By Marty Mayfield
KRTN Multi-Media
Raton City Commissioners met Tuesday July 14, 2020 in regular session at Raton City Hall and heard a telephone presentation from Monica Abeita Executive Director of the North Central NM Economic Development District about the Colfax County Affordable Housing Plan. The County Commission approved the plan in its meeting the day before. Abeita noted that Raton needs about 100 more rental units than it already has to help with both moderate income housing and temporary rentals for employees. It also needs additional low-income units as well.
In her research she found that Colfax County has 687 renter households that earn less than $15,000 a year. Of the 687, Raton has 470 of those. She noted that housing costs in Raton were very affordable compared to other parts of Colfax County and the region.
Abeita suggested that the city might be able to look at low cost loans to create more housing and even to do renovations of other buildings in town that could be used for rental properties. She mentioned using the two empty school buildings to create rental units. She also noted there is a big demand for senior housing and renovations for existing structures. She offered to help the city to find funding and determine who might be able to go after additional funding sources. She commended Terry Baca and the Raton Housing Authority (RHA) for the work he has done with the low-income housing units in Raton. She noted RHA has one of the shorter waiting lists for housing units. Commissioner Lori Chatterly thanked Abeita for her worked that focused on Raton as a unique place and not a “cookie-cutter approach”.
The Commission unanimously adopted the Affordable Housing Resolution/Plan.
City Manager Scott Berry went over the Infrastructure Capital Improvement Plan (ICIP) noting that a couple of the projects that have been on the plan in prior years were now nearing completion, namely the Great Blocks Project and the Transfer Station. He did say that Raton PD vehicles needs to remain on the plan as more of the vehicles need to be replaced. The bike trail connecting Raton and Sugarite Canyon State Park was brought up and Berry noted that while funding might be more easily secured from other sources, but he agreed with commissioners that ICIP was the place for the trail, and it needs to move up in priority on the plans list.
City Treasurer Michael Anne Antonucci noted that a special meeting would be needed to finalize the city budget. She noted that they are still meeting with department heads to finalize spending and is still waiting to receive some final numbers such as the GRT figures.
Terry Baca gave a short presentation for the Raton Arts Council and noted that he felt like he was asking for money from a turnip that didn’t have any blood to give as the city is expecting to see a 50% decrease in Lodger’s Tax income for the last quarter of the year and on into the first half of FY2021. After hearing from Kathy McQueary for the Raton Museum, commissioners agreed to put the requests on the budget especially since both organizations had reduced their requests by half from last year. Then in six months commissioners will take a look at the Lodger’s Tax income and determine if they can fully fund the request.
Commissioners approved a proposal by Berry to take the $58,893 the city will receive for the NMDOT Coop Agreement and create their own chips for chip seal projects in the future. The request had been for repairing Kearny Ave but that project will cost about $200,000 according to Berry. By making its own chips for chip seal work, the city is also hoping to find some used equipment to do the work themselves thus getting more chip seal road work done.
Commissioners approved bids to renovate the mechanical systems ie. Boilers and piping at the Convention Center and work at the Aquatic Center. Both projects went to Mosark, LLC. The Convention Center project bid was for $116,990 while the Aquatic Center work is expected to come in at about $55,000 plus GRT.
Commissioners approved the contract with Envision IT for the Fire Department computer systems for $1,332 and approved the renewal of the dispatch agreement with Colfax County for $49,062.
Commissioners were advised about the destruction of Municipal Court records certification then City Manager Scott Berry told commissioners that the Filter Plant project and the Hospital Drive lift station project are complete. The Great Blocks project is well underway as is the Transfer Station project. The Shuler project is coming close to completion as well but has run into some issues due to age.
With that commissioners concluded their two-hour meeting and will again meet on July 28 for their next regular meeting with a special meeting to be scheduled for next week sometime.
