City Council addresses property damage

City Council Chambers at Socorro City Hall

The Socorro City Council asks the public not to work on city property.

Lloyd Martinez, who is the city’s general services director, went into last week’s regular council meeting with a complaint about individuals that took it upon themselves to work on the Sedillo Park baseball fields. Due to the rain that the town has seen in the past few weeks, the fields were flooded and unfit to play in. Martinez received a call about people being on the fields in their four-wheelers and dragging the fields. “When the fields aren’t ready, we don’t want people on the fields,” Martinez said.

Martinez said he and his crew approached the situation calmly.

“We didn’t threaten to call the cops or anything; we just asked them to leave nicely. You know we could have called the cops and told them that they were destroying city property,” Martinez said.

Council member Gordy Hicks asked the public not to work on any city property. “One, it’s a big liability. Two, if you do some type of work or put something else in there, it can mess up our people designated to work on those properties. Thank you for trying to help, but please do not mess with our fields,” Hicks said.

The firework ordinance was also discussed. Council member Deborah Dean asked her fellow council members to revise the ordinance to see if there could be a new cut-off time.

“If we could have them run for maybe just one more day, and not two more weeks. Also have a reasonable cut-out time. You know people have got to go to work in the morning,” she said.

The motion passed to edit the fireworks ordinance as all council members were in favor of revising the ordinance.

Once the ordinance is rewritten it is advertised for 45 days. In the next council meeting after the 45 days, it is then passed, which gives the public time to comment on a proposed ordinance.

The city had been receiving complaints about the fireworks, City Administrator Donald Monette told the Chieftain.

The next city council meeting will take place on Monday, July 18, at City Hall.