4/2/09
Rio Arriba County and the North Central Solid Waste Authority are rushing to construct a new, permanent garbage station on County-owned land in Alcalde, and the city of Española may not help pay for it, Española Mayor Joseph Maestas told Authority Board members last month.
Maestas made this threat March 19 in response to the County’s decision to include the new transfer station in a request for architectural services for the Alcalde land without seeking the Authority Board of Directors’ approval.
“Have there been Board votes for involvement in the (County) property?” Maestas asked. “We should do that before we jump into sites that haven’t been properly vetted.”
Assistant County Manager Tomas Campos explained that the County included the station in the request for design proposals for the entire Alcalde project, which includes several other proposed buildings, just in case the Authority decided to build the new transfer station at the site.
“We’re not trying to steal it from the city,” Campos said.
But Española may not allow its .0625 percent environmental services gross receipts tax money to be spent on building a transfer station that is not within city limits, Maestas said. The city council passed a resolution March 24 urging the Authority to build the new station on city land.
“That’s been resolved already,” Santa Clara Pueblo Environmental Affairs Assistant Director Bernardino Chavarria told Maestas regarding the tax money. “This is a joint authority, not a city authority. It seems like anything the city doesn’t control isn’t good.”
The new station would replace the La Loma station, the Authority’s central garbage and transfer station on Industrial Park Road in Española, from which garbage is currently trucked to landfills outside the County. The Authority has used the three-acre site since 2004, when the Authority was formed by the city, County and the Santa Clara and Ohkay Owingeh pueblos, Authority Manager Joseph Lewandowski said.
“It was acquired by the city in 1993,” Lewandowski said. “It was never meant to be a permanent site. It was supposed to be temporary. There is no lease. It was just something we inherited with intention to phase it out and build a new facility.”
The Authority has decided to build a new, permanent transfer station instead of constructing a landfill.
“This year we’ll pay half a million dollars to truck garbage,” Lewandowski said. “Building a new landfill would run $5 to $6 million plus another million for equipment. And operating a landfill costs more than a million a year.”
It’s too early for a cost estimate for the anticipated station, Lewandwoski and County Manager Lorenzo Valdez said.
The new station will be an enclosed, indoor facility to control wind-blown trash. It will also include a recycling center, Lewandowski said.
“Right now, we’re transporting everything to Rio Rancho,” Lewandowski said. “We can divert tons of recycling right here. At current rates, diverting 20 percent of trash to recycling would save $200,000 a year and create nine to 12 jobs locally.”
The Authority had planned to build the new station on Ohkay Owingeh-owned land. That plan fell apart last year when the Pueblo wanted to renegotiate the deal. That leaves two likely destinations for the station: city-owned land on 31-Mile Road in Española or or the County-owned land in Alcalde.
Maestas has said the city land, which is near the existing transfer station, would be more convenient to Española residents.
“If we make Española residents drive out of town, we’ll see more illegal dumping,” Maestas said, holding up a SUN article about an illegal dump near the Rural Events Center in Abiquiú.
But County officials and Lewandowski have said the County land would be cheaper for the Authority. The County has offered to give the Authority free space on the land and to share the cost of wastewater treatment and utilities, Lewandowski said.
The city land, in contrast, would be either sold or leased to the Authority, Lewandowski and Maestas agreed.
“The city was gonna do an appraisal,” Lewandowski said. “It started at $110,000 then went up to $240,000. The city was going to get an appraiser but I don’t know what happened.”
The appraisal wasn’t completed because Lewandowski never specified which part of the city’s land the Authority was considering, Maestas said.
Maestas also supported a motion at the meeting to ask Ohkay Owingeh whether they were still open to a deal on their land. The Pueblo’s representative on the Board, Utility Department Director Curtis Aguino, did not comment at the meeting on whether the Pueblo was open to a deal and did not return calls.