Present at the meeting were Board Members Lynn Pickard, Margo Cutler, Jeanne Boyles, Jerry Barron, Richard Renaldo, Christi Clancy and David Dougherty. Also present were Rachel White, John McCrory, Cathie Sullivan, Jennifer Wilson, Bernadette Romero Jaramillo, Chris Romero, Clara Dougherty, Thao Romero, Karen Buxbaum, Donna Amos, Jim Coogan, Rusty Day, Kristen Day, Emily Kimball, Don Benjamin, Mark DeCamp, Kitty Bryan, Jan Wisniewski, Frank Morbillo, Dorsey Bethune, Vince Jaramillo, Valerie Pijoan, Bradley Barnes, Quinn Evans, Joanna Angie, Kerry Mitchell, Sharon Laurie, Lisa Shield, Benjamin Shield, Kevin McBride, Gil Lujan, Velma Romero, Dale Martinez, Elissa Eccles, Donald Romero, Becky Martines, Grace Jaramillo, Mark Romero, Jamie Gagan, Stewart Alsop, Carol Sorenson , Teresa Geisler, Bruce Stuart and Paul Winkler.

The meeting began at 5:30 when Chair Lynn Pickard distributed copies of the agenda and asked those present to introduce themselves.

Tesuque Elementary School Principal Amy Thomas then welcomed all present and gave an update on school activities. Thanks to funds which had been raised at the Oct. 4th BBQ and additional donations from community members, new school sweatshirts were ordered for the students and will be distributed on Dec. 19th. The Children’s Choir will perform on Dec. 11th. New flooring for the gymnasium will be installed during the Christmas break. Money will be raised for 24 Christmas baskets to be assembled in the gym on the afternoon of Dec. 17th from 1-3. The sum of $300 from TVCA’s funds was approved for this project, meaning that a total of @$1400 of an estimated $2000 has been raised. Additional contributions can be sent to Jamie Gagan who can be contacted at dancelzard@comcast.net for more info. Any money left over will be transferred to the school’s PTA.
The minutes of the TVCA Meeting held on Sept. 15th and posted on the TesuqueValley.org website were deemed to have been approved in the absence of objection.

Jeanne Boyles then gave her last report as TVCA Treasurer, a post she has held for at least the last twelve years. As of November 30th, there was a total of $3,245 in the account, with $2143 earmarked for future legal fees. Additional membership fees were collected with new memberships at the meeting.

Under New Community Developments the following subjects were touched on:
Santa Fe County would like to solicit more participation from county residents in the upcoming revision of the Sustainable Land Development Code (SLDC). Lynn Pickard attended a recent meeting for COs and ROs , during which the county solicited input on how to get the public more involved. Lynn reported that attendance at the meeting, either in person or on line, was sparse.
Lynn reported that the Tesuque Road Study which had been completed several years ago was beginning to be implemented. Three stop signs at the entrance to Tesuque Canyon were recently installed and a several of the older signs have been replaced. Three additional speed feedback signs have been promised for next year, in addition to better road surface striping. Several of the large projects recommended by the study, like improvements to the very congested road area prone to flooding problems around TVM and the school, have recently been placed on a list for significant capital outlay funds. ***After the meeting, it was reported in The New Mexican that the county’s capital outlay request for the next fiscal year will include the Tesuque welcome signs and bulb outs as a traffic calming device.***
Under the Water Committee Update Jan Wisniewski reported that there had not been further contact from the county employee who initiated the discussion of possible formation of a Tesuque Watershed group. The employee’s principal reason seemed to have been that it might provide a good mechanism for future funding.
Rusty Day then gave an update on Protect Tesuque’s progress in the lawsuits with Bishop’s Lodge. On November 3rd the suit initiated by the Lodge against Protect Tesuque and the protesters received a set back from a local judge. So far this suit which had named a number of Tesuque residents and members of the PT board of directors has resulted in their incursion of over $200,000 in legal fees. The original lawsuit filed by Protect Tesuque’s lawyer against Bishop’s Lodge and Juniper Capitol continues with a deadline for submissions at the Water Quality. Control Commission at the end of this week.
Regarding the Finquita, formerly known as Shidoni, property, there were no updates to be given. Joanna Angie encouraged all who had not seen it to attend the exhibition in the old foundry building given in conjunction with the current county wide Site Santa Fe exhibits which will end in January.
Under Code Enforcement Issues there were none known to the board and none known to those present.
The Land Use Committee had no recent development plans brought before it.
Jim Coogan then brought up the subject of the FireWatch camera that had been installed on Tesuque Peak thanks to the efforts of Jonathan Frenzen. It is planned to be supplemented by a second camera located on the Monte Sereno subdivision which is able to cover lower areas of Tesuque Valley. Views from the cameras in real time may be seen on the Alert West website. Funds for the annual operation of the new camera will be needed.
After enthusiastic response from the group, several individuals volunteered to form a committee to assist Jonathan in this effort. They are Chris Romero as Chair, Jim Coogan, Teresa Geisler, Vince Jaramillo, Don Benjamin, Richard Renaldo and Rusty Day.
David Dougherty then offered his kudos to Jerry Barron for the excellent look and upkeep of the TesuqueValley.org website.
The Firewise report prepared by Chair Rachel White stated that the Tesuque community’s efforts this year were even more impressive than last year. The total of 2008 hours of fire mitigation work was 500 hours greater and the expenditure of $274,000 by individuals was @$90,000 more than what was spent in 2024. Rachel has also been able to obtain another grant to sponsor a tree service to conduct the 3rd chipping day at the Fire Station, probably next May.
The grant will be expanded slightly to include transportation help for those who have no way to bring branches and woody waste to the station. There will also be a new grant for one property owner that needs help cleaning up deadwood but can’t finance the work alone.
The BBQ held at the Tesuque Volunteer Fire Station on Oct. 4th was a great success with help from Tesuque Village Market, El Nido, Bishop’s Lodge and live music by Sid Hausman. TVCA only had to pay about $400 for materials this year and raised money for the fire department as well as the sweatshirts. Lynn also commented on the delicious fry bread prepared by a volunteer this year.
The Tesuque Clean-up report by Jerry Barron simply stated that he expected the first date in 2026 for an official clean-up to be sometime in April. Before that time, anyone who does their own clean-up of roadside waste will be able to take it to the Tesuque Transfer Station free of charge.
The Director’s Discussion and election portion of the agenda started with an explanation of which director’s terms will expire at the end of 2025.
These are:
Jeanne Boyles, Treasurer
Margo Cutler, Recording Secretary
Lynn Pickard, Chair
Richard Renaldo
Those directors whose terms will expire at the end of 2026 are:
Jerry Baron
Christi Clancy, Corresponding Secretary
David Dougherty
It was explained that Jeanne Boyles had been the TVCA Treasurer and record keeper for 12 years and that after quite a search for a replacement, Jack Lipincott has agreed to take on the Treasurer’s job in 2026 if elected to the board.
The TVCA bylaws allow for a Board of Directors of from 5 to 11 members, but it must be an odd number. In recent years the number of directors was reduced from 11 to 7 because it had sometimes been impossible to get a quorum (more than half) of directors at all meetings so that official business could be conducted.
Since so many new members had just joined the TVCA and several wanted to be able to serve on the board, Lynn Pickard introduced the idea of expanding the number of board members to 9 and including two additional members of the association on the board. A lengthy discussion followed, which concerned who those new board members should be, whether a board member of the Protect Tesuque organization could also be a board member of TVCA without impairing fiduciary duties to either, the relative merits of what kind of wastewater systems should be in the Tesuque area, water quality, TVCA's unique position as a Community Organization under the SLDC and its obligation to represent everyone in the community, the perception (perhaps erroneous) that Protect Tesuque wants to take over TVCA, the unfortunate situation of division within the community, the number of board members TVCA should have, and what should be decided first. After that discussion, the board decided to proceed with nine board members for the upcoming year. 

As the meeting had lasted nearly two hours, and the school gym needed to be vacated, it was decided to postpone the vote until another meeting could be scheduled in the following week.

That meeting will be held on Tuesday December 9th at 5 pm at Tesuque Elementary.