Estancia Trustees Learn New Tricks of Animal Control, Code Enforcement, and German Television

The October 2, 2023, Estancia Board of Trustees meeting began with an unnamed resident complaining that a neighbor’s Siberian Husky had mauled her. There was no evidence of injury presented by the resident.  As her public comment continued, the resident changed her story, indicating that the dog had merely jumped on her.

Interim Estancia Police Chief Jason Downing spoke next, describing how applying for grants had earned the department approximately $131,000 for officer salaries.  Downing also briefed the Board of Trustees on how the German Discovery Channel would begin filming the Estancia Police Department beginning October 7, 2023.  With respect to the month’s police activity, Downing said that Estancia Police had received more calls than the Torrance County Sheriff’s Office over the month of September 2023.

Code Enforcement Officer William Teaney briefed the Board of Trustees on how a number of dogs had been surrendered to him on September 29, 2023. At the mention of dogs, the unnamed resident who had previously provided public comment on her “mauling” began to yell something to the board regarding neighborhood dogs. After being asked to stop speaking out of turn, the resident left the meeting. Later in the meeting, Teaney briefed the board on efforts to get the resident of 515 Inverness Avenue, Juan Ramon Candelas-Acosta (while Candelas-Acosta’s name was not directly mentioned in the meeting, it is available through publicly available documents), to address trash on the property and bring it in compliance with the municipal code. Teaney stated that Candelas-Acosta had made improvements but the property was still out of compliance with the code, citing a disabled truck on the lawn and a dumpster as examples of how the property was out of compliance. Mayor Nathan Dial responded that October 3, 2023 was the deadline for the residents to get their property in full compliance with the ordinances, and said he expected that the residents would have to go to court for code violations.

Estancia Town Clerk Michelle Jones provided a report on behalf of her office, the public works department, and the library. She explained that the library had signed up 50 children for its reading program, which she stated was a success. Jones said that the public works department would be repairing 19 fire hydrants throughout the town. Shifting directions to the municipal pool, Jones said that operating the pool over the summer of 2023 cost roughly $35,000, and said that operation of the snack bar at the pool was a success.

Jones briefed the board of trustees that the town hall would soon be able to do notary services. She said that the staff would start once the process for notary services was determined.

The board of trustees closed out the public portion of the meeting before entering into an executive session to address the demotion of an employee (according to the agenda).