December Coffee with The Managers: Village Manager Resigned, Updates on Construction and the City’s Focus on Infrastructure

GRANTS, NM – This month’s Coffee with the Managers was held on December 7. During this meeting Village Mayor Felix Gonzales announced that former Village Manager Linda Cooke Resigned and that Finance Director Candi Williams would be taking over the interim manager position. City Manager Andrew Valencia also spoke about updates regarding construction and other projects in the City of Grants.

The meeting began with Gonzales announcing the resignation of former Village Manager Linda Cooke and that Finance Director Candi Williams will be stepping into the role of interim manager until they find a new full-time village manager. Following this, Grants City Manager Andrew Valencia said he looks forward to working with Williams, and he looks forward to seeing the village, city, and county working together.

Valencia said that the main focus of the city is infrastructure. He said that the current infrastructure is in bad shape and has been for many years. The city had a forum with the legislature and the top of the priority list was infrastructure. Valencia said that it’s going to be a priority until he sees that it is not necessary. The focus is currently the water lines, sewer lines, and getting the city back up and sufficient in those areas. A way to also make sure they are sufficient in those areas is to also purchase new equipment for those departments. To replace all the water and sewer lines in the area it would cost around $80 million.

The next priority following infrastructure is sustaining the youth in the area with good paying jobs. Valencia said that he wants to retain the youth and other individuals in the area to boost GRT, but he also wants these individuals to have good paying jobs, and to also be able to retire with those jobs. Valencia says he also wants to alleviate the issue of individuals saying they are only working for the city temporarily before moving to a higher paying job in another area.

As far as the situation regarding Superior Ambulance the city is non intent on not working with Superior Ambulance and the city want to work hand in hand with them. The city is not aware of what a private agency like Superior would do. According to Valencia the city has fallen short on what they need to do, but they are working on finding other ways to combat the situation, such as the fire department seeking to get a PRC license which will allow them to charge for ambulance services, which will allow them to break even. Valencia said that the city wants to work with the hospital and make sure that the service is available. The main issue overall is the workforce and payroll when it comes to ambulance services, that the city is trying to maintain a balance with.

As far as the village is concerned with ambulance services, the village is looking at picking up an ambulance, but the issue is how to pay for those services and the payroll. Currently the fire department in Milan is mostly volunteer, but they are working towards finding a solution moving forward if they need to find new avenues when it comes to ambulance services.

A question that came up was how the city can work on trying to make the Santa Fe Avenue/Route 66 area when it comes to empty buildings and burned buildings in the area. The concern was if they would fine or push individuals that own run-down buildings and vacant buildings to make them more attractive. Valencia said that he doesn’t feel the need to add to someone’s bill when it comes to these buildings by having them pay more fines. He believes that working with them through in-kind services and other kinds of assistance will be more beneficial. Valencia said that currently he believes there is an ordinance that does have a time limit on when a building needs to be taken down or fixed up. He said that it is a concern, but there are a lot of different issues that need to be addressed as well when it comes to these buildings such as if a person could afford to take them down or fix them up, as well as safety and health concerns when it comes to these buildings. Another concern that was brought up is the issue surrounding curb and gutter and other code enforcement concerns. As for sidewalks, it is up to the property owner to replace the sidewalks and it’s not up to the city to replace them.

Tax changes were also brought up, with notification being the main concern. The concern was that individuals and business owners were not notified beforehand of tax changes and that this caused some individuals to not be aware of the changes and not changing the tax rate, or not having enough money to cover the tax charge when it comes to property. Williams mentioned that as for on the village side, they notified all their business owners and property owners that on their tax portal on NMtaxes they can view when there will be a tax rate change and what change that would be. Although Williams also said that they might look in the future to find a way to notify individuals of this change through other avenues. The village itself is also always looking at the tax rate change to make sure all of their bills are up to date.

Another concern was that more individuals are seen to be under the influence of drugs. Valencia said that they have seen an increase in drug use locally and it is also a bigger national issue. He said that this increased drug use is a concern to police and fire in the area. For the village they are sending their officers to trainings to be able to more clearly recognize if individuals are under the influence of drugs and which drugs they might be taking.

When it comes to streets being repaved and repaired according to Valencia there has to be a time gap in between when streets can be repaired. He said that the weather and temperature play a big factor on when streets can be worked on, and that could be a reason to why in some times of the year individuals could see more work being done on the streets, and in other times of the year less work being done on the streets. Valencia said that in the future individuals will be seeing more work being done on various streets in the city.

A major concern that was brought up was 911 dispatch. It was said that the old 911 dispatch offices terminated all of their dispatch workers when the new public safety building and dispatch center was constructed. Now there is an issue of individuals calling 911 dispatch and if it’s a non-emergency they are told to call a separate office number, and an officer is not dispatched due to the old offices being vacant. Williams said the turnover rate for the 911 dispatch is very high, she also highlighted that it is a very stressful and emotional draining job. Williams also said that there is an admin non-emergency line that they do have that should be given out. Valencia said the unfortunate issue for nonemergency calls is that due to understaffing they cannot respond to every non-emergency call and the priority is on the emergency calls.

Also, another issue that was highlighted was the issue surrounding dirt bikes in the area driving too fast, and recklessly. Williams said in Milan that dirt bikes are also an issue, but officers are not allowed to pursue them due to their mobility. If officers are able to catch those vehicles without a pursuit, they will be able to tow the vehicles and they will be fined.

The meeting ended off with a discussion surrounding ordinances. There are many different ordinances for each municipality, and they are constantly needing to be updated. Due to the sheer number of ordinances, it is very difficult to make changes due to them having to check and make sure that the new ordinance doesn’t go against another ordinance that is in place. On the top of her head Williams said that the Village of Milan has 380+ ordinances in place. Valencia said that the city has around 1000 ordinances in place.