By Mary Alice Murphy

[Editor's Note: This is the second and final of two articles on the June 25, 2024 Grant County Commission special meeting. It begins with a presentation and concludes with business that was approved.]

Marcus Cornwell introduced himself as the new Gila National Forest fire aviation and field staff officer after Gabe Holguin retired.

"I spent 20 years on HotShot crews across the West," Cornwell said. He said he ended up back in Silver City in 2010 and worked on local Hot Shot crews and then became the FMO (fire management officer) in December.

Cornwell said the County Fire Chief Roger Groves had asked him to come speak to the commissioners about fire risk for the Fourth of July. He said, as fire management officer, he is not as worried about the Fourth of July as he is for Memorial Day, because the area is transitioning into the early monsoon season and humidity is up.

Around Memorial Day, it's hot and dry and windy, he said.

He noted the forest is well staffed with extra engines for the Fourth of July. "Fireworks are always illegal on forest lands. Rarely do we get starts from fireworks. Our crews are always ready to help in area fires. We will always come to help if needed. Last year the Rico Fire was on BLM land, but we joined the fight to battle it. We work together. On that fire, we had a ton of VFD (volunteer fire department) folks and even some Silver City folks. The Schoolhouse Fire was on private land, but we brought in an air tanker."

He noted that Catron County in some places had already had an inch of rain, but it dwindles closer to this district, with Signal Peak so far having only about one-tenth of an inch. "With predictions of rain over the next two weeks, we think we will see more isolated showers. Beyond that, it's hard to predict."

Cornwell said because of the monsoons and wetter materials, the fall season is not as worrisome as the May-June time period.

District 5 Commissioner Harry Browne said he thought, thanks to rain in the past week, conditions are better. "I appreciate your assessment." He then said he understood that there would be no air tankers at the airfield this year. "How does that impact our readiness here?"

Cornwell replied they still have the two SEATs, the crop duster type, out there that carry 600 gallons. He noted the impact is not that great, because Alamogordo has tankers as does Fort Huachuca. "Maybe you're adding 30 to 45 minutes flying time. Charlene (Webb, county manager) asked me about that. It was an unfortunate incident. They were making a turn and the tip of the wing struck the hangar door. It actually gave us the opportunity to step back and assess the program out there. "Recently our tanker base manager had left, and we only had the assistant manager," he continued. "People were coming from outside assisting him. It gave us the opportunity to assess and decide whether this was the season to have several large air tankers out there. With the assistance of several of our safety managers, who concurred, we decided not to have any large air tankers out there this year, because of the inexperience of the one permanent employee. We will reassess the issue in the fall. We will try to replace the manager, and we will ship the assistant out to where he can get more experience this summer."

He said the conversation was a good segue. "You may have seen on social media about the smokejumper program here on the Gila. For the past 20 years, they've had 3000 feet of loss space covered by the smoke jumpers. Over the past 10 years, we've being using the smoke jumpers less and less. Their speciality is small fires in the wilderness."

Cornwell said the wilderness has seen a lot of fire in the past few years, so "we can use the resources to manage the back country. We've used smoke jumpers a lot, but the need is less now. There's a lot of risk to having a person jump out onto the forest, as opposed to landing a helicopter and letting out a crew to hike up a trail. We're evaluating the risk against the risk to those smoke jumpers."

He noted they don't need as much space for the new parachutes and it's easy to pack the new chutes in someone's yard. "We are not shutting down the smoke jumper program, but putting a pause on it. We will use the space for cache space. Our cache out there is a national cache, and we support all of New Mexico, as well as eastern and southern Arizona. We also support caches across the country. The extra space gives us a chance to store goods year round. Right now, we have an 11-person rappel crew with a type 2 helicopter sitting out there, out of California. So there are other opportunities for back country that carry less risk, in my opinion."

Cornwell said he has been working with the county manager and looking at expanding the area and "I appreciate her considering what we can do out there in conjunction with the county. We recently had a hiring event and hired six new permanent cache employees, which is a win.

"Across the country people are having trouble with staffing issues. We're no different in the Forest Service. We are generally able to staff our entry-level jobs, but we're struggling in our middle management."

He said they have several vacant assistant managerial staff jobs, although typically it's not in Grant County. It's in Catron County and the Black Range. "They are struggling in those remote duty stations, partly because of families and such. I can see in the not too distant future that we will be doing some reorganization. We need to take a hard look and move some things around to where it makes sense. If you hear concerns, it's not likely going to affect Grant County, because Silver City and the Wilderness district are places we can fill jobs. We have to take a hard look at how we do things."

With no more questions, the commissioners moved to agreements.

[Editor's Note: The first two agreements on the agenda were covered in part one of this series.]

The next agreement considered a DFA (Department of Finance Authority) sub-recipient agreement No. 1 for Bataan Memorial Park turf replacement. Webb said the agreement extends the grant agreement term to June 30, 2026. Commissioners approved it.

Agreement No.A- 24-72 amends the Black Range Fire grant agreement to extend the term of the grant to June 20, 2025. Commissioners approved the amendment.

The first agenda resolution R-24-30 addressed a cooperative agreement with the NMDOT for the improvement of roads within Grant County. Webb said the resolution adopts the agreement for the SP projects. with the total cost at $90,690, with the state paying 75 percent, which is $68, 016, and the county's match is $22,672, which "we intend to provide through in kind services."

She went on to explain the other two agreements, with the next one, R-24-31, also being a cooperative agreement with the NMDOT, with the total being $222, 582, with 75 percent from the state for $166, 041, and the county match at $55,647, also provided through in kind services.

The last resolution R-24-32, also addressed the school bus project within Grant County through the NMDOT. The total was $190,221, with the state's 75 percent at $142,666 and the county match at $47,555 also to be paid with in kind labor and equipment.

The commissioners approved the three resolutions in one motion.

Under bids and requests for proposals, procurement Officer Veronica Rodriquez recommended external auditor services be awarded to Hinkle and Landers PC.

Commissioners approved the bid.

Under commissioner reports, District 4 Commissioner Billy Billings said he wanted to qualify a comment he made at a previous meeting. "I want to stand by it. Bayard Councilwoman Frances Gonzales wanted to clarify that the lion that attacked her dog, was taken care of by Bayard Police and I called Mr. Jones (the Wildlife Services agent) and he clarified that was true. But my comment about Jones taking care of lions in the Mining District is still true, because we are talking about different lions."

District 2 Commissioner Eloy Medina had no report.

Browne said he wanted to let his fellow commissioners know that he would miss the next work session and regular meeting to attend his mother's services in California.

District 3 Commissioner Alicia Edwards said she, too, will miss those meetings, because she would be in Denver, but she would be able to attend by phone.

District 1 Commissioner and Chair Chris Ponce said: "We have to make sure the three of us are here."

The commissioners went into executive session to discuss pending/threatened litigation related to 25 Rodeo Road. No action was anticipated.

They adjourned after the executive session.

To read the first article, please visit https://www.grantcountybeat.com/news/news-articles/grant-county-commission-held-special-meeting-062524-part-1