A pole that passed inspection fell at Maag — and every "safe" pole is now in question

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• A light pole at Maag Park that had been scanned and deemed safe fell. Bingham said this brought into question the credibility of any and all of the poles deemed safe. Many poles date to 1971, 1975 and 1978.
• Emergency purchase powers were used. Ron Galla Park and Apodaca Softball were closed; removals completed at Maag and Paz, moving to Harty, then Apodaca Softball. No firm timeline.
• Park Impact Fee funds peaked at $8.39 million a year ago and stand at $2.9 million after encumbrances. The department brought in about $1.8 million in grants in the last year and is now spending 2023 dollars.
• Keep Las Cruces Beautiful reported a $175,000 Que Linda Grant for the Breaking Bad Habits campaign — $50,000 education, $50,000 amnesty days, $10,000 tire roll-offs, and $150 classroom stipends for teachers.
• The Veterans Memorial Park parking lot is complete; the play area in the 2015-16 master plan is not built, and staff anticipate it will come back.

Who was in the room

8.1 Keep Las Cruces Beautiful — Amelia Corrales

Corrales said the program is still going strong with multiple community clean-ups happening throughout the year, and has been acquiring a lot of volunteers. Staff work with a volunteer network in the city to promote clean-up activities folks can do on their own time through the year.

Neighborhood dumpster days are going well, normally collecting between three and five tons of trash. They usually have four to six roll-offs spread out throughout the city, free for the public to use, between 8:00 and 12:00 p.m.

Adopt-a-Spot is going really well. Graffiti eradication continues; the city only does it on city property unless a waiver is signed. With graffiti they paint the whole wall rather than just covering the graffiti, which makes it look better. Some bridges are NMDOT and those requests are sent promptly to NMDOT.

Community outreach includes going into classrooms with Libby the dog, and a video was created for teachers who cannot have them come in person.

Staff attended the Keep America Beautiful Conference and got to present due to the work on the mural near Kohl's. A video was shown.

The Que Linda Grant — the Breaking Bad Habits campaign — awarded $175,000. Together with the Clean and Beautiful Grant from the State of New Mexico Tourism Department and the Raid Grant (illegal dumping and tires), these are helping communities. Education gets $50,000, which is the video shown; students get an anti-litter promise kit with a little backpack, a little stuffed dog that looks like Libby, and an activity book, plus a clean-up at their school. Teachers receive a stipend of $150 for their classroom. Tire roll-offs got $10,000, with the first tire roll-off day that Saturday. Amnesty days got $50,000, in partnership with South Central Solid Waste.

The first Amnesty Day was Sunday, March 2, and saw triple the increase of users who went through the transfer station to dump for free. Corrales showed a year-to-date list of volunteers, volunteer hours, litter collected from clean-ups, trash collected from neighborhood dumpster days, graffiti abatement, and community engagement.

Upcoming events: tire roll-off day March 22, Amnesty Day March 29 and 30, Earth Day April 19, Great American Clean Up April 26.

On a question about graffiti abatement: they have done more graffiti this year than in the past few years. The graffiti team goes out daily, logs where they completed graffiti, then that goes to staff to input the information. Board Member Beard said graffiti seemed to be worse about 15 years ago; Corrales said the language is worse, as well as private property getting hit. The city cannot touch private property without a waiver, and that is a big complaint. They work with Public Works on the tunnels during clean sweeps, with Parks and Rec going in right afterward.

Board Member Haas said there has been an issue in her neighborhood for about a year: a house piling up garbage outside, beyond trash bags — household fixtures and the like. No one wants to report it because they do not see a way to be anonymous and worry about retribution. Corrales said the Ask Las Cruces app does have an option to be anonymous.

8.2 Special Events and Marketing — Maya Thomas

Thomas said she is excited to be part of the team doing what she has seen growing up: the electric parade, music in the park. She gave a brief history of her career.

Music in the Park is planning 18 concerts. Other events include Make Music Day, the Electric Parade for the Fourth of July, the Fourth of July with NMSU, and the Annual Tree Lighting.

For advertising and marketing she works closely with the City Communications Department, with monthly meetings for planning, social media and website. They are looking into digital billboards. She does the Parks and Rec portion of the website. All city events and classes are on the calendar on the website.

Music happens every Sunday throughout the summer except June 22, because June 21 is Make Music Day. Music in the Plaza is Thursday evenings — two in July and one in August.

Board Member Haas asked what the city would be doing during Halloween. The answer: Pumpkin Palooza and a candy drop in partnership with Weavers Welding.

8.3 Veterans Memorial Park parking lot — Catherine Mathews

Mathews said the new parking lot is completed. The master plan created in 2015-16 came about because the park was very popular and events held there would back up traffic on Roadrunner Parkway.

The city acquired the property right to the north of the park, for which stormwater had to be dealt with. The stormwater is being used to grow trees instead of running off, and a new parking lot was placed there.

The existing parking lot has been upgraded to serve people with mobility issues, and veterans. A new feature is a contemplation garden entered from the parking lot, so visitors feel calmer before entering the veterans area.

The play area for kids is not there now, but the master plan does include a play area and staff anticipate it will come back to serve the broader residents in the community.

The stormwater harvesting areas are swales, depressed with medium-sized rocks.

9. Staff comments — recreation and youth services

Ryan Steinmetz said staff are gearing up for summer: lifeguards, fitness instructors and a certified pool operator are being hired, and pool inspections are underway. Youth basketball has started and new cheer has started. They are moving to online pickleball registration, with educational assistance to help people maneuver online and streamline registrations. The wellness program is gearing up for employee sand volleyball. Community rec has a mobile unit that goes to different events and to schools as they end their school years. There are new hiking and toddler classes.

Amelia Corrales said youth services are currently running spring break and it is going really well, at Fairacres and Jornada. Programs include Weed and Seed out of the A. Fielder Memorial building and Teen Connection out of the Frank O'Brien Papen Community Center; Weed and Seed had a family night. The Youth Development and Diversion Program is going well, and staff are also going out to Hatch and Chaparral providing services. They are working on summer with two sites and looking to add another. Summer this year is seven weeks long due to how the LCPS calendar works out, and they are working with the schools for the summer food program.

The city is looking for marshals for the parade and asked the board for any suggestions. The board offered congratulations and appreciation.

9. Staff comments — the light poles

Steve Bingham said there was a pole that fell at Maag that had been scanned and deemed safe, which brought into question the credibility of any and all of the poles that were deemed safe. A lot of the poles were installed in '71, '75 and '78. All the poles that had not previously been replaced have been or are being replaced.

Removal is completed at Maag and Paz and is moving to Harty. The city used emergency purchase powers for this process. Poles are usually eight to 12 weeks out from the time of order, and the contractor has to do things to make the order, placing the poles at least five feet from the previous location.

Ron Galla Park was inspected and is closed. Apodaca Softball was also closed. After Harty they will move to Apodaca Softball and remove those poles. Apodaca Baseball has a newer light set and poles, as does Ron Galla. Ron Galla will be open on Monday.

The fields will be open for daylight-hour use once the contractor has filled the holes, compacted, and secured electrical. There is not a firm timeline yet, but Bingham hopes Maag opens within the next couple of weeks, with Paz a week later and Harty a week after that.

He said the engineers do ensure that wind is a factor in the light poles, and that the poles got water inside them and then rusted out.

9. Staff comments — funding and Park Impact Fees

Bingham said the department got the million dollar bike grant from the state to build a bike park.

Staff are identifying items and going to Council on Park Impact Fees. PIF funds peaked at $8.39 million a year ago; right now, with encumbrances, $2.9 million is left. The department brought in about $1.8 million in grants during the last year.

He said they are now spending 2023 dollars and pairing with grants for the most part, and that PIF never fully funds their growth.

Board Member Beard asked who puts the flag up at Veterans Park. The veterans put the flag up. The notice says it is a garrison flag; Beard said it is not a garrison flag, it is a holiday flag — a garrison flag is the largest, and a holiday flag is the next size.

10. Board member comments

Vice-Chair Laura Haas thanked staff for going around to the different facilities and parks they saw last month. No other board member comments are recorded.

Recorded votes

Left open at the gavel