County backs Edgewood health site for fed funds

Proposal tops requests for early childhood center, public housing roof repairs

Santa Fe County commissioners voted Tuesday to apply for a $750,000 block grant to help pay for construction of a health facility in Edgewood.

The commission was tasked with selecting one project for its application for funding under the federal Community Development Block Grant program, and the vote was a blow to backers of two competing block grant requests. The United Way of Santa Fe County was seeking grant money for an early childhood center in the old Kaune Elementary School, and the Santa Fe County Housing Authority was looking to make roof repairs on public housing.

The resolution to select the planned $7.5 million, 22,000-square-foot East Mountain Health Care facility in Edgewood, a community east of the Sandia Mountains along Interstate 40, passed on a 3-2 vote with support from Commissioners Robert Anaya, Anna Hamilton and Henry Roybal.

The Santa Fe County Housing Authority’s proposal to repair leaky roofs in public housing units throughout the county was favored by Commissioners Ed Moreno and Anna Hansen.

The county will work with First Choice Community Healthcare, a nonprofit, to submit an application to the

state for the maximum $750,000 award available under the Community Development Block Grant program. It will be up to Gov. Susana Martinez’s administration to decide which projects across the state to fund from an estimated $9 million federal allocation to the state.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development provides the block grant funds to help communities address poverty and urban blight. However, President Donald Trump’s preliminary budget, which must first go through a Republican-controlled Congress, would eliminate the $3 billion program.

The new health center will offer range of services beginning in May 2018, Krista Kelley, a consultant for First Choice Community Healthcare, told commissioners Tuesday. Construction is scheduled to begin in October, she said.

Voters in the county approved the issuance of up to $5 million in general obligation bonds in November for such health centers. Some $3 million of that will go toward the East Mountain Health Care facility.