New animal control ordinance favors ranchers
"Laws for me but not thee," someone pointed out at the last public hearing on the animal control ordinance. A final public hearing will be held in about a month.
Kathleen Sloan
Kathleen Sloan has been a local-government reporter for 17 years, covering counties and cities in three states—New Mexico, Iowa and Florida. She has also covered the arts for various publications in Virginia, New Mexico and Iowa. Sloan worked for the Truth or Consequences Herald newspaper from 2006 to 2013; it closed December 2019. She returned to T or C in 2019 and founded the online newspaper, the Sierra County Sun, with Diana Tittle taking the helm as editor during the last year and a half of operation. The Sun closed December 2021, concurrent with Sloan retiring. SierraCountySun.org is still an open website, with hundreds of past articles still available. Sloan is now a board member of the not-for-profit organization, the Sierra County Public-Interest Journalism Project, which supported the Sun and is currently sponsoring the Sierra County Citizen, another free and open website. Sloan is volunteering as a citizen journalist, covering the T or C beat. She can be reached at kathleen.sloan@gmail.com or 575-297-4146.
Muni golf course subsidy and even higher water and sewer fees make for odd bedfellows at city commission meeting
Sometimes the city commission meeting is like watching commissioners fiddle while Rome burns.
Meeting people in their communities will be the modus operandi of new flood control district board
Sharing and coordinating resources between the two flood control districts bodes well for Sierra Countians, especially since tax money won't sufficiently cover permanent-solutions projects. Economies in operations and grant writing will be necessary.
Turtleback Mountain Golf & Resort has its way with Elephant Butte and Truth or Consequences in annexation action
Rinse and repeat. The people's best interests take a back seat to businesses' development plans, with city councils' compliance and repression of public engagement and withholding of public documents.
Who knew? Elephant Butte’s wastewater treatment plant is in Truth or Consequences
Low land that saved the cost of putting in more lift stations may be the reason the City of Elephant Butte built its wastewater treatment plant within T or C's boundaries. Or maybe Elephant Butte thought it was county land? Now Elephant Butte wants the plant within its city limits.
Fahl goes out with a bang, but not the one she intended
Truth or Consequences residents packed the city commission's Dec. 17 meeting to express their vehement disfavor of Fahl's vague resolution that could "open the door to ICE."
No Kings: Court rules against T or C—City commission can’t make up public bid rules
Ron Fenn, activist and thorn in the side of the T or C city commission, had to file a case in court to get it to uphold the law and get fair treatment. District court, appellate court and remanded back to district court, Fenn finally got justice, after great exertion.
Calling all animal lovers–come to T or C workshop on new animal control ordinance
Mahatma Gandhi: The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.
Sierra Vista Hospital increased revenue by 24 percent due to Governor’s work on Medicaid–and no one tells us?
The hospital's Joint Powers Commission, made up of elected officials from T or C, Village of Williamsburg and Sierra County, are supposed to be reporting to their constituents on hospital doings at their respective meetings. Nope. What do they intend to do with this "new" money?
USDA’s six-week closure now aside and approvals gained—$17.5 million in T or C water projects soon to go to bid
Two critical water projects that will greatly lessen the massive leakage of water--up to 70 percent--will go out to bid in about a month.
T or C’s third $790K tranche of $3 million G.O. bond approved for issuance
City Manager Gary Whitehead and Public Information Officer and Tourism Coordinator Carrie Gaston have made the $3 million G. O. bond approved by voters in 2022 crystalline clear in a series of very readable charts. Kudos for transparency. The city can claim good stewardship and ask for another bond.
A Nightmare at the BLM
The article inside on Steve Pearce being appointed by Trump to head the Bureau of Land Management was written by Jim Pattiz, who is a filmmaker and founder of More Than Just Parks. He has given his permission to the Citizen to reprint his article.