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Thursday, December 6, 2007

Edgewood May Buy Parkland

By Lee Ross
Mountain View Telegraph
    Edgewood's lobbyists may look for money to buy Wildlife West Nature Park— or at least the land it is on.
    Edgewood owning the Wildlife West land would be great news to Roger Alink, the park's founder. Alink has a passion for the park.
    "If you cut me open, I bleed Wildlife West," Alink said in a phone interview Monday. "What we're doing here is making (Wildlife West) last longer. ... It's not about making big changes, it's about creating an environment to make (the park) last."
    The reason he feels Edgewood should own the land is a bit complicated.
    The 122-acre park is owned by a group of private partners who each own a percentage and have a vote in what happens to the park according to how much they own. Alink owns 15 percent.
    He said he'd rather see the land owned by Edgewood.
    "Any private partnership is subject to change," Alink said.
    Alink works for the New Mexico Wildlife Association, the nonprofit organization that leases the land.
    The nonprofit has an option to buy the land for $2 million, a set price that can be changed in August 2009. Alink thinks the price may triple at that point.
    "It's a good deal to exercise that ($2 million) option," Alink said.
    Edgewood Town Administrator Jeff Condrey said anyone can come in and assist the organization with the option to buy.
    "All we want to do is assist them in making sure that Wildlife West stays open and operating," Condrey said.
    The lobbying firm of Joe Nestor Chavez and Associates was hired Nov. 7 by the Edgewood Town Council to represent the town at the state legislative session.
    Joe Nestor Chavez said he will try to find money to buy the park, or a state entity to purchase the land.
    Joe Nestor Chavez and his daughter, Claudette Chavez, met with Condrey and Mayor Howard Calkins in late November.
    "Our direction comes directly from Jeff and the mayor ... They're more knowledgeable about what is happening there (in Edgewood) than we'll ever be because they live there and that's their life," he said.
    Chavez and his daughter also have a list of other requests sent by Edgewood to the Legislature earlier this year.
    The top priority for the town is a $1 million sewer line.
    Sewer collection lines along Plaza Loop, Edgewood 7, Old Route 66, N.M. 344, Church Road and Bassett Road are all included in the project. Parts of that line are already in place.
    According to the town's planning and development manager, Karen Mahalick, the portion along N.M. 344 has already had $750,000 contributed from Wal-Mart, and about $400,000 came from the town to install pipeline on N.M. 344, Old Route 66 and Plaza Loop.
    The town's other funding requests, from the second to the fifth most important, are:
   

A public works facility for the town's road department. The entire project cost, $300,000, is requested.
   

A regional animal shelter for Moriarty, Estancia, Santa Fe County, Bernalillo County and Edgewood. The requested amount, $2.5 million, is the project's total cost and is the total amount all of the involved governments are requesting.
   

An access road to Section 16, the planned site for town offices. Only $55,000 of the $320,000 project cost is requested.
   

Acquisition of land to access Section 34 and make the area into a public park. The requested amount, $108,450, is the project's total cost.
    Joe Nestor Chavez and Associates will also represent Tijeras at the session.
    The village's priorities include a senior center, additional work on a municipal wastewater system, a maintenance department facility, work on village arroyo crossings, a proposed veterans memorial as part of the Luis Garcia Park and stabilization and landscape work for a historic church in Tijeras.