Swimmers request year-round pool

Socorro community members asked the city during public input if they would consider a dialog regarding opening the city pool year-round at their regular meeting last week.

Catherine Stewart Roach, who said she uses both the city and New Mexico Tech pool, suggested a half year or year pool use charge to help with the financial burden.

Mayor Ravi Bhasker said he supported the idea and noted it would be expensive for the city to run the pool year around alone and suggested a collaborative effort with other local entities.

“I would like to see us do it with the schools, the county, Tech and the city. It could be a bond issue that would be done,” Bhasker said, “But it would be good to have all four entities involved in trying to finance it. Instead of just the city taking on its own, but we would still manage it.”

He also confirmed the superfund clean-up pond would not be appropriate for swimming but for kayaking and boats.

“We have one of the few large sized pools in the state,” Bhasker said, “It would be an attraction. I just think you have to put the budget together for it.”

He said he would look into opening the Socorro Pool earlier. He recommended public commentors stay for the infrastructure capital improvement plan (ICIP) hearing and mention their pool request.

“You opened up a lot of information we need to look into. So we’ll definitely do that,” Bhasker said to commentors.

Beth Cadol, Socorro track coach also spoke during public input. She said, thank you, to the city for the t-shirts and reported that at the end of March, they hosted an inaugural community track meet.

“It was a really cold, blustery day, unfortunately, but we still had 80 participants, ages seven to 70 come out and participate in something at the track that day. It was super fun. We raised over $1,300 in the process,” Cadol said.

Allison Mason introduced herself as the new president of the Socorro farmers market and Christy Mays as the new vice president and thanked the city for their continued support. She discussed how they could continue a good partnership with the city. She reported that during the summer they have 15 to 25 vendors and 300 to 400 customers every Saturday.

The city also heard from Chris Muirhead of Modrall Sperling Firm about an opportunity to refinance four of the city’s outstanding debt obligations with the US Department of Agriculture from 2021 and 2022. He said the city will save approximately $3,822,340 in interest over the life of the loan. The ordinance was passed unanimously by the council.

EMS

Mary Ann Chavez Lopez reported that she had not heard back from the county regarding a meeting between city councilors and county commissioners to talk about emergency services. Bhasker confirmed he hadn’t heard anything from the county either, he also shared bill information on collections from the EMS department.

“Like the mayor said, the transfers are very healthy. That’s where we make the majority of our revenue. So it’s the calls. When we get called out to the county a lot of time, like 70% to 80% of the time we get called out there, we’re not transporting because they refuse. So that’s where the cost comes from,” Lawrence Baca, Fire chief said.

Baca reported that he met Veronica Pound from Socorro General Hospital.

“She (Pound) just wanted to clear up the rumor mill that was going on about possibly PHI coming in with a critical care ambulance service coming in to do those transports,” Baca said.

He said although it’s a possibility that PHI might station a helicopter in Socorro, the other possibility is that they would station at the new hospital in Los Lunas, but right now Pound is only just having conversations with them.

Baca said that his department is run ragged every day trying to keep up.

“In the last three weeks, we’ve responded to Alamo three times and then Valencia called us this morning to see if you would take one of their calls in Rio Communities,” Baca said, “So we need to do something, because we’re leaving the town unmanned at times, and not only that, my staff is getting tired of running and running. They’re just constantly running.”

Baca also reported they started the remodeling of the fire station with the $500,00 grant they received. He also has six staff who are enrolled in the EMT intermediate class held at the hospital with hopes they will become fully certified.

Department reports

Chris Carillo, city code enforcement officer, reported that he has found a good working groove with court proceedings and prepares detailed packets with logs and pictures for each case for the judge.

“The hardest part with older houses and abandoned houses is just trying to find someone that I can hold accountable,” Carillo said.

Michael Padilla, city recreation director, reported the adult volley ball program has 14 teams and they play Monday and Wednesday. He said they will be kicking off youth baseball on May 19. He said participation has grown from 270 kids last year to 330 this year.

The next meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. on May 6 at city hall.