all right you guys are gonna go all
right thank you
thank you dominic everyone hi
i i've got my audio working so we're
good to go
all right we'll go ahead and call the
meeting to order it's
105 pm if everyone will please
join me in the pledge of allegiance
i pledge to see i even got a flag i
pledge allegiance to the flag
oh i'm sorry
of course i've got somebody at the door
okay can everybody hear me
okay i pledge allegiance to the flag of
the united states of america
and to the republic for which it stands
one nation under god
indivisible with liberty and justice for
all
okay can we get a roll call andrew
yes madam chair counselor sorg
here mr doodle here
trustee garcia here uh commissioner
gonzalez
commissioner sanchez president
commissioner solis president
uh councillor vasquez here and madam
chair
uh we do have a quorum madam chair okay
thank you
and does anyone have a conflict of
interest or a perceived conflict of
interest
that needs to be disclosed
thank you and andrew i didn't receive
any public
did you madam chair i did not receive
any uh public comment for this meeting
okay
and moving on to the people of the
agenda
can i get a motion to approve the agenda
this is commissioner sanchez i'll move
approval
this is trustee garcia i'll second it
all right thank you
andrew can you do the roll call yes
madam chair
counselor sorg
yes mayor barasa
yes counselor ben como
yes mr doolittle yes
trustee garcia yes
commissioner sanchez yes
commissioner solis yes counselor vasquez
yes madam chair yes
madam chair the motion passes thank you
and can i get an approval of the minutes
please
motion to approve rather
so moved thank you counselor ben como
can i get a second commissioner sanchez
i'll say a second
thank you commissioner sanchez all right
andrew
can we get away madam chair uh counselor
yes yes
counselor ben como yes
mr doolittle yes
trustee garcia yes
commissioner sanchez yes commissioner
solis
yes counselor vasquez yes
and madam chair yes madam chair the
motion passes
all right thank you my apologies
everybody i was doing the pledge of
allegiance
of course somebody was knocking on the
door okay
moving right along to action item 7.1
resolution 20-08 a resolution amending
the messiah valley mpo committee bylaws
and operating procedures thank you madam
chair this is andrew ray for the record
if you'll bear with me for
just a moment while i share my screen
okay before i get started can everybody
see the screen share
yes yes okay very good
uh as everybody is aware we had the
discussion at last month's meeting
uh regarding the language and the bylaws
the current language and the bylaws
creates an inhibition
for us as the npo to hold a virtual
meeting
we had the discussion at last month's
meeting with a proposed language for an
amendment to the bylaws
i had a good conversation a suggestion
uh from
the policy committee about how to change
uh
the original draft of the of the
language that change has been
implemented as you can see
in your packet and it's also the
language that
is present on the slide the uh
bpac recommended approval of the bylaws
amendment at their august 18th meeting
and the technical advisory committee
recommended approval at their september
third meeting
and that concludes my presentation and
i'll stand now for any questions i'll
take the slide back to the
the language of the amendment
mountain chair yes mayor uh i make a
motion we approve the resolution
thank you mayor madam chair
okay counselor thank you
does any of the committee have any
questions or comments
andrew any discussion
okay uh seeing none
andrew um would you like to do a roll
call yes madam chair counselor sorg
yes mayor barasa yes
councillor ben combo yes mr doolittle
yes justin garcia
yes uh commissioner sanchez
yes commissioner solis
yes counselor vasquez yes
and madam chair yes madam chair the
motion passes
all right thank you andrew thank you
everyone
moving on to discussion items ebid
trail promoting process presentation
thank you madam chair uh we are very
pleased to have with us uh
on the line today mr zachary libben from
ebid
he is going to be giving this
afternoon's presentation
good afternoon everybody i'm working
also working on pulling up my
presentation here
i sent it to
andrew so he can uh share with anybody
that would like it
see you again
all right councilman sword did
can you say that again oh just good to
see you as all
well nice to see you you just have a
picture but
um i'll i'll run
i'll get my camera going here you're
okay you're okay
it is nice to see you guys though um
so this afternoon i do have a short
presentation
about the both the permitting process
dealing with ebid and
more specifics on more specifically two
trails and and how
ebid uh how we can deal with trails
moving forward
sorry caught me slightly off guard okay
i'm ready now
so
okay i'm ready uh so again first we're
going to cover the permit process
and then trail specifics and then i'd be
i really welcome any comments or input
or
or questions that you all have
ebid is a quasi government political
subdivision
formed to serve its members
specifically to serve our members with
rio grande project irrigation water
surface water
any use of ebid facilities requires a
permit or a written agreement
whether that be a trail or or
to be even more specific
uses for ebid facilities for recreation
are not permitted without
some kind of agreement whether that be a
trail or a trail permit or whatever it
is
our permit process i have a fact sheet
that covers this in a lot more detail
this has too many words in this slide
but
um our permanent process is that a
applicant must submit a
right-of-use permit application to our
engineering department here
with a 50 plus tax application fee
that's required with that application
sorry the
that application is available at our
website or you can stop by your office
and
and work with us and get to get a copy
from us here we are allowing
a limited limited number of people into
our office currently into our
lobby it's highly recommended
that you start discussions with the bids
with our engineering department here
as soon as possible for design criteria
and and just discussions
and the trail is a very good example of
a time when that that is uh
a really good idea to start that
discussion early
certain structures can only be designed
and installed by ebid
and major works like bridges uh
need to be designed by a professional
stamped by a professional engineer
general conditions requirements
responsibilities can be found on the
back of the
write of use application which is again
available on our website
which those are also the same general
conditions
found on a special use permit
um recommend you review those thoroughly
because there's a lot of information
there
special conditions can be added as well
either by staff or during the board
meeting the board can add
whatever special conditions they deem
necessary to approve that permit
it gets the an application that gets
reviewed by
ebid departments that's the
department heads and then we provide a
recommendation to ebid's board
of directors
ebid's board meets the second wednesday
of each month usually and
applicants don't need to be present
however if questions arise during the
meeting
it'd be great if the permittee can help
us answer those questions otherwise it's
likely to get tabled for
the next month's meeting
applications take at least a month to
get through our board
through our process review and approval
by our board
something like a trail working with the
city of las cruces for example on the on
the trails
that were the first application was
recently approved
by our board it does
it that required uh several months of
coordination on the design to make sure
that design
accommodated all of everybody's needs
there
construction can only take place
during the non-irrigation season unless
there's a very good reason
and any disturbance like on a bank would
would fit much better during a
non-irrigation season
so again general information can be
found on our website we've also got it
here handy at our offices here
and then we have a fact sheet i also
included that to i sent the
this presentation to andrew i included
that fact sheet
and it's very general it's not about
permits i mean it's not about trails
it's just about permits in general
but it uh does have a good some good
information on there
um i have here with me lucas doherty
who's our land and permit technician
and then our engineering and land
assistant is miss anna donahue
i'm going to give my name zach libman i
don't know if i said that at the
beginning got in a rush
okay uh the
the pro the process specific to trails
needs to start with an mou
and we we've set this process up with
the city of las cruces
as the the first uh entity
with a permitted trail started with with
uh before the trails could be allowed we
had to go to the state legislator what
we called the trails act so that that
was required to
allow ebid to have trails without
assuming the liability of the trail
and um a lawyer could could tell you
that
any public entity can't identify another
public entity and that's not what's
required for a trail
just required that the permittee of the
trail
take responsibility and liability for
that trail and the public using that
property there
so that that was worked out in 2009
and the first permit was issued to the
city in 2009
for the portion of trail along the
dhoniana drain
that is the city outfall channel so the
city outfall channel
goes down the portion of the donut drain
and that part was permitted
for that that trail over there along the
city outfall channel
so again an mou is required to establish
mutual agreement address liability and
general conditions
up front then
city of las cruces and ebid have an mlu
in place
and following the more recent approval
of a permit for the messiah drain
segment of the city's go bond trail
we've come up with some new special
conditions and uh we've been in
discussion with autonomou
and so those special conditions that we
came up with that are sort of lessons
learned and uh
some new items that have arisen that
need to be included in the mou
and and i think that document's gonna
turn out uh very good
and will you uh really lay out what
we're trying to get done there
um a special use permit still required
for the discrete segment of ebid system
and that's where we get into the design
and specifics of each one of those
and then the alignment for each discrete
section of a trail needs to be discussed
in detail with dbid
up front so that we can work with our
operations and maintenance departments
to provide input
we we for example with the working with
the city on the trails that they have
planned with a go bond
ebid is not going to give up the bank
that we use
constantly for a trail
but we can work with
in most areas designating one side that
we don't use as much for the trail
because then the big benefit to us is
getting the foot traffic
away from the bank that we're going to
be using and on to the other bank
leaving our
our operation and maintenance bank for
our uses and that comes up again later
so ebid's board will not approve permits
for uses that significantly detriment
ebid's purpose and objectives
and obviously our ditch writers being
able to get to check gates and turnouts
and such
is what would detriment our purpose and
our objectives
so the tree has to be designed so that
it doesn't significantly hinder
ebid's operation and maintenance so only
one bank shelf
will be authorized with ebid dictating
which bank will continue to be required
freebie ideas operation and maintenance
and under no circumstances will a
permanently be allowed to assignment
simultaneously use both sides of nbid
facility because we wouldn't uh we
would have challenges being able to use
to do our
operation and maintenance the permittee
is responsible for liability and
enforcement
of non-motorized use and
ensuring that the public doesn't use the
other the other bank
and doesn't enter the water prison which
is a concern of ours
no structures pavement park equipment
landscaping will be allowed to impede
the water prism
or freeboard
the trail would have to be will be
subservient to ebid's purposes
and agricultural functions and
maintenance
no use will be permitted which will
degrade the quality of the water
trails must be mountable for
ebid operation and maintenance when
necessary
so that we can do say in an emergency or
whatever it is um
and then trails are subject to closure
for emergencies
and if we had to do an operation and
maintenance or whatever it was
they're subject to closure for that
reason so going back up one slide
this point about ebid will not approve
permits and significantly detriment
ebid's purpose and objectives ebid
is uh formed to serve
the agricultural community with surface
water and on that note
the board has also made it very clear to
us that
we shouldn't waste our breaths with
trying to
run a trail through an
area of farmland there's there's great
places like through the city las cruces
uh through the town of messiah that
farmland
isn't adjacent to the to the canal
where the the bank
for the bank where the trail might be
proposed
if a permittee desires to run a trail
through a pecan trip for example
they will need to have discussion and
some kind of agreement with the
land adjacent landowner otherwise it's
highly unlikely that
ebid's board would approve a permit for
a trail that ebad's members
are in agreement with so
in the event that improvements or
landscaping or damaged during ebates
operation and maintenance
or irrigation system emergencies the
permittee will be solely responsible for
the costs associated with replacing the
landscaping or improvements or
trail uh ebad obviously fix the the
ditch break
and repair the
function of the canal bank that we need
but
putting the trail back be the
responsibility of the permittee
and then again no liability can follow
upon ebid
for damaging the facilities
or improvements installed by the
permittee on ebid properties so
if we do have to get in there for an
emergency
and it requires a track coat and that
damages the trail ebid won't be
responsible for that
and then the the probably the biggest
hang up and this is why
the trail act was required is that ebid
won't be responsible
for liability associated with the safety
of the public
utilizing the primitive property or for
any criminal activity or in the vicinity
of the primitive property
and the permittee has to maintain the
trail in such a way that
ebid can maintain this immunity
the perma-tea is going to have to keep
the inside and outside slopes
of the bank of ebid's canal lateral
drain free of weeds trash and debris and
erosion again we don't want to get in
there on that side of the trail we're
going to leave that to the permittee to
keep up the weeds and such along there
the goal would be that we don't
have to go down that bank with a backhoe
to address weeds or whatever it is that
that would be up to the permittee
and that leaves us the next point that
the permit team must address and respond
to concerns or complaints of the public
uses of the trail
neighboring landowners ebitd members
whatever it is stemming from the trail
in any permitted use
we don't want to be dealing with
if there's a pothole or there's a
tumbleweed or whatever it is
that's not going to be ebid's
responsibility to address those concerns
the permittee's going to have to place
and maintain signage along
the trail notifying users that the the
bank
that only the bank designated for a
trail is for public use and that the
other bank
is the use of the other bank would be
trespass
and is not allowed so that that that'll
need to be made clear that the other
bank
is not to be a trail so that we can do
our operation and maintenance there
again that's a big benefit to ebid that
we can get that traffic off of the one
bank onto the other bank and then ebid
can do its operation and maintenance
from the
the one banks that's what we're agreeing
to is giving up
uh normal operation and maintenance on
the
on the trail side in lieu of getting
those folks off of our
our canal bank that we're using for
operation and maintenance
then lastly sort of a right to farm act
part of this that the permittee can't
allow the permitted use of ebip property
to
to prevent or be detrimental to ebid's
ability to operate and maintain its
facilities
or agricultural uses or farming
practices of the neighboring landowners
the permitted use of ebid property shall
not detriment the la
the right to farm or the neighboring
landowner so we can't have
whoever it is the permatease saying that
farmer next to the trail can't spray
zinc or
can't spray uh herbicide or a pesticide
or whatever it is
because of the trail we can't let that
happen because
it's it's critical obviously that we
keep the agricultural
the ability for our farmers to to farm
construction and maintenance of the bank
this is designated for a trail is going
to
have to provide adequate freeboard which
means
for like a canal that the bank's going
to have to be built a bit
in some places to meet our
minimum free board so that we are
keeping the water in the canal
specifically once that trail is put on
top
if we didn't require that bank to be
built before we put a paid trail for
example
not that all trails have to be paved i'm
not i'm not saying that but
uh before it were to be paved the bank's
gonna have to build up to that minimum
freeboard but it'll be hard for us to go
back there and raise the banks obviously
once there's asphalt on the on the canal
bank so
gates removable ballers will need to be
constructed and maintained again to keep
the motorized
use off of the off of the trail and to
limit the public access to the side we
don't want the public on
we also reserve the right that if a
problem arises we may
be we may need to require more gates in
the future and then ebid will have
access to its property at all times
to be able to do what we need to do
so with all that being said i'm open to
any questions or
comments concerns input whatever if you
guys have anything for me i'm we're
happy to help
thank you mr levin for that presentation
very informative
does anyone on the committee have any
questions
i do yes mayor okay thank you
hi zach how's it going great how are you
doing today mayor
i'm good thanks zach on the gates
um does ebid
install the gates there or is it the
responsibility of those that are
building the trails
to provide those gates because i know
you'll you'll need
uh for them to be locked that you all
will have keys
so who's responsible for installing the
gates
um along a trail will definitely be the
permittee's responsibility to install
those gates
in general we do cooperate with our
farmers sometimes to put gates up
and and they pay for the materials and
sometimes we'll install them although
we've been so behind on fabrication we
haven't been doing that much anymore so
so for example in the in the case of say
autonomous trail we'll want the
permittee to install those gates
and and you're correct the ones that
removable bullards might be a little bit
tricky we could probably share a key for
those but
any gate on ebid facilities always need
to have an ebi-d lock and if they can
uh so pretty much they need to have both
of our locks on it so we can get in
whenever we need to and the permittee
for any gate any farmer whoever it is
they can have their luck and we can have
our luck
okay okay thank you that was my only
question
thank you mayor does anyone else have
any questions
comments um i have a question madam
chair
yes counselor thank you um
uh thank you mr livin for the
presentation very informative
uh first i want to say thank you for
your partnership
uh with the city for creating a
better trail system uh here that uh is
just really beneficial for
our community um it's uh
you know it's i think the ebid uh
laterals and
canals have been used for a long time um
informally probably right for
recreational purposes walking and
biking and that kind of thing so being
able to
legitimize this through a formal mou
i think is a great benefit to our
community
i'm wondering in terms of the permits
that you currently have
do you have other permitees for trail
uses besides the city
of las cruces and maybe messiah um
counselor we we do not yet um currently
the city likewise i'd like to to share
your thanks back to the city for the
city working with ebid
to legitimize some of these these areas
and get these trails built
and to make these uh these beneficial
multi-use
access legal and i think that's uh one
of the benefits cbi d2 is to legalize
that
and then again the city is taking the
liability is is a big help to ebay id as
well so that's one of the benefits gpid
one of the reasons the board's willing
to consider that and it's been one of
gary's visions for a long time that we
we partner in that so the answer to your
question is
no um we don't
have any other permitees at this point
uh we we have it has been a pleasure
working with
the city staff as well uh
tony trevino and these folks have been
have been very easy to work with
uh cooperative and uh we've definitely
made a lot of headway on
these permits and and the designs for
the trail specifically
so that's that's been going well and i
and i think
that will help spur uh some of the other
entities to
to want to do that as well so we've been
working with the town of macia
i just
i i guess i i just lost the guy's name
at the at the autonomous just just
blinked i could see his face but
anyway uh he he's been a a pleasure to
work with at the
at the town of messi as well and we're
just starting the
the process the the dona ana county
is the only other entity that we've
talked about trails with
but they have been uh not as
cooperative as the the city or town of
macia
but eventually we'll probably also have
a trail with the village of hatch in the
near future too we're already working on
a
pipe piping the lateral to set up a
great place to have a trail to the
village of hatch as well
thank you mr living that's exciting to
hear um that potentially we could have a
network of uh local governments that
would partner with ebid to formalize
this network of
uh transportation and recreation i think
it's such a great asset that we have
here that could just continue to expand
so thank you for that
um i have a question as it relates to
special
events uh you know assuming that
like many other city parks uh or
recreational facilities
there might be an interest from the
public and hosting a special event
uh for example i'm thinking a 5k
run or 10k run or maybe even a
bicycle race or something like that
fundraiser all those kinds of things
that people do on city parks
what how does the special event fit in
within an existing
permit with a local government
uh is the city allowed to then issue
special event kind of permits or is that
something that needs to go back to ebid
for
uh additional permission
i'll be honest that that is a really
good question and that's one that we've
kicked around
recently i guess it hadn't been thought
of during the
during the mou um so it would be great
if that was something we could address
in the mou
i gotta be careful not to speak without
talking to your counsel first
but my my opinion would be that once the
city's taking the liability of that i
wouldn't see any issue with the city
having a fun run
as long as the city is the again being
the permittee has blessed that
as uh something that you're willing to
take the responsibility of that you
don't
uh that somebody doesn't decide to have
a
motorcycle race down the canal bank and
say the the city gave them permission
when you didn't
um i think that's probably what that
that's where i'd be coming from but that
would be great if we could have that
addressed in the mou
so that up front our lawyers specific
council council specifically or
have have a chance to have input on that
but
i i think my opinion would be that once
it's
blessed as a city trail and the city's
willing to take responsibility for that
then it should be able to be
included within that original permit i
think okay
thank you that's how that's very helpful
um to think about about that
and then the other question is around
motorized use atvs
utvs
as long as i've lived here and have been
around the ditches i've seen
motorized use um and and dirt bikes as
well
uh on on the ditches frequently um
honestly all the time uh any given
day there's there's probably some
motorized use and so
uh a lot of that happens on the trails
that are not or on the uh
laterals and ditch banks that are not
going to be part of the official maybe
trail system
so how does ebid currently deal with the
issue of enforcement
of motorized fuse on on your trails or
on your laterals
so so you are correct it's hard to deny
that there's not a lot of that going on
we are we are working daily on
addressing that through signage mostly
at this point
enforcement of that is extremely hard as
well because
we have worked with the county sheriff
and the the city police and codes
enforcement
uh the autonomous sea of marshall worked
with with those entities to help us with
enforcement of these issues
um but again an atv for example unless
they were to stop and wait for the
police officer to come for example
they're gonna be very hard to to
make an example of one or to address
that we are putting up more gates
as necessary and anyone can can apply
for a permit for a gate so
a farmers are commonly applying for
for permits for gates um an example
uh an example would be but another
example would be that the city could
apply for a permit for a gate anywhere
if the if they're having a problem with
that likewise ebid has installed plenty
of gates
uh just to address that where
like tortugas for example we had a
terrible issue with
with those folks trying to use that as a
shortcut and four-wheelers and
and such and it got dangerous and very
challenging for our ditch riders so
gates are tricky because on canals and
laterals
they obviously have to be open during
water season so that our ditch riders
don't have to open and close the gate
open and close the gate everywhere they
go
but we do want especially non-irrigated
drains can be gated almost any time but
not irrigation season we want those shut
down just to make that really clear to
folks
that is not a road and that's one of the
biggest issues is that
if it's a city road or a county road
then that's that's great we can work out
that agreement but otherwise we do not
allow
uh motorized use of our banks
uh with one exception but we don't allow
motorized use of our of our canal banks
for legal ingress and egress recreation
any of those kind of things i've got a
we've been putting little utility
markers up with some with some stickers
on them that say maintain for the
storage and version of water no
trespassing not a road
all over the place um and you now that i
showed that to you you probably see them
around
we put up 1400 of them so far and got
another 2 000 to install
working to get it more clear to folks
that they're not supposed to be there
and then that makes enforcement just
that much
more important to that we do address
that at some point
but definitely a challenge and
definitely a problem both
liability but also just our normal
operation and maintenance when you've
got
somebody that pulls up to you with an on
a four-wheeler and stands there looking
at you like you need to back up and get
out of the way
it's uh it's challenging
thank you mr and i appreciate your
honesty in that and i know it's a
challenge
um in terms of the enforcement piece of
that
i think it's important to to start
thinking more
about about proactive enforcement i
could imagine
and i've seen it happen actually clicks
between users
on whether it's
cyclists or trail runners
with folks clearly that are on motorized
in motorized vehicles on trails that are
not meant for them
you know as those trails become more
widely used and i can see it
perhaps happening more this summer just
because of the amount of people that are
outside
uh walking and being outdoors um
you know those conflicts could could
could potentially be bad but
but also as you mentioned you know all
the other issues related to justice the
the safety of having motorized
vehicles on on the on the trails anyway
and in the laterals but i think that's
something for us to
to maybe continue to look at with with
the partnership between the city
um and ebid and maybe even some targeted
enforcement
operations from the part of uh within
the city jurisdiction the police
department and also donate county
um i just think it could go it could go
bad
with increased traffic if we're not
proactively
trying to enforce some of those issues
i'm sure local
uh city police department be willing to
to work with you on something like that
um and we do hear complaints you know
from folks from from our constituents as
well of just high speeds
um folks riding down high speeds
especially down by the river
um mostly in this tia but um
some of it around this around the valley
area as well
i think those are mostly all my
questions um
i'm gonna throw one wild card out there
uh just because
we're here um but you know i've always
i've always wanted to have perhaps a
natural area for folks to fish you know
like a little pond or something
in the city that would tie into some of
the ditches and maybe use some existing
water rights to
to build a nice little place when i was
a kid i used to fish at the
uh near the messiah valley uh bosque
state park
um because it just you know some of
those places held a lot of water and a
lot of a lot of different species of
fish and i always thought man how cool
would it be to have
a place for families to fish but um is
there anything
has ebid ever given any thought to
creating uh in terms of expanding the
recreational use of
you know a little pond or something like
that for for families and kids to fish
around the ditch network so so i mean i
i gary would would never say no to that
idea
with with the caveat that liability is
always the issue right so
we we've created some some neat sites
um in ring cone and we've got a really
neat site down in sunland park
we call dias lagos where we widened a
drain uh
made it into a habitat site is not
designed specifically for
aquatic habitat it's more riparian avian
habitat but
there are certainly fish there as well
and using that as an example the city of
uh sunland park wanted to call that a
recreational site
and allow fishing there we could
definitely work that out so so i don't
think that's out of the question
uh liability is the the first challenge
we don't usually allow the public on
ebid property unless it's permitted
right
but beyond that we there are some neat
opportunities even near the
merced by bosque state park we've got a
great project
just north of there might be a little
bit trickier in terms of access to the
public
on private property i'm not sure if that
farmer would want that to be a public
site unless
again we talked to him about it and uh
somebody took the
responsibility of that state park or
whatever state parks or whatever it is
wanted to take the responsibility of
that
we could certainly allow that i i think
that's a
a creative a creative idea that's worth
pursuing because it's it's
it's a good idea yeah and chair
yes yes i
i just a message to council vasquez
to stay tuned uh later this month
we'll be talking just about that uh very
subject here
coming up in our work session
thank you thank you councillor sorgan
thank you mr libman those are
all my questions i appreciate it and uh
again thanks for your partnership with
the city
uh on the trails likewise thank you
madam chair
thank you councillor vasquez great
dialogue great information um
does anyone else from the committee yes
madam chair i
i have a question as well yes so do i
okay uh i think uh we'll start with
counselor bencomo and then
follow with counselors or thank you
madam chair
um yes thank you for those questions
counselor vasquez
that's a great conversation maybe you
can talk about burn lake
and how born lake can also be included
in one conversation um
and thank you mr levin it's nice to zoom
meet you um and for the presentation
there's
i'm one of the newer counselors on here
so it's great to to hear this
back um background information um
just for my own curiosity the ebid board
of directors are those appointed or
elected or
who are who are those members ebid's
board of directors there's there's nine
board members
although they have a geographic zones
they're elected at large
or they're elected by the entire ebid
membership
with greater than two water
added acres so the ebids board are
elected by its
members of farm track so we consider
less than two acres to be a flat rate or
a small track user
and honestly they don't get a vote on
the board
but the those tracks are two acres and
larger
each one of those landowners gets one
vote towards the
the board of directors free bid i see
great great thank you um honestly my
only other question
is around um since i have you here
also um around cleanup
and um just because i get a ton of
constituent calls around
um some of you know like ditch cleanup
that runs right behind their house
i'm curious for you can you let me know
like what that schedule is what that
process is
what's the best way for people to
connect with you about it
um and then you know i know this is a
ton of questions but maybe my last
question around it is
how can we better coordinate with ebid
in the city
to ensure that some of these places are
are
um the cleanup is kept up with
you know those are great questions and
one one first point to make is that
ebid's purpose
is definitely to deliver water
to its its members we have a network of
canals and laterals
as well as a drain network and the drain
network
which are probably the more problematic
for uh
cleanup and debris and such
are intended to grain drain the
groundwater keep the groundwater table
from getting so high that it detriments
the farming
so those are not maintained
ex very often they may sometimes be on a
10-year rotation of
being maintained and the only place that
that sort of becomes a problem
is where the like ebid and the city
interact in
so the the city residents would like to
have that
much more beautified than is what ebid's
purpose
so the ebid and the city been talking
about this for a long time apparently
so in ninth it was 1964 the city and
ebid
entered into a beautification agreement
where the city agreed to
the beer reclamation at the time in fact
agreed to keep up with the maintenance
a bit more within the city limits i'm
not using my lawyer terms but uh
the the bureau reclamation agreed to
keep up with maintenance more
and the city of las cruces agreed to
help
in certain cases for all the pipe
portions and also
places where ebid ebitds equipment is
too large because we are
better suited for sort of the middle of
nowhere farming
uh farm farmland we are good at cleaning
out a drain ditch and
in garfield new mexico but you get up
against a bunch of homes in macia or las
cruces
it's a lot trickier you can't just pile
the debris like when we're going through
and
uh our first flush of water we go
through a tobacco and dip out that trash
and set it by the side of that culvert
let it drain out and to be honest in the
middle of nowhere when it's when it's
tumble weeds they burn in the middle of
nowhere
in the city it's not tumbleweeds it's
styrofoam and floatables and a bunch of
trash and we do set that to the side to
uh to be picked up later and we have
been working with the the city streets
department to to come up with some
better solutions to how we can get that
done
because again like you're saying
somebody would call and say hey you guys
put this here yesterday you need to come
pick it up and we're saying well
i mean we're still flushing water we are
not going to get to it tomorrow or even
this week but we need to not let it sit
there for a year either
so we are working with the city road
department
we're also working on updating that that
uh
beautification agreement to better
outline some of these areas
make it better to find and and make
enforcement
a a better part of that i mean we do
need code support in that
we both deal with homelessness along the
army whole lateral for example and folks
saying
uh the the homelessness behind our
building is out of control
and then city codes will may say we
can't do anything about it is that cbid
property which isn't true we
have to work on work together on
addressing these problems together
so my in summary we do have a
beautification agreement already
and uh we need to work on updating that
and seeing if we can't step that up a
bit
in tandem without it being all the
complaints going to the city or all the
complaints coming to ebay so we can uh
work together on getting that that
cleaned up so we so it can be a
beautiful city
and even even where ebid intersects the
city
absolutely thank you for that
explanation i'll definitely check in
with
our new city manager about about this
and the beautification agreement and how
we can best work together like you said
i mean i'm very excited about the go
bond trail system that's upcoming
i not just for myself i live right next
to the aramiho lateral but
um for district four and and the
opportunity for connectivity and getting
people
you know out of their cars and walking
to places so i'm very excited about what
that's going to provide
um and and of course would love to just
see it like you said more beautiful and
so
um i'll definitely touch base with our
city manager and
and perhaps we can touch base um back
with you
um just on how we can improve improve
this so thank you very much that was all
my questions
manager i'd also like to offer uh us
for for anybody on this on this uh mpo
policy committee
especially city councillors and such too
would love to offer a tour of the
district and show you sort of the north
and south
extensive some of the some of the
district and some of the stuff that we
are doing but we are doing some
exciting projects that are maybe not
within the city limits but
can have impacts to the water supply
thank you mr libben i would love that
all right thank you mr levin thank you
councillor ben como
counselor sword thank you madam chair
i just wanted to thank uh zach and the
elephant
butte irrigation district its board of
directors and members
uh for doing this um this has been a
long time in the making
um many times in the past i've seen
these uh laterals and and uh
canals and so forth that thinking that
it would be
such a great place for people to get out
and do
some walking and maybe even some birding
um and to uh
uh better for the public
so again thank you very much zach and
and everyone
involved in this uh appreciate it and uh
just as the last word i'm always up for
a tour
let me know sounds good
all right thank you counselors or
anybody
else from the committee madam chair
yes mayor so i just want to
uh definitely thank zach for working
with rod
uh on this project that we have going on
here in the town of messiah
with the trail and i i don't know if you
all
everyone here on the committee has had
an opportunity uh the trail is
in the works it's coming off the river
levee here on cayo
which is very close also to the bosque
park
and so i know we here in the town
embassy are very excited about it
to have this walking trail and hopefully
with phase two
which is one of the ones that will be uh
actually on one of the ebid
uh irrigation ditches that uh is going
to be something new for us
but uh we're excited and so it's all new
to us
but then we're also working with ebid
well
more department of transportation
and trent um you you can comment on this
too
is on university avenue where ebid
is working as a partner with department
of transportation to
put that lateral on university
underground
so i'm really excited about that more
and more people are using
the the ditches uh
for walking uh ever since the pandemic
started
there are numerous people out there on
their bicycles
or walking walking their children their
dogs bicycling
so i see in the future where more and
more of the ditches
will be used for walking trails
so i appreciate the partnerships that we
have with ebid
and them open and willing to work with
municipalities to make this happen
so thank you thank you mayor
uh any other committee comments or
questions for mr living
okay again thank you very informative
um and thank you for all that you're
doing for
all of our region and um the residents
and
so thank you mr libben my pleasure it's
a pleasure working with you all too
and your staff as well thank you
all right um andrew are you
uh ready to provide uh joint powers of
agreement update
yes madam chair although before i move
to that uh
i will say that i'm going to uh email
out a copy of mr libman's presentation
and the fact sheet that he provided
uh to the policy committee as soon as
this meeting is over
um thank you yes councillor ben como
i was just going to ask andrew if he
could include hit uh mr lemon's email
address i i will certainly do that as
well
uh moving on then to the jpa update this
is going to be a very brief
uh uh update um the
the work that we've done over the past
month is i've gotten the information
from the city of las cruces in mdot dona
ana county
about who their preferred
representatives for the negotiating the
specific negotiating process itself
councillor sorg is going to represent
the city of las cruces uh mr doodle will
represent nmdot
donyana county has designated miss
angela robertson
uh from their community development
department she's the chief planner
uh as the representative and the town of
messiah
i have not heard from as of yet so i'm
hoping maybe today
but soon the process that i think we
will need to do
is at i'm hoping to have all the
information for the october policy
committee meeting
for the policy committee to have an
action item to specifically designate
and empower the subcommittee to
undertake the jpa negotiation process
and then once that vote is taken then we
can go ahead the subcommittee can
can start work as i have said from the
beginning this is a brand new process
for me i was not a participant in the
last time around so i think we're all
kind of going to be making it up as we
go along
but i'm hopeful that once a negotiation
process gets started it won't take more
than a month or so
so hopefully by the end of the year we
might have a draft of the jpa to present
to the policy committee for action
at that point we will then need to start
taking it to the city council
the county commission and the board of
trustees
for their action to adopt uh
the jpa and then it would be sent to the
state of new mexico for the state of new
mexico's consent so
uh even once we get this process rolling
it is going to be
several months worth of work so i don't
want to
mislead anybody to think that we're even
though it's taking a while we're not
working on it
um so just does anybody have any
questions or comments about where we are
in the process
uh before we move on andrew
um i i believe that the mayor
uh had sent an email stating that she
was gonna represent
the town of messiah uh just needs to go
through the
the board for a vote but
i believe that's that she had sent an
email
madam chair she did uh i i guess i
interpreted that as provisional until
waiting for action from the board and i
had not heard if any action from the
board
uh had taken place and and the
subcommittee has not been empowered by
the policy committee to meet yet so
there's been
there's been no activity but i have i
did receive that message from the mayor
but i wasn't sure if that statement from
from the mayor was final
yet no you're you're correct it's still
it still
has to be presented to the board yeah
but i believe the mayor's gonna
gonna serve on it so all right
uh any other
questions for andrew comments
regarding the jpa
none okay
moving on to mr doolittle
good afternoon thank you madam chair um
i'll be very brief
um we really still only have the one
project ongoing in the area which is
university and i-25
um continues to progress very well
anytime you drive through there you get
to see
numerous changes um expect here
in the next few weeks they'll start
setting the girders and getting ready to
do the travis bridge
so that'll all start to come together to
see how travis will dump under the
university into pan am
when that bridge goes up so it'll be a
little more visible
the other thing i wanted to share with
you all is we've been working very long
on the new mexico 404 and 213 corridor
for those of you that aren't aware
that's the anthony gap that crosses from
i-10 to chaparral and then south into
the texas state line
we actually bid phase one which is the
interchange at i-10
we did that on august 21st um it came in
a little bit high but i don't see any
reason that the
contract won't be awarded i would expect
that we'll see construction begin
probably towards the end of this
calendar year the first of next year
um but anybody that's driven through
that knows that bridge is
is pretty narrow the signals aren't
timed real well because they're really
close together and there's a lot of
traffic
using that as a bypass through around el
paso
because of the construction so we're
excited
to get that project started and then
just so you all know
um phase two will be four laning
all of 404 to the 213 intersection
it'll be divided highway with concrete
barrier
four lanes we have talked about bringing
in
multi-use trail access for bicycles
those kinds of things that will separate
them from the traffic knowing it's used
quite a bit but we're in the design
phase of that so i don't have a whole
lot of details but i wanted you all to
be aware
um what we're doing along that corridor
um and then the last thing i wanted to
share with you all is on friday
nmdot is presenting to the legislative
transportation
infrastructure revenue subcommittee
this is something we do every year we go
over our needs we highlight some of our
successes that we've had over the past
year but i just wanted you all to
be aware that as we get into the
legislative session in the next several
months
we as a department will start presenting
to subcommittees
um so that's where i'll be on friday um
it's actually a zoom meeting
just going to be kind of interesting um
but uh i'll be presenting to them on
friday
and with that medan chair i don't really
have much else but i'll take any
questions anybody may have
madam share this commissioner sanchez
madam chair you're muted if you're
trying to speak
thank you i guess commissioner sanchez
my apologies
thank you uh mr doolittle i i'm excited
to hear
um that 404 is getting uh a facelift i
know
um having having to ever go to the el
paso airport and then just
uh from my family going to the northeast
part of el paso i know that or
chaparral um cutting across can
can be uh you know depending on let's
really increase the amount of traffic
that's gone through there with
everything that's growing in el paso and
chaparral
um in that area it's so i'm looking
forward to
seeing how that progresses um i was just
wondering if you had any updates on the
a to b
study um on i-25 and also the uh
the elks trail
um commissioner i i don't have an update
for you i'll try to find something out
um and share that with you all um
i'm not sure how far along they are with
that
last month they were reviewing and
negotiating the cost of the rfp
so if they have started it's going to be
very preliminary but i'll see what i can
get for you
and then the other thing i'll be sure to
do as we move forward is when they have
their public meetings i'll let you all
know so that you can certainly share
with your constituents so that they can
provide their their concerns but i don't
have much
much on that one for you i apologize but
i'll work on that
and then the other one you mentioned was
the the elks trail
yeah that that one on the i believe it
was part of the tip plan i thought that
was
uh still within the d.o.t or d.o.t was
providing some
uh maybe it was just your probably
funding to to the county for that
um it must be i'm not aware of a project
that we have to do any trails along elks
okay because it's it's the the trail and
andrew if you can correct me if i'm
wrong i maybe i'm
uh i believe the money may have come in
and maybe been approved by the dot but
it was going to be the multi-use path
from
uh out it was on alex
just north of the columbia elementary
going up to the
uh donana park area right there
but i thought it was all part on d.o.t
right of way
madam chair commissioner sanchez mr
doolittle um
no that that road that project is
on uh the county right-of-way uh
to the best of my knowledge up there um
the the nmdot
relationship is that dot
uh is uh providing oversight uh
and providing the funding through the
mechanism the transportation
alternatives
program um that's uh process
is run through the south region design
center i
i believe it may be judith gallardo but
it might also be
jessica hunter um i i can't remember off
the top of my head who
are the appropriate liaisons for nmdot
to provide updates on that i actually
personally mpo staff i have not
received an update about the status of
that project so i'm i'm not able to
provide any additional information
myself at this time either
no thank you andrew and i'll just i'll
if it is within the county i'll i'll get
with our rhodes and engineering
department and get get an update i
appreciate it now and
uh mr doolittle if you get any updates
on that uh on the a to b study i really
appreciate it just i was just curious
what
uh where we stand on it and you hit the
nail on the head in terms of getting
public input there are opportunities for
it i just want to
um find if there are ways and and
and make sure we're advertising because
i figure that it might be virtual or
something of that nature um so i want to
make sure the the especially the
constituents
in dona ana in the donaiana area have an
opportunity there
particularly to give some input on on
that northern section certainly
thank you thank you commissioner sanchez
and and andrew as well um any other
questions
for trent or comments
okay seeing none thank you thank you
trent thank you madam
oh yes you're very welcome um do we have
any committee comments
before i turn it over to andrew
okay seeing none andrew any staff
comments
yes madam chair we do have one um as the
committee is aware
uh miss valerie sherman left the npo
last month to take a job in texas
unfortunately i had hoped to be able to
report to the policy committee that we
had gotten the job posted
we have not been able to do so we're
dealing with some administrative issues
internal about getting the the position
description
updated um the the last time that we
actually
hired for the associate planner position
uh was back when dr mcadams was hired
back in 2014 so you can imagine that was
six years ago
and the associate planner position has
changed significantly in that time
and now the associate planner is
responsible for the coordination and
oversight of the traffic count program
which makes it a very different position
than most than the other associate
planner positions within the city of las
cruces so we're currently trying to get
the job description uh updated and
rewritten so that it accurately reflects
the responsibilities
of of what the mpo will be expecting of
the associate planner so that we
we basically the objective is we want to
ensure that we have informed applicants
who who will understand
there's going to be an outdoor component
to to this to this
uh position we don't want to bring
anybody in and them
not understand that from the beginning
so we're still tied up in that i'm
hoping to be able to
to work through this very soon working
with
my director uh within the city of las
cruces to get that pushed on through so
hopefully by the october meeting i'll be
able to announce
uh that we have the position posted and
that's the only mpo staff update well
there's one other thing uh next month i
know the committee is aware that we
uh will be uh that we had to change the
uh
the tip process that uh earlier this
year nmdot was planning to go to a
four-year tip cycle
after con consultations with fhwa nmdot
leadership pulled back on that decision
and we're now going to remain with the
two-year tip cycle
unfortunately we approved the upwp
without a tip development cycle in it
because we didn't anticipate that we
were going to need it so
we will be bringing a upwp amendment to
the policy committee at the october
meeting
okay all right thank you
and did we get any public comment uh
madam chair let me check my email i have
not uh
i got several dings but none of them
relevant to this meeting so no madam
chair
okay with that um thank you everyone for
your participation
we'll see you next month and with that
we are adjourned
thank you madam chair thank you everyone
thank you