Torrance County Commission Extends Burn Ban, Backs Grid Upgrade, and Weighs Fix for Neglected Roads

Torrance County Board of County Commissioners regular meeting, Wednesday, July 8, 2026, 205 South Ninth Street, Estancia, New Mexico

ESTANCIA, NM - Torrance County commissioners extended the county's burn ban through the rest of the summer, agreed to serve as fiscal agent for a multimillion-dollar electric grid upgrade (for a price), and opened a long-awaited discussion on fixing decades of neglected private roads during their regular meeting on Wednesday. Commissioners also closed the meeting to discuss a vacant position in Torrance County Fire and Rescue, and potential litigation involving the Tajique waste transfer station, taking no public action on either matter.

Burn Ban Extended Through Summer

Torrance County Fire officials asked commissioners to extend the county's burn ban by 60 days, citing single-digit relative humidity readings during afternoons. The original 60-day ban had a built-in gap around the Fourth of July so residents could safely celebrate the holiday, according to fire officials who addressed the commission. Commissioners unanimously approved Resolution No. 2026-11, extending the outdoor fire restriction for the remainder of the summer.

For Torrance County residents, the extension means open burning remains restricted countywide during one of the driest stretches of the year. Current statewide and county fire restriction status is available through the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department's Forestry Division.

County to Serve as Fiscal Agent for CNMEC Upgrade

Adam Roybal, CEO of Central New Mexico Electric Cooperative (CNMEC), asked commissioners to have the county serve as fiscal agent for a state grid modernization grant the cooperative plans to pursue. Roybal said state rules require the funding to flow through a government entity rather than the cooperative itself, and Torrance County, as the largest jurisdiction in the co-op's service area, made the most sense as a partner.

Roybal said the project would replace what he described as the cooperative's aging automated meter-reading infrastructure with newer radio-frequency smart meters. Roybal said the new meters would let members track their own usage in near real time and give the cooperative faster visibility into outages. He estimated the systemwide project, covering the co-op’s entire service territory, not just the Torrance County portion, would cost $7.5 million. The state grant pool for this funding round totals $5 million, to be split among applicants statewide. Roybal said cooperative plans to apply in stages for each round of funding and expects to submit its application by the state's August 15, 2026, deadline.

Schwebach requested a 10 percent administrative fee for the county's role as fiscal agent before settling on a lower figure. Commissioners approved a motion setting the fee at 2.5 percent of grant funds administered. The county's grants department, along with County Manager Stephanie Reynolds, will coordinate with CNMEC going forward.

Fiber Internet Rollout Continues in Mountainair and Estancia

Roybal also updated commissioners on Central New Mexico Electric Cooperative's separate fiber-to-the-home internet buildout. Roybal stated that contractors are currently running drops to homes in Mountainair and Estancia, and in-home installations are expected to begin within about two weeks, he said. Roybal asked commissioners to encourage residents to cooperate with contractors and installers, saying the cooperative has run into some hesitancy in Estancia.

Residents inside the cooperative's federally funded project areas can get connected now at no cost for the drop itself; those who decline and want service later will have to pay for the connection out of pocket, Roybal said. Service is expected to reach McIntosh and Moriarty, along with mountain communities including Manzano, within the next several months, though those areas fall outside the current grant-funded footprint. Advertised speeds run up to one gigabit, with a current promotion offering 250 megabits per second for the price of the cooperative's 100-megabit package. Residents with questions about a missed installation appointment can call the cooperative's main office.

Road Ordinance Amendment Could Bring Relief to Overlooked Neighborhoods

Commissioner McCall opened a discussion on amending the county's road ordinance to let the county adopt certain private roads into its maintained inventory, addressing a decades-long problem for rural residents who have never had access to county road maintenance despite paying property taxes.

Under McCall’s criteria, a road segment could qualify for county adoption if four or more residences are within a tenth of a mile of one another. Commissioner McCall said that he believed, based on early mapping work, that the threshold would add two miles of road to the county's inventory. Jaramillo thanked McCall for pursuing the change, telling commissioners that unresolved road complaints were the most common concern she heard from constituents after taking office.

Commissioners and county staff spent much of the discussion working through how adoption would actually function. Lujan emphasized that accepting a road into the county inventory would not mean an immediate rebuild to full county road specifications, which include minimum width and a 35-mile-per-hour design standard; instead, the county would begin routine maintenance, such as grading, ditching, and shaping the roadbed, with gravel and further improvement to follow as budget allows.

Schwebach and McCall both stressed the change is meant to correct problems tied to existing, decades-old residents and subdivisions, not to reward future development. Schwebach claimed new subdivisions are already required to build roads to county specifications before they can be accepted, so he did not expect the new criteria to create a loophole for future developments.

No formal vote was taken on Wednesday. County Manager Reynolds told commissioners the county cannot begin the ordinance's required 30-day public notice period until commissioners formally approve a draft, meaning a draft ordinance is expected to come back for a vote at the commission's next meeting, on July 22, 2026, before at least one public hearing is scheduled. Commissioners asked Road Superintendent Lujan to prepare per-mile cost estimates for routine maintenance to help inform the eventual budget discussion.

Road Capital Project Gets Additional State Funding

Separately, commissioners approved amending a Letter of Intent tied to an existing road capital-improvement project after the state offered the county additional funds. The project's funding increases from $288,908.00 to $584,031.24, an increase of $295,123.24, according to the agenda item presented by Lujan. He told commissioners the increase was unusual and that, in his experience, it typically happens when another county cannot meet its own matching-fund requirement, and the state redirects that county's unused allocation elsewhere.

The change also increases the county's required local match. Lujan told commissioners the match rose from about $78,211 under the original contract to roughly $111,000 under the amended one, an increase he attributed to the state’s roughly 25 percent match requirement applying to the higher total. Commissioners did not identify a funding source for the additional match on Wednesday beyond noting it would be built into the county's budget process.

Estancia Water Update

County Manager Reynolds told commissioners that the Town of Estancia’s hydrogeological study shows the site selected for a new well can sustain the community’s water needs for approximately 150 years. A test drill is scheduled for next month, and the town has already lined up requests for proposals so it can move directly into full well drilling once the test is complete, Reynolds said.

Estancia's main well is currently sustaining the town's needs, and its backup well, which had been in use, has been shut off to refill, according to Reynolds. The town is not under a formal water-use mandate but continues to ask residents to conserve. The county has also arranged contingency water hauling for the Torrance County Fair, setting up a local water hauler as a vendor in case demand from the fair and the start of the school year strains the system further.

Regional Water Association May Hire Paid Director

Schwebach, who also serves on the board of the Estancia, Moriarty, Willard, and Torrance Regional Water Association (EMWT), told commissioners the volunteer-run board needs a paid administrator to manage its growing workload, including its planned takeover of the troubled Melody Ranch water system near Edgewood and a separate project in McIntosh. The Dispatch has previously reported on tension surrounding EMWT's role and legal posture in the region.

Schwebach said the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission approved EMWT's conditional takeover of the Melody Ranch system, and that roughly $4 million from the state Water Trust Board is available for a pipeline connecting Moriarty to Melody Ranch, pending the City of Moriarty’s approval to allow the hookup. He told commissioners that state officials have described unusually broad backing for EMWT's regional approach from the governor's office, the Legislature, the Water Trust Board, and the New Mexico Department of Health, given ongoing struggles among dozens of small private water utilities across the state.

Schwebach floated the idea of the county setting aside money for a two- or three-year contract to hire an executive director for EMWT, saying the volunteer board cannot reasonably absorb the administrative demands of managing multiple state grant agreements, joint powers agreements, and contractors on top of members' regular jobs. No formal proposal or budget figure was presented on Wednesday; commissioners agreed to continue developing a scope of work with the EMWT board. Jaramillo, who has also been attending EMWT board meetings, asked whether a standing notice of possible quorum should be filed, given that two or more commissioners sometimes attend those meetings; County Attorney Michael Garcia advised that a standard notice covering all such meetings would be appropriate.

Other Business

Commissioners ratified the county's 2026 Emergency Management Performance Grant (EMPG) application after a presentation by Emergency Manager Samantha O'Dell. The grant, awarded annually, covers up to 50 percent of salary and benefit costs within the county's emergency management department.

Commissioners also approved an amended version of Resolution No. 2026-09, a technical fix requested by the state to specify the officers authorized to sign documents related to Project SAP 25-J2477-GF. Manager Reynolds said the state had returned the county's original resolution because it lacked the required signatory information, and the county has already confirmed the revised language with the state.

Earlier in the meeting, County Manager Reynolds recognized dozens of Torrance County employees for years of service dating back to March, including Hunter Luhan for 26 years, Anthony Masters for 17 years, and John Lujan for 16 years, among many others.

Years of Service Recognition

The following Torrance County employees were recognized for their service to the county (all spelling errors are mine; while I searched for the correct spelling of all names, if I have misspelled your name, please accept my apology and contact me at todd@mountainairdispatch.com, and I will make a correction):

• Hunter Lujan — 26 years
• Anthony Masters — 17 years
• John Lujan — 16 years
• Donna Zamora — 12 years
• Delphine Romero — 11 years
• Yvonne Bolena — 10 years
• Anthony Medina — 10 years
• Donald Goen — 8 years
• Aaron Smyth — 8 years
• Senaida Anaya — 5 years
• Linda Gallegos — 5 years
• Sharaya Medina — 5 years
• Mackenzie Carlson — 4 years
• Elijah Federov — 4 years
• Rodney Looper — 4 years
• Joshua Barton — 3 years
• Eunice Cervantes — 3 years
• William Coleman — 3 years
• William Newfield — 3 years
• Miles Rodriguez — 3 years
• Ronald Saavedra — 3 years
• Ryan Barela — 2 years
• Cassidy Caldwell — 2 years
• Charles Caviness — 2 years
• Ulysses Cervantes — 2 years
• Michael Craig — 2 years
• Reese Eckerd — 2 years
• Darrell Fixler — 2 years
• Richard Lesperance — 2 years
• Steven Neely — 2 years
• Ricardo Sanchez — 2 years
• Christopher Shackleford — 2 years
• Adrian Castillo — 1 year
• Naomi Chavez — 1 year
• Philippa Cordona — 1 year
• Joanne Cornwall — 1 year
• Steven Meister — 1 year
• Chanda Monk — 1 year
• Christopher Sanchez — 1 year
• Ramon Saucedo — 1 year
• Samir Shah — 1 year
• Gary Smith — 1 year
• Steven Young — 1 year

Reynolds also announced Torrance County Sheriff's Deputy Eunice Cervantes as Employee of the Quarter. In a letter of commendation read aloud at the meeting, a supervisor credited Cervantes with de-escalating volatile domestic violence calls and developing new department approaches to child abuse and domestic violence cases since joining the sheriff's office in April 2023. Sheriff David Frazee told commissioners that Cervantes has taken outside classes on her own time to build those skills. "It's indeed a pleasure and an honor to have her as the employee of the quarter," Frazee said.

Clerk's Report: Possible Third Candidate for District 1

County Clerk Sylvia Chavez told commissioners a person filed to run as an independent candidate for the Commission District 1 seat during the county's independent filing period, but that candidate's campaign finance paperwork was not yet in order as of Wednesday. The New Mexico Secretary of State's Office is working with the individual to determine whether the filing can be qualified, and Chavez said she expects an answer by the end of the week.

Chavez reminded voters that early voting for the November 3, 2026, general election begins October 6, 2026, according to the New Mexico Secretary of State's Office.

Fairgrounds Ribbon Cutting

County officials announced a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the nearly complete Torrance County Fair building, which will be open to the public.

Reynolds and McCall both toured the building this week and described it as nearly finished, with only minor items remaining. Reynolds said invitations have gone out to legislators and other supporters, including Gregg Schmedes, a former state senator and representative McCall credited as a major contributor to funding the building, but is unable to attend due to a scheduling conflict.

Executive Session: No Action on Fire Chief Position or Tajique Litigation

Commissioners voted unanimously to enter closed session under the personnel and pending-litigation exceptions to the state Open Meetings Act, N.M. Stat. Ann. § 10-15-1(H)(2), (H)(7), to discuss two items: the position of Torrance County Fire Chief and potential litigation involving the Tajique waste transfer station. After roughly ninety minutes in closed session, commissioners returned to open session and reported that no action was taken on either matter.

Because both topics were discussed in closed session, no further public details are available at this time. The Dispatch will continue to follow both matters.

Next Meeting

The Board of County Commissioners' next regular meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, July 22, 2026, at the Torrance County Administrative Building, 205 South Ninth Street, Estancia.