The long and winding roads of Socorro County

Eight people spoke up during public comment at the Socorro County Commission meeting last Tuesday, concerned that their roads were going to be removed from the county road maintenance list.

Residents of Vicente del Curto Road (aka Conant Road) in San Antonio, County Road 234 south of Magdalena, representatives of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Sheriff Lee Armijo raised concerns about public safety, bus transportation for students, and accessibility for seniors.

Casey Del Curto told the commission that she is the sixth generation to live on the ranch past San Antonio and was told the county would no longer maintain their road.

“Almost 40 years our roads have been maintained by the county,” Del Curto said, “We were told they no longer are going to be county maintained roads.”

Marty Greenwood, a resident of Forest Road 234, told the commission that when roads were given names instead of numbers, it created a mess and caused many discrepancies on the maps.

“I can’t see why that all of a sudden that these roads across BLM land or forest service land have been abandoned by the county,” Greenwood said, “There are roads on that map that’s never been maintained by the county, and you’re fixing to approve them tonight, which is totally wrong.”

Mathew Atencio, field manager of Socorro BLM, said the county has always been a wonderful partner in maintaining roads. However, he said BLM does not get funding for maintenance and do not have access to a grader, only a backhoe and bulldozer.

“So we would gladly entertain a meeting in our office with both the big screen and go line by line, with different teams, with anybody,” Atencio said.

During the agenda item of considering a resolution adopting the 2025 annual certified maintained mileage report, Lotrich presented the list, and those in attendance were invited to look at the maps posted on the walls. He said the proposed maintained road mileage is around 1,347 miles, a slight increase from the current 1,300 miles.

“Roads that we are stating that are not going to be on our maintained list because they are BLM maintained roads are the Quebradas and Conant, those are the only two roads that are negatively impacted by this plan,” Lotrich said, “In other words, if the BLM were to maintain Conant Road and Quebradas Road that they currently are the ones responsible for maintaining those roads, if they did their job. We’re able to now take care of another 1200 residents in Socorro County.”

Lotrich added that if he heard correctly from the Del Curto family, they would still have access and connection to their properties from 380.

“What I couldn’t do making this presentation to you is to take the 2024 maintained list that was approved by you and then come back to you with those irregularities. Rather, this presentation is solely to get our total miles maintained. That’s the sole purpose of what the state’s requiring of us is how many total miles are maintained and on what roads.” Lotrich said.

Lotrich clarified that even if roads aren’t on the maintained list, it doesn’t mean they won’t get services.

“It just means that we target the ones that are maintained first, and if we have anything left over or time allotted, we can always do a courtesy blade on any of those other roads. Nothing prohibits us from doing courtesy blades, but it’s a matter of being able to first address the roads on our maintained list,” Lotrich said.

Commissioner Danny Monette said he didn’t feel ready to take action and suggested a public workshop to address people’s concerns.

“It’s already been pointed out to me there’s some roads that have been vacated by the county to still be maintained on there. I think we need to address all these issues at the same time, so I make a motion to table, and I will pass a notebook around, and please put your name, phone number and email if you want to attend these meetings, and I will contact you personally, “Monette said.

Lotrich agreed to have a workshop with both maps made available.

Commissioners voted unanimously to table the agenda item and schedule a public meeting.

First State Bank investments

Lotrich provided a pack to commissioners with an overview of their banking information.

“To give you a general idea and scope as to where Socorro County’s money is being invested and how we’re different than those situations that are currently impacting New Mexico Tech,” Lotrich said.

Lotrich reported the money held at First State Bank is the cash the county needs to have on hand to pay its bills. He said the money cannot be invested elsewhere. However, the county is able to generate interest from the savings accounts where the other invested money is held.

He said his recommendation is not to move any additional money from First State Bank’s operational funds into investments at this time, as the county does not have any additional money available to transfer.

In other business, Lotrich reported that the city rejected the emergency medical services proposal, Socorro County Emergency Manager Fred Berger was appointed as fire marshal and the commission voted for a public hearing on tuition reimbursement for appointed officials.

The next meeting is scheduled for March 11 at 5 p.m. at the Annex.