MARFA — It’s shaping up to be a relatively seamless 2024-25 budget cycle for the City of Marfa, with city council members, the mayor, city manager and city department heads all agreeing on a balanced budget after just two meetings.
In many ways, the new budget is similar to last year’s. All city employees are receiving a 3.5% cost of living raise, and the big ticket item is $2.9 million in street repairs — funds rolled over from last year that City Manager Mandy Roane and Mayor Manny Baeza are confident will be spent this year with the right engineering firms in place.
The city’s utilities customers will see no increase to natural gas rates this year but will be subject to an 8% increase in water and sewer fees and 4.5% increase in residential and commercial garbage collection.
This year’s proposed tax rate — which has gone through the public hearing process but is still pending formal adoption — is the voter approval rate, .328 per $100 taxable value, a 1.6% increase from last year’s tax rate.
Council members met for their second budget workshop last week, with all council members present. Marfa and Presidio County Museum administrator Martha Stafford first addressed council members regarding budgetary needs.
Stafford explained that the museum’s front railing and porch required an estimated $1,200 worth of repairs, and heating and cooling systems in the back of the building are failing. “But I’m hesitant to call anyone to come fix it, because we simply do not have the funds to pay for it, especially if it’s going to be a lot of money,” Stafford said.
The museum would also like to make updates to its exhibits, including the phone booth out front, and its marketing brochures, she said. Stafford said the museum is now open seven days a week from 1 to 5 p.m. and the thrift store was back to making a modest profit.
Baeza said there is adequate money, $80,000 in historic building preservation, to take care of the museum’s needed repairs, and upgrades to brochures shouldn’t be a problem. The city recently stabilized a deteriorating adobe wall on the east side of the structure and is continuing repairs to the museum floor.
Police Chief Gilberto Carrilllo notified council members that planned upgrades to the EMS station — to better suit 24/7 on-call staff — are likely to displace old vehicles and Can-Am motorcycles the police department is storing in the bay. He said the animal control shelter might be a better site for the vehicles to be stored. Baeza suggested shipping containers as a cheap solution, as opposed to a built-out shelter. A largely defunct police department bank account still had some money left in it from an old Operation Stonegarden grant that council members decided to put towards two shipping containers for a total budget of $19,500.
Councilmember Mark Morrison asked whether there is anything in the public works budget relating to the new El Cosmico utility connection. While construction on a 3D-printed model hotel room and home has begun on El Cosmico’s new 61-acre site north of Antelope Hills, developers are still in discussion with the city about hooking up to Marfa’s water and wastewater systems.
Roane said there is nothing in the budget relating to that project yet because it is still “a big question mark,” with city employees, engineers and El Cosmico exchanging data and assessing the potential impact. Hotelier Liz Lambert previously told The Sentinel El Cosmico would foot the bill for the city expanding services to their area.
“We don’t even have an estimate of what that would cost, how that would be paid. What we would have to do up front, or what they would pay up front,” Roane said. “We are working on it diligently, I promise. But once we have some better numbers, that’s going to be such a huge thing that we’re going to have to look at it, figure out how everything is going to line up.”
Roane said the extension is approximately 1.5 miles to the new El Cosmico’s property line. Morrison estimated that there is a 40-foot grade change from the county road to the property line. And Baeza pointed out that the development still needs to secure rights of way.
With so many questions up in the air, Roane said progress is slow going but she is working with an attorney at the city’s law firm, Bojorquez, which specializes in utilities, as well as Public Works Director Chuck Salgado, the city’s engineers and El Cosmico representatives to get the information they need.
With few actual changes to any of the original budget’s line items, council members anticipated adopting the budget and tax rate soon. Morrison said there “doesn’t seem like there’s a whole bunch of questions,” with Councilmember Travis Acreman agreeing that it was “essentially the same budget as last year,” and they were in “solid shape.”
The city’s deadline to adopt the budget and tax rate is September 26.
To view a draft of the budget, visit cityofmarfa.com/administration/page/budget-reports