GRANTS, NM – The City of Grants council proclaimed for May 29, 2024 to be Grants High School Baseball Team State Champions Day, they approved an ordinance titled Unrestricted Municipal Local Option Gross Receipts Tax Ordinance, and lodgers’ tax funding that was tabled at the last meeting was approved.
The Grants High School Baseball team was crowned State Champions in the 4-A class following their win against Artesia in a score of 5-3 in the baseball team’s first state champions’ title. To commemorate their win the City of Grants Council proclaimed for May 29, 2024 to be Grants High School Baseball Team State Champions Day. Mayor Erik Garcia said, “Right now what you accomplished no other baseball team did… You guys blow every team out of the water whatever came before you guys. You guys are impressive, you motivated the City of Grants like I’ve never seen. The parades of sending you guys off to the game over [in Albuquerque], to the excitement of the games that were here. The championship day was, I couldn’t explain it. It was phenomenal… Keep dreaming big.”
The council approved a comprehensive community health council professional services contract between the City of Grants and Cibola County Health Council. The Coordinator for the Cibola County Health Council Laura Jaramillo went before the council to give some information regarding the CCHC. In the last year the CCHC received roughly $70,000, the Department of Health gives each health council a scope of work that they must complete before they can bill for certain items. According to Jaramillo within this last year the CCHC completed a comprehensive community health improvement plan and the current focus and priorities for CCHC is behavioral health and substance misuse information. The council approved the contract with CCHC.
Fire Chief Mike Maes mentioned that Police Chief Maxine Monte would not be at the council meeting due to a situation that occurred at CoreCivic in Milan and Monte and her staff were currently working at Cibola General Hospital to assist the issues at the hospital. Maes gave updates regarding the fire department, the department has worked closely with Senator George Munoz and Representative Harry Garcia regarding the needs of the department. The department applied for the purchase of a new ambulance and with the assistance of the senator and representative they are closer to the complete purchase of the new ladder truck. Maes wanted to let the council and the public know that if they have any questions regarding Grants Fire and Rescue to call him or visit. He said, “I want to sit down and be very transparent with what is going on. I need to get more involved with the community, I need to get more involved with [the council]. So, any questions I would love to sit down and talk with anybody.”
The Special Projects went before the council for the recommendation of the approval of Mick Rich Contractors for airport hangar and terminal expansion in the amount of $2,105,348.66. The city originally went out to bid for the project on March 26, 2024, due to receiving no bids the city went out again for re-bid on April 25, 2024 and received the one bid from Mick Rich Contractors. The council approved the recommendation. Special Projects also made the recommendation of the approval of the final change order for the Mt. Taylor Waterline Extension project. The change order’s additional cost is $256,594.11 for additional work and materials. The council approved the change order.
The city council has previously discussed a possible tax increase, Councilor Beverly Michael requested that an ordinance for unrestricted municipal local option gross receipts tax was included on the agenda to rediscuss the possibility to increase the city’s GRT. The proposed ordinance would allow the city to increase the GRT 0.125 percent. City Manager Andrew Valencia said, “We entered into a USDA loan for Santa Fe Ave… We entered in a 40-year loan, so with this 40-year loan we’re talking about paying upwards in the neighborhood of $9,000 per month for the next 40 years… We can have this GRT increase for 10 years if you choose… We have to consider long-term, this adds to our long-term debt, what we want to do as manager and as finance is we want to reduce our long-term debt. As the board of finance here, that’s your job, to make sure that the city is not in debt for the long-term, and not in debt for monies that we have to fork out for years to come.” Valencia said that one of the positives about the GRT increase is that any taxpayer that purchases anything in the area would pay for the GRT increase, rather than the local community paying for the USDA loan alone. The council approved the ordinance to increase the GRT 0.125 percent.
Following the tabling of the approval of multiple Lodgers’ Tax Funding Recommendations due to the lack of profit and loss statements from the organizations. The council once again reviewed the recommendations for the Lodgers’ Tax Funding for Fiscal Year 2025 with four organizations with their new profit and loss statements included. The Grants-Cibola County Chamber of Commerce was recommended the amount of $171,000 in Lodgers’ Tax Funding, Michael asked President of the Chamber of Commerce Matt Munson how the situation regarding Donald Jaramillo cussing her out was addressed. Munson said, “Technically it wasn’t really addressed because Don resigned. So, we are a ship without a rudder at the moment.” Michael questioned if they would rehire Jaramillo if they did receive funding. Munson said, “No, Don made it clear this is a position he does not want. I did have a long talk with him, he just doesn’t feel like he’s the right person to be in this moment in time. But I do think he would have made a great executive director for the chamber.” The council approved the Lodgers’ Tax Funding for the Chamber of Commerce with Michael voting no. The New Mexico Mining Museum was recommended the amount of $30,000 in Lodgers’ Tax Funding. The Mining Museum provided preceding documents from the last year following a request from the council. The mining museum mentioned that they are currently working on partnering with the schools to look at STEM projects to hopefully bring the younger individuals into the museum and teach them about mining and mining in the area. The Council approved the recommendation with Michael voting no. The American Legion Riders Chapter 18 was recommended the amount of $8,000 in Lodgers’ Tax Funding. The Lodgers’ Tax will be used for the Bikers v. Bulls event and to make it bigger and better. The council approved the recommendation. Grants MainStreet was recommended the amount of $10,000 in Lodgers’ Tax Funding, MainStreet was questioned heavily regarding the cancelation of events and what they would be using the Lodgers’ Tax on. According to MainStreet they will be using the money on entertainment and various purchases for events and the reasoning behind the cancelation of events is due to the lack of an executive director. The council approved the recommendation with Michael and Councilor Garcia voting no and Mayor Garcia breaking the tie voting yes.
At the last meeting the approval of Cibola Communities Economic Development Foundation Fiscal Year 2025 Funding died due to a lack of motion, Mayor Garcia brought the item back on the agenda for the council to reconsider. Mayor Garcia said, “Economic Development is what we are all striving for, for a better life here… I would ask to fund please, because if not we lose a seat at the board, at the table, and we really need to know what is really going on and just try to help out, because it takes everybody to try to get us to the right path to success.” The council approved the recommendation with Michael voting no.
All meetings are livestreamed and available to watch live or replayed on the City of Grants Facebook page and the City of Grants NM YouTube.