By Marty Mayfield
KRTN Multi-Media
Raton City Commissioners met Tuesday evening and breezed through another agenda full of items, as prepared by City Manager Butch McGowen and City Clerk Tricia Garcia.
The one item on the agenda that garnered some discussion was the Lodger’s Tax board recommendation to help fund the Raton Museum. The request was for $25,000 from the contingency fund. The Lodger’s Tax board felt they could only authorize $17,300. A big portion of the funds would go to pay the salary of Roger Sanchez, the curator for the museum.
Commissioners Sandy Mantz and Neal Segotta who have been on the board the longest and had grappled with the decision in the past agreed with Mayor Bobby LeDoux, that funding salaries with contingency funds didn’t quite fit well with him. It was, however, noted that Sanchez’s job falls under the very wide scope of the contingency funds guidelines. Sanchez promotes Raton and the museum in many ways through the museum as part of his job. Commissioners approved the funding.
In other action commissioners approved the permit for the route of the 2nd annual Reindeer Dash to raise funds for a kids shopping trip with the cops. They also approved a resolution to aid in the application process by Raton Main Street for Adopt Smart Growth Principles.
Commissioners approved the October financials and the tower lease for Baca Valley Telephone that had expired in September 2010.
A $15,000 grant agreement was approved to repair the roof on the senior center and upgrade the kitchen to help bring it into compliance with regulations for such a facility.
Commissioners approved a bid for solid waste transportation for $26 a ton.
They approved the introduction of Ordinance 987, which is the ordinance for Raton Natural Gas franchise. The franchise will be for 25 years at a fee of 4% of revenues. City Manager McGowen noted that this was inline with the other franchises the city has and that the changes made are to try to keep all franchise agreements inline with the others. It will be open for public discussion at the December 10 meeting and up for approval at a meeting on December 23.
Commissioners authorized the city attorney to proceed, if necessary, with litigation to recover landfill fees from Andy Holman for disposal of the debris from the El Portal fire.
McGowen then gave his report mentioning that City Clerk Tricia Garcia and City Treasurer Michael Ann Antonucci had been to election school and they would also attend RCI training to be better prepared for the next audit.
Commissioners will meet again on December 10, at 6:00 p.m. at City Hall.
