The Raton City Commission met for the last time in 2025 on Tuesday, Dec. 9th and outgoing Commissioner/Mayor Neil Segotta bid an emotional goodbye to the Commission and his constituents saying for the past 15 years it has been his honor and pleasure to serve all of the community. Segotta said it was a roller coaster, but “we are heading in the right direction because of all of you”. Those in the room responded by giving Segotta a standing ovation for his service. Commissioner Don Giacomo’s term of service also came to an end with the meeting, but Giacomo has not been in attendance for several meetings because of ill health. Before the business part of the meeting, current Colfax County Commissioner Si Trujillo addressed the commission and gave his thanks to both Giacomo and Segotta for their efforts to make things better.
Also addressing the Commission was the new CEO of MCMC, Brian Cotter. Cotter introduced himself by saying he was happy and honored to be in the community and volunteered to work with the Commission and others in the community to help make things better.
A bulk of the commission time was spent on a report from Director of Community and Economic Development Synthia Molina and Economic Advisor and El Raton Media Works (ERMW) Executive Director, Ann Theis. The pair recently traveled to Southern California on a trip approved by the City Commission to build relationships and help ERMW find information to better move forward with the film school/workforce development/ and state-of-the-art XR film studio.
The pair connected with 10 studios and dozens of individuals and came back with a renewed sense of purpose. The project has been in development for five years and has run into roadblocks including severe increases in construction materials and construction cost and unforeseen problems with the structure and foundation at the Kearny School site. Regardless of the setbacks on the original 6.1 million dollar project, ground has been broken by Franken Construction on Phase 1A which will help stabilize the foundation and address other problems with drainage, heating, doors and windows and provide some bathrooms in the building. The pair’s trip also reaffirmed viability of the volumetrix technology that the industry is still investing in. Phase 1B will concentrate on the studio aspect and hopefully a classroom or two.
The Commission approved a purchase of 8 sets of Bunker Gear for the Raton Fire Dept. for $50,705 using Fire Protection Funds.
The Commission also approved a low bid of $293,790 for the North Underpass Rehabilitation Project from H.O. Construction. Their bid was quite a bit lower than the three other bids received and according to Tyler Davis with Engineering Analytics, it was because H.O. opted to do the required painting in house instead of subcontracting.
The HVAC system at the Highlands Education Building (currently housing the Center for Community Innovation) is going to be replaced as the Commission approved a $59,542 estimate from Mosark, LLC.
The Commission approved a request an extension of time to spend program funds for the Cimarron Pipeline System upgrades. The City was previously granted an extension till the end of this year, but because of continued communication issues with some equipment to various pump sites, and some personnel issues with Alpha Southwest, Inc, the request to the NM Finance Authority asks for the extension to spend down the funds be extended to the end of June 2026.
The Commission also approved a task order change for Molzen-Corbin for work on Taxiway A Pavement Maintenance Project at the Crews Field Municipal Airport for the amount of $65,772. 90% of the cost will be paid by the FAA, 9% by NM State Aviation and the City will pay the remaining 1%.
The next City Commission meeting will be a special meeting on Tuesday, January 6, 2026 with the next regularly scheduled Commission meeting set for Tuesday, January 13, 2026.
