At their regular meeting Tuesday, the BOCC unanimously voted after a closed session to give the city of Sunland Park immediate notice of its intent to terminate the joint powers agreement, or JPA, that created the Camino Real Regional Utility Authority, or CRRUA. According to a Doña Ana County press release, Board of County Commissioners Chair and District 1 Commissioner Christopher Schaljo-Hernandez said it was “for mutual benefit to all parties,” and pursuant aligned with to subsection 15 of the JPA, regarding CCRUA. The county notified the City of Sunland Park immediately after the Commission’s vote and will follow up with a formal, written notice. The press release stated that County staff will work with the City of Sunland Park to develop a plan for transitioning CRRUA and dividing the assets and debt. Until that process is completed, CRRUA will continue to operate the water and wastewater services in the southern area of the County and within the City of Sunland Park.
When reached by phone later for her reaction to the BOCC’s vote, Daisy Maldonado from Empowerment Congress of Doña Ana County, who has advocated for clean and safe drinking water for residents of Sunland Park and Santa Teresa, had this to say.
“I was…a little shocked,” she said. “It really just proves that there’s a growing urgency to just sort of reimagine the public utility structure so that it’s accountable, transparent, and rooted in the wellbeing of the residents, the families, the children who live there who consume that water. So Empowerment Congress is actually looking forward to a new structure. Hopefully that is what will come out of this: one that’s rooted in the people, that’s community-driven, and committed to delivering clean, safe, affordable drinking water.”
During the County Elected Officials’ Input portion of Tuesday’s BOCC meeting, District 5 Commissioner Manuel Sanchez expressed his concerns regarding the Bureau of Land Management ceding authority of not only the Roosevelt Reservation to the U.S. Army, which he had brought up two weeks ago, but also of all public lands south of Highway 9 to the Army.
“They’re public lands that now the public has no access to,” he said. “If you access those lands and you step on them, you will be arrested; or at least the threat is there of being arrested for trespassing upon military property.”
Sanchez was also concerned that not only was the government taking over public lands, but also trying to overturn the designation of the national monument status of the Organ Mountain-Desert Peaks across Doña Ana County.
“But at what point does it stop? Where do we normalize this? Public lands are for the public. It’s in their name. But taking them over so that it can be used by the military? Without any type of real notice other than what BLM had? It’s ridiculous. It’s concerning to me. I feel like as a commission, as a county, we need to start standing up. It’s public lands, but it’s still in our county. Many people will say, ‘It’s just the desert, so what?’ But that’s our desert.”
Commissioner Sanchez’s comments were met with enthusiastic approval from Doña Ana County Sheriff Kim Stewart.
“I thank you very much,” Sheriff Stewart said to Sanchez. “We don’t often agree, but I agree wholeheartedly with you: stand up! Stand up for your county! None of us can do this alone.”
Sheriff Stewart described her own concerns about militarization of the border.
“I have been attempting to get to the bottom of militarization of our border for almost two months. I asked BLM for a map, and what I got was a hand-drawn map of our border with no specifics as to how deep is that military base. And here’s the problem: if there’s a dead body down there, even at the foot of the wall, do you know who that belongs to? DASO (Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Office).”
The next BOCC meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, May 27.
