By Lynn Janes

(Writers note. This article only represents a portion of the meeting. They started the meeting early and the writer has not been able to obtain a recording or minutes to fill in the part that took place before 5:00 pm)

The town of Hurley had a regular meeting June 10, 2025. Mayor Ed Stevens, Mayor Pro Tem Reynaldo Maynes, Pete Ordonez, Aron Phillips and Robert Candelaria attended.

The council approved the attendance of Sonia Ray, police clerk, to a municipal court clerk conference in Albuquerque. Kevin Vigil, police chief, said this conference ensures Ray has the training needed to preform her job correctly. The funds for her attendance come out of the court fund.

The council approved the attendance of Ray to the New Mexico state records management symposium. Vigil said records management for the police department has a lot of little items that need to be adhered to. They receive IPRA (inspection of public records act), and certain things must be redacted whether for the privacy of the other party or the individuals requesting it. Things that she will learn at this symposium will ensure the town will be kept out of any litigation. "We are in a day and age when if you look at someone wrong you can end up being sued." Her attendance will be paid out of the law enforcement fund.

The council approved the attendance of Officer Jacob Romo to attend basic police officer training academy in Santa Fe. Vigil said the state gives a new hired police officer one year to attend a 736-hour training academy. He prefers the Santa Fe academy and graduated from that one himself. He had also graduated from Western New Mexico University. Santa Fe focuses more on what they do on a day-to-day basis, regardless of the size of the department. Santa Fe will also be no cost to Hurley. The only cost to Hurley would be wages and fuel. He would reside in Santa Fe from Sunday evening until Friday afternoon. He will be provided lodging and meals. Romo had been hired by Silver City, and the year started at that time. Right now, his only choice would be Santa Fe because the next one here would not start until 2026, and his year will be up before that so he would have to resign. The academy will be about four months, and he will graduate in November.

The council approved Vigil and Romo to travel to Santa Fe for an assessment of Romo to attend the Santa Fe training academy. Romo will be required to do a series of tests to see if he can meet the standards in physical abilities.

The council approved the purchase order for Kaufman's West to purchase equipment for the police department. Vigil said when he had started in December, he had done an inventory of the equipment and found a lot of items vital to the job the department did not have. He mentioned flashlights, reflective vests, first aid kits and tourniquets.

The council approved the bid recommendation by Stantec for E Street, Anza Street and 3rd Street. George Esqueda of Stantec said they had received three bids. One could not be considered due to not being prequalified by the state. The lowest bid of the two left came from Deming Excavation in the amount of $1,426,649.75. The bid had been broken down into phases. The town only has $860,600 for the project so that would be the reason for phases and explained the break down and what would be done in the first phase.

The council approved the purchase order for Fenton Fire Used Firetrucks. It would be for a hydraulic extraction tool. The fire chief had not been available, but Vigil explained what the tool would be used for. It can help remove people trapped in cars and will require training. Vigil said he could do that for the fire department. The training teaches them the pinch points in cars to make them come apart more easily. It will also teach them what areas not to go for.

The council approved the purchase order for Leslie's Pro for a hammer head vacuum to use in the wading pool. Blas Rodriguez, maintenance director, said they had been having problems with a lot of dust in the pool from all the road construction. It has been time consuming to shut the pool down and hooking up all the hoses and vacuuming. It also takes a toll on the sand filters. This vacuum would be self contained and wheels out and can be done quickly. It would save time and filters.

The council approved the purchase order for Core and Main for the purchase of piping. This would be for a water line break they had. Rodriguez had to borrow the specialized piping from Santa Clara to repair the line, and this will be to replace that piping borrowed.

The council approved the hiring of Melanie Baca as library director. Darlene McBride, city clerk, said they had two applicants but had a recommendation of Baca. She will be part time, 15 hours a week.

The council approved resolution 14-2024/2025 addressing the town of Hurley purchasing policy. They had not had a policy on this. Before, anything over $2,000 had to come before the council; now it will be $5,000.

The council approved resolution 15-2024/2025 for the third quarter budget adjustments. McBride explained all of the adjustments that had to be done because of reimbursements.

Mayor and councilor's reports.

They did not have anything to report currently.

McBride said she had a few things she needed to add. She had provided the council with a request from BARC (border animal rescue coalition) and Best Friends on some changes in wording to the animal control ordinance. They had some recommendations for the council to consider. She would also have the town attorney review it.

On July 25, 2025, they will be having the town clean up that has already happened in Bayard and Santa Clara. All three have been working together on this project.

Maynes said he did have something he wanted to say. It pertained to social media. He asked the residents if they have a concern to come to the meeting and do it right and come for public input. He asked that if they wanted to call him or any of the council , they could set up a meeting. "Social media is not the place to do it. Come do it professionally and properly. We want to hear your concerns and offer some solutions." He had been seeing a lot of negative and positive on social media

The next regular meeting will be July 8, 2025, at 5:00 pm.

Meeting adjourned.