By Lynn Janes

The town of Hurley held a regular meeting January 14, 2025. Attendance to the meeting included Mayor Ed Stevens, Mayor Pro Tem Reynaldo Maynes, Councilors Nanette Day, Keana Huerta and Pete Ordonez.

The council approved the consent agenda which included regular meeting minutes for December 10, 2024, maintenance department report, deputy clerk's report, fire department report, animal control report, code enforcement report and library report

Blas Rodriguez, maintenance supervisor, provided the council with a report. He has been working on backup prevention at the lift station. The lift station has been running well without any issues since the upgrade. The maintenance has been picking up trash around town, parks and cemetery. He wanted to have the council approve the new electrical drops for the Christmas ornaments he has spoken about at previous council meetings. He has two employees to send for training of level two and one for level one. The council approved the new electric drops.

Darlene McBride, town clerk, thanked the fire department for their help. She said the auditors had done the exit interview and would be sending it to the state auditor. After they have approved the audit, it will be released and brought to the council.

Maynes read the fire department report. They had a shed fire in Santa Clara and then a camping trailer. They also responded to a fire in the valley and a grass fire behind Manhattan Park. The department currently has fourteen members. One person had joined in December 2024 and has been in the probationary period. They all have the required licenses and train every Thursday.

Doug Miranda, animal control officer/code enforcement, said he had not received any developmental permits but had ten complaints. One animal control citation had been issued, and he had sent out 27 letters and had 62 resident contacts.

Kevin Vigil, police chief, said in December he had nine calls, and one resulted in an arrest. He had also had three traffic stops. One of the stops resulted in the apprehension of 11 foreign nationals. They had been padlocked in the bed of a U-Haul truck. It had made the local news but also state news and national news. He had handled a domestic dispute that resulted in an arrest and felony charges. Vigil had a community engagement that had been Santa Claus. He had seen many people appreciative of knowing somebody would be patrolling the streets. He hoped to continue to bring that feeling to the residents.

Vigil hoped to hire one more police officer in January. It will help decrease his workload and would provide more traffic citations. He has some training that he will be required to attend coming up. He will bring them before the council as they come up.

Day asked when the Judge would be hearing cases and Vigil said he would be starting the next day. She wanted the public to know the judge's hours would be the first and third Wednesday of the month from 10 am to noon.

Day read the judge's report. He had completed his new judge orientation program in the month of December. Because of the holidays and lack of a court clerk they had not heard any cases. Requests for letters of interest for alternate judge would be advertised in January. Interviews for court clerk had been completed in the first week of January.

Day addressed the library report. They had six computers, and two laptops donated to the library. Furniture for the kids' section had also been donated along with a color printer. They don't have a sign-in sheet for people coming in, but they do keep a tally of how many visitors they have. Some of the people visiting have been younger kids but they have also had many adults come in for a variety of reasons. Day said they had helped people set up email accounts, so they could access state services. People coming to the library have been accessing all of the services from checking out books to taking classes. The library currently will be open Thursday afternoons 2 pm to 5 pm and Fridays 9 am to noon. She hoped to extend those hours soon.

The council had received letters of interest for the library board. Each one spoke to the council.

Eldon Dehart joined online. He felt the library would be an important part of any community.

Raquel Schaffer, a resident of Grant County for over 25 years, believed the library could succeed. She wanted to see more community involvement and be part of bringing children in the doors and working with the schools. She had taught preschool for eighteen years.

Timothy Gray had been part of the library project from the beginning and wanted to continue that. In 2024 he had put in almost 300 volunteer hours and spoke to the donations he had been able to secure for the library. Every community needs a library. He spoke to how he had been able to help people with setting up email addresses and help with their social services. He pointed out that the Bayard library had been closed for a while and Hurley library had been the only free internet access in the area. He had a lot of ideas for the future.

Jessica Brooks had sent a letter of interest but had not been able to attend. The council approved the three that spoke and would ask for Brooks to attend and speak to them. At this time, they have two open positions at the library.

The council approved Jerry Martinez and Gabriel Cabrera to attend the NNWWA conference in Las Cruces to obtain the required water level training needed.

The council approved Gabriel Cabrera to attend an annual tree care conference in Albuquerque. The training and travel would not be paid by the town of Hurley but would be paid by a scholarship. Rodriguez had not been able to attend, which had been the reason to send someone on the maintenance crew.

The council approved for McBride to attend Grant County Days in Santa Fe. She would be able to update the legislature on the projects they would be hoping to do. The prospectors put this event on every year and would include a meeting with the governor's representatives on the capital outlay requests.

The council approved mid-management training for Vigil in Roswell. He explained the training to the council. Although it has been set up for middle management Vigil said he fills that position also. It covers some detail items that will not be covered in first line supervisory training.

The council approved, with Day opposing, the purchase order for stop sticks for the police department. Vigil explained what they would be for. Law enforcement at times will be faced with people that don't want to stop. This can pose a significant risk to other drivers on the road, the communities, home, people out walking, etc. Stop sticks work by deflating the tires. He had one to show the council and demonstrate how it works. Currently Santa Clara and the New Mexico State Police have been the only ones that have these. He will provide the training to the officers. Vigil said being on highway 180 they could also assist other agencies. The device will be folded out over the road just before the vehicle passes and the spikes enter the tires.

Out of the 400,000 patrol vehicles that have stop sticks they have had 54,000 successful deployments of the stop sticks. "The device is very compact, easily mounted and has quick easy deployment." The device has three, 3-foot sections and an 80-foot line to allow the officer to deploy them at a safe distance. Vigil has been certified and can certify others in the use. He had used the device while working in Santa Clara, however the person knew what a stop stick was and avoided it. He had not been apprehended until near Las Cruces. The council asked him a number of questions concerning the use of the device. The worry of a vehicle having their tires flattened and running into oncoming traffic and Hurley being liable had been a concern of the council. They would have to have a request from another department to deploy on highway 180 and, as long as the officer followed policy, they would not be liable.

The council approved the consideration of a policy for the used of stop sticks in high-speed pursuits. Vigil said the draft he provided them would need to go through the proper channels. They will not be ordering the stop sticks until a policy has been approved. The policy will also have to be approved by the town attorney.

The council went into closed session to discuss the hiring of police officers and a police/court clerk.

The council came back into open session.

The council approved the hiring of Sona Ray as police / court clerk

The council approved the hiring of Derrick Loveless, Brett Beaty and Jacob Romo as police officers.

The council had been going to have a work session January 21, 2025, but McBride would not be available, and it would be changed to January 22, 2025, which would later on be canceled.

The next regular meeting will be February 11, 2025, at 5:00 pm.

Meeting adjourned.