Treasurer Patrick Cohn receives Certificate of Achievement of NM Certified Treasury Official designation from County Manager Charlene Webb.

Photo and article by Mary Alice Murphy

[Editor's Note: This is part 1 of a series of article on the July 9, 2024, Grant County Commission work session. It begins with presentations. Apologies from this author on the belatedness of the coverage of this meeting and future meetings. ]

With no public input toward the beginning of the July 9, 2024 Grant County Commission work session, the next item on the agenda was a presentation by Silver Consolidated Schools Superintendent William Hawkins speaking about the facility needs of the school district and requesting a favorable vote on a bond issue to address the needs.

[Editor's Note: Since the bond issue election has already taken place, if you want to see the alleged facility deficiencies, please visit 1) https://grantcountynm.gov/, 2) Choose Government, and 3) then click on Agendas and Minutes. When you arrive at that page, 4) scroll up to the July 9, 2024, Board of Commissioners Work Session, 5) click on the little black box with Board of Commissioners in white letters. 6) That takes you to the agenda. 7) On the left side of the page, you will see listed several items from the full agenda that have a little black download button. 8) If you wish to download the 32-page presentation, titled Mr. Hawkins - Silver Schools Master Plan. OR 9) If you do not want the full presentation, just click on Mr. Hawkins - Silver Schools Master Plan and the entire presentation will appear and you can scroll through it.]

The presentation included needed facility repairs and their costs, as well as the facility inventory and the priorities for funding.

Hawkins asked that voters renew the continuing SB9 2 mill bond and also vote for a new bond, which will raise property tax rates by 4.1 mills. The election took place and votes rejected the renewal of the SB9 and approved the larger bond. The district put out conflicting flyers and misleading information that confused voters. The mail-in-only ballot didn't help as one side was one bond and the other side of the ballot was another. Information that the schools put out originally under-estimated how much the bond would cost property owners, and also had the issues backward from what the actual order of the two issues was. The flyers remained available even after the schools tried to correct the misinformation verbally.

The next presentation came from the Community Partnership for Children, which promoted their September Super 5K Family Fit-Fest, which took place on Sept. 14, 2024. [Editor's Note: photos from the event can be viewed at https://www.grantcountybeat.com/news/news-articles/cpc-september-fundraiser-091424 ]

The CPC presenter, Kayla Carrasco, noted the organization created the Kid's Space at Western New Mexico University for after school care, through a collaboration with the schools and the university. "We've been able to increase our home-based providers by four and have two more coming through our program that we are supporting. We're also trying to increase childcare education throughout the community trying to give the basic skills to parents, grandparents, whoever is taking care of children."

In an answer to a question from District 2 Commissioner Eloy Medina, Carrasco said the group in the future wants to create a family hub, with possibly a children's museum and having CPC's service within that. "We hope to continue the caregiver early childhood education." She noted the partnerships, LINKS, in the community is supporting the idea. "We have a business plan, and we plan to ask for Freeport support to purchase a building. We also plan to ask for county and city support to continue increasing the revenues to support it throughout the coming years. It's in the very early stages."

The next presentation came from Valerie Zech, coordinator of the Grant County Community Health Council, who presented the quarterly update for July 2024. She said the coordination team had created a revised version of the mission and vision.

The council steering committee has four to seven members to help guide the health council. Within the council are partnerships with community organizations.

Revised guidelines has been the work of the community coordination team, with focuses on health care, social needs, and community care. "We want to share resources with other organizations to decrease the siloes in the county and to have everyone on the same page. The group has as goals in the community collaboration to fill gaps and to expand personal and professional relationships; to identify key community partners to assist with group initiatives and to gather pertinent local information for continuity."

Zech said some recent topics of discussion included transportation gaps, provider gaps, Medicare/Medicaid coverage, senior services and advocation for these services locally.

The health council held a prevention day at Snell Middle School in May. "We focused on medical wellness and physical wellness. We had a lot of partners, which made it a good event."

Recent efforts include working with the University of New Mexico combined BA/MD program between the College of Arts and Sciences and the UNM School of Medicine to help address New Mexico's physician shortage by assembling a class of diverse students who are committed to serving communities across the state.

To address senior needs, the health council participated in a Senior Health Fair in Mimbres.

The last thing she talked about was that the Grant County health council also works as a three-county group with Hidalgo and Luna counties. "We attend each other meetings at least every three months."

She noted the Behavioral Health Collaborative makes sure everyone is included.

"We have also started a quarterly newsletter," Zech said. "In May, we highlighted adult probation services." The next newsletter was slated for August.

The following item on the agenda was presentation of a Certificate of Achievement to Patrick Cohn for having earned the New Mexico Certified Treasury Official designation through New Mexico Edge, a service of New Mexico State University's Cooperative Extension Service.

The next article will begin with a Hidalgo Medical Services Quarterly report from Chief Executive Officer Dr. Dan Otero.