By Lynn Janes

The town of Bayard held a regular meeting November 12, 2024. Attendance included Mayor John L. Ojinaga, Pro Tem Eloy Medina, councilors, Frances Gonzales, Eloy Gonzales and Gilbert Ortiz. Martha Salas, city clerk, also attended.

Consent agenda

The council approved the consent agenda that included minutes, police department report, wastewater report, maintenance report, fire department report, library report and accounts payable. It also included training conferences for Robert Terrazas, wastewater supervisor and Hector Carrillo, police chief.

Old business

The council tabled the ground land lease agreement between the city of Bayard and Frontier Communities for a community garden. They did approve a letter of support. Salas said the city attorney had reviewed the agreement but had not been able to attend. He had some concerns to address with the council on the agreement. The agreement asks for a 50-year lease. He also wants to make sure it will not affect the anti-donation laws.

Frontier Communities representative, Ben Rasmussen, said they had done a grant proposal with Western New Mexico University (WNMU) to do greenhouses, composting, community garden, micro grid and storage. The whole project would be $1.2 million. It will be a unique opportunity and may not always be available. The facility would benefit the community, and they would need two full-time staff members. During the second and third year, they would be offering paid training for the maintenance of the site and that would require five people. At this time, he just needed a letter of support to obtain the funding. WNMU would be the lead applicant. The letter of support would be non-binding and just helps with the funding. Rasmussen fully expected the lease to go back and forth for a while.

Medina had concerns about the 50-year lease and asked how long they intended on doing the project. Rasmussen said as long as possible. They have plans to make it sustainable and revenue generating. Medina had seen some projects stop as soon as the money had run out. He had not seen anything in the lease that said they would restore the property if it became nonactive. Priscilla Lucero, Southwest New Mexico Council of Governments (SWNMCOG) executive director, said the lease should have a termination clause. Rasmussen said they would be glad to meet with the attorney and go over these concerns. Medina wanted a clause for non-activity.

Rasmussen went over all the accomplishments the organization had already made in the community. Medina asked Michael Paez, maintenance supervisor, about the utilities available on the property. Paez said water would be fine, and he would have to check on the sewer. Rasmussen said they would be paying the cost to bring in those utilities.

Ordinances and resolutions

The council approved resolution 19-2024 authorizing the submission of an application for financial assistance project approval to the New Mexico Finance Authority (NMFA). Lucero explained the reason for the application. Bayard had 40-year loans with the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) and as long as they have those outstanding loans, they have to request permission from them, if Bayard applied for anything that would create debt. It becomes very difficult to work with and holds up projects for up to two years. It makes it impossible to apply for any colonias funding because of not being able to obtain the release in a timely manor. They have six projects awarded in 2022 and have not been able to obtain the releases and it has jeopardized the funding. She has been working with the state to find a way to pay the USDA loans off in this region. The goal will be to have NMFA take over the debt. She has also seen the assets for those 40- year loans only be viable for 20. This creates multiple loans. Lucero said it would help Bayard in the long term.

Salas said currently they have the problem with a loan with the USDA for water meters. It had been financed for 40-years and the current ones need to be replaced. Lucero said they would be trying to make policy changes to help all the communities. Salas commented it would help with the library and the land purchase. Lucero added that because of this being a disadvantaged community it would help with the loan and open up more opportunities. Medina had been contacted by residents and they had expressed concerns about tax increases. He didn't want to see the land sit and wanted to see the ball rolling. Lucero wanted to see the land developed, and they had other funding sources to look at and people could reach out to her with any questions.

The council approved resolution 20-2024 authorizing an application and presentation to the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission and delegating authority to the project point of contact. Lucero explained this went back to the $1.3 million to utilize for the Grant County Regional water project to start the well in Santa Clara. This will not include any land ownership. On December 10, 2024, they will be doing a presentation to the Interstate Stream Commission. The presentation will be done by Alex Brown, Silver City town manager, and Ojinaga. Freeport McMoRan had donated water rights to Santa Clara and Hurley to make the project possible.

New business

The council approved the acceptance of grantee for the $125,000 received from DFA (department of finance authority) to renovate the modular buildings for Cobre Consolidated Schools. Lucero had been working with Cobre Consolidated Schools to find funding to renovate two modular buildings into apartments that had formerly been offices. In past meetings Michael Koury, superintendent, had come before the council and asked for approval to do the project. Lucero had gone to the state and secured the $125,000 funding to do the renovations. The funding could not go to Cobre or SWNMCOG because of audits. She asked that Bayard be the fiscal agent. The funding has to be spent by December 31, 2024, and Lucero said she would be assisting in the project.

Koury said they have a housing problem in Bayard and have lost teachers they had tried to hire because of it. This will give them four small apartments to offer. Currently they have a teacher from Las Cruces that they finally found an apartment for in Silver City. The rent for the apartments will be on a sliding scale. Frances Gonzales said planning and zoning had approved it, and she thought it would be a great idea.

Lucero will be meeting with Koury and Salas to decide who would be responsible for what. Her intention will be for Bayard to just receive and disburse the money.

The council approved the fiscal year 2025 capital outlay requests. Salas said the ICIP (infrastructure capital improvement plan) had been approved and they would be presenting it on December 6, 2024. They had wastewater at the top but currently cannot obtain colonias funding. The second item had been heavy equipment and then work vehicles for maintenance and wastewater. They had obtained quotes for the vehicles. They will be submitting $120,000 for the vehicles and for the heavy equipment $350,000

Medina spoke to the need for bathrooms at the baseball field. It would be a problem because the city does not own the property. Lucero said it could be put on a different funding source and suggested $150,000

The council approved setting up a contract with WNMU for a GIS (geographic information systems) student to complete the 911 addressing. Salas said she had been looking for some help. It has almost been completed but WNMU will finish. The contract will be brought before the council when written. Medina has some specific requests in the signage to help first responders.

The council approved the hire of a temporary library employee using grant funding. Cindy Renee Provencio, head librarian, said they had received a grant of $10,282 that could be used for staff salaries. They have had requests for the library to be open on Saturdays. This would also allow for sick leave and lunches without closing the library. The funding expires in June and if it helps, they will look for more funding to continue the position. The person will be hired at $14.75 an hour. Salas added again it would be a temporary position.

The council approved the appointment of Patricia de Naranjo to the new library committee. Currently they have an open secretary position, and she would be qualified. Frances Gonzales said she has been very involved in the community and did a lot.

The board approved the repairs to wells number 8 and 10. Paez had provided the written information to the board. Well number 8 needs to be pulled and looked at, it had been 12 years since it had been done. Well number 10 had a significant failure a few years back but need to be looked at. Another well will require $50,000 for repairs and they will have to find funding for that.

Joe Sierra, maintenance, will be retiring as of November 15, 2024.

Closed session

Open session

The council said no action had taken place.

Department head reports

Chuck Gray, beautification committee chair, said they would be awarding five gift cards to the best decorated homes for Christmas. The judges will be from out of Bayard. He brought up maybe putting up a basketball hoop at the park. The committee has $1,200 they could put towards the purchase. The council discussed the options of what they could do and maybe some other places.

Paez had an update on the million gallon tank and said highway 180 expansion had started. They had also started the Christmas decorations.

Salas provided the council with a quarterly report. She summarized the balance, income and expenditures.

Medina wanted to know how many people had been buried in the cemetery and expressed it looked sad and needed benches and trees. Salas said they would need to run a water line there to water the trees.

Salas had lost an employee in the office due to health concerns. She had been sad to see her go but understood.

Council reports

Medina asked Paez to spray for bugs at the safety building.

Frances Gonzales announced the housing authority meeting November 13, 2024, at 4:00 pm. and reminded everyone about the upcoming Tamal Fiesta [which took place Nov. 16, 2024].

Ortiz spoke to having some walls painted and fixed. Medina suggested a dream wall. He had seen it somewhere else and thought it would be a great idea.

Ojinaga said the department of transportation and contractor for the highway 180 expansion had a meeting October 30, 2024. They would be removing the bridge, but it would be done at night. The construction would be happening Monday thru Friday 6:00 am to 5:00 pm. They had requested that the Bayard police department check in during the construction from time to time. He had received a thank you from a resident because they had received excellent professional help at an accident recently by the Bayard police. He thanked maintenance for the flags being put up for Veterans Day and the Christmas tree.

Next regular meeting will be held December 9, 2024.

Meeting adjourned.