City accepts $1.2M from state for park

Rio Rancho will move ahead with a project to build a park suitable for people with disabilities thanks to a $1.2 million legislative appropriation from 2012 that city councilors formally accepted this week.

Parks, Recreation and Community Services Director Jay Hart told councilors that Gov. Susana Martinez had secured the money last year by pulling funds from other projects that had not been spent. In December, the city settled on a site for the park which allowed the state to released the funds.

That money must be spent by June 30, 2014, or risk being withdrawn to be used for other purposes, Hart said.

The plan is to build a park designed to accommodate children with physical and mental limitations to play alongside other children on a six-acre, city-owned location off Westside Boulevard near the Presbyterian Rust Medical Center.

The city has also secured $285,000 in donations from other sources, including Sandoval County, Intel and Lockheed Martin.

The project has provoked intense controversy, with supporters claiming it will fill a need and attract tourists, while some councilors and city residents have argued Rio Rancho’s deteriorating infrastructure and public safety needs are more critical than building a new park.

Councilors even publicly censured Mayor Tom Swisstack last month for asking legislators to seek additional funding for the project in the 2013 session, because the park was not on this year’s council-approved list of priority projects.

Before voting 4-2 to accept the money, councilors spent nearly two hours listening to comments for and against the project.

Councilors Chuck Wilkins, Mark Scott and Lonnie Clayton grilled Hart, asking, among other things, about the ongoing maintenance costs, types of programs to be held at the park and projections for how well it would be used.

Hart estimated annual maintenance costs at between $26,000 and $29,000. Wilkins disputed that figure, venturing the costs would be more than $100,000 a year, based on his discussion with a parks expert in Chicago.

“I don’t think the answer is one big superpark,” Wilkins said. He suggested asking the governor if the money could be used to retrofit three existing parks.

Wilkins and Scott voted against the resolution accepting the money, Councilors Tim Crum, Patty Thomas, Tamara Gutierrez and Clayton voted for it.

Clayton qualified his vote saying, “This was old money that I approved. I would take an extremely dim view of any new taxpayers money that will be appropriated to this program as long as the city is in the financial crisis that they’re in.”

In other action, the council approved:

♦ Holding a meeting at 6:30 p.m. April 10 to hear public comments on arrangements to extend the repayment period for property owners in Special Assessment District 6 in northern Rio Rancho. The city borrowed $9.5 million in 2006 to pay for drainage and other improvements.

The arrangement meant homeowners in the area were assessed to make payments to the city over 10 years to repay the loan.

However, up to 50 percent of owners have been delinquent, a situation that requires the city to foreclose on the properties.

The city now arranged to extend the loan period for five years and lower the interest rate to reduce the financial burden.
— This article appeared on page 16 of the Albuquerque Journal