The TVCA directors met on September 15, 2025, at 5:30 at the Tesuque School. The directors present were: Lynn Pickard, Jeanne Boyles, Jerry Barron, and Margo Cutler. Richard Renaldo, David Dougherty, and Christi Clancy were absent. Lynn has a standing proxy for Richard and she had been given proxies for this meeting by David and Christi.

Community members present were Rachel White, Cam Duncan, Carol Sorenson, Kathy and Jack Lippincott, Ann and Mike Dillon, Lisa Gavioli (owners’ representative for Finquita owners, Christi Ofutt and Soraida Bedoya), Frank Morbillo, Jan Wisniewski, Kitty Bryan, Bruce MacAllister, Rusty and Kristin Day, Jamie Gagan, Teresa Levine, Bridget Hinton, Jennifer Wilson, Hannah Burnes, Valerie Pijoan, Denise Hurtado, Megan Seret, Eric Sirotkin, Gayther Gonzales, David Schlessinger, and Leonard Acuna. A few others may not have signed in.

Minutes and Announcements: The meeting was called to order by Lynn Pickard and the minutes from the previous meeting were promptly approved. Jerry and Jamie had items to add to the agenda.

Jerry announced that plague has been reported in the area and there are lots of dead animals around. As plague is carried by insects, all pet owners should take care to prevent ticks and fleas from reaching their pets, which can be done a number of ways, but pet owners should make sure that the method chosen is up to date and kept up to date.

Jamie reported on a letter she got from Santa Fe County inviting all property owners to the City of Espanola’s 100th anniversary, on September 27 from 9-1 on the Espanola Plaza, which is also an outreach event for the Pojoaque Basin Regional Water System. Representatives from the Environment Department, the State Engineer, and the County will be available to test your home’s water, discuss the water system, and help you complete your well election form, which now has a fourth option to connect your home to the system while keeping your well for outdoor use. Lynn reported that she is on the federal court’s list of people who get notice of filings in the closed Aamodt case, and that many new well elections have been filed recently. Lynn also urged everyone to elect to connect to the system, as she has, to be a part of the community.

Treasurer’s Report: Jeanne gave the Treasurer’s report that the TVCA account has a total amount of $3,838.79, with the same breakdown of funds reserved for legal fees and funds for general usage as last time. Jeanne sent a check to Christi for $200 to cover the cost of insurance and rental for two meetings at the Tesuque School, but that has not cleared yet.

Traffic Study Update: Lynn reported that she continues to be in touch with Ryan Ward at the County, although she was late contacting him in advance of this meeting. She noticed a new 25 MPH speed limit sign on southbound Tesuque Village Road before the Market and requested that another similar sign be placed on the northbound part of that road so traffic should slow in both directions. The three-way stop at Big Tesuque Canyon has been installed. Lynn reminded Ryan and the people at the meeting that there is still a short-term punch list of items that need attention: oversized speed limit signs, bicycles may use full lane signs, reflectors, more maintenance after rains, and the like, which were supposed to be done within a few months. The extra speed feedback signs are on a longer schedule and even longer is the Arroyo Griego area, which is a capital project that will take years to fund. Jennifer noted that there is still speeding on Tesuque roads day and night. Kathy reported that she was ticketed for speeding recently and that the Tesuque Pueblo police would be out enforcing the speed limits. She also reported break-ins in the area.

BBQ: Rachel reported that the BBQ is scheduled for October 4 from 3-6 and all local hospitality businesses have volunteered to help, including Bishop’s Lodge this year. We want to make sure that the BBQ is not an occasion to be political and the attendees agreed. We thank Bishop’s Lodge, the Tesuque Village Market, El Nido, and Terra at the Four Seasons for their contributions. The fire department volunteers will do a lot of the set up and tear down, but Rachel could still use more volunteers, so please contact her if you are interested (rachel3white@gmail.com). The TVCA usually raises money at this event and this year, we will cooperate with the school to try to fund Tesuque Eagles sweatshirts for the students at an estimated cost of $1700, as well as accept donations for the fire department and TVCA. Rachel will put up signs about a week in advance of the event and notices will also go to the families of students at the school.
County Planning updates: Neither Lynn nor anyone else was aware of any. There was a short discussion of the anticipated disruption to the roads in Tesuque when the water lines from the regional water system would be installed. People seemed to think that we can expect one-lane road closures when this happens.

Finquita: Lisa explained that the intent is for Finquita to be an art space and outdoor gathering place much as it was when Shidoni was there in its later years. The County Land Use Administrator indicated that the use could continue. Lisa explained that there were leases on the buildings in addition to a commercial business license that kept up the use after the owners closed on the property in 2022. Lynn indicated that no one on the land use committee had knowledge of that continuous use, but Eric stated that he knew some of the tenants who leased before, during, and after the sale. Both he and Jan spoke in favor of the creative energy that Christi and Soraida would bring. Lynn thanked Eric because a number of community members would like to see the use of the property as an art space continue, but she felt duty bound to ensure that the use had not been abandoned. David wanted assurance that the foundry use would not continue because that had been problematic in the past, and assurance was given.

Protect Tesuque/Bishop’s Lodge: Rusty, a director of Protect Tesuque, volunteered to give this update. Rusty began to reiterate Protect Tesuque’s contentions that the Environment Department is using the wrong law, i.e. the less protective earlier law (an issue that was before the NM Supreme Court) and that the leach field is too close to the Little Tesuque Creek as well as being in a flood plain and being inadequately sized in any event. Others agreed. Lynn urged all to just give updates, rather than reiterating contentions.
Rusty said that the Supreme Court declined to give an opinion on which law applies at this point in time. Rusty then spoke of a meeting Protect Tesuque had with the Governor, Senator Peter Wirth, representatives from the Pueblo and NMED, and Bishop’s Lodge’s “lobbyists” during which the parties were encouraged to try to agree to sell the treated water rather than put it underground. But the day after the meeting, Bishop’s Lodge filed a suit in district court to enjoin the protests. When the details of this suit were reported, from naming the defendants and their feelings about being sued to reporting on general support from the ACLU, Lynn again asked people to just give factual updates. Nonetheless, there were a number of contentions given from the people present, including that there are concerns about PFAS and that 1000 people use Bishop’s Lodge’s system on a daily basis, which is the same population as the whole village of Tesuque.
Thereafter, Lynn asked for a personal privilege both as a retired attorney and a retired judge to state that she had listened to the Supreme Court argument on line, as well as the hearing in front of the hearing officer, and read the hearing officer’s report, and also travels on Bishop’s Lodge Road during the protests and heard from others who also drive there during the protests. Her impression was that the Supreme Court justices were skeptical of Protect Tesuque’s arguments about which law applied, that the hearing officer’s report appeared to comprehensively discuss the contentions of Protect Tesuque and reject them, that the protests did cause an unsafe condition on Bishop’s Lodge Road in that cars went out of their lanes trying to avoid the protestors, that the permit matter would next go to the NMED Secretary and then the Water Quality Control Commission and then the Court of Appeals and then the Supreme Court, and that the injunction was the subject of disputed facts that would be resolved by the district court when it will be heard in November. Lynn also stated her dislike of the signs. Bruce added that the signs may cause property values to lessen and that our own septic systems might cause worse pollution.

Representatives of Protect Tesuque urged the people at the meeting to continue to oppose the permit to both the Governor and the NMED Secretary at this point in time.

Land Use and Code Enforcement: No one reported any issues. A few questions were asked at various points during the meeting about what may or may not be allowed under the zoning laws. The County zoning laws can be found by Googling “Santa Fe County” and “SLDC” which is the Sustainable Land Development Code. Article 7 has general provisions applicable to all areas of the county. Article 9 has the Tesuque Overlay which are provisions specific to Tesuque and override the general provisions. Jan explained that set-back of five feet from property line for building was for fire reasons, to provide a buffer.

Other Community Developments: Lynn reminded people to donate to the Food Depot’s Neighbor to Neighbor Fund Drive by September 23.

Firewise: The deadline for reporting on fire mitigation efforts this year is October 31, and Rachel will send out a reminder. She is also going to apply for grants from Forest Guardians to continue the chipper days and to do a demonstration of fire mitigation at someone’s property. Frank recommends that tree trimming is best and most healthily accomplished in winter when the County currently does not have free green waste disposal dates, so TVCA will contact the County to request free green waste disposal dates during winter.

Tesuque Clean Up: Jerry noted that he had been incredibly busy these days so has not brought the community together for a clean-up day, but intends to do so either the third or last Sunday in October at 10 am as usual and will announce it when he decides when it should be.

Next meeting: The next meeting will be on December 1 at 5:30 at the school and will be both a board and community meeting.

Adjournment: The meeting adjourned at 6:50.