By Marty Mayfield
KRTN Multi-Media
Raton City Commissioners met Tuesday evening March 10, 2020 for their regular meeting and heard from John Rerecich and Monica Ingamells concerning a vicious dog attack in Raton recently and approved celebration permits and Raton Little League MOU.
John Rerecich told the commission about a vicious dog attack where a pit bull had attacked an elderly woman last week. The victim of the attack is in serious condition in Albuquerque according to Rerecich. They are currently trying to raise money for the family. The concern that he and Ingamells brought up was the number of loose dogs running around inside the city limits. While neither one was aware of the new animal ordinance, they do admit the new dog catcher is doing what he can but complained that there is no teeth in enforcement of the ordinance. Mayor Pro-Tem Lindé Schuster suggested that they talk to the judge concerning the matter since he is responsible for penalty assessment in these cases and the city doesn’t have any control over his office.
Commissioners approved the celebration permits for the Hops and Vines event at the Raton Museum on April 18, 2020. This year Brenda Ferri noted the theme will be “Taste of the 20s” and there will be two breweries and three wineries at the event. This year’s companies include, Blu Dragonfly Brewing Co., Comanche Creek Brewing Co., Wicked Kreations Winery, Noisy Water Winery and Las Nueva Ninas Winery and Vineyard.
Commissioners approved the MOU with Raton Little League for this year’s season noting that they city will host the girls’ softball playoffs in July.
Archuleta Construction from Maxwell was awarded the bid to renovate the office space at the Shuler Theater for $49,792 plus GRT. The other two bids were Colt Builders Inc at $49,999 and Naturescapes Cimarron NM for $59,900.
Commissioners authorized City Treasurer Michael Anne Antonucci to create a new bank account and fund numbers for the CDBG downtown infrastructure project. This is a requirement that the CDBG administration requires to administer the grant monies.
Budget adjustment #9 for FY2020 was approved. City Clerk Antonucci noted that most of the changes are line item changes to cover things like overtime for the fire department as they have recently lost a few members and are putting in overtime to cover. She also transferred monies for the economic development for dues and subscriptions for marketing expenditures. (Link to Budget Adjustment #9 FY2020)
In the city manager’s report that Jason Phillips delivered in Scott Berry’s absence he noted that the city is waiting to see what cuts the governor makes in the budget and that Raton did not receive any monies that were allocated in the roads project bill. As a result of that bill there will be no call for projects from NMDOT this year so Raton has missed out on all the money it had hoped to get for street work. They are also waiting to see if Capital Outlay projects get the axe as well.
The CDBG grant project has been surveyed by Drone this last week and will have a visit next week by the CDBG Bureau and DFA something that hasn’t happened in the past. Phillips also noted that William F. Fulginiti Director of the New Mexico Municipal League has passed and his funeral will be on Friday.
The Raton City Commission will meet again on March 24, 2020 at 6:00 p.m. and will have a potential quorum at the NMML District 3 meeting to be held in Raton on March 25, 2020.
