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Jul 05, 2023

Taos Plaza events suspended for duration of Paseo construction

It was barely mentioned at the Town of Taos Council regular meeting on Tuesday

It was barely mentioned at the Town of Taos Council regular meeting on Tuesday (Feb. 28), but events on Taos Plaza are suspended for the foreseeable future, according to comments made by Mayor Pascual Maestas at a Taos County Chamber of Commerce event last week.

The Taos Farmers Market, Taos Plaza Live and Fiestas de Taos are among the events in need of an alternative venue. The farmers market is already looking at a move to the parking lot of the Taos County Administration and Judicial Complex, while Taos Plaza Live has been offered a reduced number of days on which to hold events in Kit Carson Park.

Maestas blamed the ongoing reconstruction of Paseo del Pueblo Sur and the Historic Taos County Courthouse restoration for the move.

"So events will see a major change," Maestas told chamber members at the Chairman's Table Breakfast event at Taos Retirement Village. "We're in discussions with Don Francisco Trujillo, [president of the Fiestas de Taos Council], to look at how Fiestas are going to be impacted. This is a temporary move until we can get past this phase of construction [on Paseo del Pueblo Sur] and hopefully see Taos Plaza Live back on the plaza in a couple of years."

Trujillo did not respond to an email seeking comment; and town Manager Andrew Gonzales didn't respond to a request for comment this week.

In an interview last month, Gonzales said the town is communicating with several organizations that will be impacted by the town's safety-first mindset.

"Not just PD, but fire, too, have been very, very critical of the amount of closures that are happening because there's no thorough passageways" across the plaza, Gonzales said. "There's Paseo; there's the tree lighting; there's Fiestas: There's a lot built into that equation,"

On the topic of events, Martinez reported that "The Town of Taos will be hosting two community events during the months of May and July requiring the need to transfer cash from the General Fund in the amount of $102,878 to the Special Events Enterprise Fund. With this cash transfer, we will be increasing expenditures to allow for contractual services for the Mother's Day and 4th of July events."

The town's finances are in good shape, according to a report delivered by Finance Director Lupe Martinez.

During the first six months of the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, gross receipts tax revenue is up over 9 percent compared to the previous fiscal year, Martinez reported, noting that expenditures are up as well.

"After reviewing each of the department's mid-year budget adjustments, we have an overall increase in expenditure requests by $386,101 primarily being made to the operating budgets," she said.

In another event-related move that Maestas told the chamber could further increase the town's revenue, Taos is in talks with Kit Carson Electric Coop to "blanket the downtown with WiFi."

"And using that possibly as a revenue stream for the Town of Taos when we have large events, pay $1 to connect to public WiFi and being able to use that revenue to reinvest back into our parks and back into our public infrastructure."

Maestas also told the chamber that the town is going to fix parking meters downtown, which currently are so widely inoperable that many locals don't bother to push coins into any of them, ever.

"We're anticipating lots of revenue coming in, and we've looked in the past and when the meters did work we were collecting regularly and there's a pot of money being brought in," Maestas said. "And we're going to reinvest that money back into the downtown. We hear a lot about the trash issue right there in the John Dunn parking lots, and now we're going to have a revenue stream to fix issues like that.

"So that's something that I would also ask for help for," Maestas told the chamber, "because we hear a lot from the merchants when they say, 'We don't want parking to cost money, we want all of our potential customers to be able to park for free' — but then they ask for help when it comes to solving some of the issues. So this is, you know, a give and take. We need to have that revenue source so that we can fix issues in the downtown, like in the bathrooms."

Maestas also told the chamber that Taos had "reserved" its first fully-electric vehicle, an F-150 Lightning which, he said, would be at the disposal of Police Chief John Wentz.

"Hopefully the council will approve this purchase," Maestas joked.

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