Town and county discuss airport plans in separate meetings
The town and the county both held meetings on Tuesday (March 16) and discussed various aspects of the town’s proposed airport annexation plan. The county board of commissioners met at 9 a.m. Tuesday online, and concerns quickly rose about how the county would approach the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the town that would allow the town to run water and sewer lines to the airport with the end goal of annexing the territory.
Later in the afternoon, the town of Taos council held a joint work session meeting with El Valle de Los Ranchos Water & Sanitation District to discuss how the airport plans would affect the district, among other things.
Both the county and El Valle de Los Ranchos Water & Sanitation District invoked the need for a slow, transparent process for airport annexation, and both made clear they had not agreed to anything yet.
County
In the county meeting, commissioners discussed whether or not the town needed an MOU to run water and sewer lines. County attorney Randy Autio answered most of the commissioners’ questions, and started out by stating his concern they were discussing a plan that “wasn’t specifically identified on the map or had a description in the MOU.”
Autio said that the commission couldn’t make a decision one way or the other “without knowing what [the town’s] proposed plan was.” He described the MOU as “an MOU that we agree we are going to agree,” and said the MOU wasn’t needed to start negotiations.
Commissioner and vice-chairwoman Darlene Vigil asked Autio whether it looked like there was potential for a shoestring annexation – or a way of annexing an area by annexing a strip of land to get to that area (all annexed areas have to be contiguous). Autio said that he wasn’t quite sure how the town planned to approach this, but said that “they could be
proposing something that could be a problem.”
Commissioner AnJanette Brush asked what the economic benefits would be, and asked if there have been any attempts to identify potential negative impacts. She wondered about potential strain on the water system and asked if any engineering reports were available to address that issue.
Brush explained that the MOU would have the county agreeing that all benefits are mutual, and the county would benefit from water and sewer, but felt those issues had already been addressed by the county. “If we were to sign on [to the MOU], I don’t feel we have enough info to weigh whether or not that’s a true statement. I’m not sure where that leaves us when that thing we ‘need’ is in fact not something that we need,” she said.
Commissioner and chairwoman Candyce O’Donnell echoed this sentiment: “the MOU is nothing we could approve right now, because we have the water there, we have the sewer. It doesn’t make sense to me why we would hook up to the town’s [water and sewer] when we already have that system.”
Commissioner Mark Gallegos added they shouldn’t jump to conclusions, but suggested they reach out to the state for guidance. “I’m not saying I’m fully supportive, but I want to understand what the state’s going to be expecting,” he said, also pointing out he sees the issues of running sewer and water lines and the airport annexation as two separate issues. “Sewer and water are irrelevant to what that was, they used it to entice the annexation.”
They ended the conversation with the agreement to not take action on the MOU and to move forward at a pace that is transparent. Several members of the public expressed their frustration after the meeting via email that they were unable to speak during the public comment section – in which, unusually, no one participated – due to technical difficulties and a change in the way the county is streaming its meetings.
Town
The town’s meeting with El Valle de Los Ranchos Water & Sanitation District, they began by discussing an interconnect agreement and potential regionalization of the water districts. There was some initial disagreement about El Valle’s flat rate they charge their customers, and the metering system used by the town. “If El Valle is willing to say ‘our customers will pay a flat rate,’ then we can kind of save a lot of time. If you’re saying we won’t go with the rate study, we want to negotiate our own rate, then we have a problem,” said town of Taos Manager Rick Bellis.
Alex Abeyta, a board member with El Valle, said he had no problem recommending a user rate increase to El Valle’s customers, but that he “would want to review [the town’s] study and see how they structured [the rates]. He agreed it’s “not the town’s job to pay for other districts.”
As the conversation turned toward the airport, El Valle board members questioned the town’s intent for Blackstone Ranch – the area by Lower Ranchitos Road and Blueberry Hill – as it sits in El Valle’s district. They asked if the town intended to annex the area or use easements. Bellis responded the hope is to annex the property, and that they have no intention of moving any further into the water and sanitation district.
“Our interest really isn’t in water and sewer,” said Bellis. “We want to get the tax revenues from the airport so we can pay for the infrastructure out there.”
El Valle board member Andrew Chavez showed some hesitation to all of the plans, saying “our board has not made a decision on any of it. Rick [Bellis], your statement seems like we’ve already agreed to any of that stuff. El Valle has not made a decision regarding this.” El Valle Board Director Bob Romero agreed.
Bellis said he did not mean for it to come off that way. “This meeting is our first opportunity to have everyone included in that discussion.”
Chavez added, “We seem to not trust each other too much. Developing that trust is so important. It’s a good idea, but dealing with people is the hard part.”
Town councilor Nathanial Evans agreed with Chavez, and said the most important aspects are “trust and the recognition of tension.” Evans said that the future of the community depended on regionalization and that while there are differences of opinion “we will all have to compromise in some way.”
Bellis added they should “look at what pieces are missing and set the stage for the regional board.”