VILLAGE OF MILAN, N.M. — The Village of Milan Board of Trustees gathered for the second time in the second week of May for a village workshop. The workshop was held on Thursday, May 12, at 5:30 p.m., all trustees were presented, and there were no citizens looking to address the board.
The only item under the Discussion portion of the agenda was a Hearing for the 2022/2023 Budget. Village Finance Director Candi Williams had the floor as she presented the budget, explaining to the board the different number figures on the screen, what will be carried over from this fiscal year to the next, etc. One piece of information that Williams positively emphasized was that the village’s predicted revenues “far exceed” their predicted expenditures. Williams also stated that products currently experiencing inflation, such as fuel, have been budgeted up.
Williams talked about the Salary Schedule, recently approved by the Board of Trustees to serve as a guideline for employee salaries over the next nine years in an effort to get salaries to where they need to be. According to Williams, salaries should be between 70 and 80 percent of the overall budget, and the Village of Milan is currently at 45 percent. “So we’re working that way, getting our people paid… What we want to do is show them how valuable they really are to us, so we’re working towards that… It’s going to take time,” Williams said, adding with a laugh that Village Manager Linda Cooke has to remind her all the time that it won’t happen overnight.
Williams and Cooke announced that the village has a number of positions they are looking to fill or proposing to fill, including an Animal Control Officer/Ordinances and Regulations Officer/Floodplain Manager’s Assistant, two parttime Lifeguards, a Streets department worker/CDL Driver, and a Parks and Recreation Supervisor. The village searches inhouse to fill these positions first, and then opens them up to the public as a secondary measure. There are multiple other parttime summer positions that the village advertises for annually as well.
Williams passed the floor over to Village Clerk Denise Baca, who informed the board on what items they would be seeing at the next trustee meeting. These include a Transportation Project Fund resolution for Willow Drive; an ordinance establishing further oversight and accounting for money given to other organizations through reports that will be submitted by the organizations receiving funding to the village on how the funds have been used; an ordinance prohibiting the sale of fireworks in the midst of an intense fire season that will need direction on publishing; and a policy that will allow
Cibola County to facilitate village elections. Baca also announced that the village’s water rates would be increasing by four percent, which will be about a dollar- or dollar-and-25-cent-increase per household. Baca stated that the village is preparing to go out for bid on the Airport Road project.
Milan Mayor Felix Gonzales gave announcements. There will be a Village of Milan Board of Trustees special meeting on Tuesday, May 17, at 5:30 p.m., a Milan Planning and Zoning meeting on Thursday, June 2, at 4:30 p.m., a Board of Trustees workshop on Thursday, June 9, at 5:30 p.m., and a Board of Trustees regular meeting on Thursday, June 16, at 5:30 p.m.
During board comments, each trustee gave expressed similar sentiments, thanking village employees for their hard work, thanking the office ladies for working hard on the budget, and asking for both prayers and donations for those inflicted by fires in northern New Mexico. The Milan Fire Department was accepting donations on May 12 and May 13, and then transported the donations to a shelter for fire evacuees in Glorieta, New Mexico on May 13. The fire department “went beyond their regular duties to help out,” said Mayor Gonzales, who then concluded Thursday’s May 12 workshop.