Hannah Dean reports on day one of three for the Village of Cloudcroft Council Budget Retreat held at the Village Office. This year’s retreat was the first live-streamed and open to the public.
With a quick greeting and a polite spread of coffee and donuts, Mayor Craig Turner began the 2024 Village of Cloudcroft Council’s annual budget retreat.
Veteran Trustees James Maynard and Gail McCoy related the gravitas of the task ahead. Trustee Timothy King said, “I’m just excited to go with this. It’s been the bogeyman in the room since January.”
Throughout “the bogeyman” 3-day budget retreat, the council will discuss each line item of a dense 60-page packet—but actual votes will be cast at the June 2024 Village Council meeting.
Village Clerk Shae Hemphill passed out extra copies of the first budget she’s compiled in her new role—with a forecasted total combined expenditures for water and sewer and the general fund of upwards of $2.7 million. Former Cloudcroft Village Clerk Jini Turri helped compile data with Hemphill in the week leading up to the budget retreat. They arrived at the proposed expenditure based on individual budgets that village department heads delivered and spending in years past.
Hemphill will submit an interim budget by June 1st, 2024, to be approved by the council. The next fiscal year will officially begin July 1st, 2024.
Much talk early in the day focused on taxation and public sentiments towards increased costs for water and other “controllable” village income. Turner said:
“What are controllables? Water. Property taxes are property taxes. Gross receipts tax is what it is. We can go after grants…we’ve applied for 14 in just three months. But my point is that our only control is water. If we want to increase the general fund, it’s gunna be taxes or water.”
Maynard mentioned taxes that draw from our large pool of visitors, like the gas tax, rather than solely relying on increases that primarily affect village residents, saying, “People complain about tourists, but they also pay our bills.”
Trustee Tabitha Foster suggested posters or other visual materials be displayed around the village to gather community support for funding projects. Regarding last year’s water bill increases to improve roads, she said, “I think when it went up last time, it wasn’t well-explained to the community beyond a little blurb on the bill.”
The first (and last) department head to present Wednesday was Joe John “JJ” Carrizal for the Maintenance Department—whose budget filled most of the day’s discussion. Early in his presentation, Carrizal said, “We need water. We need sewer. We need decent roadways. Those three priorities never change.”
Maintenance concerns for the next fiscal year also included equipment and repairs, fire hydrants, storage, stocked materials, and more remote-read-capable water meters.
Carrizal handed out articles on lawsuits over municipal liability regarding house fires and fire hydrant maintenance—a pertinent way to garner support for his request: new hydrants that will meet fire department clearance standards and be more easily repaired than the village’s outdated, disparate models.
Grant writer Lauren Groesbeck recently worked with Carrizal to acquire state funding for updating or replacing all the village’s fire hydrants. They are optimistic that the project will come to fruition.
Carrizal requested several “iHydrants” to be installed in different water pressure zones within the village: a way to monitor the water system for changes in pressure and temperature, much like the village’s recently added cellular-read meters.
Since the village approved 142 cellular-read meters last year, our total number of remote-read capable meters is now 574 (out of around 1050). Village maintenance hopes to add another 134 this year and have all meters replaced with tech-savvy units by 2026.
Michael Nivison Public Library Director Julie Johnson advocated for a budget increase for the library, which includes raises for herself and other part-time staff that would total $3,640 for the year. (Johnson is the only department head who is a part-time employee.)
As a completely state-funded project, Johnson is currently working to secure a telehealth booth for online medical appointments, with a proposed location in the Old Red Brick Schoolhouse building community room.
Water was the overarching theme of the day—do we have enough? How much should it cost, and for whom?
The village water ordinance currently applies the distinction of a meager $1.59 more per thousand gallons for high-usage vs. residential usage taps—high-usage meaning over 10,000 gallons per month. If usage reaches over 4,001 gallons per month, the user is billed an additional $6.27 per thousand gallons. If usage reaches over 10,001 gallons per month, the user is billed an additional $7.86 per thousand gallons. There is no bracket beyond that—you can see the ordinance for yourself here.
Other discussions lent the following questions: Can we repurpose our grey water? And are our pipes safe?
The state of New Mexico mandated that by October 16th of this year, all municipalities identify and report lead and copper content, not only in village infrastructure but also in service pipes leading to individual homes. Council discussions of using a Geographic Information System (GIS) to track data for this project led to discussions of how digitized data could streamline more than just our water meters—or create double the data entry for already overextended village employees.
From the public view on the “other side” of the podium, it was easy to see that our department head’s presentations were more than asking for current (and long overdue) needs—they were asking for investments in the future of our village.
From fire management, road, and water maintenance, safeguards within our wastewater plant, snow-plowing, and removal, equipment repairs, prepping for emergent issues, reusing materials, public services, expanding our use of grey water, providing clean drinking water, and more: it’s apparent that the needs of our village are out in the open.
Will the council fund our village of today and tomorrow—and how?
The budget retreat continues today, April 18th, from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM and Friday, times TBD. Stay tuned for more.