Members express appreciation for County Manager
CIBOLA COUNTY, N.M. - The Cibola County Board of Commissioners approved agenda Item 6.a., “Consideration of Plat Vacation of Private Road Easement and Relocation of Easement for NextEra Solar Facility located near San Fidel in Cibola County.”
“They’d already had the plat surveyed and they’d put in an easement, but they had found that that location was unsuitable to put in a road, so they wanted to move it and vacate the location of the previous easement, and install, just basically change the location. So that’s all this plat is doing – is vacating the old, platted easement and replacing it with a new one so that they could put the road in a proper spot,” explained Anna Larson, a Planning Department worker, at the April 1 special meeting.
The commissioners approved Item 6.b, “Consideration of RFP 2021-004 Selection of Trail Construction Firm for Quartz Hill in Zuni Mountain Trails Project.” The fivemember committee reviewed and scored each bid for the project. They unanimously recommended Reineke Construction, a firm based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Following a question from Commissioner Ralph Lucero regarding local involvement, the presenter explained that part of what drew the committee towards Reineke Construction was that “they did plan to bring in local youth to help with the construction of these trails.
Commissioners discussed Item 6.c, “Consideration of Amendment to County Manager Contract,” an amendment regarding a salary increase for County Manager Kate Fletcher, who began her duties in 2018. This amendment was discussed during a closed session as a part of the March 25 regular meeting, and then placed as an action item on last week’s agenda. Before approving the contract amendment to increase Fletcher’s salary to $128,000, the board discussed Fletcher’s history as a county employee.
“Kate Fletcher has been doing a really good job. She’s gotten us out of a lot of predicaments...” said Chairman Daniel Torrez.
Commissioner Robert Windhorst agreed, “Every month, there is something good that happens as a result of our County Manager, and I am grateful for her leadership. She came here from Catron County… she was able to fix this situation. When we interviewed her for this job, I’ll never forget what she said to us. Her final comments were, ‘I don’t think we can fix this county. I know we can fix this county.’ And ever since, she has worked diligently to make sure that our audits are in compliance, employment issues with our employees are taken care of, our financial situation, our transparency – these things are all very important and we are very grateful to her… . Thank you, Kate.”
Second Vice Chairman Christine Lowery commented, “It’s been a pleasure to work with you, Kate…. I think Kate has paved the way for all of us.”
First Vice Chairman Martha Garcia also commented on the county’s progress.
“Now we’re ready to move onto other areas that would help our county and she [Fletcher] is in an excellent position to do that and help us with that,” she said.
“I’d like to say that I’m very honored to be here… I have such a wonderful team that is always there for me and work together so well, but also you, you five. You have taken the trust that I have asked for, you know, you have given me your trust and we wouldn’t have been able to do what we did if that wouldn’t happen so thank you very, very much,” responded Manager Fletcher.
Next regular meeting
5 p.m., Thursday, April 22, commission chambers, Roosevelt Avenue complex, Grants. The session will be available to the public on the Cibola County Commission page, Facebook Live.
Visit www.cibolacountynm.com for more information.