La Cienega Valley Association

Protecting and preserving our acequia culture and agricultural traditions…

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LCVA News – January 31, 2015

The agenda for Monday’s Board meeting is at the bottom of the news.

School Board, Community College Board and School Bond Election

Please don’t forget to vote this Tuesday. It is easy to overlook school elections but please don’t. It is important for all us to understand and participate in decisions that affect our schools. Those kids really are our future.

Trail Committee

The first meeting of the LCVA Trail Committee will be Monday, February 9 at 7:00 p.m. at the Community Center. This will be an organizational meeting and will include discussion on the structure, goals and purpose of the committee.

If you are interested in trails, any kind of trails in our community, this is an important meeting to attend.

LCVA Letters

In the next week or so the LCVA will be sending letters to:

The Pueblo of Pojoaque to express our community’s interest in working collaboratively in master planning The Downs. The intent is to proactively engage large property owners so our community can work with the Pueblo in planning our community;

Brian Gonzales and Guy McElvain, the new owners of Equicenter of Santa Fe (formerly Santa Fe Equestrian Center and Santa Fe Horse Park) in La Cieneguilla, to welcome them to the community. The following is the Equicenter web site: http://www.equicenterdesantafe.com/. Mr. Gonzales and Mr. McElvain have been interested in the property for some time and have obviously hit the ground running.

Other Committee Updates

The Library Committee is going to become active very soon. For those who signed up at the January breakfast, your information will be forwarded to Committee Chair, Linda Grill but we still need more volunteers. The Committee has a whole lot of books to go through and organize, we will need residents to help manage and run the library and we are especially interested in volunteers with library experience.

The LCVA Development Advisory Committee (DAC) will become active when we are able to engage with the Pueblo of Pojoaque in planning for The Downs. Previous DAC Committee Chair Gene Bostwick has expressed interest in serving on the committee but not in a leadership capacity. Look for future notices on DAC activity.

The Future Community Center Committee is in the process of assessing the status of the County’s proposed lease of the State Land Office Land (near Golondrinas) which is one of the potential sites for the future community center. The goal is to have the project planned and budgeted so that it can be included as part of the statewide bond request in 2016.

Residents need to remember that this will be a County facility so it is important we work closely with County staff in identifying the location, developing the plan and determining what services and activities we want to include at the center for the community. We will also need strong support from legislators.

La Cieneguilla Variances

I am not sure how to explain this and we regret that we did not have LCVA representation at the County Commission meeting when the Commission voted to grant the two variance requests in La Cieneguilla. These two variance requests, which basically “legalize” previously unpermitted/illegal housing structures, had been denied by the County Development Review Committee.

We are certain that the Commission was given our letter opposing the requests so the LCVA was surprised when only one Commissioner, Kathy Holian voted to support our position. Obviously it would have been beneficial to have someone from the LCVA represent our community interests, it may not have changed the decision but the LCVA regrets the oversight.

Water Monitoring

This is really good news. Thanks to our friends, Stacy Timmons and Peggy Johnson, with the NM Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources and the work of LCVA Water Committee members JJ Gonzales and Kyle Harwood our community is on the verge of establishing a comprehensive water monitoring program for our area and it won’t cost a fortune.

Details on the plan and how you can participate will follow soon but the LCVA would like to thank the El Rancho de las Golondrinas Board for their financial commitment to help fund the effort and to Dawn St. George, who will coordinate the museum serving as the fiscal agent for contributions to the project.

La Cienega Valley Association Board Meeting
February 2, 2015 – 7:00 p.m., La Cienega Community Center
Preserving Our Rural Way of Life

AGENDA
Call to Order
1. Approval of Agenda
2. Approval January Minutes
3. Matters from the Public
4. President’s Report
 a. Water Monitoring Project Update
 b. LCVA Committees Update
 c. LCVA Letters
5. Treasurer’s Report
6. Committee Reports
7. Newsletter Content
8. Matters from the Board
9. Adjournment

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