Tuesday night, the Village of Cloudcroft council July meeting covered a lot of ground and brought some welcome news on several fronts. Here’s what we learned.
Grants
After thanking the VFW, Kay McGill, Vicki Kirk, and his wife, Phyllis Turner, for their part in organizing Cloudcroft’s Independence Day parade and events, Mayor Craig Turner announced that the village has received several new grants.
Turner said the village was approved for the Que Linda beautification grant, stating,
“Folks, we just received a grant for $200,000.
And we're still trying to determine the best way to use that money, but it's a recreational grant. We're thinking we're going to utilize that money in Zenith Park to make the paths paved or more accessible and put lighting in there.
There's some things that we're thinking about doing and certainly we're going to open that up to everyone to have a discussion and thoughts on that.”
The mayor also announced a Hazardous Fuels Treatments on Non-Federal Lands Grant for around $380,000, saying, “It breaks down to approximately $2,400 per acre.”
More on the grant, from the Foresty and Fuels Grants government website:
“Projects must reduce fire threat to communities that are surrounded by hazardous forest fuels which pose a threat in the event of a wildfire. Outcomes include improving wildfire prevention and suppression, reducing hazardous fuels, and restoring fire-adapted ecosystems.
Projects must be in communities adjacent to federal lands where surrounding forest fuels pose a hazard in the event of a wildfire.”
Village of Cloudcroft Fire Chief Erich Wuersching elaborated on the appropriation of the funds, which will potentially be available this October:
“Yeah, the whole thing is still predicated on the audit, the outcome of the audit. But yes, potentially, October would be the first time, and it's an application process of how it will be administered. So those applications will be taken by a third-party vendor.
They will not be reviewed and administered inside the village by a village staff. It's a third party that's going to do it.”
The village received a $5,000 heritage grant to support the upcoming Lumberjack Days and a $100,000 Trails Plus grant to enhance area trails.
Turner said, “So we just continue to get more and more grants. And it's kind of just one of those situations where if you ask for it, there's a good chance you'll get something.”
Turner reported on the village’s water situation, quoting his recent staff meeting with the Public Works Supervisor.
Turner said,
“Our wells are really strong right now. This morning in our staff meeting (the supervisor) said the wells are strong and we are probably even going to be able to loosen our water restriction level.”
Turner addressed the monthly well reports that the village is losing 2 million gallons of water per month, stating that it is either a “software issue” or the loss needs to be discovered by new meters placed at the outflow of village water tanks to monitor better where water loss is occurring.
New digital meter readers have been installed throughout the village, and the waste-water plant project is in full swing.
Of the water treatment change, Turner said, “that's been in effect now for about 30 days, and we are saving 30,000 gallons of fresh water every single day now.”
The village recently paid for 75 new fire hydrants—which the mayor says will be installed at a pace of “3 per week” based on priority and “key locations.”
At the June village meeting, the council approved a $300,000 expenditure for the hydrants, to be reimbursed by emergency funds.
Turner said,
“So what we're going to do with the fire hydrants is: Erich is going to work with J.J. to determine which hydrants are just absolutely not in use, I guess, or are really in bad shape and or even locations where we don't even have a fire hydrant there.
But we're going to try to get as many of those in before the ground freezes as possible.”
New Village Staff
While still searching to fill the two open village police officer positions, Mayor Turner announced that all other vacancies had been filled.
Cloudcroft’s new Chief of Police, Roger Schoolcraft, reported:
“We're getting ready to implement the Neighborhood Watch program, hopefully in the fall.
Hopefully, we can implement the D.A.R.E. program at the elementary schools. I've already talked to Sheriff Black. We have D.A.R.E. instructors available if we need them, if we can get the school to go with us on that.
We've been pretty busy in the village, law enforcement-wise, in the last four days.
We put four people in jail for various reasons, including DWI and going inside residences that weren't secure. And [we’ve] started putting a lot more stuff out to the community when we have concerns.”
Chief Schoolcraft announced that the village police would be sporting a new look: khaki duds with green vests, complete with patches made by Wendy McCourt at Tree Top Teez on Burro Ave.
Schoolcraft and Officer Chris Swanson currently operate the village police force. Of the still-vacant police jobs, Schoolcraft said:
“We are still looking for police applicants,as you're aware, and we're getting ready to expand the area we're trying to reach so we can get more folks to put applications in here for the village.”
Schoolcraft isn’t the only new department head. The Michael Nivison Public Library has a new director, Karen Sonnenfelt, who the council officially confirmed last night.
The library is now operating with a full team, thanks to the recent hiring of Library Aide Savannah Greene and Rachel Truex’s addition to the village Library Advisory Board.
Sonnefelt reported the good news:
“I'm happy to report that in two and a half weeks, we are fully staffed now.
So the library will be open six days a week, and it has been a long time since we've been able to do that. We'll be open on Monday through Fridays from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m., and Saturdays from 10 to 3 p.m.
In June, we serviced 177 patrons with our limited hours. As of today, in just 15 days, 110 people have already come through the library.
So thank you for supporting it, and we're happy to be more of a resource for you in the future.”
The village council also welcomed new utilities clerk Suzanne M. Peralta, who previously served as an operations manager at Chase Bank for 14 years.
With new village clerk Julie Pinson in attendance, the council also confirmed the hiring of Javier Flowers, a new maintenance employee, and Jessica Lea Kovac, an MVD clerk.
During the meeting, the council approved awarding raises based on yearly evaluations, except for water-treatment certifications.
Pinson submitted an official organizational chart listing the village employees and administrators for approval—meeting a state requirement. Notably, over 50% of the 23 administrators and employees are newly hired, promoted, or elected as of this year.
Community Input
Village residents are welcome to sign up to speak at village council meetings, though this is not required per the Open Meetings Act.
Suzannah Cox signed up to speak to the council about the Shady Pines Chamber Players' 12th summer season and a special upcoming concert with Austin-based band Tiger Alley on Saturday, July 27th, from 7:00 to 9:00 PM.
Cox said, of the Shady Pines property where regular musical events are hosted in an ambient fairy garden, “It’s been in my family for 80 years.”
Linda Hamilton, the president of the Pickleball Addicts of Cloudcroft (PAC) group, submitted a list of items to enhance the new pickleball courts once they are completed, suggesting the council tap some of the surplus Lodger’s Tax Fund money that has yet to be allocated for the year.
Pickleball promises to be a significant draw for visitors to the village for years to come because of the summer season’s cool weather for outdoor play.
The PAC’s wishlist included bleachers (which could also be used for events held near the Chamber of Commerce site), signage, electric outlets, a shaded covering between the two court areas, portable fencing between courts and benches, and a water refill station—the new restrooms in Zenith Park do not have a water fountain.
About the available Lodger’s Tax monies, Mayor Turner said:
“Every two years, the lodger’s tax, there's money that rolls over. After two years, if you don't spend that money that rolls over each year, we lose it.
So there are some funds that are out there right now, approximately $48,000 that we need to spend over the next...I don't know if it's calendar year or fiscal year. We will look into that.”
Projects at Zenith Park and Beyond
The mayor said the fencing contractor from Las Cruces is scheduled to begin fencing on Wednesday of this week.
The mayor said he would post to his mayoral Facebook page when the final timeline is confirmed. The first annual Pickleball in the Clouds Tournament is slated to begin in only 10 days.
More than 70 players have signed up for the tournament.
Board Chairman Matt Willett gave the Parks and Recreation report, with a focus on the “baseball field” on Mescalero Avenue.
The village plans to create a designated helipad while maintaining the parkland's multi-function use. Currently, the field is used for disc golf, an emergency helipad, and the trailhead to Osha and Trail T5688.
Willet announced that other projects are “going well.” Parks and Rec. is tracking the installation of the new Zenith Park restrooms and submitted a request from Cloudcroft School’s Athletic Director, Joni Watson, to replace the broken basketball goals at the Zenith Park tennis courts.
Mayor Turner and Willet discussed a grant available to the village for additional trash receptacles and planters along Burro Avenue and are working with village Grant Writer Lauren Grosbeak to acquire more. The bins would be emptied weekly, with the non-profit Keep Cloudcroft Clean volunteers and business owners responsible for additional maintenance.
Mayor Turner mentioned the completed 2024 roads project and said,
“The roads are done for this year.
We have spent all the 250,000 dollars that we allotted again. Throughout the remainder of the year and into the winter time, we'll continue to fix the roads with repair the best we can until we get into next spring.”
The Department of Transportation was in attendance and promised to contact the village administration about when road striping and cross-walk painting would begin for the busy intersection between Mad Jack’s and Allsups.
The need for pedestrian beacon signals was brought up, and Trustee Tabitha Foster mentioned that her daughter, Oakley Foster, had recently coordinated with Public Works to acquire fluorescent pedestrian flags. The flags will be placed in buckets on either end of busy crosswalks for folks to grab as they brave the busy roads.
Department Head Homework, Emergency Preparedness, and Hundred-Year Storms
The Village head of Emergency Services and the Fire Chief, Erich Wuershing, remarked that his future reports would be broken into two parts to reflect the two separate responsibilities.
“One thing I'm going to add for future reports is a separate report that's going to talk about emergency management, which has what I like to refer to as two facets:
One is kind of like during wartime or during an emergency when you're really battling something, whatever that may be. And then peacetime, where all the planning and preparation and mitigation, all that stuff does, works.
In our town, we've agreed that emergency management falls under the fire department. Good place to have funding for keeping track of records and for all that sort of thing. We have good staff for that.
Works really well on the emergency response side of things.
On the planning side, we need everybody in the village to be participating in that. And that includes all the department members, all the department heads, and potentially down the chain to some level, but then also all the elected officials, which means all of you.”
“So we have some training to catch up on, to catch everyone up on. It starts off at a very basic level, and then we'll just build on it. It's called a building block process, actually. That's what FEMA refers to it as.
But the end result in that is not only so we can respond as a team more capably when there is an emergency, whether it's a wildfire, whether it's a wind damage or a deep freeze where water pipes are busted or a water emergency when we run out of water.”
According to Wuersching, if the village department heads and village council meet emergency plan requirements and training, the village is eligible for FEMA money.
“We currently have an emergency operations plan, we currently have a mitigation plan, but they are due for review.
All of the elected officials and all the new department heads need to review their sections and sign off that they're aware of this plan. And then we'll also be updating it. But once we do all of that, we also are eligible for federal dollars through FEMA.”
The council voted on resolution 2024.08, the State of New Mexico DOT Fund 93100 Capital Appropriation Project Storm Water and Flood Control Improvement. Trustee Maynard was not in attendance, and Trustees Foster, King, and McCoy voted in favor of the resolution, which involves a sizeable $600,000 grant available to the village.
DOT representatives Ernesto Santiano and Michael Smelker spoke on stormwater removal from the village center, Zenith Park.
During their presentation, Trustee Timothy King visually supplemented the areas of discussion with Google Earth images pulled up on the new large-screen monitors that flank the Village Chambers.
Santiano, a Project Development Engineer out of the DOT Southern Regional Office in Las Cruces, said,
“So this particular project, it reached to a 60% design, I believe in 2022, late 2022 and the district and the consultant decided that that original approach was not feasible.
So we revisited the whole design and where we currently stand is we are analyzing different alternatives on where to convey the water.”
He continued,
“We're proposing to install some drainage inlets in front of the high school on both sides of the roadway on US 82 and install underground drainage pipes towards the west.
We're proposing to improve a connection where the pipe, there's gonna be like a Y, what we call the trunk lines, the drainage pipes. They're right at the intersection of New Mexico 130 and US 82.
We’re proposing to continue to utilize a pipe that runs south parallel to New Mexico 130, improve that one, probably make it larger and have water drain towards the south towards that canyon adjacent to New Mexico 130.”
The drainage will flow down Mexican Canyon, near Bonnie’s Trestle.
DOT District 2 Construction Assistant District Engineer Michael Smelker addressed the potential effects on area trails:
“We've communicated, we're coordinating with the New Mexico Trails Association.
Just earlier, just prior to this meeting, we had a field review with Doug from the New Mexico Trails Association, and they support this project.
The other alternative was to convey down further US 82, along further down and way past the trestle bridge, and we think that's gonna be quite a bit of effort.
And if the New Mexico Trails Association is willing to work with us with a construction maintenance easement, we think that that area can work. So we can install an underground pipe in that area and drain it down the canyon there.”
The discussion turned to Zenith Park, the low point for Cloudcroft’s water collection. Smelker clarified that adjustments to the park have to be made by the village, not the state.
He said,
“So right now, we're not actually able to do anything within the park due to environmental issues, because the park is a different type. That would have to be up to the village to do.
So I know when we were doing the original studies, we had proposed some alternatives on lowering the park and everything to go ahead and capture additional drainage in that area. I would definitely encourage the village to continue to look at those options.”
By lowering an area in the park to capture more water, a grate could be installed to quickly drain the water. Smeller emphasized the importance of having efficient drainage for the village, citing Ruidoso’s recent flash flooding impacts:
“And I would be honest with you, I would definitely encourage you guys to definitely look at that, because it'll have a lot less impact if you guys ever had a situation like that.
That's what they're having trouble with. You have all these big canyons coming in. Ruidoso is kind of a bowl, kind of like you guys are, which is all going to Zenith Park.
You have all these different canyons, and they're all coming into one spot, but we can't stop the water.”
Mayor Turner asked about the completion of the drainage project, which he understood to be “two, three, four years out.”
Smelker said it would be “at least three years” and:
“Right now, this project isn't funded anymore. It's in our step. It's in the outer years, but it's not fully funded yet because we weren't sure which direction we were going to go and what the cost would be.
So now that if we can determine these different points of discharge, then we can go ahead and decide how we're going to go ahead and get this programmed in there.”
When asked for his suggestion for how to help manage flooding, Smelker said,
“Really, the park area was actually just dropping it down a few feet. And that's just because you guys have so much water that's kind of coming and hitting the schools, and it's getting really close to the schools, and it really doesn't have anywhere.
It goes to the park, but it fills up.”
When asked if this will flood the park, making it unusable, Smelker assured the crowd that DOT could project models for “a 100-year storm, and this is how long we’re anticipating it would take to drain, so we can actually model all of that.”
Trustee Foster inquired about water collection and if the village could reuse stormwater.
According to Smelker, we can, but “the problem here is where can you capture that?”
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Looking for your next read? Check out Hannah Dean’s recent Op-Ed on the ‘wild’ horses of Cloudcroft.
Find out what’s going on in the village this summer.
Read more about the village police department and why it’s currently operating with half of its necessary employees.
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