Adrian Hedden
Artesia Daily Press

Eddy County Commissioner Hayley Klein was hired as Artesia’s first city administrator during the Tuesday, Oct. 14, city council meeting after months of candidate interviews and a unanimous vote by councilors.

The vote, following a motion made by District 4 City Councilor Michael Blunt and seconded by District 1 Councilor Raul Rodriguez, came after an executive session that lasted about two hours.

Rodriguez said Klein will be paid an annual salary of $135,000 and is expected to begin her job in November as she resigns her current position as executive director of the Artesia Chamber of Commerce, where she’s worked for more than 20 years, and aid in finding her replacement.

In her new job, which was created by the Artesia City Council by a unanimous vote at its July 22 meeting, Klein will be tasked with aiding Mayor Jon Henry in the city’s day-to-day operations. Officials said her responsibilities will include improving interdepartmental coordination, tracking ongoing projects and identifying funding sources such as grants for city projects.

“I hope I can bring my experience to the city, and maybe elevate the city’s communication internally and with the public,” Klein said, noting the she intends to help support city projects and funding sources.

She said she will also help maintain relationships with the city’s benefactors, as Klein noted much of its financial support comes from the private sector.

“Since it’s a new position, I’ll have to figure out the lay of the land and establish relationships with the different departments,” Klein said.

Henry, who also serves as a New Mexico state representative for District 54 covering portions of Eddy, Chaves and Otero counties, said when the city administrator position was created in July that adding the post to the city’s management structure would not only reduce strain on the mayor but also create consistency among municipal departments.

“The mayor has a tough job doing other political stuff, and his other obligations,” Rodriguez said. “Now, we’ll have a point of contact for the day-to-day operations.”

In addition to her job with the Chamber of Commerce, Klein serves as District 2 Eddy County Commissioner, an office previously held by Henry who did not seek reelection to the commission after opting to run for the Legislature in 2024. Klein was elected last November.

She said she intends to keep her position on the Eddy County Commission after assuming her duties with the city, but will abstain from “any votes related to city business.”

Rodriguez said the city researched state law and believes she can maintain the posts without any conflicts.

“She is able to maintain both positions without any issues,” Rodriguez said. “We did our research to make sure everything was kosher, and we didn’t have any conflicts.”

Henry recommended Klein for the administrator position at Tuesday’s meeting after “much thought and reviewing of several candidates.”

“I do appreciate everybody that applied,” he said. “It was a very, very tough decision.”

Rodriguez said the city received multiple applicants for the city administrator’s job and made its decision after months of interviews and discussions. He said the city ended with two finalists: Klein and the city’s Infrastructure Director Byron Landfair.

“I would like to thank the candidates for the city administrator,” he said. “That was probably the toughest decision I’ve had to make as a city councilor,” he said. “I think we are in a blessed position, and it is a win-win for the city.”

And Klein said the role will allow her to further share the story of Artesia’s and southeast New Mexico’s contributions to the broader State of New Mexico, as the region is known for generating much of the state revenue through the oil and gas industry.

“All of our little cities are really important to the state, and southeast New Mexico provides so much,” she said. “It’s important for the state to remember us.”

Managing Editor Adrian Hedden can be reached at 575-628-5516, or @AdrianHedden on the social media platform X.

Laurel Berry
Alamogordo News

Holloman Air Force Base and the Sacramento Mountains Foundation co-sponsored a free screening of the Lois Lipman movie “First We Bombed New Mexico” at the Flickinger Center for Performing Arts on Saturday, October 11. The film tells the stories of families that have been affected by the radiation released during the Trinity test, which was the first atomic bomb to ever be detonated, on July 16, 1945, some 50 miles from Alamogordo, and their efforts to be included in the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA).

Lipman, who has won 16 awards for the film, said: “My goal is to get this film shown, to get it into the communities, especially the smaller communities. It has been shown at 35 festivals, Barcelona, in Paris.” She was met with obstacles when she began to gather funding for making the film but remained determined.

“How do I make a film that will impact people? It’s too big. People can’t connect to thousands of people dying. But my way of making a film, the way I was taught, is that you have to find one character that people can connect with and it’s through the eyes of that one character that you tell a story that touches the world,” she said.

That character was Tina Cordova, whose family lives in Tularosa and has been affected by cancer. Cordova herself is a thyroid cancer survivor. Together with the late Fred Tyler, Cordova started the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium in 2005 as a way to compile cancer statistics as well as other health data from communities around the Trinity test site. Generations of residents have suffered high rates of cancer.

RECA was enacted in 1990 to provide one-time payments as reparations to residents who may have developed cancer or other specified radiogenic illnesses as a result of exposure to radiation from atomic weapons testing or the process of mining or transporting uranium. However, it did not include New Mexico downwinders, as they are called.

It’s incomprehensible to Cordova that New Mexico was left out of the original RECA agreement.

“If you’re acknowledging that harm was done to people as a result of testing, wouldn’t you think first about the people of New Mexico, because the test at Trinity was incredibly fallout producing? They knew right afterwards that they had spread radiation all over New Mexico and beyond and so how they never acknowledged that when they recognized people in Nevada, I don’t know,” Cordova said.

“First We Bombed New Mexico” tells the story of those who experienced the Trinity test and the subsequent fallout as well as their children and grandchildren who continue to suffer unusually high rates of cancers, as noted by physicians who worked in the communities in the subsequent years. It follows Cordova and other members of the consortium as they fight to bring awareness to their cause, meet with members of Congress and eventually find an unlikely ally in Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, who helps sway enough senators to vote in favor of adding New Mexico downwinders to RECA.

For the residents, being added to RECA is as much about being acknowledged as it is about the reparations. It should be noted that Congress did not extend reparations to include health care. Medical bills for treatment of these diseases often greatly exceed the $100,000 payment that the government is offering.

After the screening, Cordova and Lipman held a question and answer session to address concerns from those in the audience, and applications were available for residents to take home. Currently, applications are accepted only via the mail, but an online option will be available soon. Those affected now have until December 31, 2027, to apply for compensation. More information can be found at trinitydownwinders.com.

Artesia Daily Press Editorial Board

The city’s hospital enjoys a good reputation and the levy, which raises between $4 million to $ 7 million a year, is used to fund operating expenses. There is no plan to use this money to pay for a new hospital that is envisioned for the future.

Artesia stands almost alone as a rural hospital that enjoys solid financial footing. By contrast, many rural hospitals throughout New Mexico are in danger of closing.

If there is a crack in the administrative structure and operation of Artesia General, it may be in its failure to communicate clearly with the public about the need for passage of the levy in the Nov. 4 election– compounded by a slight touch of institutional arrogance.

For instance, when the editorial board of the Artesia Daily Press met with hospital representatives to discuss the levy the only hospital executive in attendance was Khush Ghadiali, director of communication. No hospital administrators were on hand to explain the details of the levy or to discuss matters such as the total expenses and revenues of the hospital.

Hospital CEO Joe Salgado argued the need for approval of the levy in a letter to the editor that appears in today’s newspaper, and he showed up for a poorly attended public meeting last week at Kith and Kin, but he did not meet with our editorial board.

Instead of sending those who actually run the hospital to our meeting, the hospital sent two representatives of the governing board, Karen Waldrip and Danny Parker to explain how the board doles out the money after requests from the hospital. Both were informed and articulate, but they do not run the hospital.

Last spring the levy was narrowly defeated in a mail-only election with a dismal turnout of about 12% – of 10,000 ballots mailed to voters only 1,246 were filled out and returned to Eddy County officials to be included in the vote count. The mail-in ballots apparently left voters confused as to the purpose of the election, even to the point of thinking the ballots were junk mail and throwing them away.

Holding a mail-only election on such an important issue may in itself have demonstrated poor communication and arrogance, apparently reflecting a belief that voter approval was a done deal.

There is also reason to believe that some voters said no to the levy, or didn’t vote at all, because they were frustrated with the state of health care in New Mexico and decided to take it out on the hospital, or that they were concerned about lack of transparency regarding hospital-related issues such as air transport services for Eddy County patients.

As to the levy, our news story last week clearly explained its purpose and significance:

“The levy, paid on property taxes for homeowners and businesses within the Artesia Special Hospital District which encompasses most of the city limits and about 10,000 voters, is used to supplement the hospital’s operating costs.

“The district, which owns the land the hospital sits on, acts as a landlord while collecting the levy from taxpayers and providing the funds to the hospital at its board’s discretion and based on requests from hospital officials.

“The levy was first implemented in 1979, when the district was established mainly to spend the funds. It had been renewed every four years since.

“That changed on June 3, when a special mail-in election resulted in 638 votes against renewal and 608 in favor.

“Approval of the mill levy in next month’s election would not raise taxes but would maintain the current levy of $2.70 per every $1,000 of a property owners’ net taxable property value within the district. It was last renewed in 2021 and doesn’t expire until Dec. 31 of this year so passage in November would keep the levy in effect without interruption.

“Hospital officials maintain that about 80% to 90% of the levy is paid by commercial entities, mostly large oil and gas companies, and that it funds between 5% and 10% of the hospital’s operating budget.”

Artesia enjoys many benefits smaller communities lack – benefits that surpass even the city’s legendary high school football team and the spectacular Bulldog Bowl. Revenue and work provided by our rich oil and gas industry is a boon to us – and we have an excellent hospital, an institution that is essential to the health of our citizens.

But the hospital is lucky to have us, the voters, and perhaps the lesson here is for the citizens to be treated with more openness, consideration and respect.

Photo by Mike Smith, Artesia Daily Press

Four term State Rep. Martin Zamora (R-63) plans to run for U.S. House District 3.

The Republican is the first announced challenger who would like to unseat current Democrat incumbent Teresa Leger Fernandez.

Tuesday night at the Artesia Country Club Zamora met with fellow Republicans in an event hosted by State Sen. Jim Townsend (R-34) and his wife Linda Townsend, Peyton and Linda Yates, Tommy and Donna Scroggin, Bob and Sandra Mayberry and Eddy County Republican Party chairperson Robin Morgan.

Zamora, a farmer, and rancher from the Clovis area, highlighted his six years of experience in the New Mexico Legislature and as a businessperson as a plus for the district that starts in northwest New Mexico near the Arizona and ends in southeast New Mexico at the Texas State line.

Adrian Hedden
Artesia Daily Press

A 1,000-acre plot of land along the Eddy-Lea county line could still be home to a nuclear storage facility, local supporters say, after a plan for the project appeared to be shelved last week.

New Jersey-based Holtec International first applied in 2017 for a federal license to store spent nuclear fuel at the location after the company was recruited by a group of local officials known as the Eddy Lea Energy Alliance (ELEA).

The Alliance is composed of elected officials and other leaders from Eddy and Lea counties and the cities of Carlsbad and Hobbs. The group not only purchased the thousand acres sitting amid the booming oil and gas pumpjacks and drilling rigs of the Permian Basin and recruited Holtec but also supported the project during a nearly decade-long battle over its license to operate.

Holtec agreed to buy the property and operate a facility that would eventually store up to 100,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel rods used in nuclear power plants across the country.

But the project appeared to suffer a fatal blow on Wednesday, Oct. 8, when during a special meeting held by the Alliance, its members voted to accept a letter from Holtec terminating the agreement.

The company cited continued state opposition, specifically Senate Bill 53, which was passed by the Legislature in 2023 with the aim of preventing establishment of a nuclear fuel storage site in New Mexico.

The announcement left opponents of the project, including New Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, claiming victory. The governor previously referred to Holtec’s proposal as “economic malpractice” for the purported risk she said nuclear fuel storage could pose to the nearby oil and gas and agricultural industries.

“I’m glad that Holtec heard our strenuous objections and decided that fighting to put more nuclear waste in New Mexico was a losing proposition,” Lujan Grisham said in a Wednesday statement. “We stand firm in our resolve to protect our state from becoming a nuclear dumping ground.”

Holtec spokesperson Patrick O’Brien said terminating the company’s agreement with the Alliance did not mean the end of the project. He said the move allowed the Alliance “flexibility” to negotiate with other companies while Holtec itself could pursue projects supported by the federal government in other states.

“To be clear, Holtec has not abandoned our commitment to ELEA or to the HI-STORE project. In fact, should the Department of Energy issue an Expression of Interest (EOI) for consolidated spent fuel storage, Holtec commits to support ELEA’s efforts to respond – should ELEA choose to do so,” O’Brien said Friday.

Nuclear still targeted by Alliance

John Heaton, a former New Mexico state representative from Carlsbad who chairs the Alliance’s board and led advocacy for the Holtec project since its inception, said he was hopeful a nuclear facility would still be brought to the region with the Alliance’s support.

He argued such a facility would help diversify the area’s oil-and-gas-dependent economy and take advantage of an existing nuclear-oriented workforce both at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad and a uranium enrichment facility operated by URENCO in Eunice.

Other Alliance projects could include nuclear fuel reprocessing, Heaton said, or additional uranium development.

“There may be other good ideas that can create jobs and improve the status of our citizens in our two counties,” Heaton said. “There are a number of possibilities in the nuclear industry, which has experienced a renaissance right now.”

Before such opportunities can come to fruition, Heaton said, New Mexico must be “more business friendly.” Heaton blamed what he characterized as the state’s unfounded aversion to nuclear projects for stymieing economic progress.

“Holtec or any other business that is bringing jobs and capital investment into the state seems to be unwelcome in New Mexico,” Heaton said. “If New Mexico is to overcome being last in every main criteria and its high poverty rate, it must be welcoming to business.”

Lujan Grisham’s remarks buoyed the environmental community in New Mexico, which also frequently opposed the Holtec project, contending New Mexico could become the permanent resting place for the waste even though Holtec’s facility was designed to hold the rods temporarily.

A permanent repository does not exist in the U.S., after a proposal at Yucca Mountain, Utah, faced state opposition and was blocked during the administration of former President Barack Obama.

President Donald Trump signaled he would restart the Yucca Mountain Project, but so far it remains inactive.

Meanwhile, Holtec’s idea was to move the refuse away from power plants where they are typically stored in cooling pools alongside reactors, usually in high population areas or near large bodies of water.

Camilla Feibelman, director of the Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club, said such benefits were not worth the disproportionate risk the nuclear industry already brings to New Mexico.

She said instead of developing more nuclear energy and creating more spent fuel, the U.S. should focus on other new sources of energy that produce less waste, such as wind and solar power.

“Nuclear energy has an intractable problem – no one wants the waste,” Feibelman said. “Holtec wanted to ship this radioactive material through your communities and ours with no promise of a permanent storage facility.”

Jack Volpato, another Carlsbad-based supporter who chairs the city’s Nuclear Task Force, said the “acrimonious environment” in Santa Fe presented some challenges for the project but vowed that a nuclear facility would be brought to the 1,000 acres.

“We’ll regroup and come out with something else,” he said. “There will be a nuclear facility on that land.”

Managing Editor Adrian Hedden can be reached at 575-628-5516, or @AdrianHedden on the social media platform X.