Councilor Robert Seeds convinced the Public Works Committee to assign Española’s youngest residents to fix the city’s welcome sign problems at a Nov. 13 meeting. Seeds wants city hall to take a backseat in efforts to increase the visibility of city welcome signs and assign the task to the children of the Española School District.
Seeds presented his solution after the Committee held an expanded discussion in response to Councilor Cory Lewis’s complaints about the signs during last month’s Committee meeting. Lewis previously said the four signs were unappealing and hard to see. He reiterated his opinions at the Nov. 13 meeting, saying the ineffective signs were a waste of taxpayer money.
Planning and Zoning Director Russell Naranjo went before the Committee and offered the options the city could take to improve the signs without having to scrap them completely.
Naranjo said the metal seal featured on the signs could be removed and repurposed for other city structures like City Hall, the Municipal Court or the proposed softball fields on Industrial Park Road.
Other options Naranjo submitted included painting the city seal a flat color to make it more legible and landscaping the area around the sign to draw attention to it.
While each of these solutions had advantages, Naranjo said none of them would fully solve the signs’ issues.
Naranjo said that any landscaping would have to comply with State Department of Transportation standards, which requires that roadside objects have the ability to break away if hit by a vehicle. He also said the signs were meant to be viewed at 35 miles per hour and with many drivers going faster than that when entering Española, painting and landscaping might not make a difference.
Naranjo said the four city seals cost Española $6,400 to purchase, in addition to the cost of the stucco signs and solar lighting — the price of which he could not recall.
After Naranjo’s presentation, the Committee had difficulty coming up with a uniform solution for the signs, including the councilor who originated the complaints.
Lewis said he had been approached by City Clerk Tessa Jo Mascareñas and Mayor Alice Lucero about forming a commission to address the welcome signs after his original complaints.
Lewis said that he was opposed to getting a “monkey on my back” and just wanted to see something done. Lewis never specifically elaborated on what changes he would make to the sign.
Seeds was the most persistent in his vision for the signs. He said the city should have the children from the Española School District draw up their ideas for a redesign.
“I would love to give the project to our younger generation in one of the public schools and come up with some ideas and some drawings,” Seeds said. “And I bet they’ll come up with something really awesome for us.”
Seeds didn’t outline the parameters of his proposal nor did he say whether he had talked with any District officials.
After a persistent pitch from Seeds, the Committee agreed to publicize his plan at the next city council meeting, where it could receive more media coverage and attract the attention of teachers and administrators.
Other items discussed at the Committee meeting:
• The seemingly never-ending Pacheco Lane saga continued at the meeting. Interim city manager Joe Duran said there has been no progress since the city council passed a resolution Aug. 13 to pave the parts of the road for which the city has already obtained easements.
Duran said the city will have to wait until the spring to pave the road, given the project won’t be completed before the hot mix plant closes for the winter.
When asked why the city hasn’t graded the road yet, Duran said the city had tried on several occasions before some Pacheco Lane residents “ran them out.”
Duran did not specify how residents prevented the city workers from grading, nor did he say when the city would try again to grade the road.
• While one long-gestating project stayed in limbo, another moved forward. Councilor Pedro Valdez said he had secured signatures from owners Walter Gould and J.R. Trujillo for an easement on Monterey Lane.
The 10-foot utility easement will allow the city to replace a leaky pipe that Duran previously estimated was costing the city $1,400 in repairs every time the pipe sprung a leak.
The issue had been a point of contention for Seeds and Councilor Peggy Martinez, who argued that since it was a private street, the pipe should be repaired by Gould and Trujillo. The Council ultimately disagreed, passing a resolution to replace the pipe.
• Twelve years after two vehicles were leased by the city to the Crisis Center of Northern New Mexico, the city is in the process of transferring the titles. The Committee voted unanimously to bring the issue in front of the full council at the next meeting.
Duran said the city acted as a fiscal agent May 1, 2001 when purchasing a Ford Taurus station wagon and Chevrolet Astro Van. The lease was for 12 years and ended in May of this year, but Duran said the city wasn’t aware that the cars were still owned by the city until one of the cars received a ticket.
Duran said the Center paid the lease, maintained the vehicles and held their own insurance. As of June 2013, the vehicles were insured by both the city and the Center. Duran said the city tried to receive a refund for the insurance but was denied.
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