One of the local business owners helps people get signed up for vaccinations. There has been a big struggle to get people online because of the lack of internet access. There hasn’t been much information provided to people in Chaparral. The schools have reopened for hybrid learning. Is there any information being provided through the churches? Any news coming out has not gotten to me. We can try to get in contact with them to share that information. Sisters Diana and Chavela will probably be the best source. One of the biggest struggles is getting vaccines out here in Chaparral, and getting people excited about school. Getting them back to campus will be a big struggle. I heard that the main supermarket is closed, has that opened back up? The one that was closed has reopened. Panaderia was closed for renovations, but haven’t heard anything about Steyers.

Have you talked to Mr. Madrid (your state rep)? He could set up a site for registration and to distribute the vaccine. I’ve been trying to get in touch with him, but it’s been tough with the special session. I’m trying to set something up for Anthony NM.

The mom and pop shops here have been struggling. One of the beauty salons next door only had three customers yesterday. People are hoping to regain their customer base once everything reopens, but people are afraid to go out. Some people have gotten both doses, but people are still afraid. People are getting unemployment and are not showing up to work because it’s easier. It’s hard to gauge why people are doing this, but once the federal funding goes away, there’s a hope that people will return to work. As far as Anthony is concerned, I’ve been in contact with several lawmakers. A lot of them don’t want to sit down and talk because the governor has been calling people back into a special session and now they’re trying to rest. On a good note, over 1.3 million people in NM have received at least their first dose! They’re putting out lots of vaccines. There are vaccines trickling down from up north to southern NM, hopefully we’ll really pick up within the next month. Did you hear about the vaccinations happening for New Mexicans on the TX border? I did not. Over where the PDQ used to be, there were people who were getting registered, but we were under the impression that those were just TX residents. That was 2000 vaccines, for both TX and NM residents. We might announce that on Facebook. Nothing else really COVID related. The Board of trustees approved a contractor for the ballpark over on 4th street and that should be starting within the week. That should be finished by mid-November. That’s not just a ballpark, it’s also a flood control site. As we progress, hopefully that park will develop out and get a fishing pond, baseball/soccer fields, tennis courts, hiking, picnic areas and other amenities. We’re selling off part of that land to developers to get money back into the park. When do we anticipate the complex starting/ending? The first phase has already started, with $1.5 million that should get the utilities and the roadways in. It’s going to be ongoing over 3 years.

Tom Lopez and other stores were announcing the vaccinations on facebook. Some of those stores had flyers that they were handing out to let people know.

I work at Loma Linda. Sad thing is that it had been shut down due to a COVID outbreak. Monday would’ve been the first day back to school. We’ve been having construction done and that’s where things got out of hand. Nothing to do with district employees. Other schools are welcoming back students. We are enforcing the 6 foot regulations (with what we can considering the circumstances). Things are changing and that’s going to impact how things run. We’re having 3 lunches to allow for more cleaning. That’s taking away from some specials because of the cleaning times. We aren’t going to have as many cleaning regulations soon. The high schools have the most problems with students coming back. The high school electives aren’t as up to snuff. We really hope that there will be another meeting to change cleaning requirements. We can’t check out books from the library because of those regulations. Sports and volleyball can’t be played between PE classes. We can have sports, but not classes. We have no idea how that got spread because of confidentiality, but from talking to the teachers, we know it was people doing the construction. We are also getting a new intercom system that should hopefully get implemented in the schools. That should be coming to the whole Gadsden school district.

I’ll be advocating during the next city meeting to reopen. People want to go in and get permits and other things. We’ll be doing a presentation to get the other trustees in agreement. My question is on your opinion.

Videotape and be able to show what’s happening on the ground. MVD express is set up to take pictures and they can tell what to do in the case of an outbreak. People are in there.

Tomorrow I’ll be at the post office with some of the other trustees to poll the public on how they feel about reopening.

Wanted to let people know that I got vaccinated! The clinic I went to was first-come-first-serve. We need to let people know that they can get vaccinated at those clinics that are advertised for TX residents. I feel like sometimes they don’t want the NM residents coming to TX. Son has not gotten the vaccine yet, but we’re working on it.

Trying to go fast, but we’ll be sending out a summary on Friday after final signature from the governor. So far we’ve only seen one bill vetoed. That was the fund for safe drinking water from Southern NM. Overall, the session was a little chaotic. There were bills that didn’t get through, but there were some significant wins as well!

• Direct Healthcare: Decriminalizing abortion, end-of-life options act, new surtax on healthcare areas that’s being used to fund additional assistance for low-income people to get plans on the healthcare exchange. Paid sick leave for everyone in NM. Primary Care council, public health task force - want to make sure that those have representation from rural NM. Elimination of co-pays for behavioral health services - going to see your doctor will not be paid by you. 

• Rural issues were front and center. The rural opportunity task force will be of interest to see who’s on it and what issues they take up. Rural equity ombudsman should make sure that all issues are addressed. Special education ombudsman should cover complaints about services provided to special education. Those issues have not been addressed during the pandemic and that’s been a major issue. Broadband division in the state government should put money into development.

• Healthy Food Financing should put more money on the table to make it easier for people to get locally grown food through all programs in NM. There was also one that HANM was involved in to look into the pollution. We’ll be sending out information to let you know how to get involved

It’s a big victory to see that funding for dental services did not get cut.

There was some fears that Medicaid wouldn’t get fully funded, but it came through. We’re at a dicey point in the pandemic. We’re getting people vaccinated, but we want to make sure that we have immunity by the time that the new variants come in. So far it looks like the vaccines will protect against some of the new variants, but we should still be cautious. Representatives from Southern NM were influential in getting things passed.

We’ve been working on how to get actions from these meetings. We’ll be bringing back a couple of documents. We’re working on analyzing that survey and sending out results electronically. Keeping those ideas in mind, we’ll be sharing the vision statements and emerging collaborations to let people know what collaborations are coming to rural communities. That should be coming out by the end of the month.