Village of Taos Ski Valley focuses on infrastructure
At its regular meeting last week, the Village of Taos Ski Valley Council approved a $7.8 million grant application to fund the construction phase of the Twining Road reconstruction project, discussed staff raises and other topics related to next year’s budget, and ultimately voted to hold off on authorizing a $35,000 purchase of old plumbing parts.
Councilors voted to accept a final Village Water Master Plan that, for years into the future, will serve as a tool to identify system deficiencies, plan for growth and support funding requests for improvements. One component of the plan indicates that “unaccounted-for water” lost through leaks or unauthorized connections represented, on average, 80 percent of the community’s suppliedwater from 2014 to 2020.
According to the plan, which was prepared by Glorieta Geoscience, Inc. and Dennis Engineering Company, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimated in 2013 that, “on average, water loss in systems throughout the United States is 16 percent.” The Plan notes that state statute dictates that “unaccounted-for water exceeding 15 percent of the total production should be given special attention in order to reduce excessive losses of water.”
“Unaccounted-for water varies seasonally with demand,” the Plan continues. “During peak usage, December through March, unaccounted-for water decreases to an average of 74 percent and during the off-season, unaccounted-for water increases to an average of 83 percent.”
Unaccounted-for water isn’t simply an issue of water lost through leaks, but it also “results in additional expenditures for electrical and chemical costs, which is an unnecessary burden on VTSV and its water consumers,” the plan adds. “The total unaccounted-for water from February 2014 through December 2020 is approximately 342 million gallons (1,050 acrefeet) or 135,000 gallons per day.”
Taos Ski Valley, Inc. cooperated with the village to develop the Water Master Plan, and the corporation’s vice president, Peter Talty, underlined a point made by Village Administrator John Avila: The Master Plan will serve as a critical support document when it comes to securing money to pay for water system improvements.
“This plan can be used as a basis for funding requests — that’s the key element here,” Talty said, adding that “Taos Ski Valley Incorporated is willing to move forward and secure the technical documents that are needed, and we’re in discussions with Dennis engineering regarding what is required for state and also federal funding that ties into state programs.”
Talty identified the suspected biggest contributor to the village’s mammoth amount of unaccounted-for water. “What we’re looking at is the lowest hanging fruit, which is the leak that happens on Kachina Road between the chlorination station and green water tank,” he said. “We feel like if that can be addressed we [would] take care of more than half of our problem right there.”
It was Mayor Christof Brownell’s last council meeting before councilor and Mayor-elect Neal King steps down from his council seat and takes over from Brownell on April 1.
“This is my last council meeting as mayor — for a while anyways — and I’m very proud to have served my hometown village as councilor and mayor for six challenging and productive years,” said Brownell, who has the distinction of having been raised in the ski valley essentially since birth. “I think I’m the only one in this meeting who can say, ‘I grew up here in this village,’ and it’s my home and I love it.”
Applauding village staff for their hard work, Brownell ticked off several accomplishments, including two critical infrastructure projects. “With me as mayor, we finished building the new sewer plant [and] we finished building the new Kachina underground water tank, which are two of the biggest capital projects the village has ever had,” Brownell said, adding that the village has made strides with
During peak usage, December through March, unaccounted-for water decreases to an average of 74 percent and during the off-season, unaccountedfor water increases to an average of 83 percent.
‘Staff seeks approval to apply enthusiastically for construction dollars to complete all the proposed road reconstruction improvements, including drainage, environmental, radiation safety, grading and utility improvements indicated on the engineering plans.’
PATRICK NICHOLSON
Planning and community development director
collecting lodgers’ tax on shortterm rental properties.
Having enacted a variety of short-term rental ordinances intended to make such property owners obtain business licenses and pay their fair share of taxes, communities across New Mexico have struggled to enforce them.
“We’ve been going after the short-term rental people and make sure that they have business licenses so that [the] village gets appropriate lodgers’ tax from that as well,” Brownell said.
Councilors praised Brownell for his service and went on to approve several action items, including a grant application requesting $7.8 million out of the state Local Government Transportation Project Fund for the Twining Road reconstruction project.
Patrick Nicholson, planning and community development director, told councilors that if the grant application is approved, the village will be responsible for a five percent match amounting to $390,000.
“Staff seeks approval to apply enthusiastically for construction dollars to complete all the proposed road reconstruction improvements, including drainage, environmental, radiation safety, grading and utility improvements indicated on the engineering plans,” Nicholson said, adding that construction is expected to take approximately three years.
One item that councilors did not ultimately bring to a vote involved a proposed $35,000 purchase of a large cache of unused but aged plumbing parts belonging to Roger Pattison. Public Works Director Anthony Martinez presented the agenda item.
“A lot of it is ductile iron pipe, that’s the bulk of the inventory,” Martinez said. “There are some gate valves and couplers that are necessary for repairs of the system, so I’m recommending that we follow through on the conversations that Mr. Pattison has had with previous village staff members to follow through with the purchase of this material.”
Martinez said Pattison purchased the material “back in the day” for $75,000 but was willing to cut that price “basically in half.”
“This will help our coffers in the sense of a lot more inventory, especially with the ductile iron pipe, which we could possibly use in situations like the leaks we might be finding in the coming months and years,” Martinez said. King was skeptical.
“I talked to the previous public works manager about this,” King said. “He said this stuff is 15 years old, it’s been sitting around to be used for a project that never happened between the village and the Pattisons, and he has doubts that a lot of it is usable anymore.
“I’m just wondering if maybe we should negotiate the price a little on this,” King added. “We have been storing this stuff for free for 15 years, and I don’t want us to get this and then suddenly discover that 15-year-old stuff doesn’t work anymore.”
Councilor Chris Stagg agreed. “This stuff’s been around long enough, there’s no warranty on it anymore,” he said. “Most contractors, if you’re going to go try to use it are not going to back it up. So I really wonder whether it has any value.”
Councilor Tom Wittman countered that if Martinez thinks it’s a good deal, he trusts the current public works director’s judgment.
“I have confidence in Anthony’s assessment of this equipment, and if he paid 70 grand for it 10 years ago, it probably would cost us $100,000 right now and we’re getting it for $35,000,” Wittman said. “Not a bad deal.”
Jay Lazarus of Glorieta Geoscience advised officials that if the parts don’t meet current National Safety Foundation municipal water safety standards, purchasing them would be a waste of money.
“The question that I have on this is, are all of these parts NSF61 certified for municipal drinking water supply?” Lazarus said. “Because we’ve run into a lot of issues over the last five, eight years on a lot of components, whether it’s in our wells or distribution systems, to meet this NSF-61 standard.”
Councilors voted to table the plumbing parts purchase item pending Martinez’s investigation as to whether the parts would meet current safety standards.