County slow to act with loose dogs in Magdalena

Dogs at large are the talk of the town in Magdalena and were the main subject of this week’s village meeting.

According to Mayor Richard Rumpf, the village has been working with Socorro County to help resolve the issue of loose dogs around town as the village doesn’t have an animal control department of its own.

He said since Socorro County manager Michael Hawkes was out sick for a month—along with the emergency manager and another county employee’s family member having major medical issues, that lead to slow responses by the county.

Rumpf said Hawkes and Socorro County Animal Control would be in the village on January 9.

During the public comment period for the meeting, no one from the public talked about specifics of what has been going on, although one member of the public asked for a copy of the village’s animal control ordinance.

In a local email chain group, MAGeBOARD, many community members have written concerns about the loose dogs attacking, injuring and killing livestock.  People stated they do not feel safe walking around town or even being on their own property.

During a follow-up call, Magdalena’s Clerk/Treasurer, Juanita Puente, told the Chieftain that animal control did come to the village as promised, saying they would be driving around town looking for loose dogs and knocking on doors to investigate what has been happening around town.

Other actions at the meeting included discussing the use of grant funds from the state to hire new deputies and marshals and providing stipends for recruitment and retention.

Also included in the discussion was referral fees of $50,000 to be divided equally between Marshal Michael Zamora and Captain Brain Waterman.

The trustees approved the use of the American Rescue Plan Act fund (ARPA) and the village’s utility fund to buy a new utility vehicle and voted to close two Wells Fargo credit cards.

The board moved into closed session to discuss limited personnel matters for the Senior Center.

The Board of Trustees approved pay rate increases for employees at the Senior Center. All the agenda items were voted in. There was a question about how much of a pay increase employees would receive but it was not included in the agenda.