By Laura Nesbitt
Mountain View Telegraph
Martin Hibbs plans to formally resign as mayor of Estancia at tonight's board of trustees meeting. Hibbs has been mayor for 10 years.
"My focus has been trying to improve people's quality of life. That's defined differently by different people. I believe quality of life (means allowing) people to gather and enjoy each other and enjoy where they live," Hibbs said in an interview Friday at the Williams Memorial Library. Hibbs helped build and construct the library with a $1 million bequest by Corinne Williams French.
Although his term does not expire until 2010, according to the town clerk's office, Hibbs said he cannot afford the position.
He has three children in high school and two in college, has no health care, no retirement and does not have September's mortgage payment.
"I had to take out a loan to pay my bills" two weeks ago, he said.
Mayors of small municipalities are not paid for their work, and being mayor is a full-time job, Hibbs said.
Up until about three years ago, Hibbs worked for Bradbury Stamm Construction in Albuquerque, and at one point managed three different construction projects worth about $80 million.
His turning point, he said, came when he collapsed several years ago and was hospitalized for a week from overwork.
At tonight's meeting, Hibbs will give trustees a resignation letter effective at the end of the month.
Hibbs was elected as a trustee only several months before taking over as mayor after James Farrington, who was elected in 1998 in a game of chance, resigned.
Hibbs appointed Ted Barela to fill his empty seat as trustee.
According to Hibbs, the trustees can either appoint a mayor from the outside or appoint one of themselves to take over. Barela, as mayor pro tem, will serve as mayor until someone is formally appointed to finish Hibbs' term.
Barela and Trustees Sylvia Chavez and Josie Chavez Richards were all mentioned by Hibbs as being good choices to take over as mayor. Hibbs said if Richards were appointed it would be similar to 10 years ago when he was elected with so little experience in town affairs.
"My oldest son was 10 years old and in third grade" when I took over as mayor, he said.
Hibbs said that larger municipalities have town managers but a mayor of a smaller community is required to provide management "as well as leadership," he said.
"Little towns have no choice but to get further behind. Rural America is the middle class," which is struggling to find money and expertise to manage needed projects, Hibbs said, adding that he is proud of certain projects completed during his tenure.
"We made the park back into the gathering place it was for literally hundreds of years," Hibbs said, listing projects he is particularly proud of helping to complete.
He also named the Youth Conservation Corps program projects at the cemetery, fairgrounds and park; the public works department; the fire department; the wastewater treatment plant and collection lines in town; and the swimming pool and library.
"We have the best small police department anywhere in the state. Basically when I started we didn't have a police department. But now with the leadership of Jimmy Chavez" we do, Hibbs said.
"I lose sleep thinking of all the possibilities we could do here. But there's not enough time in a day to do it," he said, adding that his disappointments include not getting a motel built.
"We always get the bronze or the silver, and somebody else gets the gold," Hibbs said about the town.
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