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Thursday, July 19, 2007

Board Deeds Land to Conservancy

By Laura Nesbitt
Mountain View Telegraph
    The Estancia Board of Trustees on Tuesday unanimously approved deeding land to the East Torrance Soil and Water Conservation District for the construction of a new education building.
    The approval is contingent upon direction from the town's planning and zoning staff.
    "One government agency can give another government agency something. If they were a private agency we would have to sell it to them," Mayor Martin Hibbs said in a phone interview Wednesday.
    Cheri Lujan of the conservation district laid out preliminary architectural drawings for a 4,000 square-foot building on the 150-by-180-foot piece of land next to the fairground.
    The building will be decorative block with a steel roof, one large room for workshops and displays, restrooms and a storage area, Lujan said.
    Jim Berlier, chairman of the district, told trustees the building would be like a "training facility for soil and water conservation."
    "I'm real excited about the building, and I'm real excited that the town of Estancia is letting us put it on your land," Lujan said.
    The building should be completed by April, in time for the 2008 county fair, Lujan said.
    During the fair, the district will invite both federal and state partners including the state Land Office, the U.S. Forest Service, New Mexico Game and Fish and other soil and water districts to exhibit in the building, she said.
    Also at Tuesday's meeting:
   

Trustees unanimously approved an annual joint powers agreement among Estancia, Mountainair, Moriarty, Willard and Torrance County, requested by Dorothy Gibson, Torrance County 911 emergency services director.
    The emergency dispatch center is now almost 100 percent compliant with the National Incident Management System, Gibson said. NIMS provides a template for organizations to work together effectively when major incident help is needed.
    "Basically, after Katrina, multiple agencies couldn't communicate with one another," Gibson said to explain the NIMS program.
    She said the Santa Fe Department of Public Safety mandated that the center become wireless, and the center is now almost completely compliant.
    The building itself, which once was the McIntosh fire station, is becoming outdated. "Our problem is that we're on top of each other," Gibson told trustees.
    As the population grows, the center will need a larger facility, Hibbs said in a phone interview. At the meeting, he suggested that Gibson devise a five-year plan so the financial burden would not only come from the municipalities involved in the agreement, but could also include state legislative money.
    "We have a call in to (State Rep.) Rhonda King," Gibson said.
   

Hibbs gave trustees an update on the Youth Conservation Corps project at the Estancia Memorial Cemetery. He said the project is about 70 percent complete.
    Mayor Pro Tem Ted Barela said some men delivering trees to the cemetery knocked out some newly built curbs.
    "The turning radius is too tight," Barela said. He suggested putting up another gate to make other ways to exit and prevent drivers from making tight turns.
    Another concern is that there is not a current plat of the cemetery, said Town Clerk Linda Warren.
    Hibbs suggested that next year YCC youths should measure the cemetery and plat the area.