Nick Seibel, publisher and editor of the Silver City Daily Press, covers top stories each week on the Silver City Report. This week we hear about the new president for WNMU, the town of Silver City's financial troubles and new technology at Gila Regional Medical Center.
Susan Morée:
So Nick, there's a new story on who's going to be the president of Western New Mexico University. Tell us about it.
Nick Seibel:
Yeah, Jose E. Cole, who is now the provost and the vice president of academic affairs at Western Oregon University in Monmouth, Oregon, is going to be the new president of Western New Mexico University. He'll start on July 1st. Dr. Cole is a native of Cuba who immigrated to the U.S. when he was nine years old and was, of course, one of the four finalists, the first one of the four finalists to visit campus a couple of weeks ago. The Regent said in their hiring that not only was he at the top of their list, but he'd also gotten really favorable feedback from staff and students in the community during his campus visits, and basically a love fest all around on Tuesday morning when the Regents took their unanimous vote.
Susan Morée:
And the town of Silver City is experiencing a financial crunch. What's going on there?
Nick Seibel:
So the town of Silver City, of course, has seen some turnover in administration at the end of the year. Longtime town manager Alex Brown retired. For many years he was also in charge of finances for the town. In fact, that's how he started out, was as the finance director before he became the interim town manager and ultimately the town manager back in 2002. His departure has left the folks who have taken over some things to figure out. The State of New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration, which oversees the budgets and spending for local governments, was concerned about some really low ending balances. for a couple of quarters earlier this fiscal year. There was one fund ending balance for the general fund of 64 cents, and then the second quarter, the ending balance was 93 cents. So the state has stepped up the reporting requirements for the town, and there's also been some belt tightening by town officials in the wake of this concern. They've cut back on their sponsorship of events that the town has historically done, which has kind of hampered planning for some major events, including the Tour of the Gila that's coming up here in Silver City in just a couple of months. Most of the event organizers that we spoke to said they're going to figure it out. It's obviously not a make or break kind of thing for most of them, but certainly it's added some uncertainty for folks who do a lot to bring folks into the community, and certainly a situation we'll be keeping an eye on.
Susan Morée:
Is there any worry that they'll have to lay off staff.
Nick Seibel:
The town officials, the interim town manager, has said that they're definitely looking at making some more cutbacks besides, for instance, the sponsorship of external events. They've emphasized that they're targeting these cuts so that it won't impact services to town residents. So, they say even though they are going to be making some trimmings around the town budget that they don't think that residents should see, there are not going to be reductions of hours or those sorts of things that will affect residents. So it's definitely going to be interesting to see how that all shakes out, though, and hopefully just a temporary blip as the changing of the guard continues.
Susan Morée:
Okay. And Gila Regional Medical Center, there's a new story there. Tell us about what's going on.
Nick Seibel:
Yeah, well, the folks at the EMS at Gila Regional Medical Center gave a tour last Tuesday to the Silver City Rotary Club and showed off the EMS facilities at the hospital and the ambulance. One of the things that came out of that was sort of an unexpected news story that the hospital, which, of course, is county owned, is updating communication systems for staff and for ambulances in particular. Something that the hospital had been working on already, but there was new urgency after a stabbing of an EMT last month in the back of an ambulance that was transporting that patient from Mimbres into Silver City to the hospital. That EMT is recovering, and they believe that they'll be fine. But the hospital's communications upgrade is not only going to put the ambulances on the same frequency as the state police, but it will also provide the EMTs with handheld radios that are tied into that communication system. It'll have essentially a panic button function that will just open the channel so that police officers and others will know what's going on in the event that a similar situation happens in the future, God forbid.
Susan Morée:
Well, hopefully a similar situation won't happen in the future, but it's good to know that they're looking out for their staff and its working to keep them safe.
Nick Seibel:
Absolutely, and they said, of course there will be other benefits to that as well.
Susan Morée:
And where can readers find these stories?
Nick Seibel:
You can find us online 24-7 at scdailypress.com.
