By KIRSTEN LASKEY
Los Alamos Daily Post
kirsten@ladailypost.com
Los Alamos County Council was updated on the downtown master plans during its regular meeting Feb. 2.
The contractor tasked with developing the plans, Dekker, Perich and Sabatini (D/P/S), presented a status report on the two master plans for the Los Alamos and White Rock downtown areas.
Will Gleason of D/P/S said the presentation is a result of input gathered from numerous public meetings.
“We’ve gotten a lot of great public input,” he said.
He encouraged the community to continue engaging in the project. Visit https://losalamosconnect.org/ to learn more.
Katrina Arndt of D/P/S said through public meetings several goals for the downtown area were identified. Now, she said, the focus is to determine strategies to achieve the goals, which touch on eight different areas: urban form/identity, housing, transportation, economic vitality, public spaces, street infrastructure, sustainability and youth.
Additionally, Gleason said three different scenarios were created for each downtown area. These scenarios were what the County can do itself without any private investment, what could be done if the County sought some private investment and what could be achieved with a hybrid investment between the County and the private sector.
In White Rock, if the County does not seek any private investment, Gleason said the options are to focus on the public-right-of-way as well as prioritize pedestrian crossings and infrastructure on N.M.4. Additionally, he said the County could integrate placemaking strategies, have an infill of housing and mixed-use buildings as well as a small commercial center that is tourism oriented. He also suggested straightening Longview Drive.
For the second scenario, where there would be some private investment, Gleason said attention could be given to under-utilized land parcels. The main goal is to increase housing in the downtown area, he said. Additionally, there is interest in having a green space, which Gleason proposed putting along Bonnie View and Longview Drive. Also, there could be mixed-use development to create a main street feel as well as higher density housing along Longview Drive. This could add approximately 250 new residences to White Rock, not including the new houses being built in the Mirador development, Gleason said.
The third scenario proposes more aggressive development in infill areas and more development around the Smith’s grocery store in White Rock, he said. Pedestrian connections would be prioritized as well as infrastructure on N.M. 4. An addition of roadway could be constructed between Sherwood Boulevard and Bonnie View Drive. The scenario recommends straightening of Bonnie View Drive and adding micro-retail next to Visitor Center as well as a pedestrian overpass at N.M. 4.
As for Los Alamos, the first scenario calls for mostly making improvements on Central Avenue and Trinity Drive as well as enhancing streetscapes and improving pedestrian crossings. Additionally, the County could focus on improving east-west connections and having integrated parking management such as a parking garage.
In the second scenario, Gleason said attention could be given to developing under-utilized areas in the downtown and have more parking. He suggested an option might be to having park-and-ride services from the Smith’s Marketplace parking lot and an incubator space for local businesses.
For the third option, Gleason said Central Avenue could be made into a pedestrian mall that connects to Trinity Drive. It also recommends putting in more housing, about 800 new residences in the downtown area and have about 1.3 million square feet of new development.
Gleason stressed if housing is important to the County than it needs to seriously consider putting residences in its downtown areas.
“If the County’s need is housing then the County needs to go big in what goes into the downtown area and not be intimidated or too scared of the d-word – density,” he said.
He said Los Alamos won’t turn into downtown Chicago, it would still maintain its small-town feel, even with four-story buildings.
In its feedback, the council stressed the importance of reaching out to business owners and users of the code as well as consider new developments in town such as the Marriott hotel. It was pointed out the needs of commuters to the laboratory should be addressed, too.
Council members also emphasized the importance of the Smith’s grocery store in White Rock and the significant need for senior housing.
COVID Update
In other business, Council heard an update about the local effort to provide COVID vaccinations.
Los Alamos County Emergency Manager Beverley Simpson reported that currently Los Alamos National Laboratory has provided 526 vaccinations. She said she emailed LANL Feb. 2 to verify that it still has 35 percent of its workforce on site.
Additionally, Simpson reported that Los Alamos Medical Center has given 480 vaccinations to date.
The number of vaccinated employees at Los Alamos Public Schools remains at 149 and LAPS still requires 450 more. Simpson said all local day care centers also are waiting for their vaccinations. She added day care centers have operated throughout the pandemic and “they are a key resource for our teachers going back to work, our employees working, etc.”
As for the County, Simpson said there isn’t an updated number of individuals who registered for the vaccination. On Jan. 26, she reported there were 7,618 residents who registered.
It has increased; however. For instance, Simpson reported Feb. 2 that the number of people in Category A who registered the previous week was 1,715 and as of Jan. 30, that number grew to 1,800.
Looking at the numbers of residents who received the vaccine, “we did make great headway this past weekend with the assistance of the senior centers and Nambe Drugs providing 600 vaccinations (and) that did include a few employees in addition to seniors,” she said.
A vaccination clinic held Monday, Feb. 1, provided 186 inoculations. Of that number, 50 were the first round of the vaccine while 136 were second dose, Simpson said.
Getting the vaccinations is taking time; an upcoming clinic was cancelled because there isn’t enough vaccinations in the state to host it, she said.
Simpson said more populous communities are “sucking up” the vaccines for their boosters. Still, she said she has gotten correspondence from people who are advocating for Los Alamos.
Furthermore, she reminded everyone that the New Mexico Department of Health (DOH) is the keeper of the vaccine and the doses. The DOH also is the entity determining the allocations of the vaccine to each jurisdiction.
According to a spreadsheet obtained by the Emergency Management Association for New Mexico, Los Alamos is predicted to receive .84 percent of the vaccines given to the state. The vaccine allocation is determined by population, Simpson said.
Looking at Los Alamos’ allocation, it seems DOH calculated the workforce at LANL and the hospital into its numbers, she said. This is an issue because LANL and the hospital are each receiving their own doses of the vaccine and the DOH is taking that into account when determining allocations. Simpson pointed out that only 6,000 of LANL’s more than 17,000 employees live in Los Alamos so it is not a correct mathematical assumption that these are all County employees that LANL is vaccinating.
She, along with Council Chair Randall Ryti, notified the state about this issue.
Another issue is that the DOH’s vaccine dashboard is not accurate, Simpson said. She noted that according to the dashboard, Santa Fe has received received 24.1 percent of the doses, which isn’t true, Santa Fe is allocating doses to other Northern New Mexico communities.
It appears that DOH’s standing is that the jurisdiction receiving the doses from the whole “pizza box of vaccinations are being accredited to them for their allocation on the dashboard, which is not true,” Simpson said.
Santa Fe has “spread the wealth” and distributed doses to Taos, Rio Arriba and Los Alamos, she said.
Locally, Nambe Drugs has volunteered to be a champion for Los Alamos and order doses directly from the state to offer more local clinics, Simpson said. The hope is to start having clinics performed by Nambe Drugs Feb. 14.
As far as COVID testing by Curative, Simpson said Curative has administered 100 tests at Overlook Park and only 20 people registered for a test Feb. 4. The testing, which is held Tuesdays and Thursdays, are important, she said. People can register for testing at curative.com.
“In order to keep the County in the yellow we need to continue to test residents,” Simpson said.
Finance Awards
County Chief Finance Officer Helen Perraglio shared some good news with the Council; the finance department’s already extensive collection of awards just got bigger.
Perraglio said the department earned the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) award for its FY2020 budget, the GFOA certificate of achievement for excellence in financing reporting for its FY2019 Popular Annual Financial Report and the GFOA certificate of achievement for its comprehensive annual financial report. Most significantly, the County finance department earned GFOA’s highest honor, the triple crown honor.
“As a result of attaining all three of these awards from the GFOA, we were notified this year that we have been giving the GOFA highest honor called the triple crown honor … all the GOFA (awards) attained are national recognition so that is something to be proud of,” Perraglio said.
She credited staff, department heads, management and council for the awards. In particular, she recognized the finance and budget staff, Karen Kendall and Yvette Atencio, as well as the finance accounting team, which is lead by Deputy CFO Melissa Dadzie.