In March 1985, Elberta Honstein paid the New Mexico Highway Department to install a traffic light at the Big Rock shopping center on Riverside Drive. Interim city manager Joe Duran said initially Honstein agreed to pay the electricity service bills for the new traffic light for the first two years with the intent to transfer ownership of the signalized light over to the city.
However, Duran said ownership of the signal was never transferred and the city continued to reimburse Honstein $261.68 each month. Duran said Jemez Mountains Electric Co-op would bill Honstein for the traffic light’s electricity usage; Honstein would submit a copy of the invoice to the city each month; the city would then reimburse Honstein the following month with the amount of each month’s electricity bill for the traffic light.
“Apparently, the account was never placed under the city of Española and we continue to pay Elberta Honstein,” Duran said. “Evidently, it was an oversight. However, around 2006, I remember Planning Director Cyrus Sami was handling the transaction of the electric (bill) statement. I assume during that time of his resignation, it fell through without any follow up.”
Street Supervisor Anthony Trujillo said that last year he directed the Co-op to transfer ownership of the signal over from Honstein to the city.
“We thought it had been taken care of,” Trujillo said.
Honstein owns the Phillips 66 gas station at the front of the Big Rock complex.
Honstein could not be reached after multiple attempts at contact by phone.
Upon learning about the ownership error Oct. 4, Duran sent a letter to the Co-op instructing the utility to conduct the change.
Co-op General Manager Wayne Sowell said he could not comment on the original purchase order because locating the original order would be a challenge and claimed many documents from more than seven years ago are destroyed as the statute of limitations would have expired.
“I would have no idea where that work order would be,” Sowell said.
The city had requested a signalized intersection at Big Rock but Duran said a Highway Department traffic study showed the area’s traffic flow did not warrant installation of a signalized light. However, the agreement between the Department and Honstein, shows otherwise.
It reads, “Whereas, the Department has determined that a traffic signal is warranted within the City of Española at the intersection of the major ingress/egress to the Big Rock Shopping Center, a private development, and State Road 68.”
In the agreement, the city affirms that installation of the traffic signal would be in the best interests of the public, yet, nowhere in the document does it state that ownership of the light is to be transferred to the city from Honstein. The agreement does stipulate that, once constructed, the city would provide, at its own expense, all electrical energy and routine maintenance. The agreement also states the city would provide funding each year in its budget to cover the traffic signal’s operating costs.