This is my space to offer my opinions on issues that affect the Village of Bosque Farms. I decided this would be a good forum to inform the residents of the Village about past, current, and possibly future actions taken by me and the Governing Body. This is just my viewpoint, others may have a different take on things. I hope you find this informative. I am trying to keep the BobtheMayor web site focused on activities going forward from the time I was elected Mayor. I hope you find this informative.
Please Re-Elect me to the Office of
Mayor on November 7, 2023!
Community Center Support
Legislative Activities
Carved Wood Sign
Stormwater Requirements
My Public Outreach
Zoning Ordinance Revised for Commercial
Zone
The
Planning and Zoning Commission worked diligently to craft new
regulations for the commercial zone regulations on Highway 47.
This was done in response to our Planning and Zoning Officer
voicing some concern about enforceability of the ordinance and some
establishments that were a concern.
The Council then met with the Planning and Zoning Commission to
refine these proposed rules and passed them in the summer of 2015. The
Village desires an orderly presentation of properties on the Boulevard,
not what appears to be junkyard-type businesses.
Animal Control Ordinance Revised
After
many years of meetings and a bit of a hiatus, the Village passed a
comprehensive animal control ordinance.
This effort was quite controversial.
Previously, the Village had a set of three different ordinances
that dealt with animal control. These
ordinances were out of date. Many
years ago a committee was formed, with Councilor Dolly Wallace and
resident Judy Babcock co-chairing the committee.
The committee wrote a whole new ordinance, after extensive
research. Their effort took
about 3 years to complete. Then
the Council held workshops with the committee and the general public. During this time at least two
individuals rewrote the existing 3 ordinances and suggested they be
considered in lieu of the committee’s version of the ordinance.
By late 2011 it was apparent that these workshops were not
resulting in a version of the ordinance that was acceptable to the
Council. The Council took a
break from deliberating the ordinance until January 2015.
Two workshops were held during 2015 that resulted in the
Council passing a new ordinance in the summer of 2015.
Several members of the committee publicly expressed
disappointment with the version of the ordinance that passed, claiming
that much of the protections they put into their draft of the ordinance
were cut from the document, making it less protective.
I took exception to this.
I did a comparison of the committee’s final recommended version
and the one passed by the Council.
There were three major differences.
First, the Council opted not to register dogs.
Some of the reasons that the committee gave for having
registration was to assure that dogs were vaccinated for rabies
(required under State law) and to have the ability to return dogs if
they were lost and picked up by the animal control officer. It is
estimated that there are about 3,000 dogs in Bosque Farms.
A half time staff person would be needed to support
registration of that many dogs. Chipping
dogs is relative inexpensive these days, so that is recommended in lieu
of registration. The
committee members pointed out that a survey they sent out several years
ago resulted in the majority of the respondents saying they were in
support of registration. The
problem with that conclusion was the manner in which the survey question
was asked. The survey
question was worded:
"If
the village were to provide an identification program that would keep
a registry at the Village Office with a description of your pet, your
name, home address, phone number and a promise to attempt to return the pet if lost instead
of taking it to the shelter and a one time
waiver of the stray pickup fee, would you be willing
to pay $5 ($3 for seniors) to register your pet?"
Clearly
the survey question was biased to lead the responder to believe that the
payment of a nominal fee would result in the return of a lost pet. Had they asked a simple
question regarding whether they were in favor of registration there
would likely be a very different statistical response.
The second item that was changed in the ordinance was taking
out the requirements for certified boarding kennels and breeder
facilities. The Village
does not have the resources to do the inspections and paperwork needed
for this requirement. It is
debatable that this certification process would result in safer
conditions. The Village
does not appear to have issues with skeptical kennel owners and
breeders. The third item
that was changed had to do with tethering dogs.
The committee wanted a 12 hour limit on tethering dogs.
The animal control officer said it would be virtually
impossible for him to determine the length of time an animal was on a
tether. Therefore, this
requirement would be unenforceable.
So no limit was placed on the time that a dog can be tethered. I brought forth some
additional requirements for tethering that the committee had not
considered, that limited the weight of the
chain used in tethering and a minimum length of the tether.
So when all was said and done, most of the language that the
committee had recommended was retained in the ordinance that was passed
and those items that were removed do not significantly impact the safety
of animals in Bosque Farms.
Resurfaced the Tennis Courts
Working with Peralta on Sewer Treatment
The
Village Council has established a formal Intergovernmental Agreement
with the Town of Peralta to provide sewer treatment for them when they
establish a sewer collection system in their town.
This was a bit of a contentious process, both between the two
Councils and amongst some of the Village of Bosque Farms Council and the
Mayor. When Peralta
first approached the Village about providing sewer treatment services
they wanted to know what the ball-park cost would be.
I spoke with the Mayor of the Village of Corrales at the time,
Phil Gasteyer, and asked what they were
being charged by the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility
Authority (ABCWUA). He
pointed to the ABCWUA web site where they have published their rates in
their ordinance. These
rates were in the range of $7 to $12 per 100 cubic feet of effluent. I did some cost estimating,
assuming that we would be adding more trips to dispose of sludge to our
disposal site on the mesa west of Los Lunas, as well as other added
expenses, for the additional effluent.
The numbers came out similar to the ABCWUA rates.
I mentioned these rates to Peralta, but clearly pointed out
that the Village Council would need to establish the rate, not me. Peralta’s engineering
contractor thought the rate should be about $5 per customer.
The Valencia County News-Bulletin erroneously published the $5
per customer rate as one that I was supporting.
That was never true. One
of our Village Councilors was very upset over this.
I guess he thought I was selling out the Village. I
tried to explain what had happened, but this Councilor was not
listening. So I scheduled a public workshop to discuss the rate.
I did some additional research on expenses and presented
several options for consideration.
There was little discussion from the Council on my rate options. The Councilor who was upset
never brought forth any data or analysis as an alternative.
Another Councilor presented a rate based on a very simplistic
ratio of current charges. The
Councilor who was upset with me backed this new simplistic estimate. This was very frustrating.
Further discussions ensued with the Peralta Town Council and Mayor. They clearly wanted a lower
rate. At this point the
Village Clerk Administrator was able to research our actual expenses for
operating the sewage treatment plant, while leaving out the cost of
maintaining our sewer collection system. Several Village residents were
adamant that the Village charge Peralta the same rate that the Village
charges their own residents, and no less.
I backed this concept 100%.
In the end, the Council decided not to charge on a per customer
basis, but to monitor the amount of effluent delivered to the plant and
charge on a rate basis. The
rate agreed to was $0.473 per 100 gallons.
This rate is consistent with the rate that Village residents
pay for sewage treatment. The
agreement in place with Peralta is only for their first phase of
development. Not until the
Village can upgrade the sewage treatment plant with an additional
clarifier and sludge processing capabilities will the Village allow
Peralta to expand past phase 1. The
Village Council has been trying to get Capital Outlay from the
legislature and the Governor for several years now to upgrade the sewage
treatment plant. I have met
with the Governor, her deputy chiefs of staff, the Secretary of the
Environment Department, and our legislators in trying to get the backing
for this upgrade. I
estimate the cost of the upgrades to be about $1.8M.
Let’s hope we get these funds, as it would benefit the Village
immensely. As a side note,
the Village’s sewage treatment plant was named the sewer plant of the
year for 2015 by the New Mexico Rural Water Authority.
That might help sway the Governor and the legislature to
provide the funding! (Update - January
Library Addition Update
I wrote a proposal to the legislature to get funding for a library addition a few years ago when the legislature was still funding capital improvement projects. We estimated at the time that we would need about $400,000 to put a 2,000 square foot addition on the library for reading and special event programs. The legislature gave us $260,000 toward the addition. The Village hired an architect to design the addition. They developed a complete design and had the construction bid documents ready to be sent out for a Request For Bid. The Legislature had a couple of years where they did not give out capital outlay monies because of the recession. In 2012, they were allotted some capital outlay monies. Special thanks to Representatives David Chavez, Representative Kiki Saavedra, and Senator David Ulibarri for allocating $120,000 to complete this much needed project. An extension of the prior funds was also granted. The addition was completed in early 2013. This is a wonderful addition to the Library and has been put to great use.
Community Center Improvements
The Village applied
for Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding to make
improvements to the Community Center. We received roughly $250,000 in
grant monies. The Community Center improvements were completed in 2012.
The improvements included replacing the roof, upgrading the bathrooms to
ADA compliance, a new ADA compliant entryway, new floor tile, and a
resurfaced parking lot.