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Thursday, June 19, 2008

Guest View: Edgewood Can Expect Good Things

By Robert Stearley
Mayor of Edgewood
      It has only been about three months since I was elected mayor and John Abrams was added to the council.
    During that time, the Town Council, town staff and I have spent much of our time preparing the budget for the upcoming fiscal year, establishing the police department, setting up a road maintenance schedule, and moving ahead on infrastructure and recreational amenities.
    We have also made some changes in the way that information is supplied to the public, primarily through the town's Web site.
    Public safety
    The state requires every municipality to provide police services, and the contract we have with the State Police will expire June 30.
    The last remaining obstacle to establishing a fully functioning department was obtaining radio dispatch for the officers. I am pleased to be able to say that we have obtained radio dispatch from the Regional Emergency Communication Center in Santa Fe, after obtaining approval of both Santa Fe County and the city of Santa Fe. They were to begin dispatching our officers June 16.
    We have hired four officers and are planning to hire a total of seven, in addition to the chief. This will provide for 24-7 police coverage for Edgewood. Our budget for this department is $898,839.
    In addition to the police budget, the town pays Santa Fe County $197,425 for fire and emergency medical service protection.
    Sewer
    The New Mexico Environment Department has approved our discharge permit as of June 12, and the advertisement (soliciting bids for the construction) for the disposal pond will be placed this week. This permit was necessary before moving forward.
    The town has applied for a loan of $2 million to build the collection lines needed to complete the sewer. We expect to receive approval on the loan before the end of July and to go out for bids as soon as the loan is secured. We are currently working on setting the costs which users of the sewer will pay for sewer hook-ups and monthly sewer rates. The sewer should be in operation in January.
    Roads
    Phase II of the Frost Road improvement will proceed as soon as our professional services contract is finalized. Phase I of our dust abatement was completed in April. Phase II will take place in the next couple of months. The council has budgeted $38,807 for the dust abatement program.
    A regular maintenance schedule has been re-established for our roads, and our capital projects will include a program for paving future roads. We will apply for grants from both the state MAP grant and also the state COOP grant for this purpose and for renovating older paved areas.
    Instead of renting land to store road equipment, we have moved the equipment to the town's land at the sewer treatment facility. This will save money and provide better office space for our crew. This change also offers the possibility of constructing a much-needed shelter for working on the road equipment during inclement weather. Our current operating budget for the Roads Department is $487,546, which is in addition to the expenses of road paving and dust abatement. As the town's revenues continue to grow, we hope to add a second road crew.
    Parks and Recreation
    The Youth Events for Summer Program for ages 5-12 began June 9 and will continue through July 17. With Santa Fe County assistance we are able to extend the days and hours to Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. There will be a field trip each Wednesday. Cost for the entire program, lunch and field trips is $30 per child. There are only a few spots left. To register, call Karen Harrison at 328-7658.
    The town is continuing to maintain and upgrade the park behind the community center at Cactus and Frontage Road. We have installed improvements in the community center, and there are plans to paint it. We have nearly completed the addition of a basketball court behind the community center.
    The Town Council and staff has requested our engineering firm to do a site plan for recreation fields on Section 16, and it is our intention to build those fields using the $510,000 provided by the legislature this year. We plan to break ground as soon as the plans have been drawn and approved. It will take around two months for the plans to be drawn, and then the council will go through an approval process. One of the biggest parts of the job will be to bring infrastructure to the building site, including water, electricity and communications. The infrastructure will be sized to support the additional facilities we plan to build in Section 16.
    The current plan for construction on town property located on section 16 includes a public safety building, town offices, a recreation center and a library.
    The town was successful in obtaining a lease of the 248 acres from the Bureau of Land Management near the corner of Windmill Road and Highway 7. We plan to clean up the property and make it into open space with trails and picnic facilities.
    The town has obtained a five-year commercial lease of Section 32, which is in the Southwest corner of our town, adjacent to the Single Action Shooting Society, the Los Cerritos Subdivision and other neighborhoods. This lease allows the town to control access to the land, unlike the grazing lease we previously had. We will continue the project of thinning of the forest to reduce the fire danger.
    Special events
    The town has budgeted $15,000 to advertise and promote special events. The town expects to provide advertising for events like the wind festival, kids fair, Run-Rally-and-Rock, Wildlife West Music Festival and other events.
    The governing body (mayor and councilors) have been informed by our town attorney that it is illegal for the town to pay the costs of nonprofit organizations. The attorney cited the State Constitution and several examples of case law. It was the council's decision to avoid a possible violation of the state Constitution by providing a budget for advertising of special events, an expenditure which is permitted under the laws governing lodgers tax, and not pay for the other expenses as we had in previous years. Reducing our budget for special events has helped to balance the budget, which has a surplus of only $267. As one member of the council pointed out at a recent budget workshop, that is a razor-thin margin.
    If you have questions or want additional information, please call me at the office at 286-4518.
   

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