The meeting at the Tesuque School gymnasium began promptly at 5:30. Present were board members Lynn Pickard, Bruce MacAllister, and Jeanne Boyles. Lynn had proxies for Margo Cutler, Jerry Barron, Cam Duncan, and Richard Renaldo. Also present were community members Jamie Gagan, Cathie Sullivan, Orlando Diaz, John McCrory, Karen Klitgaard, David Dougherty, and Mary Helen Perea. The minutes of the previous TVCA meeting had been emailed in advance and, as there were no objections, were deemed to have been approved.

Tesuque Elementary School Principal Amy Thomas welcomed us, reported that the school was fully staffed for its 68 students, and discussed the plans for distributing holiday food baskets for the 18 families that requested them. The baskets will be packed on December 17 at 1 pm and distributed on December 19 at 2 pm. Lynn said that Annie Laurie Coogan who is leading up the effort was not able to attend the meeting due to illness, but is continuing to take care of it. Jamie volunteered to help on one or the other day.

Treasurer Jeanne Boyles reported that there are $3,183.79 in the bank account, made up of $2,143.21 earmarked for legal and $640.58 that can be used for other expenses. In addition, there are $400.00 in the treasury that a generous donor gave to support the food baskets, and checks for another $70.00 were received for this purpose at the meeting.

The BBQ cost a little over $600 this year, down from last year due to purchasing at Sam’s Club. Donations from BBQ co-chairs Cam Duncan, Richard Renaldo, and Tesuque Village Market meant that the TVCA spent less on the BBQ. Lynn will write a thank you note to TVM. Big thanks go to Cam and Richard for organizing this very successful event for another year. There was a fair amount of food left over, which TVCA was pleased to be able to donate to St. E’s Shelter and the Tesuque Fire Department.

Jeanne also reported that the Tesuque community won first place in its category in the Food Depot Neighbor to Neighbor Fund Drive. A final total of over $24,000 was collected from the Tesuque community. Yay us!!

With regard to election of directors, Jerry Barron will serve another two-year term. David Dougherty will replace Jake Clemons. Christi Clancy will replace Bruce MacAllister, and the two of them will work together so that communications will be seamless. Lynn read Annie Laurie’s message, stating that she was ill and would be willing to step down as director. The choices were to continue her as a director and find another director, because the bylaws require an odd number of directors or lower the number of directors. Since it is hard to find volunteers to be directors, the directors present or by proxy agreed to lower the number of directors to seven, as the bylaws allow.

There were no updates from the County Planning Committee. Its work is done inasmuch as the new Community Plan and Overlay were both adopted by the Board of County Commissioners. Bruce reported that the Water Planning Committee had not met. Apparently, the County’s intent to form a watershed association was tabled. A meeting had been scheduled but it was cancelled, and there was no further communication from the County.

Jamie Gagan reported on the status of the Bishop’s Lodge Wastewater project. The NMED is going to hold a hearing on the issue, but a date has not been set. Until then, the Lodge is continuing to pump and haul its wastewater. There will be a Protect Tesuque meeting on December 5 at the Tesuque School at 5:30 for people who want to learn more about what is happening, including attorney Tom Hnasko’s ideas for going forward. Clara Dougherty joined the board of Protect Tesuque.

There have been no code enforcement issues or complaints received by the TVCA. Lynn noted that a property on the non-river side of Bishops Lodge Road between White Boulder Road and Big Tesuque Canyon has begun to accumulate junk vehicles. After discussion, a majority of those present asked Lynn to make a complaint and she agreed to do so. There have been no developments reviewed by the Land Use Committee and no official notice of any future developments. David Dougherty reported that there are rumors that the property adjacent to El Nido on the south may be proposed for a possible hotel or inn.

Lynn asked on behalf of someone who wrote to the TVCA portal whether anyone knew of any water haulers, as the person’s well had become nonoperable and the water hauler being used was unable to continue. No one knew of anyone, but David suggested googling in Albuquerque. Lynn will write to the person.

Rachel White, who coordinates the Firewise program, was not in attendance but submitted a report to Lynn: “The Firewise committee, which is the same as the TVCA, was able to conduct three fire mitigation projects in the Tesuque Valley over the past year- a free Community Chipping Day in May, a Wildfire Mitigation Workshop in early November, and the annual Firewise work! “At the Wildfire Mitigation Workshop, the Forest Stewards Guild provided information on programs that private landowners can take advantage of, including free home wildfire risk assessments and cost sharing possibilities. Regarding the annual Firewise work, 30 residents reported over 2,500 hours and more than $184,000 spent on activities to mitigate wildfire on their properties. This is a considerable investment in our community and represents an increase in participation over past years.”
Cathie Sullivan, who was the Firewise coordinator before Rachel, commented about the tremendous increase in participation and money spent. Meeting participants thanked Rachel and acknowledged her hard work in this area.

Mary Helen Perea asked who was responsible when many trees and tree limbs went down during the big storm a few weeks ago. People said the county was responsible if the limbs and trees were in the road but otherwise landowners were responsible and the County had provided free dumping at BURRT for a week for those landowners. Mary Helen also asked about cutting limbs, and people answered that a contractor for PNM had been doing this work lately. Mary Helen was concerned that the canopy not be disturbed and all agreed with her that limb cutting should not disturb the tree canopy over the major roads in Tesuque and encouraged TVCA,members to make their voices heard if we see any of this happening in the future.
Jerry Barron submitted a report to Lynn about the litter clean-up efforts, which are on hold over the winter. They will resume on March 2. Mary Helen Perea asked if the day of the week or time could be changed as some people who would like to participate are in church then. Lynn stated the logistics of the litter clean-up are up to Jerry, as the organizer. Mary Helen also asked if we could put up dog waste bags and receptacles in the triangle area because there is so much dog waste there. This will be addressed the next time litter clean-up is in that area.

Bruce MacAllister gave a report on communications and reported that more people are contacting the website portal. Some of the contacts stated that the domain name was about to expire or otherwise requested information. Jerry advised Lynn that these emails were spam, and Lynn shared this information with Bruce and the others present. Bruce indicated that some messages seemed accusatory and based on inaccurate assumptions regarding the TVCA and its expressed neutrality regarding the Bishop’s Lodge discharge permit. Other messages appeared to be intended for Protect Tesuque. Lynn will work with Jerry to revise the website so that it is clear that the TVCA is not Protect Tesuque, so that we will not get messages
intended for them.

The schedule for 2025 meetings is:
• February 24 – board meeting
• May 5 – combined board and community meeting
• September 15 – board meeting
• December 1 – combined board and community meeting
The meeting was adjourned at 6:35 PM