Published 10/30/08
Four bond questions that will appear on the Nov. 4 ballot would provide funding for a variety of services in Rio Arriba County.
“General obligation bonds” appear on the ballot every two years, and since 2002 only one has failed (a 2002 bond question over capital improvements for state facilities).
Once approved, the state sells the bonds and promises to repay the buyers using its powers of taxation. The state sells the bonds in $5,000 increments, mainly to banks and financial companies that bid on them at auction, which determines the interest rates. Some of the top bidders include Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley. The 2007 bond sale went to JP Morgan at an interest rate of 3.81 percent, according to information from the state Finance and Administration Department.
Following is information on the first three bonds (the SUN published an article on Bond D in the Oct. 23 issue).
Bond A — Senior Centers
Bond Question A would authorize a bond sale up to $14,725,000 to improve senior centers, and more than $600,000 would come to the County for equipment purchases and building improvements.
It includes $190,000 for the Alcalde community center, $200,000 for the Coyote senior center and $95,500 for the Española Senior Center. The Santa Clara Pueblo senior center would get $75,000, and the Santa Clara adult day care center would get $36,200. The Bond also includes $9,800 to purchase and install new equipment and $7,600 for new meals equipment for seniors County-wide.
Bond B – Libraries
Bond Question B would allow the state to issue bonds up to $11,019,000 for academic, public and tribal libraries. Three million dollars would be used to acquire books, equipment and other resources for public libraries statewide, $2 million for tribal libraries statewide, $3 million for public schools statewide and $3 million for higher-education libraries statewide. No specific counties or municipalities are listed, but Northern New Mexico College Library Director Isabel Rodarte said the disbursements are determined by the number of full-time employees at each facility.
Rodarte said her library got about $50,000 from a 2004 bond sale and $41,000 in 2006. She said this year’s proposal is similar to the one approved in 2006.
“It would be in the same neighborhood,” she said.
Rodarte said she has used past funding to buy computers and monographs (detailed studies of various subjects). She said reference books would be her main focus this year.
“If we receive it now in 2008, I would probably use it to maintain the currency of the collection.”
Española Valley High School librarian Dwight McArthur said he bought books using money from the last bond, but he wasn’t sure how much his library received. He said the 330 new books and graphic novels have gotten students more interested in reading.
“It’s really helped,” he said. “Our circulation is way up.”
Albuquerque Special Collections Library Branch Manager Joe Sabatini broke down the approximate disbursements for the County in an email: $42,483 for Northern New Mexico College, $51,768 for the Española School District, $18,529 for the Jemez Mountain School District, $12,712 for the Mesa Vista School District, $3,404 for the Española Military Academy, $3,033 for Lindrith Charter School, $15,757 for the Chama School District and $10,034 for Dulce School District.
Public libraries in the County also stand to benefit. Sabatini came up with the following totals: $6,646 for the Abiquiú Public Library, $7,804 for the El Rito Public Library, $10,137 for the Embudo Valley Library, $44,190 for the Española Public Library, $8,590 for the Truchas Community Library, $101,301 for the Santa Clara Pueblo Community Library, $9,727 for the Eleanor Daggett Memorial Library in Chama and $104,357 for the Jicarilla Public Library.
Bond C –
Health Commons
Bond Question C would allow a bond sale of nearly $58 million. Two million dollars of that total would go toward construction of the Health Commons on Industrial Park Road.
Construction of the first phase of the planned one-stop shop for Valley health services continues despite a July 23 deadline. The $2.5 million first phase was to include a shell of the entire 18,500-square-foot building (the main clinic and the building’s two wings), the completion of the “B” wing and partial completion of the “C” wing.
Blue Sky Builders Project Manager Ryan Cordova, of Española, said the company could probably finish the entire Commons with an additional $2 million. A funding shortage made the County and El Centro Family Health break the project into three phases.
Cordova said the first phase should be done in three or four weeks. He said painting, flooring and other finishing touches are going in now, and a water line is being extended to serve the Commons.
Cordova said a $718,000 federal appropriation will be used to flesh out the remaining wing, and if the $2 million comes through it would be enough to complete the rest of the facility.
When the current phase is finished, the 5,600-square-foot “B” wing will house the County Health and Human Services Department and state Health Department. The first phase of the “C” wing will contain a mechanical room and bathrooms. When it is finished, “C” will house social workers; Family First, a non-profit that helps people through marriage and parenthood; and Women, Infants and Children, a federal food and nutritional service.
El Centro plans to move its clinical operations, offering immunizations, prescriptions and other services into the main clinic.