May 6, 2024 TVCA Board and General Meeting
Tesuque School Gymnasium
The meeting was called to order by Co-Chair Lynn Pickard at 5:30 PM.
Others present included Rachel White, David Dougherty, Annie Laurie
Coogan, Margo Cutler, Claire Libin, Charly Drobeck, Rusty Day, Salita and
Norman Armour, Jamie Gagan, Jerry Barron, Robin Owen, Kerry Mitchell,
Joanna Angie, Jennifer Wilson and Cam Duncan.
Lynn explained that because of the proxies that she carried from absent board
members and the presence of other members at the meeting, the necessary
quorum had been achieved.
The minutes of the prior meeting were approved without objection.
Jeanne Boyles’ Treasurer’s report stated that there is currently @ $3,000 in
TVCA’s bank account, $900 of which is reserved for possible future legal fees.
About $250 was recently spent to create the new signs that we are using to
announce events.
Rachel White gave the Firewise Community report and indicated that the
wood chipping event held at the Tesuque Fire Station on Sunday, May 5th had
been a success. She had obtained a grant from the Greater Santa Fe Fireshed
Coalition and hired Chris’ Tree Service who provided the chipper and the
labor. They were able to safely put material smaller than 9 inches in diameter
through the gas-powered equipment. The event was held from 11-3 and 29
loads of woody debris were processed.
Rachel asked if others thought it would be a good idea to hold another
chipping event in the fall. Jamie Gagan and others voiced their support.
On the subject of fire, Salita and Norm Armour brought up the fire that they
had discovered about a month ago on the first Red Flag warning day of this
season. They had been riding their horses after work and discovered a pile of
debris being burned but without anyone present to watch over it. They called
911 and said there was an almost immediate response from the Tesuque Fire
Department , followed by the Pojoaque Dept who helped to quickly put the fire
out. The Armours were curious whether there had been any follow up from the
fire department, and whether anything could be done to get the owners of
properties with significant amounts of dead wood on them to clean up and
reduce the fire hazard.
After discussion of the current threat of fire and extremely windy weather,
Lynn Pickard said that she would send a letter to the fire department, the
county’s code inspector and Justin Greene, the County Commissioner for our
area, to ask what could be done. Annie Laurie Coogan said that she had
photographs of the fire that she could send to Lynn.
The Road Tra^ic Study Report was given by Lynn who said that although a
thorough 80-page document with solid recommendations had been prepared
by an engineering firm in ABQ, there had been no follow through to date. She
has written County o^icials and our commissioner several times to ask when
some of the projects would start and gotten no response.
In the discussion that followed, it seemed that sending emails to the County
Public Works Road Maintenance Department was productive. It was
suggested that all who had road issues that they want to have addressed
phone or write that department with specific information about needed
repairs.
E^orts to have a Historic Tesuque Sign made have also reached a standstill.
After no response at all for an extended period, the new personnel have come
up with di^erent requirements and seem apathetic at best to the idea of
helping local communities highlight their histories.
Jerry Barron gave the Tesuque Clean-Up Report and was pleased with the
number of people who have participated and the overall very positive
response from the residents. He will try to schedule one Sunday a month
during the summer to continue the e^ort, then assess the situation in the fall.
Jerry also reported on his attempts to get Venmo which is now part of Paypal
on the TesuqueValley.org website for donations. He hopes to have it
completed by June 1st.
Amy Thomas then gave a report on the current status and activities of the
Tesuque School. There are 72 students now, up from 68 last year, and several
more from Abiquiu are expected to start in the fall. Their recent Bingo
Fundraiser netted $3700 in 3 hours and received donations from Cities of Gold
Casino and Tesuque Village Market. A teacher has also written a grant to get
the raised bed garden project going again. It is hoped that greens grown there
can be used in the Cooking with Kids program in the fall. They are also looking
forward to their first STEAM event. The older two classes will also walk to the
Mountain Center with a fire truck escort to participate in team building
exercises there.
As always, the school would appreciate having more volunteers for tutoring.
Jenn Wilson then asked if Amy could see about having the schools large
lighted sign board turned o^ at night, and perhaps during the summer
months, as they used to do. Rachel White asked if the school had other needs
that the community could help with. Amy said that this fall they hoped to start
the Thanksgiving meal program for families in need again. She also thought
that they might need help with the gardening, program, and that bringing
snacks for the kids would be helpful.
David Dougherty brought up the recent discharge permit applications from
Bishop’s Lodge that have concerned some residents. Rusty Day said that he
had spoken with both state and federal o^icials about the applications which,
if approved, would eventually allow for the discharge of up to 30,000 gallons of
treated water into the little Tesuque. Some of the water would be used by the
Lodge’s irrigation system. Annie Laurie Coogan mentioned that people at the
Lodge say that they have materials about their new state-of-the-art treatment
system available for neighbors to see if they would like to. Lynn reported that
she had spoken to the NMED person and reported on her conversation to the
Board members, asking them if they wanted a meeting with representatives of
Bishop’s Lodge as well as state and federal o^icials. No one responded that
they did, so she dropped the matter.
Regarding the Annual TVCA BBQ, Cam Duncan said that he and Richard
Renaldo were willing to organize the event for one more year if they had at
least two to three more volunteers. In recent years the Fire Department has
been very helpful with the set up and clean up afterwards. Last year some of
the cooking was done by chefs from Bishop’s Lodge. Immediate volunteers
for the event were Rachel White, Claire Liben, Kerry Mitchell, Joanna Angie,
Robin Owen, Jenn Wilson, Charly Drobeck and Annie Laurie Coogan.
A tentative date of Saturday August 24th was set, with a second choice of
September 14th .
The next meeting of the TVCA will be on September 23 at 5:30 at the school.
Stay tuned for further BBQ and other community news by visiting the website
TesuqueValley.org.
The meeting was adjourned at 6:30 PM.
Meeting minutes submitted by Margo Cutler 5/8/2024