The Magdalena Village Board of Trustees last week passed an emergency ordinance restricting the sale and use of fireworks within village limits.

According to the ordinance, banned fireworks include stick-type rockets, helicopters and aerial spin­ners, missile-type rockets, ground audible devices, fire­crackers and display fireworks.

The ordinance allows the sale, but limits the use, of “cone fountains, crackling devices, cylindrical foun­tains, flirter sparklers, ground spinners, illuminating torches, toy smoke devices, wheels and mines fireworks to areas that are paved or barren or that have a readily accessible source of water for use by the homeowner or the general public.”

Mayor Richard Rumpf said he has been informed that the Gutierrez fireworks stand on First Street has agreed to not open.

“The option would be for everybody to come down to the rodeo grounds to set off small ones,” Rumpf said. “Depending on the weather. It’s still very dry.”

The ordinance states that “any violation of this Ordinance/Proclamation shall be deemed a misde­meanor and punishable by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars ($500) and/or up-to 90 days in jail.”

In other business, the board gave its approval to grant a provisional beer and wine license to Tumbleweeds Diner.

“It’s a provisionary license, only good until the November election,” Rumpf said. “Magdalena has a local option to approve or disapprove beer and wine licenses, and it will be on the Nov. 8 ballot. If it passes, then they’ll get a regular license. If it doesn’t pass, they will have to stop.”

Rumpf said the action “is correcting something that was messed up years ago.”

If the local option passes, any eating establishment can apply for a license.

The drilling company makes progress on Magdalena’s Supplemental Trujillo well in April. As of this week, the well is capped and pumps were tested.
Courtesy photo

“This is giving the people an option to have a drink with their meal,” he said. “And it supports our businesses.”

Rumpf said Tumbleweeds can serve liba­tions “as soon as the state signs off on it.”

The mayor also gave an update on the new Trujillo No. 2 well east of town.

“The well cap on the new well was done,” he said. “In a test, they ran 200 gallons a minute for 12-15 hours and it maintained that flow with no problem.”

Rumpf said once it goes online it will probably be running 100 gallons a minute.

“It’s a much better producing well than the current wells, the Trujillo, the Spears and the Benjamin, which are all pumping right now,” he said. “They alternate. They’re all hooked up to the water tanks by computer and kick on and off to maintain set levels on the tanks. When it goes online we’ll probably be pumping that more than the other ones.”

The next phase is a storage tank and booster pumps on the Benjamin Well.

“We have three storage tanks, two on the hill and the Steers tank on Highway 60,” Rumpf said. “We should have the money to put another new tank up on the hill to replace the one we had taken down, so the overall plan is that we’ll have four storage tanks. We’re also looking at a por­table generator that can be hooked up and moved from site to site.”

Rumpf said it is critical there never be a repeat of Magdalena’s water crisis in 2013.

“We feel that having four working water wells and new storage tanks will be adequate,” he said.