[4:25] is 9:00. >> So, let's go ahead and

[4:38] talk

[4:43] » here. Cherry

[4:45] » here. >> Councelor Angela

[4:46] » here. >> Here. Yeah.

[4:50] » Okay. Stand in the invitation pledge. >> Dear heavenly father, we just thank you

[4:56] for this beautiful name. We thank you for the rain that we've been receiving

[4:59] for our forests and for our rivers. We're just so thankful for that. We ask

[5:03] that you would be with us as we go through this meeting. Uh give us wisdom,

[5:07] give us judgment, and help us to make the best decisions for our community. In

[5:12] Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. America

[5:25] under God, liberty and justice for all.

[5:34] » Okay. First item is the I'll make a motion to approve the agenda.

[5:41] A motion second. Have any discussions? All in favor?

[5:46] » I. >> Motion carries. And next item is public

[5:49] comment. Seems we don't have anybody signed up. Uh so we'll move on to

[5:54] approval of the minutes from our regular meeting of July 28th and our special

[6:00] meeting August 14th. >> I'll make a motion to approve the

[6:05] minutes. >> A second.

[6:07] » Any motion and second? Any discussion? All in favor?

[6:13] tickets. >> In the next items, we have recognition

[6:16] of one of our employees who I also here today is for Edward

[6:21] and recognition of five years of service to the town. Your commitment, hard work

[6:26] and contributions are sincerely appreciated and Edward drives the uh

[6:32] trash truck for us. So very very important points and shall keep our

[6:38] voice for five years. We are very happy and very important.

[6:41] If you see Edward, be sure to tell him congratulations. Okay.

[6:46] All right. Next, we have a presentation. We have two with us. We also have red

[6:51] with us with us for planner on Parson. So, u we're so excited to have you guys.

[6:58] Yeah, we are. We love to have you here with us to give us an update. So, I'm

[7:02] going to turn it off. >> Um should I stand?

[7:06] » Sure. Why don't you say any kind?

[7:11] Uh,

[7:18] » hey, thanks members of the council

[7:23] just >> I'm the forest planner

[7:26] » and we wanted to come give you a little preview, I guess, of this uh the

[7:33] Castillia project that we are planning to release to the public for a 30-day

[7:40] comment period. uh coming up in September.

[7:46] » So this first slide is the uh east side of the Carson and the colors underneath

[7:52] there are from the 2020 New Mexico Forest Action Plan. The darker redder

[7:58] colors represent higher fire risk. And as part of that forest action plan, the

[8:04] state identified 12 priority landscapes uh for restoration within the within the

[8:09] state. This enchanted circle, the whole enchanted circle area was one of those.

[8:13] And in 2022, the Forest Service adopted that Enchanted Circle landscape as one

[8:19] of our top 10 priorities nationally for the entire Forest Service. Um to reduce

[8:27] fire risk, protect communities. Um and then also the under the uh county

[8:36] community wildfire protection plans, this they they talk about community

[8:41] protection uh risk reduction. The next slide is going to show the proposed

[8:48] project area um which includes so that's the purple

[8:55] outlined on this slide. It includes all of the Quester Ranger District and most

[8:59] of the Camino Rial Ranger District to the south. The gap down there south of

[9:05] TA is um excluded because we have two recent decisions in that area that cover

[9:12] this same type of work. The Tal Canyon decision and the McGaffy decision. Uh

[9:17] the rest of those two districts totals about 490,000 acres and we think there's

[9:25] a little over a 100,000 acres in there where we have uh opportunities to treat.

[9:31] And by treatment we mean wildfire risk mitigation, fuels reduction and forest

[9:38] restoration um

[9:42] spinning and prescriber. So, next slide. That could look like a

[9:47] lot of different things. So, thinning could be by hand with chainsaw. Um, or

[9:54] it could be using larger equipment, a harvester or u bunchards.

[10:02] And then to remove the material in some places, we can do that with fuelwood

[10:08] haulers uh dead down fieldwood permits. We've also the our demo project has been

[10:14] really successful. That's local folks um using their own equipment to thin an

[10:20] acre at a time and they keep the material. They're hauling it off with

[10:24] their own pickup trucks basically. Um in some areas where the material has value,

[10:31] you can sell it as timber, as lumber. Um we have also included mastication and

[10:38] chipping as an option. um that requires hauling this equipment

[10:44] around. It's more labor intensive. It's not going to be the right fit

[10:49] everywhere. It in a lot of cases it costs more. Um but we do have it as an

[10:54] option. The main thing is it doesn't remove the fuels from the site and in

[10:58] most cases that's what we're trying to do. So next slide. The most efficient

[11:05] effective way to remove fuels is by burning them either as pile burns or

[11:11] broadcast burns. Um that picture on the lower left is another option that we've

[11:17] included. Um that's called an air curtain incinerator. Basically all the

[11:21] combustion happens in that container. Again you got to haul this equipment

[11:26] around. It's a lot more labor intensive. that's a lot more um costs a lot more um

[11:32] but it could have limited uses. Ultimately, any of these um techniques

[11:38] or tools, the intent is to prepare the landscape for a wildfire so that when we

[11:46] have a wildfire, the fire effects and um our suppression response to it looks

[11:53] more like that upper right picture and less like the lower right picture.

[11:59] Okay, next slide. So, I have a big map of this. Um, like I

[12:06] said, we've identified about 20% of the landscape where we think we have

[12:12] opportunities to treat. Um, so there is a big map there that people could look

[12:17] at. I think you all also got if you did not I can give you this little onepage

[12:23] um handout that has the has the uh at least got

[12:29] some um it has the project website on there and this map is

[12:36] available there as a TV um

[12:41] so what we're focused on these polygons are frequent fire forest

[12:47] titus So that's ponderosa pine and dry mixed conifer. The red areas on the map

[12:53] are close to the communities or in the wildland urban interface. So that's our

[12:59] highest priority for treatment. The orange and yellow areas are further out

[13:05] or they're less accessible. So those would be lower priorities. Um we've also

[13:11] identified these purple areas. Uh those are other forest types. So treatment in

[13:17] there wouldn't be to restore the fire regime, but it would be for other

[13:21] reasons like forest health, treating an insect and disease outbreak, um or just

[13:27] breaking up the mosaic, um creating fuel brakes that would help us fight a

[13:32] wildfire. Um to get to all these locations, we've

[13:37] identified 137 miles of legacy roads. These are old logging roads basically

[13:43] that already exist on the landscape. Um but the the Forest Service doesn't do

[13:48] anything right now to manage. Um we would open them up for the project and

[13:52] then decommission them um once the project is complete. We're also

[13:58] proposing leaving some roads open either to the public or for administrative use.

[14:03] Those would be like fire roads. Um, and Alisa, there's a table printed out there

[14:10] that uh details

[14:15] uh the all the road miles. It's also on this printed map.

[14:21] Um, it's important to point out that what's shown on this map are

[14:25] opportunities. It's not a map of planned projects. So these are not um

[14:32] thinning units or prescribed burn units because the locations of these could

[14:39] change a little bit based on surveys that we still need to do for wildlife

[14:42] for archaeology. Um also could change based on partners who are interested in

[14:48] doing this work and what their capability is. Um and then on funding.

[14:54] Um

[14:57] so all that sight specific kind of planning would happen over the life of

[15:02] this project which is maybe next 10 to 15 years or more. We do that in

[15:06] coordination with the communities and with our our partners for the next time.

[15:13] Okay. So I'm going to end with this picture from the 96 Honda fire. and

[15:19] looking at this fire scar still trees have not grown back on that

[15:24] fire scar and probably that's not going to be a force um in my lifetime.

[15:29] The the quote on the right side there is from the Gana Canyon Sristoal community

[15:34] wildfire protection plan and it talks about the impacts of that fire. Um 20

[15:39] homes burned postfire ash pillows and erosion uh that resulted in fish kills

[15:46] in the Rio Grand and significant impacts to siki infrastructure.

[15:50] We've seen those impacts more and more in the last 30 years since this fire and

[15:56] in a lot of places these dry ponderosa pine forests um are still at this kind

[16:03] of risk. We've been chipping away at the problem but it's been smallcale for the

[16:08] last 30 years. Um the smallcale analysis, small scale thinning projects

[16:14] and uh what we're trying to do with this project is increase pace and scale to

[16:20] meet the scale of the risk. And then the last slide is one last picture that's of

[16:26] the Carson from uh 1912 and you see large ponderosa pine. It's

[16:34] widely spaced. there's not a lot of vegetation in the understory and so

[16:38] fires in these forests acted a lot differently. They didn't kill the

[16:42] understory trees. So when a fire went through um a forest was left behind and

[16:48] that's the kind of fire that we're trying to reintroduce. Um and that also

[16:53] gives us a better chance to protect those homes that we weren't able to

[16:57] protect in 1996. Um, so that's the link to the uh project

[17:04] web page. More information, the map is there. Um, you can also see the comments

[17:09] there. The comment period will start on September 8th. It'll go for 30 days. And

[17:14] then my contact information is on the bottom of that slide. Um, and I'll hang

[17:21] out. I I mean, we'll hang out outside Lisa if people have questions. I think I

[17:27] handed out all our little flyers and things.

[17:31] » And if you guys have other questions,

[17:36] » thank you. >> Exciting to see you guys doing something

[17:38] like this because this has been meaning for so we're glad it's moving forward.

[17:44] Questions council or >> I have a number of them but I'll take

[17:48] them on the side. Okay. Thank you guys. Thank you.

[17:58] Okay, next item is final features.

[18:04] You see in August for June four sectors in construction we were up $55,250

[18:14] 177 27%. Retail trade was up $6,271

[18:21] 6.22%. 22%. Real estate was up $17,950,

[18:30] 38.86%.

[18:33] Accommodation food service was up $8,230,

[18:38] $8.53%. It's nice to save up.

[18:46] So, our gross receipts tax recap for the month, we were $25,380

[18:54] 7.44%. And here today we're up $61,823

[19:01] 11.52%.

[19:06] LE's cash recap. At reporting time, we had six nightly rentals and one

[19:10] management company that had reported. And for the month, we are down 12,820

[19:18] 11.97%. Year to date, we're down 62,129

[19:26] 6.33%. Were the people that didn't report that

[19:31] brought us? Yes, I believe. So >> it's interesting that

[19:39] » of that property management and how many they manage as well.

[19:42] » Right. So >> and a lot of this is catching up from

[19:46] January from the first quarter, right? Trying to close the gap.

[19:52] » Questions for you got your tech register in there.

[20:02] review. >> Yes.

[20:03] » All right. If there's your questions, I would take a motion to approve the

[20:06] financial and expenditures. >> I'll make the motion that we approve

[20:10] financial report and expenditures. >> Have a second.

[20:14] » Second. >> We have a motion and a second to approve

[20:18] our expenditures for July. Any discussion? All in favor?

[20:24] » I. Motion carries. >> We'll move on to committee reports.

[20:28] Public safety. Um we did hold a meeting but my department was had calls so they

[20:33] were doing service calls so we technically did not discuss anything. Um

[20:39] their department reports um are in the minutes from this meeting. Um so you can

[20:44] see their department numbers. >> That was it.

[20:49] » Okay. Any questions around public?

[20:53] » We did have a meeting. Isaac reported that the well number five

[20:57] is still down. Uh they're monitoring the water levels

[21:02] and everything seems to be in good >> great great condition. So do we need

[21:08] to fix uh but that's good news with what's going to go on down the hill.

[21:14] Some folks down there uh Northern Paving will be doing the final stage of

[21:20] pavement on the Bitter Creek area. Is that correct? No jump. Oh jump. Sorry, I

[21:26] got the wrong thing. Um,

[21:30] for the we're waiting on the new new water meters for the workforce housing

[21:35] still. Oh, you got them. So, that happened since our meeting. That's good.

[21:41] » Uh, the school zone lights which are going to be solar have arrived.

[21:46] » Wonderful. >> Which when are they going to go in?

[21:48] We're going to try to get them in this week. They need two days to charge solar

[21:52] tubs. But that happened. I know you had to piece them together

[21:57] that's a lot cheaper to go to that pretty expensive sidewalk for the

[22:03] woods and stuff as well. >> Awesome. Great. Great.

[22:08] » A lot of things happened since the meeting. So, uh the valley gutters are

[22:12] being installed. The rest of high street that will take place next summer.

[22:17] Uh and then street sweeping. We're trying to get on a schedule now.

[22:21] So, Tuesdays and Thursdays don't Street. >> Um,

[22:30] let's see. The paving for Ber Creek and Stage Cove, there is funding secured

[22:36] for that, but we're still getting the bids.

[22:40] We have it. >> Jim's going to do it. Okay, good. Good.

[22:44] Uh, sidewalk project. We're still working on some punch list stuff. I

[22:47] think they're almost done. Yes. Uh, public works building. Uh, no.

[22:54] We're never going to get to move into another

[22:59] has taken over as the plumber compared to the one that they had hired before.

[23:03] So he's the perfect right now. Okay. So we're getting close.

[23:11] » Um and then on the on equipment vehicle and equipments, we're going to look at

[23:15] leasing equipment, trucks, trash trucks um from enterprise. So that'll keep us

[23:22] from having to take the long process of finding a specific equipment. We can

[23:26] just lease it and but put that in our budget. So I think it's worked good with

[23:30] the graders. Um so hopefully we can make that work well

[23:35] and future needs. We we're still going to get a lift or that's something we

[23:39] would lease. Also possibly treatment plants, the new fine screens

[23:45] are still a couple months out. The drawings are complete. So we're getting

[23:49] closer and closer. At the time the meeting staffing was good and after that

[23:53] we were journal. >> Thank you. Questions?

[23:57] » I have some side questions. In light of the recent rain on Rose Hill behind me.

[24:02] Um we're seeing all of that cleichy clay washing down as we're redoing High

[24:08] Street. Are we going to refund that um runoff? Because right now it comes down

[24:13] and runs down an alley. >> Um you guys are trying to keep it clean.

[24:18] It's discussed it with uh J motion on our last Congress meeting.

[24:22] » Thank you. >> And it's part of a permit. So they need

[24:26] to set that up for us to do that. >> Right. Just just since we're observing

[24:29] it, it's a good time to talk about it. >> You want to

[24:34] we just need to funnel it so that it doesn't put property in danger. Yeah.

[24:41] » Anything else? >> I think that was all of mine.

[24:43] » Parks and trails. >> I didn't have any. We're working on

[24:47] getting more to you. So, >> okay. Glad you're saying that.

[24:51] » Unfortunately, we didn't have a meeting either. Sometimes events put a big

[24:55] impact on my committee, so they were not able to gather.

[24:59] » Okay. Me, got a couple things. So, the one thing that's on here that says

[25:03] specialized technical services for advanced IT fees for requests. So, IRA

[25:09] is the Inspection and Public Records Act, which gives the general public the

[25:13] right to ask the municipality for um records, emails, phone records, pretty

[25:21] much anything because everything we do is just an open book. And so, I think

[25:25] it's important, just just a little FYI for you guys, um our legal fees for

[25:32] March, April, and June were $4,191 for that. and the IT part was 1,400. So,

[25:39] it's it's costly um because we have to have our our legal team go through

[25:44] actually we have to have somebody go through all the emails, pull everything,

[25:48] the legal has to go through the redacted things that can't be released as far as

[25:52] personal information. So, um it is a big deal. The municipal league is doing a

[25:57] big push to do full reform at the legislature to to get this where it's

[26:03] not it's not that we ever want to hinder the public from our information. But a

[26:08] lot of what's happening too is that there's people from all over the country

[26:13] that call in and they want the information and God only knows what they

[26:17] do with it. But it's just a burden because we can't say no and it's a

[26:20] deadline. So it's a dedicated person. This doesn't even include the time it

[26:24] takes for staff to spend weeks on getting this information. So, it's just

[26:30] it's important that you guys know. I mean, it's it's good that we can make it

[26:34] available to the public, but would it sometimes it becomes a burden for us and

[26:37] it's impossible. >> So, mayor.

[26:40] » Yes. >> So, would this be an external um

[26:43] organization that would do this? >> Uh it's it's individuals. It's who?

[26:50] » No, no, no. Excuse me. I'm sorry but um so the

[26:56] » technical services so are are we just adding money or are we actually hiring

[27:01] some technical services? >> This is our ambitions that we work with

[27:05] that we already have. It's our IT service but it's outside of our contract

[27:09] so it's additional cost. >> Thank you. I I just need a little

[27:12] clarification. So thank you. Um, okay. So, that's

[27:17] uh let's see. We you had a survey in your packet that we want to send out.

[27:22] So, we had the meeting about adding um the business registration

[27:27] update and our business ordinance. So, in there we had some some

[27:33] questions about food trucks. Um we got strong opinions on both sides and we're

[27:39] probably going to have a work session at some point this month. Did y'all have a

[27:42] chance so we could get questions on the survey?

[27:45] » Yes. >> So, we'll probably send that out through

[27:47] Survey Monkey because I think it's important that we get both sides of it

[27:51] to uh as we go forward making our um decisions. So, that that'll be going

[27:56] down probably next week. Um let's see. The sign for the wastewater treatment

[28:02] plant is in the process. It seems like it's kind of stalled right now. Uh we're

[28:07] hoping to get it because we dedicated that to the we renamed the Russell A.

[28:11] Church uh treatment plant. We're hoping in the next couple weeks we can get that

[28:17] dedicated and have that complete. So if you look out there, it has it has

[28:21] started. Uh September 3rd, we will have the goodtorial candidate Greg Hall will

[28:27] be in town. He's going to be doing a northern tour. So he'll be in uh Tal Qua

[28:34] and then end up here at 5:30 at the conference center and do a a meet and

[28:39] greet reception from 5:30 to 7:30. So that'll give you guys an opportunity to

[28:42] come out and and at least visit with him and get some questions asked. I think

[28:46] it's important um you know that we have a chance to meet the candidate who are

[28:51] going to be running November because we're going to have the new governor and

[28:53] you know we're going to be working with so I haven't had anybody from the

[28:57] Holland um campaign committee reach out yet but if they do of course we'll

[29:04] entertain handed them by Pure Tube. Okay.

[29:06] » Will the town be hosting them? >> Uh no. Okay. It it'll be uh

[29:10] » it'll be their campaign. >> It's there. Yeah.

[29:13] » Okay. Just Yeah. Um, the municipal conference starts tomorrow. So, I know

[29:20] Steve and Angel myself will be going and Rene and

[29:26] » regrets.

[29:31] » Jason. Okay. I said, "So, um, so we will be out for

[29:38] most of the week, but we all have cell phones, so you need anything, please

[29:43] feel free to reach out." >> But your remaining council people will

[29:46] be in town. We're available. [laughter]

[29:51] » But call them first.

[29:55] Charge. So, >> good.

[29:58] » All right. [snorts] Any questions?

[30:02] » Okay. Inside of the zoo business, first item of the business is to ratify Steve

[30:08] Gorsuch to the parks and trail committee. You had an attempt to speak

[30:11] prepared, I assume. [laughter]

[30:23] Steve Gorsk to parks and trails committee. Is that a second?

[30:25] » Second. >> I have a motion in a second. Any

[30:28] discussion? >> Okay. Roll call.

[30:30] » Councelor Daniel L. >> Yes.

[30:32] » Council Black. >> Yes. Council Cherry.

[30:34] » Yes. Councelor Justin Brown. [clears throat]

[30:36] » Yes. >> Motion carries. Welcome aboard. So we

[30:40] will also address members.

[30:45] » Okay. Next item is consideration and approval of resolution 2026-22.

[30:51] This is the notice of intent to apply for funding from the water trust board

[30:56] for a wastewater system improvement project and this will be for the

[31:00] collection system to continue that way. So the the plan is to apply for for this

[31:06] one now and then in December to apply for plan design construct for the sludge

[31:13] handling the treatment plant. So hopefully we could get both. The uh the

[31:18] legislature did make a change last session where they took it out of their

[31:23] hands. So if we used to apply once a year and then it went through their

[31:28] process for approval and it kind of slowed everything down. So now we're

[31:32] hopefully we can apply more. It'll be a quicker process and we can get more

[31:36] funding to get things done. They want to get more money in the community to get

[31:39] our treatment plans the waste water. So, I would take a motion to approve

[31:46] resolution 2026-2. >> I'll make that recommendation.

[31:52] » I have a second. >> I'll second.

[31:54] » Okay. I have a motion in a second to approve the resolution. Any other

[31:58] comments or discussion? >> Okay. Roll call. Councelor Justin

[32:02] Randberg. >> Yes.

[32:03] » Councelor Daniel L. >> Yes.

[32:05] » Councelor Angela Black. >> Yes.

[32:06] » Council Cherry. >> Yes.

[32:09] » Motion carries. All right. Next is matters from the governing vote. Council

[32:13] Lamb, >> not today.

[32:16] » Council Black today.

[32:21] » Okay, there is now to business. We'll get started. Thank you all.

[32:27] Pushing down.

8/24/2026 Town Council Meeting

Transcript