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New meter reading system for the water district

Sun Valley Water is implementing a radio-read meter system from Neptune.  We started with 40 meters installed in Little Creek subdivision and are working into the Sun Valley subdivision as funds allow us to buy additional meters. Your April water bill came from reading meters using this new system.  You may have seen Joe Buchanan and Sharon Stewart out reading  meters together on April 23. (PS-if you find a Tasmanian Devil watch in your yard - call Sharon, please.)

Out learning the "Nomad" hand-held radio read: Joe Buchanan, System Operator; Marc Stewart, Vice-Chairman SVW&SD Board; and Matt Wheaton from HD Supply.  Not shown is bookkeeper Sharon Stewart (the photographer).

Background Information - How we got the first 40 meters, the Nomad, software, and training:
Chairman Jim Miller contacted our NM State Representative, Zach Cook, with a SVWSD
legislative capital outlay request, and asked that Sun Valley be placed in the
queue to receive a share of legislatively appropriated funds for Cook’s district.
Cook was able to secure $20,000 for SVWSD to start a project replacing older
water meters to new ARM meters, which will be invaluable in the district’s high
altitude, hilly terrain that is often covered with snow in the winter. Miller also
contacted the Ruidoso High School Ag Mechanic’s shop program about paying
students to cut holes in existing SVWSD meter lids to enable ARM antenna usage.
This community outreach program gave shop students a lesson in cutting cast iron
with a plasma cutter, in ARM water meter technology, and earned the shop
program some needed funding.

Time to Cut Down Dead Trees

Freddie Serna

Heavy winds are now sweeping through the south central mountains, including through the Sun Valley Water & Sanitation District. Dead trees standing for the past couple of years are now beginning to blow down. Several, for example, have narrowly missed houses near the trash compactor. Local insurance companies advise that if you have not removed dead trees on your property, and then the trees blow down on your neighbor's house, you will probably be liable for damages. Empty lot owners and lot owners with houses can take advantage of the list of tree cutters provided below to remove hazard trees. Remember, too, that cutting the logs into stove or fireplace sized pieces and stacked next to the curb will reduce your material removal costs or keep you under your 12-cubic yard per year limit. (A blog post about Greentree slash rules will follow.)

Local tree cutters include:

1. Coy Stambaugh  575.937.4179
2. Freddie Serna 575.258.4952
3. Robby Hall 575.937.2721
4. Joe Romero 575.808.4477 or 575.257.1921

Greentree Solid Waste Authority rules for slash pick up

Forest waste or slash pickup occurs on a rotating eight to 12-week schedule in the Greentree Solid Waste Authority service area north of the village of Ruidoso.

Property owners with residential structures on their land are eligible for 12-cubic yards of forest slash pickup per fiscal year, July 1 to June 30. Owners are responsible for the proper disposal of forest slash and yard waste and for the actions of their contractor's handling of slash, if one is hired.

Property owners also can chip and masticate on-site; haul away to an approved disposal site; or burn slash when conditions permit in unincorporated areas of the county.  Notify Lincoln County Sheriff's Office Dispatch at 800-687-2419 of any intent to burn and to verify open burning status.

The guidelines for Greentree forest slash and pine needle collection include:
— Piles may be placed on residential property lines with no overhead utility wires, adjacent to county roads to ensure grapple trucks can reach the pile.
— Do not place piles too close to fences, overhead wires or culverts.
— All tree branches and trunks must be cut to 4-feet lengths or smaller.
— No construction tree stumps, lumber, household trash, metal or rocks should be present in piles.
— Piles are collected only on lots with houses. Collections are paid for as part of quarterly residential solid waste bills.
— Piles on vacant lots or at commercial businesses will be picked up for a one-time charge, only by calling Greentree's office for an appointment at 575-378-4697 or 1-877-548-8772.  Owners of empty lots pay no regular solid waste bill, which would include forest waste pickup.
 
The dates for the Greentree grapple truck in Sun Valley:

05/03/15

06/28/15 

08/23/15

10/18/15

12/13/15

The actual dates can vary because of weather, mechanical problems, etc., but this gives you a date to aim for to be sure your slash is on the curbside and ready to be picked up. 

The photo speaks for itself

NMRWA -  New Mexico Rural Water Association

Press release from Greentree on RECYCLING -- DO YOUR PART TO HELP

“Recycle! Recycle! Recycle! The April Push for Plastic Recycling”

..................................................................................... 

It’s the second of the “Big Four” recyclable materials.  - #1 and #2 Plastic - “Anything with a neck” recycling that is being targeted in an intensive, region-wide push in April in Lincoln County and Mescalero. The four materials to be targeted during the month of April are corrugated cardboard; #1 and #2 plastic; newspaper; and clean, empty aluminum cans. Recycling these items creates raw materials that are transported out of the County and sold in southwestern industrial material markets. Material recycling also creates new local jobs, and saves $500 per landfill trip – the cost of transporting and dumping these materials in the Otero-Lincoln Regional Landfill south of Alamogordo. Recycling and selling the ‘big four’ materials, creates downward pressure on solid waste costs, and, ultimately, your solid waste bill. 

Identification of these #1 and #2 plastic is easy! Turn the container over and look for the recycling triangle with a 1 or 2 molded or imprinted on the bottom of the container. Any other numbered plastic items should be discarded in the trash. 

All other grades of plastic [3 – 7], including food and medicine packaging will not be accepted by material manufacturers to whom the recycled plastic is sold, and may be discarded in the regular trash.

Other types of plastic that cannot be recycled [no market for the material] includes:

· Styrofoam of any kind

· Plastic wrap of any kind

· Plastic shopping bags [can be recycled at the Smokey’s Country Market (Capitan) and at local thrift shops 

· Plastic containers with oil, grease, or food products

· Restaurant cooking oil plastic containers 

What can you do to push the recycling of plastic? 

· Empty out all liquids from plastic containers 

· Encourage businesses, convenience stores, and other large consumers of plastic beverage bottles to recycle

· Through the lid in the trash and transport clean, empty plastic bottles to the nearest blue recycling dumpster

For more information on recycling “the Big Four”, contact the Solid Waste Authority office:

Greentree Solid Waste Authority

PO Box 2405  Ruidoso Downs, New Mexico 88346

www.greentreeswa.org

Contact:  Debra Ingle, Operational Supervisor 

Phone:     (575) 378-4697

FAX     (575) 378-4896

Email:     gswa@greentreeswa.org

  

Voter information: Upcoming Bond for our school district & also wellness information

Learn more on THURSDAY  APRIL  16 AT  6 P.M.

To be held at the Traylor Gym, Capitan Schools.
  Sponsored by the Capitan Conservation Group.

SPECIAL COMMUNITY MEETING AT CAPITAN SCHOOLS

FIRST, FIND OUT WHAT'S HAPPENING  AT CAPITAN SCHOOLS,  HOW IT AFFECTS YOU.

 There will be a presentation on the forthcoming Bond issue to be voted upon May 12 and what the funds would be used for. How does this affect you? Also, hear information about the present construction, followed by a Question and Answer forum.


SECOND, INFORMATION YOU MAY NOT BE AWARE OF REGARDING WELLNESS SERVICES AVAILABLE TO YOU.

 Introducing Ms. Amber Watts, the new Nurse Practitioner from the Capitan Clinic with a presentation on Wellness with Medicare and information on the Lincoln County Community Assistance Program.