Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Fence Line Road added to acounty mobility plan

Julia M. Dendinger News-Bulletin Staff Writer; jdendinger@news-bulletin.com

An updated mobility plan and a transit district gross receipts tax and salaries were addressed during Wednesday's four-hour county commission meeting.

Commission Chair Pedro Rael reported that he had recently received a letter from the Mid-Region Council of Governments (MR-COG) about the recently approved updated county mobility plan.

The commission unanimously approved the updated plan in June with the recommendation that the plan now include studying the extension of Mesa Estates Road, better known as Fence Line Road, to create a second way in and out of Meadow Lake.

The solution presented by Commissioner Ron Gentry was to extend Mesa Estates Road east and then bring it south to connect with Manzano Expressway where it intersects with Meadow Lake Road.

Rael said the letter said the mobility plan steering committee was willing to incorporate the proposed change into the plan administratively if the county was amenable to that resolution.

"If not, they will begin the more formal process of taking the plan to all the entities again for their approval," he said. The other commissioners voiced no objections to having the steering committee handle the change administratively.

However, Meadow Lake resident Bob Gostischa was not entirely happy with the suggested resolution. "It doesn't get us down the hill. We get diverted back to a road we are already on," he said. "It's half a solution."

Gentry's suggestion would see Mesa Estates Road connect to the Expressway near Ann Parish Elementary School. Gostischa was concerned about the remainder of Meadow Lake Road between the school that goes down the mesa and connects to N.M. 47. "That still leaves us with only one way in and one way out at that point," he said.

Planning and zoning commissioner and Meadow Lake resident Jim Lane called the change a good compromise. "It's a good start," he said, with agreement from Gostischa. "The request is part of the plan, and I would respectfully ask that it be made a top priority; it's a safety issue."

Transit district GRT

In a unanimous decision, the county commission approved placing a gross receipts tax question on the November ballot to provide funding for the operation of the Rail Runner and for ground transit services for Bernalillo, Sandoval and Valencia counties.

The one-eighth of 1 percent tax will be divided equally between those two transportation systems.

At past commission meetings, Bruce Rizzieri, the regional transit manager for the Mid-Region Council of Governments, has informed the commissioner and the public as to what services the gross receipts tax would bring to the county.

Specifically in Valencia County, the tax would continue Rail Runner service, as well as help provide transit services to both the Los Lunas and Belen train stations, Rizzieri said.

The implementation timeline, which begins in fiscal year 2010, shows the current dial-a-ride program being expanded to include the general public in the first year of the plan, as well as service from Rio Communities to the Belen Rail Runner station, the University of New Mexico-Valencia Campus and businesses along New Mexico 304.

Also in the first year the plan calls for service from Jarales, Bosque and Pueblitos to Belen and the Rail Runner station.

In the second year, the plan shows the establishment of a new route on New Mexico 6 west of I-25 to the Los Lunas Rail Runner station and a new route along New Mexico 6 and New Mexico 47 to the station and UNM-VC.

Rizzieri said the Rio Metro Transit District is expecting to see $26 million per year collectively from the three counties in the transit district. If the tax question is approved in the November 4 election, the tax will be imposed in July 2009 and the district expects to begin collecting revenues in October, he said.

More taxes

The commission also reminded the audience that a public hearing on a countywide one-quarter of 1 percent (.25 percent) emergency communications, emergency medical and behavioral services tax would be heard on Wednesday, Sept. 3.

The hearing will begin at 4 p.m., one hour prior to the commission's business meeting that evening.

Chief Deputies Salaries

The commission voted 5-0 to implement a written salary policy for elected officials' deputies. County Manager Eric Zamora said the county had an unwritten policy that chief deputies for the county clerk, assessor and treasurer earn 75 percent of the elected officials' salaries.

"State statute allows the commission to set certain elected officials' salaries based on certain guidelines, but there is nothing that addresses those elected officials' chief deputies," he said.

Zamora went on to say that the chief deputies were also not considered nor given the 50 cent an hour raise last year or the $1 per hour raise this year.

Increasing the chief deputy's salaries to 75 percent of that of the elected officials reduced the county's projected ending cash balance by $15, 832.

In combination with a pay increase to five administrative positions within the sheriff's department and the addition of three previously unbudgeted deputy positions, that leaves the county with a projected ending cash balance of approximately $36,072.

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