Complaints about the town’s communication with the public and the town’s website have surfaced at the Edgewood Commission meetings from frustrated community members.
At the commission’s regular meeting on March 26, Ray Seagers, a resident and business owner, told commissioners he was in favor of the community liaison position, which was approved at the commission’s last meeting on March 12. This position will be accountable to the commission and will be in charge of communication between the public and the commission.
“I can not get to most of the commissioners and I do business here and need to,” Seagers said. “I go to the website and I can’t find any ordinances. I’m not about to call the town manager in every case because that is one of the busiest women on earth and you just can’t burden her with all these little questions, so I think you’ve got a tremendous need for that type of person.”
Another constituent gave a public comment that was also in favor of the liaison position and said the commissioners need assistance with public communication. At the end of the meeting, town commissioners appointed Linda Burke to the position of community liaison.
Town Manager Nina McCracken informed the public that Communications and Outreach Manager, Janice Skidmore, is working on updating the website.
“We will continue to work on the website and are in the process of changing what is housing those documents,” McCracken said. “There is a report link at the bottom of the website if there is anything wrong on the website, it will email Janice and address any concerns you see regarding the website so we can start filtering all of those. There will be continued updates, they are going through page by page working on broken links and working through each department.”
Lodger’s tax
Town commissioners moved forward by approving lodger’s tax requests from town businesses. The town approved $2,000 for the East Mountain Cowboy Church’s Saddle Series Youth Rodeo, which will be a part of the town’s 25-year celebration. Wildlife West also received $5,000 for a year-round promotion.
There was some debate on a monthly lodger’s tax funding request of $1,995 for the East Mountain Radio Station 102.1 and Interstate Highway Radio 96.7. Don Davis, owner of the radio stations, requested this funding for ongoing radio outreach to I-40 travelers to stop in Edgewood.
“It’s a repetitive outreach,” Davis said. “The East Mountain Radio, which covers over 50 miles of I-40 on this side of the Sandias, and Interstate 96.7, which covers 100 miles of I-40 from Clines Corners to Albuquerque, will send messages every hour inviting people to make the exit into Edgewood and tell them the benefits of doing so.”
Commissioner Jerry Powers questioned how they will be able to measurably quantify the impact of this outreach and Davis said it can’t be accurately measured, but he thinks they will see an increase of business. Commissioner Filandro Anaya then asked Davis how he would get people to change their stations.
“Because they’re coming from somewhere where they’re listening to some other radio station and it fades out, so what do they do push the button, scan,” Davis said. “People routinely hit the scan button on the radios. I want to touch people emotionally and the idea is that between the two radio stations, we cover about 150 miles of I-40, we have two opportunities to reach somebody during that time at least once with a very compelling message. I’m good at creating that messaging.”
The Commission approved funding the radio stations for a six-month trial and will review it after that period to see if local businesses notice an increase in business.
Police secure a full staff
Edgewood Police Chief Roger Jimenez informed the town and commissioners as of April 1, the Edgewood Police Department has 17 commissioned officers, which brings them to full staff.
“We have completed our backgrounds for the Chaplain program, we have four or five really solid applicants and once we have the swearing-in ceremony we will introduce them to you all,” Jimenez said. “All of them are here locally and will serve the police department locally in the surrounding areas, so we are excited about that.”