Gila ready for the fire break; Restrictions begin until March 10th

By Jo Lutz
Daily press correspondent
The Grant County Commission met on Thursday to hear the recent projections for the upcoming fire season and the planned reaction of the forest service, to hear a report by the Humane Society and to issue bonds for capital projects according to a plan of $ 8 million by the voters.
Marcus Cornwell, officer of the Forst Service Fire, showed projections against the Commission, which combined low rainfall and above -average temperatures with the significant forest fire potential expected in April and May. He said that an expected monthly update of a metric called “Energy Release Component” would revise the fire risk for March.
A potential advantage was that the monsoon should probably begin “early and/or on time”, said Cornwell, and the lack of precipitation in winter will grow less vegetation, which would then become fuel.
He said that the country of the forest service will be placed under the restrictions of level 1 from March 10th. This means that campfires are banned outside of designated campsites with fire brigade rings and no smoking is allowed outside of vehicles or buildings, unless you can “scratch dirt”.
“So far our [fire] When we work across the forest, we look pretty good, ”said Cornwell. “Grant County and Silver City are probably our most occupied districts. In some of our rural areas we still have to fight a little to find people who want to be in these areas, but I would say that all of our resources have at least one minimum amount of staff to be functional. “
“The federal cuts that we hear in the news will this affect our firefighters if we actually have a big fire here?” Asked district 4 Commissioner Eddie Flores.
“No primary fire service personnel were affected with the latest dismissals,” said Ranger Elizabeth Toney, District in Silver City. “We had others who were affected and I have no freedom to report the special features of it. I can give you our names of our public affairs to come to our office in Washington – you do not want us to provide information about this information. “
The meeting was opened with public comments by Paul Foreman von Mimbres, who had been raised for the side of NM 35 due to the drive on NM 35 and complained about the restrictive regulation and difficulty in navigation Mimbres without the state highway.
“I can't even go to my neighbors without loading him to a trailer and dragging him 100 meters and then unloading,” said Foreman.
The district manager Charlene Webb later told the Commission that the district gave a procedure for the Ministry of Transport in New Mexico to enable off-highway vehicles to use routes on state motorways such as NM 35. She listed several existing routes and agreed to provide the Commission a map of these routes.
Heidi Ogas, President of the High Desert Humane Society, gave the annual report of the shelter to the commissioners. She said that in 2024 the organization's animal shelter recorded 1,724 dogs and cats in Silver City, 634 adopted and 178 returned to its owners. Last year, 719 animals were classified as unadoptable and had to be put to sleep, and otherwise 137 adoptable animals were put to sleep due to overcrowding.
“We are constantly interviewed [whether] We will ever be anyone, ”said Ogas. “Of course that's our goal. Of more than 1,700 animals to be put to sleep, which were adopted, this means that our numbers are quite low. “
Ogas said she hoped that a microchip program would return more cats to its owners in the future, that the 1,137 Spay and Neutrum vouchers could be increased in the future and that irresponsible breeding would decrease.
The Commission also initiated the trial for the next series of bond obligations from the bond initiative 2022, which Mark Valenzuela from Bosque Financial Advisors helped the district to increase the increasing cost obligations, while they were able to persist in the district, while they do not increase the promise to the public that do not increase the ownership taxes.
Four million dollars were approved for public institutions and 4 million US dollars for roads. Valenzuela said that 2 million US dollars of the $ 4 million had already been issued for roads and had driven to the county towards bridges. The commission voted on Thursday to apply for the New Mexico Finance Authority to issue 2.5 million US dollars in bonds of public institutions and remained 1.5 million US dollars of approved bonds.
Webb replied to Commissioner Flores about the proposed improvements of the Whitewater Road for a wind farm project that opposed and was outside the scope of the agreed improvements in the second road.
“So there is a little confusion,” said Webb. “There is a road traffic agreement that we have completed with Scout Clean Energy, and you only use a second road and your intention [is] Just to transport your blades and turbines. This other lawyer who is represented by a transport company is not bound to Scout Clean Energy. Therefore, he is – and rightly – very concerned with the residents, but he is not tied to our project. … Well, supposedly there is another project in the works that nobody in the county even knows. You didn't turn to the street agreement. “
After returning from the executive meeting, the Commission authorized the district to apply for an injunction for a property in Rodeo Road, where a big fire evacuated near residents last summer.
Jo Lutz can be reached at jo@scdailypress.com.