Site work for a water / sewer project in Tyrone, New Mexico. Completed plans call for site work for a water / sewer project.

With Grant County having been awarded $5.2 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds, and with the possibility that President Joe Biden's $1 trillion federal infrastructure bill will pass in the U.S. House and send funding for all manner of projects to the local level, the process of formulating an Infrastructure and Capital Improvement Plan this year is a little trickier than usual for Grant County commissioners. Commissioners took a first pass at organizing this year's ICIP list during a special meeting last Tuesday morning. But having also hired a new manager and a new planner within the past four months, the county is lacking a bit in the kind of institutional knowledge that aids the annual prioritization of projects, often submitted in phases, on the county's ICIP list. ICIP lists are "wish lists" that local governments and public organizations, such as Western New Mexico University and Hidalgo Medical Services, submit to the state each year, and which help legislators decide where to allocate the state's capital outlay funding. At the end of the last legislative session earlier this year, Grant County received an unprecedented $11 million in capital outlay funding for such projects as Gila Regional Medical Center's labor and delivery department renovation and a water project in Bayard, among many others. Generally, the top five projects on an ICIP list are the ones most likely to receive state capital outlay dollars, but the entire list serves as a statement of infrastructure priorities for the next five years. It is referred to by state and federal government agencies when, for example, local governments apply for Colonias or Community Development Block Grant funding. Priscilla Lucero, executive director of the Southwest New Mexico Council of Governments, is usually the key organizing force in the county's ICIP process, but was unable to attend Tuesday's meeting due to a death in the family. Commissioners tentatively agreed on several projects that could make the top five for their final ICIP, which must be submitted to the New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration by Sept. 17, but they tabled a vote on the resolution to approve it. With a little discussion among officials, District 3 Commissioner Alicia Edwards came up with a very preliminary list of top projects. o $423,000 to start a much-needed $4.8 million proposed wastewater improvement project in Tyrone. o $2.5 million for the construction phase of the county's stretch of Little Walnut Road, where road improvements will be accompanied by a new bike/pedestrian/equestrian path. The town of Silver City received $1 million in capital outlay earlier this year to acquire land and rights of way to get started on its portion of the project, which will also see better drainage, curbs and gutters added to the roadway, and bring the sidewalks into compliance with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act. o A $750,000 request that would pay for the planning and design phase of a proposed sewer extension project in Silver Acres that would connect it to Silver City's wastewater system. The proposal generated some controversy during the public input process, however, when dozens of neighborhood residents showed up to a public meeting in December 2019 to indicate they would prefer to stick with their existing septic systems. o $340,000 to replace county fleet vehicles, including specially outfitted Sheriff's Office vehicles that cost about $75,000 each. County Manager Tim Zamora noted that his office is working to come up with a long-term fleet maintenance and replacement plan, but vehicles are a perennial need for which the county has long relied on capital outlay and grant monies. o $200,000 for "Bataan Memorial Park pavilion improvements," which Chairman and District 1 Commissioner Chris Ponce hoped would go toward sprucing up the "eyesore" that is the existing veterans memorial, and to generally make the park more presentable as old Fort Bayard enters a new era of use under the direction of Santa Clara. "Because of everything going on there, including the $65,000 [trails project], the last thing I want is an eyesore there," he said. District 2 Commissioner Javier Salas agreed that Santa Clara's plans, along with the trails project, could draw more tourists, who will all have to drive past the park to get to the historic campus. "It should complement Fort Bayard," he said. In order to make the best use of the pandemic era's many available funding resources, commissioners decided to take up the ICIP list in conjunction with a discussion about how best to spend $5.2 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds, which Procurement Officer Randy Hernandez noted may be used to provide "match monies" for nonfederal grants the county might wish to apply for. Commissioners raised the question of from where funding for better broadband infrastructure in Grant County might come, but agreed that representatives from the Cobre and Silver school districts should weigh in on that discussion. Commissioners are tentatively considering spending up to a third of the county's American Rescue Plan Act dollars on broadband infrastructure. "Can we jump in with them to take care of our costs, which was, I think, $1.7 million for broadband" Ponce said, referring to the cost of a proposal that WNM Communications has put forward to significantly expand internet access in the Mining District and other underserved areas of the county. The proposal required significant spending on the part of the county, however, which made some commissioners wary of the project. "The state has gotten a lot of broadband money, and we know how much of that is going to go into PED and the schools," Edwards pointed out. "I did also see where they're going to get a big chunk of money, because they're going to make a mandate that it be available for school-aged students," Salas added. The broadband topic will be part of the American Rescue Plan discussion slated to take place at commissioners' Sept. 7 work session, along with the formulation of a more concrete ICIP list. Commissioners will have the opportunity to adopt a final list at their Sept. 9 regular meeting. District 4 Commissioner Billy Billings had some sobering words regarding the impact that inflation could have on the county's ability to accomplish everything it would like to do, infrastructurewise. Specifically, inflation has driven up construction costs, which could mean some of the county's project cost estimates are no longer accurate. "When you pump trillions -- and it's probably been about $9 trillion -- into the economy, money's not different than any other commodity, and there's supply and demand," the Republican Billings said, emphasizing that his comments weren't meant to be partisan. "When you create an oversupply of money by creating it out of nothing, it becomes worth less," he said. "So your dollars are going to buy less than they did. Some inflation has been caused by bottlenecks, but some of this is never going to adjust. They give us more [money], but it's worth less." Geoffrey Plant may be reached at geoff@scdailypress.com.