This article is the second analysis of the Copper Flat Mine project. Mining and Minerals Division will hold a hearing on the application’s proposal to filter tailings to save water. It is doubtful if this change will save water and if it will save enough water to operate the mine.
A one-page budget, passed with no questions asked and turned into the Department of Finance and Administration three weeks late. That's the level of fiscal oversight our publicly-owned hospital is getting from our elected officials.
State regulators announce the scheduling of a hearing on Copper Flat mine, and the Citizen begins a series of articles on the mine’s plan of operations and reclamation.
This MOU is too ad hoc, too open-ended, too unpredictable to ensure consistent zoning for new development just outside the city. State law gives T or C extraterritorial zoning authority. I say the city should exercise it, instead of passing this less effective measure.
Zach De Gregorio filed a whistleblower and other complaints about four and a half years ago, which will soon go to a jury trial in October. He named the State of New Mexico, previous-State Auditor Brian Colon and the Spaceport Authority as defendants. Colon extricated himself via summary judgement.
I predicted the City of T or C's collection center would be used to bilk citizens out of money instead of serving their interests, and that has certainly come to pass. I didn't foresee that T or C polycart customers would be exploited to pay for Elephant Butte's polycart customers.
Only the airport went over budget. The general fund is traditionally budgeted to spend more than it takes in, but the hole was partially covered by about $418,000 more in gross-receipts-tax revenue than expected.
Nearly $84 million budget for a town with a population of 6,000 is a testament to infrastructure neglect and rising costs.
It's amazing how little money the city is spending on making the prior PNC Bank into a police building. That is largely thanks to City Manager Gary Whitehead, who digs out the best price using the design-build procurement method.
It must be tough and expensive to go up against the City of Truth or Consequences with its team of lawyers supplied by the New Mexico Municipal League's self-insurers fund, the city's insurer. Barnes settled for $45,000 and the city admitted no wrongdoing.
I wrongly assumed T or C had about 1,000 acre feet a year to parlay to attract development. The state lost a decade-long lawsuit to Texas and the city's unused water rights could be reclaimed, especially since it's wasting up to 47 percent of its water due to infrastructure neglect.
Basic New Mexico water law will help you understand how the Settlement Agreement which ended the Texas v. New Mexico and Colorado lawsuit will affect your water use and your taxes.