Town approves support for animal shelter, new police cars

From paving roads to revamping youth center, capital improvement priorities under discussion

THE TOWN OF TAOS council met early for a regular meeting at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday (Aug. 13) to accommodate for a presentation from the New Mexico Environment Department.

Following the presentation from the department on the Taos Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant, the council moved to their consent agenda where they unanimously approved a $100,000 contract extension to Stray Hearts Animal Shelter.

The contract was extended to cover the shelter until June 2020, and added $100,000 to an existing $75,000 contract. This comes after town officials said a few weeks ago that nonprofits across town would not be able to receive much support from the town of Taos due to budget constraints.

Also approved on the consent agenda was the purchase of five new police vehicles for the town of Taos Police Department. The total cost approved was for $244,190.

The council also discussed projects to be included on the capital improvement plan in the future and briefly teased out some of the upcoming improvements to the town of Taos. While the town will rank the projects in two weeks, preliminary discussions and ideas were held to begin the process of finding out which projects are needed the soonest within the town.

One such project on the list is the $1.4 million repaving of Ranchitos Road. Curb, gutter and sidewalk improvements are called for in the plan, which will be ranked during the council’s next meeting.

The Taos Youth and Family Center could also see some upgrades, according to the improvements plan, including a wall repair and speed bumps in the parking lot.