10-05-2024 8:52am

Alamogordo City Commission Special Session Recap Oct 1

Chris Edwards Editor

The landfill was the dominant topic of the special session of the Alamogordo City Commission Meeting on Tuesday October 1st 2024.

The meeting began with the usual pledge of allegiance, prayer and vote to accept the agenda and was accepted by a 7 to 0 vote.

The meeting then proceeded with Lewandowski speaking this time on behalf of the landfill.

He began with a clarification that many people believe the city of Alamogordo owns the landfill but that is not the case the landfill is called the Otero-Greentree Regional Landfill and is owned by Otero County and Lincoln County and includes those municipalities within those jurisdictions about 10 in all. The clarification and fact is the City of Alamogordo is the managing agency for its operations.

A fact around the landfill is that the Otero-Greentree Regional Landfill is a New Mexico permitted solid waste facility designed to dispose of residential, commercial, and construction waste. It is permitted to accept certain special wastes such as asbestos and sludge waste. The Otero-Greentree Regional Landfill was designed with a life span of 99 years. It was incorporated in January 1994. The partnership between 10 different entities and service to the region was a decision to maintain a landfill that is affordable to the region verses each entity operating its own costly community landfill.

The dialogue by Lewandowski to the city was specific to the situation around the massive amount of debris being collected at the landfill as a result of the recent fires in and near Ruidoso. The landfill has been accepting waste from the cleanup of those fires and flooding since a little before July 1st 2024.

“The issue is it has been overwhelming,” Lewandowski said. “From July 1 to September 23 we had 3,879 trucks come to the gate to dump fire loads. Out of that, 39,904 tons of garbage come through. So, 60-120 loads a day on top of our regular loads’ routine.”

In his update he explained that the landfill is working on developing its next cell or pit where the waste is placed and compacted, which is call Cell # 6. The process to build the cell was already in process before the fire but is now moving forward at a brisket pace. Lewandowski reminded the city leaders that the 10-acre cell takes 12-18 months to get approved through the environment department, bid process, mobilization, construction and final approval.

“At the time of the contract, we had 18-24 months" he said. “Annually we do about 70 tons of garbage.” He added, "But now, the material coming in from the fires and floods is almost twice as heavy as the normal loads of garbage and they have taken in nine months’ worth of tonnage in three months."

He said the landfill officials had told the New Mexico Environment Department they were running out of space and might have to put a cap on the fire loads.

“We had 18 to 24 months (for Cell 5 to be full), now its 13-19 months,” he said. “It’s going to be touch and go to keep the regular garbage coming in.”

As of Monday, Oct. 7, the landfill is limiting the fire loads to 40 vehicles a day as an effort to mitigate the risk of filling the landfill before the new cell opens. The additional waste from the fire is being diverted to other landfills in the region.

In the other agenda item of the special session the Alamogordo City commissioners unanimously voted to appoint Stephanie Hernandez as the acting city manager effective beginning Oct. 14. City Manager Rick Holden per his contract terms is scheduled to remain in office through Oct. 18 following his resignation, the commission decided to begin Hernandez’s official capacity earlier for payroll purposes. Holden is opting to use as much of his acrued paid time off as much as possible until his end date of October 18th as allowed per his contract terms.

The sudden resignation of Holden came after a meeting with the owner of McDonald's franchise, Josh Ramsey and a commissioner Mark Tapley concerning water rate billing.

Mr. Holden has claimed that he resigned to maintain his health. In the meantime Stephanie Hernandez has again stepped up into the role of acting city manager.