Town and Country Garden Club dissolves organization.

By Lynn Janes

The Silver City Town Council held a regular meeting May 13, 2025. Attendance to the meeting included Mayor Ken Ladner, Mayor Pro Tem Guadalupe Cano, Nicholas Prince (phone), Rudy Bencomo and Stan Snider.

The council presented the employee of the month award to Alfred Sedillo, town clerk. Randy Hernandez, community development director, said throughout his time with the town, Sedillo has demonstrated exceptional leadership in maintaining the town's official records ensuring smooth operations and fostering transparency. He has shown reliability, organization and response to both administration and residents. He goes above and beyond in his job. These comments had come from the nominating committee.

Sedillo thanked them for the award and said he enjoyed working with the town every day. "I think we have a good crew, and we do our best to serve our community."

Ladner said it had been a privilege and honor to work with Sedillo all these years. "No matter the situation, he is on the ball." Bencomo said he has been a perfect example of customer service. He always has an upbeat great attitude that's infectious. Snider commented that Sedillo has always been helpful when he had questions. He added whenever they have a municipal league function, Sedillo has their travel plans and courses all set up. Cano said she appreciated all the work he does for the council and always has a smile on his face. No matter what they ask he finds a way.

Ladner added that the chair of the nursing department at the university had told him they had never worked with someone so friendly and helpful. Sedillo had helped them with some things for Nurses' Week.

Council comments

Cano started by reminding everyone this week would be National Police Week. She started there because the Silver City Police Department had won the Battle of the Badges the past Saturday. The fire department had come in second and the sheriffs department third.

Battle of the Badges had been successful and had a few hundred people show up. They participated by watching the competition, sharing the good food and enjoying the music. She had a lot of people she wanted to thank and listed all of them and all they had done to make the event successful. A lot of people in the community had helped in many ways. Norm Wheeler, district attorney, challenged other agencies for the next one held.

Cano had a district judge from Dona Ana County reach out to her for a handbook on how to do the event. He wanted to do the same thing with their first responders.

Bencomo said he and his wife had helped out with the Battle of the Badges and really enjoyed it. "I was taken back at how creative Cano was in putting together the obstacle course." He thought it had opened up people's eyes to the struggles handicapped people have navigating things. People seemed to enjoy the event. Bencomo commented, "I was disappointed that Gila Regional Medical Center EMS was not there. They had said they would but didn't show up."

Bencomo reported the traffic light on Silver Heights on the median has been put up and operating now. It had been taken out by a car accident.

He had attended the cemetery board meeting. They have been working on a brochure to help navigate the cemetery. He thanked Jacqui Olea, deputy town manager, for doing the legwork to have some streetlights put in some dark areas. He spoke to the project each council member would be doing for Territorial Charter Days. He didn't know what he would be doing yet.

Snider did not have any comments currently.

Prince just thanked Sedillo for his help with his remote attendance. He thanked Cano for hosting the wonderful event, Battle of the Badges, the past weekend He thanked the IT department and staff for the upgrades they have been doing.

Ladner read a letter he had received from the Town and Country Garden Club sent to the Silver City Museum. He said it would be sad news. They will be dissolving the club, and the members have designated final distribution to a nonprofit community organization. They have donated a check to the Silver City Museum. Over the years the Town and Country Garden Club had donated many thousands of dollars to improve Silver City. "I want to publicly acknowledge them and thank them for their past work."

The coming week will be Pick it Up and Toss No Mass community project. Ladner encouraged people to attend. It starts at 9:00 am and usually finishes by noon. During the course of the project, they have collected thousands of pounds of trash.

Ladner addressed the comment about the Territorial Charter Days by Bencomo. He had a little history that former mayor Mike Morones while in office cosponsored a resolution for the city to recognize Territorial Charter Day each year with a different celebration. In the original charter the mayor could call all able-bodied men to work one day a year improving sidewalks and streets. They didn't think that would go over too well so they suggested volunteer projects from council members that would improve their district or the town in some way.

The council approved the minutes from April 22, 2025.

Public input

Heidi Ogas, High Dessert Humane Society president, came to speak on an animal ordinance change she proposed. It had to do with the legal maintenance of feral cat colonies and a program called TNR, trap, neuter and release. The current ordnance does not specifically state feral cat colonies as violations, maintaining does violate seven sections of the current ordinance. She shared the humaine societies stance on feral cat colonies.

The first part of their mission has been to promote and provide humane and ethical treatment of companion animals. Feral cats would be domesticated companion animals that have been forced to live wild. Most colonies have no protection from the elements and limited food supplies. The condition of some of these cats that had come into the shelter had been horrific. She continued with a graphic description of the extreme health issues of these cats.

While PETA acknowledges TNR can help prevent future generations of feral cats, they do say it does not improve their lives outdoors and supports euthanasia as a humane option. They do offer strict guidelines to establish and maintain humane cat colonies. Cats will hunt with a limited food supply and that impacts natural wildlife. Estimates show cats kill 2.4 billion birds a year not to mention other wildlife. Although rare, feral cats have been known to charge and attack people. Ogas said it had happened on Louisiana Street. Most feral cats have not been vaccinated for rabies and once trapped they probably could not be trapped again to vaccinate.

Ogas continued with the many dangers of having feral cats. Estimates show the country has 50 million feral cats in the United States, one sixth of the population of the people. Evidence shows that TNR does not work to reduce the feral cat population but as much evidence shows it does. "I don't know what the solution is to stop, control or manage feral cat colonies. I just ask you to consider what is the most humaine and ethical thing for these cats. They are domesticated, companion animals forced to live in inhumane conditions."

Shawn Aguire came to speak on behalf of himself and anyone with disabilities that want to attend any functions at Scott Park. Many do not attend baseball, softball or soccer games because of the inconvenience and accessibility to the field. It includes parking, sidewalks and uneven surfaces. The only true accessibility would be on the west side of the complex. He continued to explain the types of problems faced and where. He had fallen several times due to these problems. Many places his wheelchair will not even go. The majority of the complex would be inaccessible for many different reasons. He has had to watch his grandkids games with binoculars. He provided the council with photos to demonstrate and help them understand the problems.

Reports

Eloy Vasquez, fire marshal, had a fire update for the council. The winds have continued and that has been unusual. Everything has continued to become drier and the area has no anticipation of precipitation until mid June. March 12, 2025, they had initiated stage one fire restriction. They had two fires and intentional acts of arson in the Big Ditch on Easter Sunday and Boston Hill April 20, 2025. Boston Hill had been a little bit more than 10.5 acres. "They could have been worse, but the fire department responded promptly and had been able to contain them." Structures had been threatened but no evacuation needed. Many departments, PNM and Forest Service had responded to the Boston Hill fire and Vasquez thanked them for the help. He also thanked the public for their cooperation.

He said he would probably bring forward more restrictions at the next council meeting and taking it to stage two to go into effect May 28, 2025.

Vasquez did ask the public when they have a fire emergency of any kind to please stay away from the area. They need to have room for emergency vehicles to easily enter the areas. "When there is a fire, please stay away from the area."

Hernandez said the new system online pay system for the town will be fully functional beginning Monday May 19, 2025. The overall goal and intent for this upgrade has been to streamline and enhance the customer experience as well as to help the staff. Moving forward customers will receive updated utility bills and not the perforated cards. The bill will be an 8.5 x 11 inch page and will have some features to make bill paying quick and easy. All billing cycles and due dates will remain the same. The bills will contain a QR code that can be scanned from a cell phone or tablet and will direct the customer to the online payment provider, Pay Star. The customer can make a onetime payment or set up recurring. The customer will also be able to use a computer and go to the town's website that will direct them to the same portal. Customers will still be able to pay in person, mail, drop off at the current places available. He did warn they would probably, as with all software conversions experience some errors. He asked people to contact them if they felt an error had been made. Hernandez said it had been a very long process and not easy. He acknowledged everyone who had worked many hours and days for this transition.

Cano thanked them for working hard on this. It had started 12 years prior and great to be at this point. She hoped the public would be patient because they probably would have some hiccups, but the town will work hard to solve any of them.

New business

The council approved the trade of the old golf carts for the new ones. Olea had provided a request to the council to swap 22 old golf carts for 22 new ones. It will make all the golf carts the same 2020 Yamaha Quietech. The 22 they want to swap have many times been out of service and have had a lot of technical issues.

Snider wanted to know if they would be able to take advantage of the training for maintenance personnel. Len Zamora, golf course general manager, said yes, they would. The company he dealt with had provided the other 30 golf carts. He said they had spent about $10,000 to repair the 22 they have requested to swap out.

Ladner said he didn't know much about golf carts but asked why they would be going with gas-powered instead of electric. Zamora said in part due to not having a place to house electric golf carts and spoke to at some point wanting a place to house them. At the moment the gas golf carts would be the best option

The council approved resolution 2025-16 to submit a grant application to New Mexico Department of Transportation for EV infrastructure. Olea said this would be for the installation of electric vehicle fast chargers at the new recreation center. They want to install them at the entrance of the building.

The council rejected all bids for Mill Road. Olea said all bids that had come in far exceeded the current maximum allowable construction costs. The town's recommendation would be to reject all bids at this time and the project will be advertised at a later date.

Meeting adjourned