By Lynn Janes

On October 23, 2025, the commission had a regular meeting at the city annex building.

New business

Raymond De la Vega, Stantec, had an update on the project. The surveys had been completed to look at line locations for Rosedale Road, Bayard and Bayard bypass. They will also need to look at the area between Bayard and Hurley because of the road changes and would receive that information the following week.

The westside tank property acquisition has been ongoing. They have been working to notify the property owners and coordinating.

Phase one, the transmission line from Santa Clara to Hanover has been the main focus. Stantec will expedite the design for bid documents in preparation for the upcoming funding cycles.

They will move ahead on the central tank even though they have not received absolute verification from BLM (Bureau of Land Management). The location for the fill station must be decided and how it will operate for payment. Alex Brown, Silver City town manager, said they would hold public meetings for the residents.

Brown said they had refocused the priorities for the 60 percent design and not to worry too much about Arenas Valley and Rosedale Water Associations. They had just received their40-year water plan and Silver City will be in good shape so there will not be any rush to have that section done. The focus will be the Hanover section since it will be the most expensive. Currently they have a lot of 100 percent grant money available.

Sheila Hudman, Santa Clara village administrator, said they had met with Hanover. She thought the water stand sits on Freeport McMoRan property currently. Different opinions on that arose. Some work will have to be done on it to make it operational. She spoke to how they would charge for the filling station either by credit card or account number and this had been a conversation at that meeting. Pricilla Lucero, New Mexico Southwest Council of Governments director, and Hudman discussed some of what happened with the Hanover Water Association in the past with the water stand. It will be something to that would take some time.

Priscilla Lucero had invited a few people to be part of the meeting Ramon Lucero, Rural Community Assistance Corporation, Eric Fox, working with the New Mexico Finance Authority and Antonio Baca, High Desert CPAs.

Ramon Lucero said he knew everyone had been working with Karl Pennock and Indira Aguirre for the past few years. Some other things they could do will be project management under the New Mexico Finance Authority contract. He went over some of the ways they could help everyone in this project. Priscilla Lucero said this would be a good time to speak to what they can be utilized for. They had applied for technical assistance which includes the 40-year water plan for each community. It will also cover legal and accounting needs for the entities involved at no cost. She recommended that within the group they would have a route to coordinate the facilitation to determine how they handle that piece of the projects. All agreed.

Priscilla Lucero said, originally when they had applied for the technical assistance funding, she and Brown had met with Ramon Lucero to discuss what would be done and by whom. Aguirre will be working on the 40-year plans, and the office of the state engineer will do all of them. The town of Silver City has already updated theirs. These will all be merged into one document. She felt Baca could be helpful to the mutual domestic water associations for any kind of accounting software they might need. This technical assistance will also be helpful with tank inspections and water meter assessment. All of the municipalities had received funding for doing their asset management plans.

Part of what has been embedded in the funding for the asset management plan will be the mapping of the utility lines. Priscilla felt they could probably include the mutual domestics mapping of their lines.

Baca looked forward to helping assist in accounting services to any entities involved in the regional water project.

De la Vega continued his update. Stantec had summited everything needed to Hurley to move forward on well five. They have also moved forward on the slag well testing. Brown had sent some questions to him wanting to gauge what kind of resources Stantec has been putting towards the project. De la Vega said at this time they have been in a lull waiting on things to be firmed up. He didn't want to spend money until he knew that they would not have to change things. Currently they have 14 people working on the project and it will ramp up now that the Hanover transmission line can move forward. In the past year they have had50 people working on it but not full time.

Alex explained to the people attending the meeting online that didn't know a lot about the Grant County Regional Water Project. It's made up of partners from the mining district community, Silver City and Grant County. Freeport McMoRan has been considered a partner in the project. ""We appreciate the help they have given us. Everyone working together is the reason we have been able to make so much headway in the past two years."

Priscilla Lucero wanted to introduce Jesse Shapiro, the new representative for the Arizona Water Settlements Act project . He had just started that week. She asked him to talk a little bit about his background and what he would be doing in the communities of New Mexico.

Shapiro said he had been born and raised in New Mexico and is a civil engineer by trade. He had spent most of career working in international development for the U.S. government and worked with USAID for the last 12 years. USAID has been removed and merged with the state department. This provided him with an opportunity to come back to New Mexico. His experience has been around engineering but also community development in rural engagement.

Brown asked if Stantec had a water operators subcommittee meeting. Richard Maynes, Stantec, said they had sent out a list of questions and had replies from everyone except Rosedale Water Association. They have had a change in water operators and will reach out.

Brown asked if the JPA (joint powers agreement) subcommittee had met. They have not met but will meet when an attorney has been identified.

Next steps

Priscilla Lucero said they will be coming up on the Prospectors legislative forum. She wanted to know if the commission would be asking for any funding. She suggested for the ICIP (infrastructure capital improvement plan) be listed on only one so as not to cause confusion. It should be the lead entity and at this time that would be the town of Silver City. Colonias funding will be coming up in March. Next fall will be the Water Trust Board and the legislators will be increasing that fund significantly, in part due to adding wastewater to it. A timeline needs to be set to be clear what funding will be coming up next and what the commission will be asking for. Brown said they would have that on the agenda for the next meeting.

Aguirre pointed out that it would be good for them to start their meetings again with the clerks and coordinate the funding. Brown thought that would be a good idea. They could bring that strategy to the next meeting. Aguirre said they would work on that.

Next meeting will be held November 20, 2025 (tentative)

Adjourned