Northern New Mexico College administrators are using the last bit of general obligation bond funding to complete $2 million worth of security projects on the Española and El Rito campuses, including installing iron fences and automated gates at both schools.
Funding for the fencing project was generated from an influx of money for capital projects, approved by voters nearly two years ago.
College officials encouraged voters to pass the Bond measure on the Nov. 4, 2014 ballot because they expected to receive the $2 million to upgrade many of their aging facilities. Sixty percent of voters approved the measure, which ensured the issuance and sale of $141 million in bond money throughout the state.
According to the specifics on the ballot measure, the bonds would be paid through property taxes the state collects from residents. Some of Northern’s proceeds were used to pay for security cameras and lighting around the campus.
Northern Director of Financial Services Henrietta Trujillo said the safety, power and security bond was approved by the state’s Board of Finance in December 2014, after gaining approval from the Higher Education Department in November of that year.
Interim president Domingo Sanchez said fencing around the Northern and El Rito campuses does not mean the institutions will be closed campuses.
He said in the event of a shooting, or some catastrophic event, administrators need the ability to lock down the campus for safety reasons.
“We have to be able to lock this institution down,” he said. “It is an open campus, but there are going to be some areas where we are going to be able to lock the gates and lock it down.”
Twenty-two-year-old Northern student Enrique Castrillo said he was not concerned about the fencing being erected around campus.
“I mostly take online classes,” he said. “But I do think that when I have to come to campus for registration, or whatever, it will make students feel more secure. With all the incidents that have happened on high school and college campuses, I think they probably feel a need to add an extra layer of security. Personally, I don’t mind it.”
Sanchez said there are too many ways to get in currently, so the administration is using the last remaining dollars from the bond to prepare in the event of an emergency.
“Depending on the size of your campus, that’s probably easier said than done,” he said, in reference to the security department’s ability to lock down the College.
New bridges
Trujillo said the safety improvements were broken down into two projects: A small amount of the funding, $43,000, was combined with a project to replace the bridges on campus.
“We proposed that to the Higher Education Department, together as one project,” she said. “The wood on the bridges was pretty warped, it was pretty bad, so we did that piece.”
District officials said the second part of the safety improvement project was to finalize all the remaining fencing.
Tri West Fence LLC, from Bernalillo, the contractor used by the College to work on the project, is scheduled to finish installing the gates and fences by the end June, while upgrades of chain link fences at the El Rito facility have already been completed.
Trujillo said the service contract written to Tri West Fence for the project was for a total of $271,979.98. The amount was approved by the State Board of Finance and the Higher Education Department. She said College administrators have received invoices and paid $99,065.60, to date.
She said the breakdown for each campus on the contract was $205,813.46 for Española and $66,166.52 for El Rito.
Administrators said Tri West was given the contract because there is a statewide pricing agreement that allowed the College to use the agreement, thus not requiring the College to go out to bid.
“It’s still an open campus,” Trujillo said. “We are going to put up gates, so it is a bit of a deterrent, but they won’t be locked during working hours.”
Trujillo said the College has been in contact with the Española Police Department to ensure that they can get in, in case of an emergency.
Sanchez said because there is not a lot of activity going on at the El Rito campus, administrators wanted to make sure that fencing would prevent people from getting into areas that they don’t really have any business getting into.
“That can happen on weekends,” he said. “Those public parks up there, we need to keep them open, so we need to ensure that if people are up there using the parks, that they are not going into areas that they should not be in. It’s a security measure. For the same reasons as in Española, we need to be able to lock down that campus.”
Administrators were in agreement that more security was needed at both campuses, despite their distance.
“El Rito is a little different because it is more controlled since it is way out there,” Trujillo said. “There is less activity there, and in that case some of the fencing was pretty old and in need of repair.”