By Marty Mayfield
KRTN Multi-Media
Raton City Commissioners met Tuesday evening May 9, for their first regular meeting of the month where they went over the draft interim budget and approved the lease agreement with Raton Adventures, LLC for the Coors Building on historic First Street.
Nikko Abanyous presented a proposal for a pride festival in Raton that could bring in money for the city from those attending the event. A date and location has not been set for the event.
Carlos Lopez talked about an outdoor fly-fishing film festival in Trinidad. He then asked about guiding fly fishing at Lake Dorothy. Due to state regulations and a third-party business wanting to do fly-fishing for profit the city is wanting to refrain from that since there is a lot of Red Tape and the state looking over the city’s shoulder.
Commissioners then heard about the FY24 interim budget. Over the past few weeks commissioners have been hashing out what needs the city has to be funded. The budget this year is over 200 pages that includes projects, grants, and other funding. The GRT has seen an increase of about 20% over last year so the city will have a little more money to work with. The Small Cities assistant fund is a wild card as to how much the state will provide each year. (Link to Draft Budget Summary)
An increase commissioners pay of up to $800 a month was also proposed. This would affect only new commissioners as they come into the commission it is not allowed for current commissioners to give themselves a pay raise. Several projects are being considered in this year’s budget which could include work on the ball fields, especially restroom upgrades and parking at Gabriele Field. City Manager Scott Berry noted that outdoor recreation is one of the areas the city has underfunded over the years and is looking at going after grant funds for recreation.
The MRA designation for the Coors building allows the city to create a partnership with a private organization to use the facility to help bring in new business and employment to help revitalize the downtown area. The lease of the Coors Building to Raton Adventures, LLC will begin soon with the city and Raton Adventures working together to do the upgrades to the building. The lease will be for five years at $100 a year with the lease rate increasing after the first five years. The lease price is to get a business up and running.
Commissioners approved a public celebration permit for Left Turn Inc. for the Run to Raton scheduled on July 20-22, 2023, in the downtown area.
Commissioners approved the dispatch agreement with the Town of Springer for $16,002.00 for one year.
Commissioners received two Lodger’s Tax Non-Promo funding requests for Raton Humanities and the Raton Museum with both entities requesting the same amount as last year. The Raton Humanities request is primarily for staff at $18,000. Brenda Ferri noted that she is seeing an increase in attendance over the last year. The Raton Museum is requesting $30,000 again this year. Kathy McQuery noted that the event schedule continues to fill up and that the museum will have a mine camp tour again in conjunction with Vermejo Park Ranch. McQuery noted that the flag fund is above $4000 but the cost of the flags has gone up to over $1000 each. Commissioners approved both requests.
Grow Raton’s budget proposal requests $25,000 for the next year which will help cover the salary of the director. There is another paid staff member whose salary comes from a grant with the state. Grow Raton holds workshops and is engaged in other economic development projects for the city and local businesses. Commissioners approved the request with monies coming from the economic development tax funds for the next year.
Better City LLC was awarded the contract for economic development work for the city. They were the company that worked on the strategic development plan and the city has had a good working relationship with them. The contract for their services will be $8,000 a month. Work will include an action plan, a plan for an annual economic development conference in the area and work for the development of I-27. They will also work on grant funding for the film school in Raton and other projects.
Commissioners heard about the 341+ acres of land south of Hereford Ave in South Raton that was granted to Horse Racing of Raton several years ago. However, the venture never came to fruition and the land should have reverted to the city. The city has now filed a suit against Horse Racing of Raton for default judgement which will return the land back to the city. The issue at hand however, is a large tax debt to the state. New Mexico Tax and Revenue offered to sell the tax debt at a greatly reduced cost. Franken Construction in Las Vegas bought the property for $32,000 the city has negotiated an agreement to pay Franken Construction to purchase the land for $32,000 and will receive a quit claim deed to the property.
CYFD has chosen to terminate the subcontract for services with the North East New Mexico Education Foundation. The city will have to go out for a new RFP for a new subcontractor and have a new one in place by July 1, 2023. The grant covers programs for the youth in the community and has created jobs in the community associated with the programs. Should a proposal not come in it is possible the grant would have to be returned to the state leaving Raton without the girl’s and boy’s programs and the restorative Justice youth services.
The budget adjustment includes the cost of the agreement for the Raton Racing property as well as other fund adjustment for fireworks.
City Manager Scott Berry received notification from Ben Ray Lujan’s office about some congressionally requested funding for the Kearney school grant. Also Lujan is going to take the 10th Street Bridge planning funding request to the senate appropriations committee for funding. Construction has begun on the Sugarite Street project and the chip seal project is underway and includes about eight miles of streets.
Commissioners moved into executive session to discuss the city manager. The commission will meet again on May 23 at 6:00 p.m. in the commission chambers at Raton City Hall.
Pictured are Lieutenant Jacob Butt, Probationary Firefighter Ahsan Maso, Captain Josh Green, Firefighter Andrew Long and Commissioner Lori Chatterly. (Link to Proclamation EMS Week)
