A report concerning where to place a new interchange and bridge in the Los Lunas area that was provided to the Valencia County Commission last night shows broad public support for locating the new roadway near Morris Road.

The report, produced by the Mid-Region Council of Governments (MRCOG), includes a compilation of comments by citizens who attended last month’s informational open house concerning the issue.

MRCOG and D. Pennington & Associates have been conducting a study of where to place the new interchange and bridge.

The options under serious consideration have been whittled down to two: Morris Road at the southern end of Los Lunas and Miller Road at the northern end of Los Chavez.

The open house had high attendance, bringing in more then 250 people, including many from El Cerro and the Mid-Valley Air Park in Los Chavez. During the open house, MRCOG compiled public comments on flip charts and forms, later analyzing levels of support for potential routes. Study officials also received comments by mail and email, about 140 comments in all.

“We have tallied the comments by a particular position they may have taken. Maybe they’re supporting a particular alignment. Maybe they’re opposing a particular alignment. Maybe they’re suggesting we do nothing. Or maybe they’re suggesting we should do something but they’re just not sure what,” said Dave Pennington of D. Pennington & Associates.

According to the comments, the public is more strongly supporting an interchange at Morris Road than any other route. A Morris Road interchange would connect by a bridge across the Rio Grande to Highway 47 at El Cerro.

“It shows that the Morris route is by far and away the recommended route,” Commissioner Pedro Rael said.

Rael noted that public support for a route isn’t the only factor that will be taken into consideration when a final decision is made.

The open house comments also showed substantial concern for the protection of Valencia County’s agriculture.

“The preservation of farmlands was raised quite often. The preservation of the rural character of the communities was raised quite often,” Pennington said.

The study of the interchange is only one-third complete and has many months left before governments, like the Village of Los Lunas and Valencia County, start making decisions on where to build a new interchange and bridge.

“A lot of people are ready for decisions. We’re no where near being ready to make a decision in terms of what should be done, where it should be or what it should look like,” Pennington said.

Coast Range Investments, the company developing Rancho Cielo west of Los Chavez, said during a meeting with Belen business owners yesterday that the company won’t commit money to finishing improvements to the North Belen interchange that was expected to provide access to the west side of Interstate 25.

The project has been in question since last week when Sen. Michael Sanchez included it on a list of projects that could be cut by the state. On Tuesday, Sanchez said he took that action to show the developer isn’t living up to its promise to pay for a portion of the interchange reconstruction.

The interchange project is estimated to cost approximately $7 million. The governor, through the City of Belen and the New Mexico Department of Transportation (NMDOT), contributed $3 million in capital outlay funding, money that will be spent, according to Sanchez and NMDOT officials.

The Rancho Cielo developer “pledged” it would pay the remainder, approximately $4 million, according to Jim Wood, executive vice president for Coast Range Investments. He said his company is taking a position that it has no contractual obligation to provide that $4 million to the project.

“We entered into a third-party agreement with the city and NMDOT for the development of the North Belen interchange. This three-party agreement was from our end, as documented by our attorneys, dependent on Signet Solar being approved by the DOE.”

Signet Solar, a solar technology manufacturer, has been expected to locate in Belen but was denied a United States Department of Energy (DOE) loan guarantee to help with financing the construction of a plant. Wood said his company won’t contribute the money to the North Belen interchange reconstruction unless he has a “user” in place, something like Signet Solar.

The denial of the federal loan guarantee is now undergoing a DOE appeal process some say could take nine months to a year to complete.

Andrew DiCamillo, the City of Belen Planning and Zoning Department director, said the city interprets the contract differently, with Coast Range Investments being contractually obligated to put forward its $4 million to finish the interchange regardless of whether or not there’s a “user.”

Wood said the interchange project was postponed last year because it took so long to get an answer on Signet Solar’s loan guarantee. He said his company is again delaying the interchange project, this time because of the denial of the loan guarantee.

“The city feels a little cheated, in certain respects, that the project has been carried this far and now we’re going to have a postponement,” DiCamillo said.

Wood suggested Coast Range Investments has the $4 million but can’t contribute it.

“Paying the last $4 million would have seriously depleted our funds – we’ve already invested over $40 million – and limited our viability to work with other people. We are pledged to complete the interchange,” Wood said, calling the postponement a “corporate decision.”

Mary Aragon, a candidate running for a seat on the Belen City Council, questioned why the attorneys with NMDOT and the City of Belen didn’t find it odd that construction would start on the interchange without Coast Range Investments contractually committing its money to the project.

“It seems like they’re not acting in good faith at all. You have to have your money there,” she said.

NMDOT said it’s terminating the construction contract for the interchange project to avoid financial or legal problems.

“We’re in the process right now of terminating the contract with A.S. Horner pending a funding source, whoever it may be, whether it comes from a private developer or not,” Plese said, noting it’s the first time he’s ever had to terminate a construction contract.

If the contract isn’t canceled now, the state could get stuck with paying into the project more than it has available for it.

“We can’t continue this job because we don’t have the money to complete it as designed,” Plese said.

Because construction of the interchange is already underway, utilizing the state’s contribution of $3 million, Plese said a postponement could increase the total cost of the project by a million or more dollars, partly because the construction crew and its equipment will vacate the construction site.

Wood said despite the delay Coast Range Investments isn’t going away. It’s invested $40 million in Rancho Cielo already, buying land, securing water rights and engineering the master-planned development. He called Rancho Cielo a 25-year project.

“We are not walking away from our phase of the interchange,” Wood said, adding, “Never in our history since 1991 have we walked away from a project. We’ve completed them all.”

Belen business owners at the meeting we’re unhappy about the situation.

“What I’m hearing today, and I’m not happy about it, is we’re not going to get our interchange because of the private funding and attorneys,” said Neil Hise, who owns CEMCO Inc. near the North Belen interchange.

As a businessman, Hise said he understands why a company might not want to spend more money on a project that’s not yet profitable. He was also “pissed off” with NMDOT for sounding like it doesn’t want to continue the project.

Another business owner near the North Belen interchange was also disappointed by the direction of the project.

“You are dead in the water without that interchange,” Bruce Prater, who owns the Graphic Arts Station, told Wood, adding, “Without the interchange, you can’t get into your property. I feel like we’re being held hostage right now as the negotiations go on, because without the interchange we’re dead.”

Meanwhile, with the legislative session ending today, the fight over capital outlay and other state funding for Rancho Cielo continues. As of yesterday, it appeared all attempts to cut funding for the development had been stopped by reps. Andrew Barreras and Elias Barela.

Sanchez explains interchange funding to business owners.

Sen. Michael Sanchez said today that work on the North Belen interchange that’s intended to provide access to the west side of Interstate 25 will continue, despite “misleading and inaccurate” claims about how the interchange reconstruction project is supposed to be funded.

“We’re going to talk about who’s telling the truth and who isn’t telling the truth about this project,” Sanchez said, opening up a heated discussion with a group of around 10 Belen business owners at the Roundhouse in Santa Fe.

While facing a busy afternoon on the Senate floor, for nearly an hour Sanchez listened to the concerns of the business owners, who the day before had mobilized and arranged the showdown in reaction to claims that Sanchez was trying to pull state funding for the interchange project.

Sanchez said the state’s $3-million appropriation for the interchange improvements will be spent on the interchange for what he and the New Mexico Department of Transportation (NMDOT) call a first phase of the $7-million project.

He said the developer, Coast Range Investments, promised it would contribute an additional $4 million to the project and is responsible for paying to complete the work. If the developer can’t come up with the money it said it would make available for the project, the work will stop.

“Coast Range was going to pay for everything. They said no state money would be used,” Sanchez said of the company’s original commitment. “But that next legislative session they asked for capital outlay money. They continue to come to the legislature to ask for capital outlay money, and they’ve gotten capital outlay money.”

Sanchez said he put the governor’s capital outlay appropriation for the interchange improvements in a bill to be considered for cuts to both highlight his concerns about the developer’s broken promises and to hold the governor accountable for capital outlay committed to projects that aren’t viable.

“For projects that were on hold, not working, not ready to go, we put them into this solvency plan. For whatever reason the governor chose not to put some of his projects in,” he said.

Sanchez said the interchange reconstruction project isn’t viable because the developer isn’t contributing the $4 million it said it would put toward the project.

“They’ve said they’re not going to put it in. They’re not going to live up to the agreement that they had reached. The governor knows about it. The highway department knows about it,” he said.

According to Max Valerio, deputy secretary for NMDOT programs and infrastructure, officials with Coast Range Investments have told the state they don’t intend to pay for the second phase of the project.

“It appears the $4 million from the developer is not going to be there,” Valerio said, noting he hasn’t seen any documents formally committing Coast Range Investment’s $4 million to the interchange reconstruction.

He said NMDOT and Coast Range Investments have entered into discussions to “salvage” the project by setting it up in two phases, with the second phase to be completed if the developer comes forward with its $4 million.

“It would be completed if they came forward with their money,” Valerio said.

Joe Trujillo, one of the owners of Fat Sat’s Bar and Grill near the North Belen interchange, said the state failed taxpayers on the project by starting construction on the interchange without the money in place.

“You’re telling me that the state went on a promise and signed a contract? It doesn’t make sense to me,” he said to NMDOT officials, telling them they have a lot of explaining to do.

Trujillo was angered by Sanchez’s actions on the issue, too, saying Belen needs the interchange reconfiguration to be completed so new industrial development can come to Valencia County.

“It’s got so much potential for businesses to come in,” he said.

Norbert Moya, another Belen business owner at the meeting, said he was opposed to the state putting additional tax money to develop Rancho Cielo’s 6,000 acres.

“I don’t want to see our taxes going into a piece of land when we don’t know what’s going to happen in the future. If someone wants to invest in a piece of land like that, that should be private money not taxpayers’ money,” he said.

Sanchez pushed back on accusations from reps. Elias Barela and Andrew Barreras who suggested Sanchez is killing 600 jobs by not supporting Rancho Cielo. Sanchez said he’s in favor of Signet Solar locating in Belen and welcomes the creation of 600 jobs by that solar technology manufacturing company.

“People seem to think that I somehow cost the City of Belen 600 jobs,” Sanchez said. “Well, Signet Solar came to me last year and I told them they have my blessings to come in, but I warned them at that point about the developer, because I didn’t have as much faith in the developer as they did to complete the project.”

Sanchez lambasted comments by Belen Mayor Ronnie Torres, who last week described Sanchez’s actions on the interchange project as “disgusting” in the Valencia County News-Bulletin.

Sanchez said what’s disgusting is how a certain unnamed city official appealed to the governor to take up to $5 million away from the Village of Los Lunas to pay for the interchange reconstruction, a secretive action he said has a paper trail.

During a break from the House floor, Barreras said he would introduce an amendment to strip the interchange money from the bill that lists the projects the state could cut.

“We might be forced to vote to kill the bill, because we don’t want that project to go away,” he said.

Sanchez suggested the amendment would be useless since the money is being used for phase one anyway, plus the bill doesn’t allow money committed by third-party contracts to be cut. The interchange work is under contract, which is why construction is underway.

Sanchez said he was happy to talk with anyone about the issue and won’t hesitate to stand up for what he believes in.

“I’m not afraid to tell the truth about anything that I do or anything that I’m involved in,” he said.

The business owners who met with Sanchez today will meet with Coast Range Investments tomorrow morning in Belen.

Less than a week after news broke that the State of New Mexico might halt improvements to the North Belen interchange, which when complete will allow development west of Los Chavez, Belen business leaders and legislators are fighting to save the funding.

Last week the Valencia County News-Bulletin reported that Sen. Michael Sanchez asked for the interchange improvements be placed on a list of capital outlay projects that could have their funding cut.

The interchange funding cut is a part of SB182, a bill that reverts money from hundreds of capital outlay projects around New Mexico back into state coffers to address the state’s $600-million budget deficit. The North Belen interchange funding is only one of many Valencia County projects on the list.

The bill has passed the Senate and is now in the House.

According to Sanchez, the money should be pulled because the project has “gone nowhere,” with the senator pointing to a recent denial of a federal loan guarantee for Signet Solar, a solar technology company seeking to build a manufacturing plant west of Los Chavez, potentially creating 600 jobs.

This morning, local business leaders in industry, service and retail, met to discuss ways to fight for the funding, agreeing in principle that the interchange improvements are key to ensuring Signet Solar builds in Belen.

“This project is extremely important for the growth and development of Belen,” the business leaders wrote in a letter addressed to Sanchez and others.

They ask Sanchez for “cooperation and support for this project, its funding and completion.”

Belen mayoral candidate Tibo Chavez Jr., who was present at the meeting, began circulating a petition two weeks ago calling on government officials to fight for the 600 jobs, calling the solar manufacturing plant the most important economic development for Belen since the railroad.

Belen City Councilor Rudy Jaramillo, who was also at the meeting, said Belen needs work to keep the funding in place to help employ people who have lost jobs.

At the same time, two of Valencia County’s legislators are working at the legislature in Santa Fe to strip the project from the bill that could cut it.

Reps. Elias Barela and Andrew Barreras say they want to protect the project funding to protect the 600 local jobs that come with it.

“These jobs are incredibly important to the immediate economic recovery of the area, and to creating long-term prosperity for hardworking people in Valencia County,” Barreras said. “We have to protect this funding, because it is our responsibility not to stand in the way of that kind of economic development, especially in these difficult economic times.”

Barela holds a similar sentiment, saying Sanchez’s proposal is a job-killer.

“We have all the respect in the world for Sen. Sanchez, who has done more than anyone to support this community,” Barela said. “However, our number one priority is to create jobs, and this proposal threatens to kill 600 new, high-quality jobs with good pay. For that reason, we will fight to ensure that the necessary funding is there.”

With the bill now in the House, Barreras and Barela are working to remove the interchange money from the chopping block.

During last year’s special session, the interchange funding was also at risk of being cut, but Barela, who met with the governor and others, restored the funding.

“While it is important to balance the budget, the best way to create economic recovery is to create jobs, and that is what’s at stake if this funding disappears,” Barreras said.

If Barela and Barreras are unable to remove the project from the bill, Gov. Bill Richardson might line-item veto it from the bill. Signet Solar’s intent to locate in Belen was highlighted by Richardson as a success of his administration at the start of this year’s legislative session.

In his State of the State speech today kicking off the legislative session, Gov. Bill Richardson highlighted the 600 jobs Belen is expected to add when Signet Solar builds its solar manufacturing plant west of Los Lunas.

The governor said:

We have successfully recruited Fortune 500 companies like Hewlett Packard, Schott Solar, Fidelity Investments, who are creating six thousand high-paying jobs in New Mexico.

But those incentives are working equally well to recruit medium-sized companies to rural New Mexico.

For instance, we have announced:

• Two hundred jobs at PreCheck in Alamogordo
• Six hundred jobs at Signet Solar in Belen
• Forty jobs at Sunland Peanuts in Portales
• Twenty jobs at eSolar in Sunland Park
• Three hundred and eighteen jobs at the New Business Conference Center in Silver City
• Fifty jobs at the Northern New Mexico Wood Business Park in Las Vegas

And just last week one hundred and fifty new jobs at Johnson Plate and Tower Manufacturer in Santa Teresa

And in the next few weeks I will be announcing new companies offering hundreds of jobs in Gallup and Roswell.

Construction work began earlier this month at the North Belen interchange. When the work is completed, vehicular traffic will have access to the west side of Interstate 25.

Several citizens involved in a study to determine where to place a new interchange and bridge in the Los Lunas area to relieve congestion on Main Street are saying they’ve had little voice in the decisions being made during the study process.

“I don’t think a lot of the advice that we give or the positions we take or whatever is being taken into account. I don’t think we hold any value in the decision-making process,” said Mike McConaghy, a member of the study’s citizens advisory committee who’s also involved in the El Cerro Neighborhood Association.

The citizens advisory committee, along with a separate steering committee made up of local elected officials and government staff, has assessed possible routes for a new four-lane roadway that would connect Interstate 25 with Highway 47.

So far the groups have studied seven routes, two north of Main Street and five south of Main Street. All but two routes south of Main Street are considered infeasible and unlikely to be selected for implementation.

The two south routes run roughly atop or immediately alongside Morris and Miller roads, then cross the river. Where the two routes connect to Highway 47 remains in dispute, but they’re likely to connect between North and South El Cerro Loop.

Dave Pennington of D. Pennington & Associates, who is conducting the study with the Mid-Region Council of Governments (MRCOG), said portions of Highway 47 in northern Tome and El Cerro might be widened to accommodate traffic resulting from a new roadway connecting to it.

“Highway 47 would likely have to be improved. It could be improved to three or four lanes, possibly five lanes if you add a turning lane,” he said.

Pennington said no decisions have been made. McConaghy, however, told Pennington he thinks decisions about the interchange and bridge have been made.

“I feel like there is a straight goal that has been given to your organization by the Village of Los Lunas and other government entities,” he said.

McConaghy said the citizens advisory committee appears to be a way for Pennington and others to get citizens who may be opposed to certain routes in line, to push one or more routes past any opposition.

“I don’t feel like we have a say-so in what’s going on,” he said.

Pennington, who clicked through a lengthy slideshow about the steps in the study process, said no one is anywhere near making a decision about a final route. He pointed out that decisions will be made after the conclusion of the study and by the Village of Los Lunas and Valencia County, with input from the Town of Peralta and the City of Belen.

Loretta Tollefson, a project manager with MRCOG, said the Village of Los Lunas, of course, wants to build a new east-west roadway that will stretch from I-25 to Highway 47, but no final route has been determined.

“Very simply, there is no secret map,” she said.

While there is no “secret map,” Pennington hinted at knowing where the final route would be during a July meeting, saying at the time that he could draw the route on a map.

Responding to an accusation that developers are controlling the direction of the study and its conclusions, Pennington admitted to meeting with developers — but no more than he’s met with citizens.

“We were called by the Rancho Cielo developer and he said, ‘You really like the southern alignment, right?’ And we said no,” Pennington said. “We don’t have a preference.”

He said no one in government is advocating a particular outcome, a comment supported by Valencia County Manager Eric Zamora.

“This is pure technical information we’re dealing with at this point,” Zamora said. “There are no politics. I have received no pressure, no comments, no direction from any commissioners to steer it one way or the other.”

Pennington agreed, saying he and MRCOG are looking at the routes technically and analytically, not politically.

“This is a political issue. Let’s not kid each other,” said Rita Padilla-Gutierrez, a member of the citizens advisory committee who’s also involved in the Historic Tome-Adelino Neighborhood Association. “This is about politics and who has the ins with whomever, who has the resources and who has what it takes to, politically, get it done or not done.”

Padilla-Gutierrez said the congestion in Los Lunas is a “self-inflicted” problem for a village that has mismanaged its growth.

“Those of us in the unincorporated areas are having to deal with Los Lunas’ bad planning,” she said.

The Belen City Council last night approved a $3-million project assistance agreement with a solar manufacturer and land developer, money the city is committing for infrastructure.

Signet Solar plans to build a 75-acre, multimillion dollar manufacturing facility for commercial photovoltaic technology in what’s referred to as the Belen Energy Hub, an industrial park within the Rancho Cielo housing, commercial and industrial development.

The financial assistance is coming from the state. The city council accepted the $3 million from the state in October and last night formally committed the money to Signet Solar and New Mexico Development Partners, LP, also called Rancho Cielo.

“The $3 million the state will be issuing will be for the build-out of infrastructure to the 80-acre site where Signet Solar will be located,” said Claudette Riley, the executive director of the Greater Belen Economic Development Corporation, who has worked on the agreement.

The money, however, might not be available for the development because of the state’s budget deficit.

“I think all state funding right now is in jeopardy,” Riley said.

She said the New Mexico Economic Development Department has advised her to continue going through the steps as if the money is secure.

“We’re still moving through with this as if the funding is there, and if they pull it, they pull it,” she said.

The city wouldn’t be at fault, under the terms of the contract, should the state pull the funding.

Michael Castillo, who’s working to develop Rancho Cielo, suggested Signet Solar could move forward without the funding.

“It would make it more difficult. It would make it more difficult if the funding wasn’t there,” he said.

“Just like any project that comes through the state, this is one of the biggest incentives offered to locate here in New Mexico,” Riley added.

Road crews have begun readying major improvements to the North Belen interchange that will allow access to the west side of Interstate 25, where the industrial park and Rancho Cielo will be located. Construction is expected to begin next month.

“We’re working very hard to make this project happen. We’ll continue to do so,” Castillo said. “Personally, and in addition to the excellent football team and putting Belen on the map in terms of athletics and city spirit, I’m hoping we can also do that from an economic point of view.”

Rep. Elias Barela said yesterday he spent time during last week’s special legislative session saving Rancho Cielo from the chopping block, at the same time protecting 600 jobs that could be created during the first phase of that industrial, commercial and housing development.

Somehow improvements to the North Belen interchange totaling almost $6 million got onto a list showing projects that could have their funding cut by the legislature. The improvements will provide access to the west side of Interstate 25, where Rancho Cielo will be located.

Barela said he worked with Rep. Don Tripp, who represents Rancho Cielo’s legislative district, and Rep. Andrew Barreras to save the project.

Barela met with Gov. Bill Richardson, the head of the New Mexico Economic Development Department and the head of the Department of Transportation, taking them information showing Rancho Cielo remains viable even though the project was postponed earlier this year.

While Rancho Cielo’s interchange improvements spent the better part of last week on the list to be cut, by Friday morning the project’s funding had been removed from the list.

Barela said he doesn’t understand how one of the Rancho Cielo appropriations — a 2009 appropriation — could be slated for a cut since it’s so new. He said many legislators were equally perplexed by other projects on the list, part of the reason why legislators became defensive about capital outlay project cuts and ended up not cutting any projects during the special session, only swapping the funding sources for some.

Had the North Belen interchange money been cut, Barela explained, it would have set back efforts to construct Signet Solar, a solar manufacturing facility that could bring up to 600 jobs to Belen.

“You’re talking 600 jobs. And I’m not being overly dramatic when I say we’re in a jobless recovery,” he said, adding, “We’re doing extraordinarily bad right now, as is most of the country. This is about working families trying to make a living. A job like this in an industry like this is all about the future.”

He said efforts to cut Rancho Cielo’s funding are misguided.

“This is wrong,” he said, a tinge of exasperation in his words. “It concerns me because it really is about working families, as was the whole session for me.”

He said he spent the special session keeping in mind the best interest of working families, which is why he voted against the final budget-cutting bill. He didn’t want to cut the state’s workforce or any positions during the session.

“The rank and file, if you will, are hardworking people. What concerns me, when you’re in any kind of crisis and you’re facing it, the leader has to set the example. Gov. Richardson has many, many exempt employees, many who are in this county. I’m not saying they’re not doing a good job, but he needs to pick and choose who he can actually afford now,” he said. “In flush times maybe he needs them all, but in lean times he can’t afford them all.”

The legislature approved a 7.6-percent cut to the budgets of state departments and agencies. While the governor’s office has released some information about the effect the bill could have on state government, it’s unclear how many, if any, state employees will lose their jobs. Richardson hasn’t signed the bill and has almost two more weeks to decide if he will.

Barela said early on that he was opposed to education cuts. He said the legislature protected education, cutting districts’ budgets less than one percent.

He said teachers and other local school employees called him with concerns that major cuts could mean job losses and impact their students.

“I got a lot of calls from teachers,” he said. “A lot of calls. Some of them were concerned that there was nepotism and cronyism at the administrator level of schools. Quite a bit. These are teachers saying to me, ‘We realize we may have to take a bit of a cut, but whatever you do, please don’t cut the classroom. But we realize that school boards and superintendents,’ in their view, ‘have some things that they can do.’”

He said it was most important to look at the legislature’s bills from a perspective that “values the workforce.”

“You don’t have the 10 major schools in Belen not making AYP because of the buildings they’re in,” he said of the district’s Adequate Yearly Progress numbers recently published in the Valencia County News-Bulletin. “You have it because they need more educational resources, smaller class sizes and special programs to catch people up and training.”

He said cutting faculty and staff won’t contribute to helping schools meet state and national education standards.

Barela said the legislature got through the special session, but January’s regular session will be tough, as the legislature considers more cuts and possible tax increases.

He wants the legislature to take back its capital outlay project appropriations.

“I think we should have swept some of this billions dollars of capital outlay that’s out there, and we should do it by year,” he said. “There’s stuff out there from 2000, 2001, 2003.”

He wants the legislature to look at cost-saving alternatives to job cuts, by prioritizing services, closing tax loopholes, stopping double dipping, which is when a government employee gets both a retirement check and a salary, and doing other things.

“There are a lot of ways we can save money and not cut jobs on the rank and file, as I like to say ‘the working families,’” he said.

The City of Belen tonight accepted $3 million from the State of New Mexico to build infrastructure to support the development of Rancho Cielo west of Los Chavez.

The economic development funds are the second infusion of cash for Rancho Cielo. Several millions of dollar has been provided by Gov. Bill Richardson and the state legislature for improvements to the North Belen interchange, which will provide access to the west side of Interstate 25.

The money will come from the New Mexico Economic Development Department and will be used to provide water, sewer and a road into Rancho Cielo.

“The City of Belen will act as the fiscal agent of the $3 million,” said Claudette Riley, the executive director of the Greater Belen Economic Development Corporation (GBEDC).

The first major construction project in Rancho Cielo will be Signet Solar, a solar manufacturing facility to be located in Rancho Cielo’s Energy Hub. It’s expected to provide up to 600 jobs over the multiphase, five-year project.

“Signet Solar is one of several other manufacturing facilities in the state that’s receiving capital outlay funds,” Riley said.

The city council, by ordinance, unanimously approved a project participation agreement and contract for the state funds. Riley said the new ordinance was accepted under the City of Belen Economic Development Plan Ordinance.

Several legal questions were raised about the action during and after the meeting.

Councilor Terese Ulivarri asked City Attorney Norman McDonald about a provision in the ordinance that says it will supersede other city law anytime there’s a conflict between the new ordinance and older ones.

McDonald said it’s standard language in law for new ordinances to supersede older ordinances when there’s a conflict.

“If there are any other ordinances that are on the books in the City of Belen that are somehow in conflict or inconsistent with this ordinance, then those ordinances are repealed to the extent that there’s an inconsistency,” he explained.

Valencia! asked McDonald after the meeting whether or not the city council was supposed to hold a public hearing on the ordinance prior to passing it.

The city’s Economic Development Plan Ordinance says all project participation agreements must be “adopted by the governing body at a public hearing” and many government bodies, like the Valencia County Commission, hold public hearings before adopting ordinances.

The city’s ordinance doesn’t define “public hearing,” though a public hearing is typically a section of a meeting that allows public input on an action item, like approval of an ordinance, prior to a vote by the governing body.

McDonald said the entire meeting was a public hearing. He then refused to answer other legal questions, saying he provides legal advice to the mayor and council, not reporters.

Valencia! had hoped to ask whether or not adequate notice was provided to the public of the council’s intent to adopt the ordinance. State law requires at least two weeks published notice.

We also wanted to ask for details of the legal process for getting the funds from the state to the city and finally to New Mexico Development Partners, LP, also know as Rancho Cielo. The city had slip-ups with the economic development assistance process when courting a pipe manufacturing plant to the Rio Grande Industrial Park approximately two years ago.

This time the city is confident the city’s successfully following the process, because Riley and city officials have been working with the state, the City of Albuquerque and others with expertise in the process.

At the council meeting tonight, councilors voiced their support of the city’s economic development efforts and the GBEDC.

“It’s good to see things are finally working in the favor of the City of Belen,” said Councilor David Lopez. “I know this council has worked very hard to get things going.”

Riley is looking forward to more industry seeking to build in Rancho Cielo.

She said Signet Solar takes up the westernmost third of the area designated as an industrial park in the development. That means the new infrastructure will make the other two-thirds ready for development.

“Once the road and infrastructure gets there,” she said, “we’re ready to rock on another 150 acres that already have the infrastructure to there.”

The City of Belen records nearly 30 millions of gallons of water use in any given month, but in December approximately 54 percent of the total water use was lost, with the sources of the loss unknown to city officials at the time.

“I would say three or four years ago, we noticed their unaccounted use was higher than ideal,” said Carole Christiano with Lee Wilson & Associates, a Santa Fe water rights consulting firm, adding, “We’ve sort of embarked upon a multi-pronged approach to see if we can get that number down.”

In 2008, unaccounted water use was consistently more than 40 percent of total use. This year the number has dropped closer to 30 percent.

In December, for example, the water use spiked to approximately 40 million gallons, up 10 million gallons from the previous month. That month the city billed for around 18 million gallons. The rest — 21 million gallons of water — was unaccounted for.

Some months are higher. Some are lower, like last month when 22 percent was lost.

A Mid-Region Council of Governments (MRCOG) official said the amount of water lost in Belen is significant in comparison to other places.

“Belen has one of the leakiest water systems I’ve seen in the region,” Joe Quintana said. “We’re trying to figure out where you’re losing it.”

The city government, along with Lee Wilson & Associates, has determined some of the reasons for the high amount of water loss, but hasn’t identified all of the sources.

The city identified the cause of December’s high water loss: a malfunctioning water well and tank. In the latter half of 2008, the automatic shut-off valve for water being pumped from a city well into a city tank malfunctioned. Water was continually pumped into the tank, overflowing into an arroyo.

Robert Rimorin, the city’s utilities director, said as soon as the city was made aware of the problem it was addressed.

Other possible causes include unauthorized hookups. For every five connections to city water, two have been identified as illegal, Christiano said.

She said the city has old pipes. A company will be analyzing the pipes with sonar in November to see if they find any leaks.

“We’ve actually found old oak pipes that were installed back in the day,” said Andrew DiCamillo, who works with the city’s planning and zoning department.

The city also has meters giving inaccurate readings. The city has been slowly changing meters from manual to electronic, to get more accurate readings.

Another problem is the city’s software for managing the readings, which doesn’t indicate when a meter is read and not billed for use. For example, a local park with substantial water use was giving a reading at its meter but wasn’t showing up in the software during the billing process.

The impact of the water loss is not only in lost water, but a chilling relationship with the Office of the State Engineer, which oversees water use in New Mexico.

The American Water Works Association, a national nonprofit overseeing water issues, expects no more than 10 percent of water to be unaccounted in a municipality.

“If you have 10 percent, you get a gold star,” Christiano said. “That’s kind of what you’re aiming for.”

Any unaccounted use higher than that means the state engineer could deny future water diversions for the city. It has a direct impact, for instance, on new developments like Rancho Cielo. Because of the high percentage of water loss, the state engineer could deny the city any additional water diversions for Rancho Cielo.

“The city has transferred in enough water rights to meet their 40-year demand,” Christiano said. “If they feel they need to transfer in more water rights, for example, for this new Rancho Cielo subdivision and they need to file a new application for a water rights permit so they can transfer in additional water rights, one of the big issues the state engineer is concerned about is this unaccounted use.”

Christiano said the state engineer would prefer the city fix its unaccounted use as the solution to having enough water for Belen’s growth, instead of not dealing with the water loss by requesting new water rights transfers.

“The right thing to do is to get the unaccounted use down to a low number,” she said, not only to satisfy the state engineer, but in terms of preserving a natural resource.

Every gallon of water the city pumps also costs the city a fee it pays to the state. By fixing the problem, the city saves money that can be put toward other things.

“You want to reduce it from a global perspective. You want to reduce it from a financial perspective,” she said of the unaccounted use. “And you want to demonstrate to the state engineer that you’re using the resource in the best possible manner.”