The Socorro City Council last week put its stamp of approval on its Infrastructure Capital Improvement Plan for 2024-2025.

Number one on the ICIP is the Police Department.

“What we’re trying to do is find funding to move the Police Department and the evidence room,” City Administrator Donald Monette said. “We have a place in mind, but we need funding to remodel it because it would need a holding cell, an interview room, and some offices.”

Part of that project is to move a modular building to that same location for an evidence room. “We would have to remodel that modular building to be secure enough for an evidence room,” he said.

The current police station building is old and too small, he said, “And the holding cell and evidence room are across the parking lot in a wing of the old high school.

“The square building in the parking lot currently houses offices for the Chief of Police and Assistant Chief, as well as the dispatch center,” Monette said. “As for a whole new building, we’ve been looking at funding sources and haven’t found funding for anything, so that’s why we’re putting on the ICIP to get capital outlay.”

Number two on the city’s ICIP is to remodel the old high school.

“This one started out the same as the project for the Finley Gym complex,” he said. “That police station building can be considered part of that complex, but depending on what the Finley Committee and the engineer and architect decide, once we move the police station, demolish that part of the building and use it for parking. That’s another option.”

Monette emphasized that everything are options, including relocating Municipal Court.

“We could demolish that and move it along with the police station,” he said. “Nothing is set in stone,” he said. “These are some of the ideas we’re thinking about.”

Sedillo Park improvement is third on the ICIP.

A section of Cuba Road, part of the next phase of the ICIP project.
Photo courtesy of Donald Monette

He said the city had received $100,000 “that we’ve been allocated in the last legislative session. For a planning grant, another committee, the Sedillo Park Committee, will meet once we get the grant agreement and discuss what they want to do.

“It could be for the tennis courts; it could be for the swimming pool,” Monette said. “We need LED lights, too, and championship turf for the baseball/softball field. Fencing needs to be replaced, and maybe the park could use a multiuse building. This is for an overall upgrade.”

Fourth on the list is Cuba Road, repaving and drainage, an ongoing project.

“This, again, is a CDBG project,” he said. “Eventually, when we get the drainage working, we’re going to need permission from the railroad to put in a culvert from the Markland Road holding pond underneath the railroad tracks to get the water to the green ditch.”

“Right now, there’s no place for the water to go except for down the road, and some of it ends up in a small ditch,” Monette said. “That’s where all the water ends up.”

Markland Road was decommissioned years ago and has been turned into a holding pond.

The fifth ICIP project is connected with the Eagle Picher cleanup.

“What do you do with the water once it’s treated to remove the TCE?” he said. “One option is to create a park, with a pond to put that water. We had a meeting and asked the council to add that to the ICIP because it’s rather important.”

He said other ideas for the new park were walking trails, picnic tables, and day camping sites.

John Larson, El Defensor Chieftain