Trustee Danny Hardwick sat through his last Village of Cloudcroft council meeting Tuesday night before a move to Galveston, Texas.
Mayor Dusty Wiley announced the resignation during his report. “He’s been a valuable asset,” Wiley said. “He’s done a lot of great things.”
Hardwick thanked the council for the chance to serve. “I believe that we’re going in the right direction,” he said.
After the meeting, Hardwick, 78, said he is most proud of “getting a police force back in place,” and of the team now working in the village office. As for Galveston, he said, “I’ll watch y’all [online] from the ocean.”
The village will accept letters of interest for Hardwick’s seat at the village office through Friday, Nov. 20. The council will make an appointment at its regular meeting in December.
‘We Move Forward’
Clerk Jini Turri told the council that on Sept. 14 the mayor received a letter from the New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration (DFA) requiring the village to use a fiscal agent to manage any new capital outlay money.
“Barbara and I were very taken aback,” Turri said. In all their years as clerks, she said, neither had ever been required to have one.
Turri said she and Deputy Clerk Barbara Garcia did what they promised, catching up on audits and budgets by December, but the state is looking at the village’s history. “It’s all because of previous administration,” she said.
The village chose the Council of Governments (COG) in Roswell as its fiscal agent. Every purchase request or reimbursement on those grants will now go from the village to the COG, then to the state, and back.
Turri said the COG told her other municipalities received the same letter that day.
The service comes with an administrative fee. “I was able to negotiate the fee down a little bit,” Turri said. “Not a whole lot.”
The fiscal agent applies only to capital outlay awarded in the last legislative session. That covers four projects: an emergency warning siren system, heavy equipment, a new public restroom, and water and sewer line replacement on Sugar Pine, Cone, and Maple.
Turri said the village needs a full year of compliance before it can request release.
Wiley said he has written to the DFA secretary and the state auditor asking that the village be released from the requirement soon, but he cautioned that the December audit is likely to show repeat findings carried over from previous years, which could keep the requirement in place for several years.
After the meeting, Turri said she is past the shock. “It is what it is,” she said, “and we move forward.”
In a related vote, the council unanimously released Garcia, the other half of the village finance team, from her probationary period after six months with the village. The council also released MVD Clerk Malary Davis from probation.
Capital Outlay Returns
Turri told the council the village must return a 2023 capital outlay award for roads and storm drains. The money was never obligated, and the grant expires in June, leaving too little time to finish the work it was meant for. “We have no choice but to revert those funds back to the state,” Turri said.
Public Works Supervisor JJ Carrizal said previous administrative turnover kept anyone from acting on it.
Obligated: Grants in Progress
Turri walked the council through every active grant and said she will update the list each month. “We really need to complete everything on this list” before asking for more, she said.
The Mountaintop subdivision has two sources. Colonias infrastructure funding in place since 2023 has paid for engineering, and engineering firm Stantec is answering a second round of comments from the state Drinking Water Bureau to close out that phase. A $2 million Community Development Block Grant, with no cash match or loan, will pay for line replacement. Requests for proposals are out, with work set to begin in spring 2027.
The Clean and Beautiful grant will pay for up to 10 temporary roll-off dumpsters placed around the village during peak season.
The Trails Plus Grant is paying for a kiosk, bike maintenance stations, and rest areas at the Elevation Park trailhead. The project is partly finished, and the village can meet its $12,500 match with in-kind labor and equipment.
Several grants are funding wastewater treatment plant improvements.
Three capital outlay awards expiring in June 2027 will cover a new fan press, an upgraded SCADA monitoring system and engineering by CDM Smith. A fourth wastewater award, used alongside those three, is the one the village used to start the fan press purchase.
Another is funding the village’s purchase of the Forest Service land under the plant, which the village expects to close in the coming months.
‘On the Clock’
As of Oct. 28, the village has its discharge permit from the state. “We were not anticipating receiving our discharge permit,” Carrizal said. “So now we’re on the clock.”
Under the permit, the village must post signs within 30 days telling the public the water is not potable. Carrizal told the council those signs have been ordered.
A locking gate must go up at the plant’s entrance within 90 days, and Carrizal is getting bids.
The village has two years to submit a preliminary engineering report, which Carrizal said he is sending now, and four years to turn in 90% plans for a new package plant. CDM Smith is preparing a scope of work for those plans. The engineers estimate a new plant at about $20 million.
The permit also requires quarterly sampling and a nitrogen limit, with $ 15,000-a-day fines for violations. Carrizal said WWTP Operator Scott Powell’s tests are running about 6 milligrams per liter of total nitrogen, under the 10 mg/L limit. With aging equipment, “we’ll be close,” Carrizal said, which is why the village is pushing to install the fan press and membranes.
Last month, the council approved the $800,000 purchase of two new MBR cassettes and other WWTP improvements as step one of planned upgrades.
The council also approved the SCADA contract with Better Industrial Technology Services. The plant’s current computer dates to 1997.
Carrizal added that the state’s sanitary survey of the water system came back clean, but the village will need a dive team to inspect its storage tanks and will likely need to seek funding for that project.
EyeOnWater For Newbies
Carrizal is urging every resident to sign up for EyeOnWater, a free app that shows water use from the new meters and alerts you to leaks.
Carrizal credits Public Works employee Drew Gaines with refining the department’s app monitoring—they used it to find a 10-gallon-a-minute leak on Sunset within four hours, instead of waiting a full 24-hour window.
To sign up, download the free EyeOnWater app from the Apple App Store or Google Play, or go to eyeonwater.com/signup on a computer. Tap Register, enter your service address ZIP code, choose the Village of Cloudcroft as your provider, and enter the account number from your water bill. Then enter your email, create a password, and click the verification link that the app emails you.
Once you’re in, you can see your water use by the hour and day. To catch leaks, open Edit Leak Alert and set an alert for when water keeps flowing for 24 hours straight, even at a gallon or so an hour. You can get alerts by email or text.
Carrizal told the council the village is about 100 meters shy of finishing its replacements to cellular-read meters, so if your meter hasn’t been changed yet, check with the office. Billing and Utilities Clerk Ashley White at the front office has a flyer and can help residents set up the app, and Library Director Sandra Barr offered to help at the library.
More Meeting Takeaways
Police Chief Roger Schoolcraft said the department has stepped up traffic enforcement, targeting overlength trucks that ignore the signs between Artesia and Cloudcroft.
Schoolcraft, who runs the two-man department with Officer Mike Testa, said they are talking with the judge and court clerk about raising fines and adding administrative fees. Doubled fines in school zones are being enforced. Schoolcraft said very few of the drivers cited are locals.
At the library, Director Barr said the new hours, closed Mondays and open Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday 9-4 and Saturday 11-3, have brought more patrons in.
The library’s food pantry, at the side entrance, is open to anyone, “no questions asked,” Barr said. Suggested donations include can openers, pots and pans, boxed macaroni and cheese, bread, toilet paper, feminine products, and other personal items. The pantry has only a small fridge, so anyone donating eggs, cheese or other perishables should call ahead. Sandra is also writing a grant for the pantry.
The library will host a Christmas movie and cookie decorating Dec. 4 and Dec. 11.
Public Works will soon be asking residents to complete an online lead and copper survey created by village staff and available via QR code. The state requires the village to identify the pipe material from each water meter to the house by the end of September 2027.
The next meeting is tentatively scheduled for December 8 at 6 pm in the village chambers. See you there.
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