News @ Noon / 16 December 2012

Silver Schools held its board meeting Thursday 13 December 2012 at the District Office on Swan Street. Wayne Mendonca, principal of La Plata Middle School, gave an in-depth report on student progress and interventions being used to bring up grade levels in major subjects such as math, reading and language arts.

One treatment was a float period, an extra 45 minute class where grade 7 and 8 students get extra time for a subject on a rotating basis… “This plan allows for improvement of both low and high performing students,” said Mendonca. “We work on both ends; they all get something.”

The lowest 25 percentile students may be asked to give up their elective class to focus on areas they are failing.  Teacher teams, tutoring before school, discovery test evaluations, review of strategy plans, these and more are used to help raise the proficiency levels.

Mendonca said another thrust was parental support.  He estimated 750 teacher-parent interactions had already taken place and more would follow.

The school board election in February was considered. Assistant superintendent Candy Milam explained that some mistakes had been made at the county clerk’s office, which failed to clearly report that there would be more than one polling place. These corrections were being made immediately and the board president and secretary must sign the amendment papers approving the changes naming the 5 other convenience centers after the meeting to insure that they would be recorded on Friday.

These changes will make the Monday papers, but any people who want to run for school board positions have to do so the next day, Tuesday, December 18.  Milam was concerned there was so little time between the notices.  Barry Remmel has declined to run again in area 2, and Pete Holguin sent a note at the meeting saying he wouldn’t run again in area 4, northeast Silver City, and McGaughey’s downtown district 1 is also up for election.

Another part of the February election is the 2-mill levy, which supports operations for the district, and which Milam says would seriously affect classrooms if it failed.

In the superintendent’s report, Lon Streib reported on contacts with the Prospectors, the lobbyists who will present information at the next legislative session in Santa Fe.

Dyslexia was another topic Streib brought up. He said teachers wanted training in interventions that might help students.

The Grant County Commission met in its final regular meeting of the year on Thursday 13 December.

During public input, Hueteotl Lopez, Silver City resident and father of two boys at José Barrios Elementary School, said he knew the commissioners attended the veterans ceremony at the school and knew it was a nice ceremony. “There has been a misunderstanding.  We did not try to stop the ceremony.  We wanted to have it toned down and made age-appropriate.  My family has been here since the Civil War and has a long military history.  But some who are pro-war wanted to make the students memorize military cadence songs.  This year our concerns were taken into account, and the ceremony was toned down.”

He said there were no pictures of military hardware shown. “It was not our intent to cancel the ceremony, and this year, we were heard.  Elementary schools are not places for recruiting.

Saari gave the cash flow analysis, which shows the general fund, at the end of October, to have $2,137,767 in cash, with an expected surplus at the end of the fiscal year, ending June 30, 2013, of $315,545. For more details on the various county funds, go to http://www.grantcountybeat.com/news/news-articles/8336-grant-county-commission-hears-proposal-on-mou-with-health-council .

Commissioners approved an inventory deletion of three buildings at the County Fairgrounds—the lamb and pig barn, the poultry and rabbit barn, and the restrooms—that were damaged in a last summer micro-burst. “Because it is a capital item, we will demolish them,” Saari said. “We received between $60,000 and $65,000 in insurance, plus $5,000 from Miller’s discretionary funding. We will use the money to design the new building and demolish the old.”

Cissy McAndrew, Southwest Green Chamber of Commerce director, gave an update on the Visitor Center.  “We are continuing our Buy Local, Stay Local, Invest Local campaign.  We had an excellent meeting with the Tourism Commission here last Friday. The cabinet secretary also heard from us.  Our concern has been the Catwalk.”

She said the Tamal y Más Fiesta last weekend was a great success, and she appreciated the Hispanic community taking it over.

The Green Chamber held an economic forum Wednesday evening, which she said was very well attended. She showed a public lands document, “West is Best,” created by Headwaters Economics out of Montana. “Growth out West is greater than in the East. Public lands has a huge impact on people choosing to move west.”

Commissioner Gabriel Ramos said he was glad the Green Chamber is supporting Glenwood. “We at the Southwest County Commission Alliance are, also. Another issue is public lands. I continue to push to keep the forest roads open. The Forest Service is slowly putting the Catwalk back together.”

The rest of the meeting will be covered in a subsequent article.

A public meeting was held Wednesday 12 December 2012 to hear a presentation on the planned replacement of the New Mexico 90 Hudson Street Bridge near downtown Silver City and for the New Mexico Department of Transportation to hear residents’ concerns and ideas.

Eric Johnson, senior environmental project manager from Marron and Associates, facilitated the meeting and gave the presentation.

He also said he would return to the area later to discuss what is planned for New Mexico 15, also known as Pinos Altos Road, from U.S. 180 to 32nd Street.

“The purpose of the meeting tonight is to discuss the Hudson Street Bridge project and the detour route,” Johnson said. He gave a short PowerPoint presentation, showing the agency coordination needed, including with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers because of San Vicente Creek running under the bridge, the state Historic Preservation Office to oversee any cultural resources that might be impacted, and the Environment Department to review any contaminated areas and address possible endangered species.”

The project includes upgrading lighting and replacing signs, as well as aesthetics, pavement improvements, roadway striping, drainage improvements and utility coordination. The official detour route is the county Truck Bypass Road to U.S. 180 West and back through Silver City to Hudson and Silver Heights Boulevard.

The first resident asked if the DOT had considered building the new bridge alongside the old one and demolishing the old one when the new one was complete.

Lujan said there was not enough room to build the new one alongside and a lot of required blasting would have significantly increased the cost.

A resident asked if the bridge would be “pleasing to the eye.”

Bill Hutchinson said the department would allow the public to weigh in on aesthetics.

A questioner asked if there were any contingency for improving Cooper Street to Broadway, as additional car traffic is likely to occur there.

“We have not discussed that with the district,” Lujan said. “It may warrant another signal. We realize that a lot of traffic that the bridge carries now will go onto Broadway and Cooper streets.”

A resident asked about a timeline on the project.  Lujan said bids would be let in the fall of 2013. “We are hoping construction will begin in late April 2014. It will take at least eight to 10 months to construct.

Trent Botkin, member of the NMDOT team, said he did not believe there were endangered species in the area, but cultural artifacts may be found. “We will do archaeological and biological surveys. Nothing will be impacted. It will be returned to its present or better state.”

A resident asked how many more public meetings there would be.

“At least three more,” Lujan said, “depending on participation. Between now and the next one, we will do the 30 percent plan. After that we will have the 60 percent plan and then the final plan.”

Seibel asked if a citizen committee had been considered.

“It is not planned” Lujan said. “I’ll be here as often as I need to be. This tonight is very preliminary. We are about three months or so looking at bridge plans. We will come back about April.”

Schultz asked about the estimated cost. “$10 million,” Lujan replied.

To a question about what would happen if the department did not get enough funding, Lujan said: “The bridge is still safe, but we will find the funds. It is a District 1 priority.”

She said the next meeting would be around April and, in the meantime, she would be talking to property owners who will be most impacted by the construction.