Commissioners give manager green light to negotiate EMS with city

The Socorro County Commissioners appointed County Manager Andy Lotrich to proceed with meeting with City of Socorro officials to negotiate an EMS agreement and voted to vacate requested roads at their Tuesday meeting.

Manager report

Lotrich reported the county is working on fire breaks at Bosquecito and the county was just awarded $90,000 for the first phase of developing evacuation plans for Bosquecito and La Joya areas.

“So those two projects are kind of going side by side so that we can go ahead and make sure that we put those fire breaks in so we don’t have the large fires over there anymore.” Lotrich said.

He reported on his attendance at the Economic Summit, “Currently, all federal funding for the economic departments has been halted. So luckily, right now, Socorro County doesn’t have any of that funding coming in, but once we start going after some of the larger projects, that lack of funding will hurt us.”

Lotrich reported the county fire chief has gone through all of the fire department equipment. He said one district has received their latest ICS ratings and they are working on San Antonio next.

He told commissioner that an application to remove speed humps Schmittle Road had been submitted.

“I’m going to go ahead and have meetings out there with the residents on Schmittle Road, get them all together and see if we can’t come to a consensus before we bring anything to the board for action.” Lotrich said.

In other business

Appointment of freeholders to view Flatwell Road, Wade Loop and Comanche Ranch Road for vacation was unanimously approved. The appointment will allow landowners to inspect the road and decide if they are overly burdensome to maintain or no longer needed which would allow the county to vacate the road and give it back to adjacent owners.

Dry Canyon Road also known as Puertocito Road or as County Road 31 was voted to be removed from the maintenance list and the action item on Alamo roads was tabled.

Linda Mares, Director of the Socorro and Veguita Senior center requested $25,000 in county support to match the city contribution. She reported that the senior center is doing well and serving 220 seniors in the county but are in need of financial help.

“Our senior centers are facing budgetary challenges due to the federal budget cuts.” Mares said.

She reported to the board that tariffs, the rise in food cost and the increase in employee insurance is having a significant impact on them and they would appreciate the support.

The participation of the detention center to be a pilot program to bill medicaid for health services and a new control workstation for the detention center were approved by the board. Also approved was a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Associated Universities Inc. for the Next generation learning center at the VLA, unpaved county maintenance policy, rush truck purchase and a letter of support for SCOPE.

During the meeting Commissioner Danny Monette was appointed to the Southwest County Commission alliance.

The next meeting will be a special meeting on June 24. Lotrich said they will need to vote on the fuel reduction program.

“We’re going to be receiving that $90,000 but they sent us the information too late to put it on this agenda. We will be asking your approval to schedule a special meeting two weeks from now,” Lotrich said.