Milan to purchase 40 acres

By Jim Tiffin
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — The village of Milan board of trustees has decided to purchase an additional 40 acres of land from the Hassell family.

The land, which will cost $80,000, is adjacent to the 890 acres the village plans to use as an industrial park, said Village Manager Marcella Sandoval.

The water rights that come with the land give the village 1,100 acre feet of water in the aquifer below the land, she said. An acre foot of water is enough water to fill one acre, which is 43,560 square feet with water one foot deep.

The land is just west of Kearns Field, the large baseball complex in Milan.

It is also where the village has grown a pumpkin patch for two years.

Currently a residence and a barn, which the village is using as a shed to store equipment, are the only two buildings on the property.

Manufacturer looking at Milan
Sandoval said a company, Community Energy Systems, is looking at the industrial park area to being a manufacturing plant to produce alternative energy products.

"It will bring 50 jobs, but I don't know what wage schedule they have," she said.

The company will be presenting its request to the board at a meeting in February, she said.

P&Z approvals
The board also approved some planning and zoning requests at its Thursday meeting.

A new planning and zoning ordinance, which was presented at the meeting, was tabled for further study and will be reviewed and possibly approved at a meeting in February, Sandoval said.

Because of resignations by two P&Z committee members recently, there is only one member remaining. Sandoval said the trustees will each give Mayor Tom Ortega a name to appoint to the committee, which the trustees will then have to approve with a majority vote, in order for the committee to have a quorum to meet on future P&Z items.

Two P&Z approvals by the trustees included allowing Bob and Pat Rice, owners of the Crossroads Motel on Old West Route 66 in Milan, to combine properties, one which the motel stands on, and another smaller property adjacent to the motel which has a house on it so the Rice's can live in the house and use it as an office for the motel, Sandoval said.

The other P&Z item to allow Barbara Rivera to combine two adjacent pieces of property to place a doublewide mobile home for a residence was also approved.

"Most of the lots in Milan are small and doublewides will not meet the setback requirements," Sandoval said.

"By combing the two smaller lots into one large one, the doublewide meets all the requirements," she said.

Tentatively, the trustees will meet again at 6:30 p.m., Feb. 15 at 623 Uranium Ave., in the village board room.

To contact reporter Jim Tiffin, call (505) 287-2197 or e-mail: jtiffin.independent@yahoo.com.