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Thursday, July 31, 2008

Fire Station Loan Might Deprive Others

By Lee Ross
Mountain View Telegraph
      Torrance County may risk "robbing Peter to pay Paul" to finish the interior of the McIntosh fire station.
    That's the way Torrance County Commissioner Jim Frost put it, anyway.
    At its July 23 meeting, the county approved a 15-year New Mexico Finance Authority loan for $30,450 to finish the interior of the station. The loan payment, $217 a month, will be paid through a pooled distribution of gross receipts taxes from all county fire departments.
    That means fire stations such as those in Duran or Torreon may not get their full share of the tax money, said county Comptroller Tracy Sedillo.
    She explained that the money is not guaranteed to be in the budget, but is based on projections.
    "If the gross receipt tax goes down, then there's nothing we can do about that," Sedillo said. "It just may take away from the other departments."
    Commission Chairman LeRoy Candelaria pointed out that the other fire departments will be paid back eventually.
    "I still think that it works out in the best interests of the county anyway," he said.
    At the meeting, the commission also decided to look for a board member and an alternate for the Estancia Valley Regional Animal Shelter.
    Edgewood has stopped using the shelter, and now the board has just two members, according to Cindy Jones, the shelter director. She added that there are a lot of decisions to be made, in part because the cost of living, as well as the recent fires in the Manzano Mountains, may have caused an increase in abandoned pets.
    "People can't afford to feed themselves, let alone their animals," she said.
    The commission continued its own discussion on saving money by moving to a four-day workweek with 10-hour days, a continuation of a discussion on July 9. The idea is to save money on employee gas as well as other costs such as heating and cooling in the county courthouse.
    At the July 23 meeting, County Manager Joy Ansley brought back a few details and a few technical sticking points.
    She said some departments may have to remain open five days, which would mean some sort of accommodation would have to be made in parts of the county courthouse.
    "We don't have the ability, in this building, to turn the heat or air off everywhere but in one office," she said.
    She said the county courthouse may not have to remain open on the odd day. Its hours are adopted by a resolution by the commission, but it is legal for it to be closed three days out of the week, Ansley said, and be open four days from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., for example.
    "If the courthouse is open to the public 10 hours, then we are serving the public need," she said.
    The commission will discuss the possibility of making the shift change at its next regular meeting at 9 a.m. on Aug. 13 at the county courthouse in Estancia, according to the county Web site, www. torrancecountynm.org. The county's budget and a contract renewal for the county facility from the Department of Corrections will be discussed at a special meeting today at 9 a.m. at the courthouse.
   

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