Nick Seibel, editor and publisher of the Silver City Daily Press, covers top stories each week in the Silver City Report. This week, he talks about hopes that cooler temperatures will tamp down New World screwworm in the region, Grant County Commission passing a moratorium on data centers and more.
Susan Morée:
We've had a couple of cases of New World screwworm in Las Cruces recently, and now you've got more news about New World screwworm in Grant County. What's going on? And in Hidalgo County.
Nick Seibel:
Yeah, we had a couple of new cases reported in Grant County last week, a new case in Hidalgo County, and then of course the two cases over the weekend there in Las Cruces. So definitely a big story for all of us in southern New Mexico right now. The state veterinarian had a public meeting here in Silver City last Thursday. It was supposed to be a public meeting that was open and in person, but of course we had all that wild weather at the end of last week. And so they ended up moving it to a Zoom meeting instead. But basically the state veterinarian said it's not a sprint, it's a marathon. And that was her quote. She talked about how, with the late rain we've had this year, it's really kind of created the perfect conditions for screwworms. And she said the biggest thing they're looking for right now is cooler temperatures for cold weather. That's not going to get us out of it because the pupae of the screwworm basically can overwinter in the soil and pop back out in the spring. But it definitely will stop this transmission cycle that we've got going on right now. Of course, we all know they're working on scaling up their sterile fly distributions to help stop the reproduction of the screwworm. That's what got us out of the last episode of this back in the 1950s and 1960s. And the thing that they emphasized, of course, is to keep an eye on your animals, whether they be livestock or your household pets, and just err on the side of caution. The state veterinarian said they'd rather have 1,000 negative samples than miss one that is positive.
Susan Morée:
This is starting to feel like an Alfred Hitchcock or a movie based on a Stephen King novel. I think it should be called The Fly.
Nick Seibel:
With everything else weird going on in the world. It just, it's, yeah, somehow it just seems right that all this is going on, too.
Susan Morée:
And the Grant County Commission passed a moratorium on data centers. Is that correct?
Nick Seibel:
That's right, they passed a moratorium on data centers and their supporting infrastructure within the county for one year. A representative of the developer that's interested in building that data center down in the boot heel or the panhandle, whatever you want to call it, of Grant County, showed up in person to the county commission and said, they really want to develop the energy infrastructure, the solar project that's associated with the data center, even if they end up not building a data center. And so there was an attempt by a couple of the commissioners to modify the moratorium to make it clear that they could still do that sort of energy development, that sort of thing, just not data centers themselves. But the majority of the commission ended up deciding they would just go with the original proposal, which just kind of nixes everything and allows for that one year study period. That ended up passing the Grant County Commission by a four to one vote with the District 4 Commissioner Thomas Shelley being the lone vote in opposition. He was one of the voices that was really looking to make that moratorium more limited.
Susan Morée:
And the Town Council of Silver City had a special meeting. What happened at the meeting?
Nick Seibel:
Yeah, well, actually, we were talking about the Grant County Commission and County Manager Charlene Webb is stepping down. She actually stepped down over the weekend. So Deputy County Manager Andrea Montoya is the interim county manager there for Grant County starting this week. But the Silver City Town Council also had a special meeting last week to hire on an interim town manager. They're calling it an acting interim town manager, which drives me nuts, but that's a discussion for another time. But the person they've tapped to fill that job is Milo Lambert, who has been the longtime fire chief of the Silver City Fire Department. And Milo was in—
Susan Morée:
The news recently for other reasons, wasn't he?
Nick Seibel:
Yeah, well, as the fire department has for years run the 4th of July fireworks display and during the cleanup on July 5th this year, Milo had an accident with an unexploded firework and ended up being flown to El Paso and was in really serious condition, but has really bounced back, has been back on the job. And I actually sent him a text message on Friday night after the special meeting and I said, you don't have enough problems? And he said he just likes to stay busy.
Susan Morée:
Well, he's going to definitely be busy. And where can readers find these stories, Nick?
Nick Seibel:
You can find all these and more at scdailypress.com.
