought in a crane and removed every tree that endangered his home and his neighbors. Originally rain and flooding has not been a problem but this year it had. "The arroyo can't handle that much water, and they needed to look into it."

Alfred Gonzales said he had been the resident that started the petition to keep the city from putting in a homeless shelter on Empire Street. In one in a half days, he had 152 signatures. No one wanted a homeless shelter. "They asked me to thank you for helping out." He especially thanked Frances Gonzales. He also wanted to thank the council concerning something else. They had hired two kids from the school to work. He said the kids worked hard and had done a great job. He wanted a thank you extended to the kids.

Planning and zoning

The council approved the mobile home for Candelario and Rebecca Sanchez at 324 Empire Street. The people had been waiting for approval since April and had met all requirements of the city and had gone beyond what had been needed. Frances Gonzales said the holdup had been when Mark Richards left. He had some of the required paperwork and they have that now. Planning and zoning had approved it.

The council approved the consent agenda. It included meeting minutes, wastewater treatment plant report, police department report, accounts payable and for Enrique Quinteros to attend the New Mexico Water and Wastewater training in Albuquerque.

New business

Ryan Mast with Sustainability Partners and Aaron Burke with Kamstrup attended to present a program for replacing the water meters. Mast said they have done this program in other areas in New Mexico. They had come and done an evaluation of the system at the request of community. The current system is at the end of its life, and they will be looking at failures and increase in costs. The current meters have come to a point they will have to be replaced. The system they have available is a new AMI (advanced metering infrastructure) system and will be more efficient. The meters will not have any moving parts and will have a life of about 20 years as opposed to the current ones that only have about 10 years. AMI meters provide real time data collection and leak detection. This program would provide the upfront capital for the transition, meters and ongoing maintenance. It would be a month-to-month contract and operate like a utility bill. Instead of the city being responsible for the maintenance Sustainable Partners would be. Several communities in New Mexico that have done this have found it works well. The system has acoustic leak detection and that saves money because they find the leak right away and don't have to look for it which can take days.

Burke said they have had major advancement in water metering in the past few years. It will be an ultrasonic meter and will not have any moving parts. Mechanical meters slow down over time and must be replaced every 10-12 years. These meters can be monitored by the customer real time so they know their usage and know when they have a leak right away because the system will be monitoring it. They would train the staff on the technology. Nothing would change between the city of Bayard and the residents; it would all stay the same. Currently Las Cruces, Roswell and Farmington have been using the service and new meters.

Mast gave the council a rough estimate on the monthly cost to the city. It would cover everything and would be approximately $11,319 a month. He had figured in some contingencies so the price could be less.

The council tabled until they could go over some financial numbers and obtain more information.

Michale Paez, maintenance director, said the current water meters will need to be replaced soon as they all have reached their full life. Salas said the city has a 40-year loan for the current meters. She has reached out to Priscilla Lucero, Southwest New Mexico Council of Governments, and the New Mexico Finance Authority to see what they can do with the current loan to have it paid off.

Mast pointed out that staff could focus on other things and not spend time on finding and fixing leaks. The city could apply for funding to do the program with the water trust board. They spoke on some of the different grants that they could apply for that would pay upfront or hold to pay some of the monthly fee.

Paez said that resource-wise these would be much better having a 20-year life as opposed to the current ones that have only 10 years. Having the ability to have leak detection right away instead of days would save money. He told the council that they have to do approximately 75 rereads every month that takes them about one in half days to do.

Erin Brown Meeks of Community Partnership for Children presented the upcoming event that will be held at Fort Bayard in September. It will be a fundraiser. They have been in the area for twenty years and have started after school programs, early childhood education, new parent classes and much more. It will be a family fun day with food, vendors, cornhole tournament, runs, etc. The theme will be superheroes, and they encourage everyone to dress up. The cost of some of the events will be to omuch for some so they would like to have sponsors for the families. It will be free to attend the event, but the runs and cornhole tournament will cost because this is a fundraiser for the organization. Both Medina and Frances Gonzales said that the organization had been a lot of help to the community. Medina said Gabriel Ramos, last town clerk, had spoken to them about Bayard helping in some way. Salas said they could not sponsor because of the anti-donation rule in municipalities but would contact them to see what had been talked about.

Resolutions and ordinances.

The council approved resolution 12-2024. This resolution ratifies the agreement with Southwest New Mexico Council of Governments and the city of Bayard. They commented on how much the organization helps them with funding.

The council approved resolution 13-2024. This had to do with budget adjustments for the end of fiscal year 2024. Salas went over some of the major adjustments and asked if they had any questions.

The council approved resolution 14-2024. This had to do with the fourth quarter report for fiscal year 2024. Salas went over the report and reminded the council that $1.1 million on the ending balance must be used on certain projects and cannot be used for anything else.

The council approved resolution 15-2024. This had to do with the final budget for fiscal year 2025.

The council approved ordinance No. 1-2024 that adopts establishing the Bayard affordable housing laws in accordance with the New Mexico Affordable Housing Act.

Action for personnel.

The council approved the completion of the introductory period for Enrique Quinteros and Isaac Gonzales. Both work in the maintenance department.

Department head reports.

Paez said they would be paving Foy Street when the weather permitted. He added the meter program would be good for the city.

Hector Carrillo, police chief, said they had helped with Summerfest and did not have any incidents. He asked Frances Gonzales for help on a recent person that moved into a mobile home on Blackhawk Street. The neighbors had allowed the fence to be taken down to put it in and now they will not put it back up. She said they had been told they had to put the fence back up and planning and zoning didn't want to hear they had not. She would have planning and zoning call them. Carrillo said he had mentioned they have been battling with kids concerning gangs trying to come in. These kids had done the graffiti and thanked the beautification committee for painting over it. He did report they had caught seven of the kids and have charged them.

Carrillo said he would be attending the funeral for former police chief Willy Kerin in Tucson, Arizona. Cami Moreno Flores, Townwolf Treasures, will have information.

Carrillo added a thank you for Salas and all her hard work on the budget.

Salas said that Ideum would be here August 13, 2024, for the workshop. Ideum has been hired to help with the mine mill project. They will be contacting people with information to help the project. They mentioned Terry Humble.

Mayor and council reports

Medina said, "I am proud of the residents that called me on Wednesday and Thursday concerning planning and zoning. They stood up and said they would not tolerate what had been going on."

Frances Gonzales invited everyone to the Community Conservation Round Table that would be happening at the Open Space Brewery on July 24, 2024, 6:00-7:30 pm. It will be a place to voice concerns for the mining district.

Ojinaga said he had been at the Summerfest, and they had a good turnout. The Bayard table had run out of supplies so next year they needed to order more. He thanked Gray for the great job they had been doing.

Salas said they had a contractor to repair the roof at the community center. He would be starting as soon has the materials had come in and that should be a few weeks. She thanked everyone for their help at Summerfest.

Robert Terrazas, wastewater treatment plant director, said he had provided a power quality report to Joe Trumm, engineer, but had not heard back yet.

The council talked about the problems that Hanover has been having with water and because of their audit could not obtain any funding to help. Santa Clara has stepped up to help them.

The next regular meeting will be held August 12, 2024

Adjourned