GRANTS, NM – The Cibola County Commission convened as a Canvassing Board to accept the results of the 2024 Primary Election the commission also approved three contracts for projects and reapproved a 10-year contract with Axon for the Sheriff’s Department.
County Clerk Michelle Dominquez presented the results for the 2024 Primary Election and said things went relatively smoothly for this election. Voter turnout for the primary was quite low at 28.39 percent with only 3,354 ballots cast with 11,818 eligible voters in Cibola County. Dominquez said, “We had a low turn-out election day, early voting, and absentee this election, it was really low. We were surprised because we usually get like 100 voters a day, we were getting maybe 30 or 40, if we were lucky.” Dominquez also mentioned that according to the state that Cibola County’s canvassing is in the top ten. She also said that they received a news release from the Secretary of State that New Mexico is ranked number one in the country for elections.
There were also a few issues when it came to polling locations, with the county having to change certain polling locations such as the Ramah chapter house to the Pinehill school and at the last-minute hearing that they could no longer use the school and having to obtain a court order to change the polling location to the Pinehill Fire Station, and Thursday before the election the county was planning on using the warm shell of the district court as a polling location but were told they could no longer use the location and had to obtain a court order to change the polling location to the commission chambers.
Commissioner Martha Garcia mentioned that in Ramah individuals were being asked for their drivers’ licenses to which Dominquez clarified that in Ramah many of the individuals wanting to vote needed to register to vote on election day due to an issue with their addresses not matching up with their voter registration. She said that the Navajo Nation does not report their addresses to the state like many of the other entities do and this caused an issue where the county did not have the same addresses when it came to voter registration.
Commissioner Ralph Lucero asked Sheriff Larry Diaz and Undersheriff Jeff Marez if the address situation in Ramah causes any issues when it comes to emergency services responding to that location, to which they responded that they ping the individual’s phone to find their location and the addresses not matching doesn’t really affect emergency services.
The canvassing board reconvened as a commission board and began to work on new business. At the May regular commission meeting the commission approved the bid for Compass Engineering and Construction Services, LLC. to be the general contractor for County Road Five Moquino Llano Road and Bridge Project in the amount of $2,965,816.67. At the special meeting the commission approved consideration of the contract with Compass Engineering and Construction Services, LLC. as the General Contractor for County Road Five.
The commission approved to give Direction to County Manager Kate Fletcher to execute a Professional Services Agreement with WSP for Construction Management of County Road Five. Projects Coordinator Judy Horacek said that they need engineers to provide construction management and that they have been working on this contract with WSP for a while and have been trying to reduce the cost. Attorney Dave Pato said that they looked at the project and tried to find ways in which they can cut costs and looked at who in the county can do certain parts of the project.
The commission approved the bid for Proline Arizona to be the general contractor for Quartz Hill Trail project in the amount of $265,810.35 at the May regular commission meeting. At the special meeting the commission approved to give direction to County Manager to Execute AIA Contract with Proline Trails of Arizona as Trail Construction Contractor for Quartz Hill Trail. Horacek said that they have been waiting for Proline to receive their permit for New Mexico and due to this as well as fire concerns and weather concerns, they want to request a grant extension, because the Quartz Hill grant expires on September 30. Horacek said that she has a lot of confidence in the contractor. She said, “One thing I was impressed with when talking to Proline was that he said, ‘I want to be honest with you if it rains, and there’s too much moisture on the ground, in order to not damage the Forest Service property. We will not do work on that ground because any work that we do, any machinery that we would bring, it could damage that area.’ Which is wonderful to hear, it was refreshing to hear… We felt like that was a really good reason to request an extension to the grant.”
The commission reapproved a 10-year contract with Axon for the Sheriff’s Department in the amount of $923,062.27. This amount will be billed over the 10 years at 100,000 per year. The contract allows for the Sheriff’s Department to receive any new tasers, body cameras and dash cameras with no additional charge. Marez said, “The Axon contract, what it’s going to do with that 10-year contract is because of inflation every year it’s going to go up if we don’t lock in this rate and it’s going to save us money in the long run. Within that 10year time frame, any and all updates with Axon Tasers, fleet cameras for our units, or the body cameras that we wear… any updates within that 10-year period we get those at no additional cost. We also get five trained instructors for our taser 10s. if this is approved… Any and all equipment in regards to fleet or problems they come down with this contract and either repair or install new equipment to our units for new updates.”