Council sets infrastructure priorities
Water, wastewater top list
The Town of Taos Council’s regular meeting kicked off Tuesday night (Oct. 10) in what has become something akin to a tradition: With detailed public comments from town resident Stephens Hall.
Hall again took officials to task over the unceremonious demise of the Town of Taos Home Rule Charter Commission earlier this year, when it elected not to deliver a charter to the town clerk by a statutorily required deadline.
Hall, who sat on the sevenperson commission, would like its members to reconvene and consider delivering a draft charter to the council. Specifically, Hall believes the arguably defunct commission should consider delivering a draft charter composed by Home Rule Commissioner Jacob Caldwell.
Hall’s had no engagement on the subject from town officials, at least in public meetings.
Hall also complained that “there are Home Rule Charter Commission meeting minutes that have not been prepared, presented or approved by the commission,” adding that “nowhere in the law that I just read is there an exception clause that says the Taos Home Rule Charter Commission is exempt from the statutory requirements regarding minutes.”
The commission must meet to at least finalize its remaining meeting minutes, Hall said, requesting also that the town reinstate the defunct commission email accounts and instruct the charter commission to hold a regular meeting. “Additionally, at that same meeting, the commission should consider, out of common sense and decency, the [charter] draft proposed by Jacob Caldwell. It was the only draft charter that was complete.”
Neither Mayor Pascual Maestas, who appointed the members of the charter commission and championed home rule during his campaign, nor the town council, which consented to the appointments, has signaled any desire to try and resurrect a charter commission.
Capital improvements
The town council finalized its Infrastructure Capital Improvements Plan (ICIP) on Tuesday, well ahead of its extended deadline of Oct. 18, by which time it must submit the final version of the annual document that is intended to itemize its infrastructure project priorities over the next five years.
The top two items on the final ICIP list were wastewater-related. First on the list was $5.35 million in improvements over the next five years to the Taos Valley Regional Wastewater Treatment and Reclamation Facility in Los Cordovas, followed by a $1.65-million septage receival station project, which would be located offsite from the treatment plant.
Having honey wagons discharge the contents of septic tanks at a receival station a distance from the plant would “better address the elevated nitrates being recorded allowing for pretreatment and delusion before entering the plant for treatment,” according to the project description.
“We propose to utilize an existing facility that is enclosed and secure,” the description adds. “The site does have all the utilities on site or in close proximity and is currently owned by the Town of Taos.”
The top five projects on the ICIP list are generally considered viable candidates for capital outlay funding distributed at the end of each session of the New Mexico Legislature. The third-ranked project on that list is “regional waterline looping,” which indicates the town is serious about reinforcing water security both within the boundaries of the municipality and in water and sanitation districts and mutual domestic water consumer associations adjacent to it.
The first phase of the project entails a feasibility study and “the design of transmission lines from the new deep wells to the town’s municipal supply and distribution system that will loop the system and will provide for the potential interconnection with multiple mutual domestics to increase interoperability and promote potential regionalization.”
According to New Mexico Environment Secretary James Kenney, by consolidating several water systems into one system, or combining them under a regional water authority, communities can access more funding opportunities as well as enhance overall water security.
“We definitely want to see more regionalization,” Kenney told the Taos News last September. “The number of people being served by mutual domestics is already very high in New Mexico. Regionalizing them to have more leveraging power, and ensuring continuity and greater consistency in water quality is exactly where we want to go.”
The study will evaluate the status of the existing systems and propose the infrastructure necessary to provide emergency water supplies and fire flows through an interconnection, according to the project description, which notes that some systems may elect bulk water supply while others only emergency service. The construction phases would be: Line A, UNM–Taos to NM 240 ($1,530,000); Line B, along NM 68 to NM 240 to an existing water distribution connection ($320,000); and Line C, along NM 240 from NM 68 to Camino del Medio ($500,000).
Fourth on the town’s list of infrastructure priorities is a $100,000 request to plan and design a multipurpose sports complex, along with parking and facilities improvements at Filemon Sanchez Park, which the town has acquired from Taos County. The total project is projected to cost around $1 million.
Number five on the list is a $500,000 ask to plan, design and engineer the reconstruction of Camino del Medio. “The proposed project will address full roadway construction with earthwork, plant bituminous pavement, curb and gutter, sidewalks, drainage improvements, bike lane, permanent signing and striping, erosion control measures, and miscellaneous construction,” according to the description.
Affordable housing made it to the sixth slot on the list, followed by a slew of road improvements, Taos Youth and Family Center improvements, a new fire training facility and other projects. Maestas had one last-minute addition near the bottom of the list: a feasibility study for a municipal animal shelter.
New facilities director
In other news, Mark Flores, Taos Municipal Schools Board of Education president, has been hired as the town’s new facilities director. The director position has been vacant since Mitch Miller, whose top-tier free concert events in Kit Carson Park drew visitors and talent alike from far and wide to what Miller called a “boutique venue,” quit in July. Mayor Maestas also sits on the Taos school board.
Flores, who has been a member of the school board for 10 years, previously held the position of facilities director for Taos County from 2008-2018.
“In 2019, I started my own business, Taos Elevated Solutions, a home and property maintenance and management consultancy, performing a multitude of different projects for various customers to include building, property and agricultural land management and maintenance,” Flores told the Taos News. “I’m currently still farming and ranching during my free time.”