VILLAGE OF MILAN N.M. – The Village of Milan Board of Trustees held a workshop on Wednesday, August 11 at 5:30 p.m. The board, excluding Trustee Chris Archuleta, who was absent, heard from a citizen regarding drainage issues, heard from a village employee regarding the condition of the Milan Swimming Pool, and discussed village affairs, ranging from the mosquito spraying schedule to the pumpkin patch event, and financial transitioning.
First, the board heard from community member Scott Gray, who announced that there is an “ongoing drainage concern” at 200 Sand Street in Milan, New Mexico, near Lava Street. Gray provided the board with a personal account of the lengthy process that he has went through trying to resolve the drainage issue. This process involved Gray contacting village employees, the village clerk, the mayor, and each of the trustees, except Trustee Roseanne Lopez. It has also involved a bar ditch being put in place, which Gray said, and the board agreed, is not deep enough because once it rained, the bar ditch was full of water and standing water was once again on the property. Gray described his frustrations with reaching out to the mayor and other officials, and not getting any returned calls or answers back to him. Gray also said the bar ditch took away two points of access to the property, and that this drainage issue should not have occurred had the engineers considered the particular circumstances of the drainage in that area beforehand.
This lengthy process also involved digging the bar ditch deeper and later installing a culvert, but none of these fixes did the job, especially with the recent abundance of rain. Gray is concerned about the horrendous breeding of mosquitos and parking lot damage that will occur if this problem continues. “Where do I go from here to get answers because basically, the property doesn’t drain,” said Gray. Trustee Ellen Baca said she agreed with Gray about the basic engineering issues and felt that they should direct the problem to Wilson Engineering to see what they say. Village Clerk Denise Baca said the engineering company was scheduled to come speak at the next regular trustee meeting anyways to address plans for a soccer field, so she would ask them to address the drainage issue as well at that time.
A village employee then addressed the board to speak on the condition of the Milan Swimming Pool. According to the employee, the pool has been operating for 26 years despite ongoing system problems. After 26 years, the employee reported that the system has finally gone down and that it was just a matter of time. The employee highlighted three main system issues but said that there was a lot more and that this happened at just the right time, since the pool roof was about to be worked on anyways and they could truly focus on giving the pool its long overdue repair. The employee started off by saying that it would be around $10,000 to outfit everything, but towards the end of the discussion, another village employee said it may even be closer to $20,000. “It’s going to be a big fix,” said the second village employee.
The first employee also added during the presentation, “We need to spend some money on this system…. This pool is 26 years old and it’s about time.” The consensus among the board was that the pool should undergo an appropriately lengthy closure in order to complete these necessary repairs. “We’ve got time to get it done and get it done right,” said Milan Mayor Felix Gonzales. Trustee Lopez inquired about reaching out to other local entities from the City of Grants and Cibola County to see if they would be willing to assist with funding since the Milan Swimming Pool is used by all in the area – to which others affirmed could be a possibility. Mayor Gonzales also addressed how this closure will impact pool employees; he said they would be given other duties and transferred to other departments temporarily until the pool is back up and running again.
Trustee Baca then inquired about whether the village is spraying for mosquitos or not, to which Clerk Baca said that they make their way around the community once a week. “You need to make an extra lap because it’s – I mean, they’re bad,” responded Trustee Baca. Trustee Baca also asked if the village would be building the Lummis man for the 2021 Pumpkin Patch Fall Festival, to which Clerk Baca said, “We don’t have material. And we don’t have much of a crew. The crew that we do have has never done it before.” The board seemed to conclude that considering these things and the expensiveness of lumber, there would be no Lummis man built. According to Clerk Baca, the annual Pumpkin Patch Fall Festival will be on october 23 at Mirabal Park. Booths may participate free of charge, and those interested must contact Clerk Denise Baca. Finally, in response to another Trustee Baca inquiry, the board established that Clerk Baca should put a closed session on the agenda for the next regular trustee meeting so that they may discuss new village manager applications.
The board discussed a letter addressed to TBK Bank that Clerk Baca said would give Accounts Payable Clerk Candi Williams the ability to “change the bank accounts as needed.” This is a necessary step in Williams’ and financial consultant Michael Steininger’s plans and efforts to convert village finances into a pooled cash system – a plan and person [Steininger] that Williams said is “setting [the Village of Milan] up to succeed…” Finally, Clerk Baca announced that the village received $40,000 for water meter upgrades, and that the village should have collected bids for their proposed soccer field by Thursday, August 19.
During board comments, Mayor Pro Tem Vivian Brumbelow asked if the village could do another big community cleaning in october and thanked village mowers and landscapers; Trustee Baca thanked everyone who helped with the August 7 Milan Triathlon, said “it was really nice,” and that she hopes it continues to grow every year; Trustee Lopez thanked all village employees and then acknowledged citizen Scott Gray, hoping they can find a resolution to his problem; and finally, Mayor Felix said village employees were doing amazing and acknowledged Gray as well, adding, “It didn’t seem like we’re trying but we are. Certain times we just have a limit to what we can do but we’ll try. We’ll keep trying.”
Announcements for upcoming meetings, as of Wednesday, August 11, included a Milan Planning and Zoning meeting on Thursday, August 12 at 4:30 p.m., an ICIP Hearing on August 19 at 5:00 p.m., and a regular Board of Trustees meeting on Thursday, August 19 at 5:30 p.m.