VILLAGE OF MILAN, N.M. — The Village of Milan Board of Trustees held a special meeting on Thursday, January 13, 2022 at 9 a.m., and then a workshop meeting at 5:30 later that afternoon. The special meeting in the morning only had one item up for action/discussion, and that was the approval of election board workers for the upcoming election in March. The Milan Board of Trustees has three municipal officer positions up for grabs in the March 2022 election, and those are the position of Mayor, Position 1 Trustee, and Position 2 Trustee, according to the 2022 Municipal Election Proclamation found on http://www.villageofmilan.com/2022_election_in formation/index.php. Each position is for a four-year term. The two trustees that have finished their four-year terms and will be concluding their time serving on the Board of Trustees are Chris Archuleta and Ellen Baca. The proclamation also includes information about declaration of candidacy, write-ins, and withdrawal dates, which have all already passed. According to the village’s Election Resolution, Resolution No. 2021-030, the election will be held March 1, 2022, polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and voting will be done at the Rockin’ 66 Transit building on 407 Airport Road, Milan, N.M. The resolution also included information about absentee and early voting, which can be found at the same web address mentioned above. As for the Jan. 13 afternoon workshop, all trustees, the village clerk, village manager, and village financial director were all present. A citizen presumed to be a village employee addressed the board to talk about water, one of the village’s wells, its history, problems it had in the past, how employers and engineers fixed it in the past, et cetera. The employee then discussed how he has spoken with one of the employees/engineers who worked on the well when a problem occurred with it some years ago, and the gentleman recommended that they have a company take the well’s current pump out and install a six-inch submerge pump instead. The employee said if all goes smoothly from there, they will be able to repair the well line that was cut, install a bypass, and “get some water so we can get some wind breaks going,” which the employee said will open up opportunities for a few interested individuals to farm vegetables on a nearby 30-acre land parcel. The employee asked the board if the village would be able to purchase the six-inch pump, assuming all necessary tests go smoothly, to which the board and Financial Director Candi Williams agreed, yes, that it would be worthwhile to evaluate the pricing. Next, Village Clerk Denise Baca provided the board with a rundown of items that would appear on the next regular trustee meeting’s agenda. Some resolutions that are going to appear are an Open Meetings Act resolution that must be renewed at the beginning of every year; a CDBG resolution including a participation plan, procurement details, rules and regulations, fair housing and section three; and a few new resolutions added by Village Manager Linda Cooke to establish financial institution, business hours, Robert’s Rules of Order, and the Inspection of Public Records Act for the village. Clerk Baca also covered ordinances that will appear, including a municipal bonds ordinance and a minimum wage ordinance. Baca also shared that she received a call from local Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Brenda Curtright asking if the chamber may give a presentation regarding an ATV/UTV event that they are trying to organize for Labor Day weekend this year. Cooke said the chamber mentioned something about possibly utilizing the local racetrack, Uranium Capitol Speedway, in Milan for the event. Trustee Chris Archuleta mentioned this might be beneficial to bringing more attention and advertising to the track.
Next, the floor was handed over to Financial Director Williams to give a financial update. “I handed you all the pooled cash report. The full cash transition has happened. This isn’t every bit of money we have because we still have money sitting in bank accounts that need to clear out when checks clear. Then it’ll come in here, but this is a pretty good picture. We’ve closed four bank accounts so far, [and] two more will close pretty soon,” said Williams.