Rural addressing discrepancy Magdalena raises emergency response concerns

Stephen Keiser, the county’s GIS Specialist and 911 Addresser, issued a formal letter to the Village Council warning that Magdalena’s current addressing practices violate New Mexico’s Enhanced 911 Act. According to Keiser, the village has been assigning addresses without following required GIS standards, resulting in residents being denied services such as insurance, voter registration, and cellular connectivity.

“The Village of Magdalena is issuing addresses without accounting for road range, axial, non-axial, or area pattern, resulting in incorrect and legally invalid addresses,” Keiser’s letter said.

He outlined three options for the village to come into compliance: independently overhaul its GIS system, enter into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the county, or face administrative review by the state.

The Village of Magdalena Mayor, Richard Rumpf when reached for comment, said they are working to take care of it.

“There is a meeting in Santa Fe with the officials from Santa Fe tomorrow (Nov. 5) with our clerks.” Rumpf said, “We will address it.”

Magdalena Fire Chief Charles Blaylock said the issue has already impacted emergency response efforts.

“We’ve had dispatch call and give us street names that weren’t even in the village,” Blaylock said. “We had to call them back and try to work through the details to figure out what they meant.”

Blaylock said that the problem lies not in changing addresses, but in properly reporting them to the 911 system.

“People think their addresses are going to change, but it’s really about making sure dispatch has accurate information," Blaylock said.

He said it was important that residents know their current addresses would not be changed.

The fire chief supports the MOU option, noting that it would be more cost-effective and consistent with county-wide systems.

“We’re a volunteer department, and as our volunteers get older, we need more assistance. Having dispatch understand our address system is critical,” Blaylock said.

On Oct. 23 Former County Manager Andrew Lotrich said he had previously attempted to mediate the issue. In an email forwarded to El Defensor Chieftain, Lotrich said it was “unfortunate that the Mayor and his leadership team refused to attend a meeting with the State to discuss a resolution.”

A new mayor is expected to take office in January, and Keiser said he is willing to revisit the issue then but warned that continued inaction could result in a referral to the New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration.