7/16/09
Fifteen years ago, Preciliano Romero of Calle Gallegos first petitioned the Española City Council to bring water and sewer to his street. Now he and his neighbors may have gotten their lucky break, thanks in part to his brother-in-law, Española City Councilor Alfred Herrera.
“Alfred, he’s my brother-in-law,” Romero confirmed. “But I try not to talk to him too much about (expanding utilities) because I don’t want people thinking we don’t just deserve this. We were working for this long before Alfred was in office.”
But until he was, the efforts of the seven Calle Gallegos households within city limits seemed to fall on deaf ears. That appears to have changed: currently, Calle Gallegos, despite being one of the most expensive and least populated extension targets, is the first on a list of around 100 streets that are slated to receive city utilities as soon as the City Council can agree to move forward. Plans to do so were delayed at the most recent City Council meeting, where a proposal to begin work was voted down. Herrera spoke out at that meeting, calling for the proposal’s acceptance and expressing frustration at the final vote.
Herrera confirmed that Romero is his brother-in-law, but vehemently denied the relationship had any bearing on the council’s decisions, saying the real reason he has been so vocal was because Mayor Joseph Maestas and four other city council members had run in 2006 on the collective promise to expand utilities.
“We are not doing this, I am not doing this to serve family,” he said. “We are doing this because it is the right thing.”
Members of the council have family in numerous streets included in the project, Herrera said.
“If you’re going to talk about me and Prec, you have to talk about all the family that Maestas and (Mayor Pro-Tem Alice) Lucero have all over the North McCurdy Road neighborhood,” he said. “Also that Calle La Paz, where I live, isn’t in the first three phases because of this kind of reason.”
About 30 streets near North McCurdy Road are included in the project’s second phase, including Calle Ramon Espinosa, where Lucero lives, Herrera said.
“With so many streets, of course there are going to be family connections,” he said. “But that’s not why we’re doing this.”
Lucero confirmed she lives on Calle Ramon Espinosa, but she also denied that her personal connections have anything to do with the project.
“I don’t want to talk about Calle Ramon Espinosa because it’s just so far down the list,” she said. “And my family has their own water and sewer, and so do a lot of my neighbors.”
Calle Ramon Espinosa is the 10th street on the city’s list, which means it could be years before the city gets around to installing utilities there, Lucero added.
For the residents of Calle Gallegos, it doesn’t matter why they’re getting utilities, just that they finally get them.
Russ Gallegos owns Gallegos Scrap Metal on the street, and he said that family connections or no, he isn’t holding his breath.
“It’s been my experience that anything in Rio Arriba County seems to be cursed with politics,” he said. “I’ve learned a long time ago not to get my hopes up.”
When asked why he believed Calle Gallegos had been chosen to lead off the utility expansion, Gallegos said he thought it was probably the result of how long he and other residents had been asking.
“We’re assuming it’s because we first approached them,” he said. “After 15 years they’re finally paying attention.”
However, he added, if Herrera’s family connections did have some influence in the case, he wouldn’t blame Romero, for taking advantage of it.
“If I had family up in City Hall, I know I’d be calling them,” he said.