The Silver City Youth Mural Program recently dedicated the new mural, “Once Upon a Time”, at the Western New Mexico University’s Child Development Center, which is part of the New Mexico Center of Excellence for Early Childhood Education program. The mural was designed by Aldo Leopold Charter School students and depicts a number of scenes from various children’s books and stories, as well as childhood quotations. On the north, west and east side of the building, there are images and quotes from popular stories and fairytales, nursery rhymes and children’s songs. The wall insets and large planter have mosaic inspirational quotes about children and characters from books. The overall theme of the mural is imagination, which was done to help promote the transformative nature of reading and stories.
Earlier this month, the Silver City Town Council approved ordinance 1329, which will amend the Affordable Housing Program. The ordinance will help simplify the process and make the program more accessible to families, allowing more people to apply and qualify. By raising the area median income (AMI) threshold from 120 percent to 150 percent, the ordinance aims to include a broader range of families who might struggle with housing affordability. This change is aimed to make it easier for more residents to qualify for the program, potentially helping to alleviate some of the financial pressures they may face.
As a reminder, The Luna County Clerk’s office will be assisting voters with updating their voter registration information tomorrow, August 21st at the Columbus Village Library from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Columbus residents who are not able to attend during those hours can also update their information at the Luna County Courthouse or online at N M Vote dot org. For more information, call 575-543-6613.
In other news:
The New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration (DFA) committed $24.8 million to help bolster public safety by funding 189 new correctional officer positions that will provide critical support to 22 local entities and the New Mexico Corrections Department. Two local counties who received new officers were Grant County who received 4 new officers and Luna County who received 10. Correctional officer recruitment funding is part of the DFA’s public safety grants to boost the ranks of law enforcement, police support staff and fire emergency services. With this funding, the DFA was able to fund 1,000 police officers, 316 law enforcement staff positions and 190 firefighter and EMT positions in New Mexico.
