Mark St. J. Couhig, news editor

ANGEL FIRE — Village staff members are working with the Rocky Mountain Youth Corps to cobble together a grant application that would provide work for a number of youth workers during the summer of 2009. If the grant application is successful, up to $40,000 would be made available to pay Youth Corps members to work on trails, landscaping or other projects. Village Administrator Melissa Vossmer said “the extra labor is always welcome.”
The village council heard a presentation by Carl Colonius, executive director of the Rocky Mountain Youth Corps, during their regular council meeting, Tuesday, July 15.
Colonius offered the assistance of his organization to identify village needs and prepare the application. He said 70 percent of the grant revenue would be directed to Corps wages, with the rest to equipment, workers compensation and other related expenses.
The cost to the village would be $7,500 — that would pay the Corps’ administrative fee and the wages for the field crew administrator.
Councilor Deb May suggested the money and effort might be best spent on trails. Vossmer also suggested an appropriate use would be landscaping the public works area. Council agreed village staff should work with the Youth Corps to identify the greatest needs.
Colonious said the program would hire a number of young people who would be paid $7.50 an hour, 36 hours a week for 10 weeks. Because the Youth Corps program places a great emphasis on “what happens next,” the workers would also be eligible for $1,000 scholarships through the AmeriCorps. Councilors were assured the workers would be “recruited out of our community.”
The grant application must be filed by August 1.

More trails grants
The Village of Angel Fire has won a $266,667 grant from the New Mexico Department of Transportation’s Local Agreement Unit. The money, along with $66,667 in matching village funds, will be used to build a non-motorized trail along U.S. 64 “from MP 275 to MP 276.” In plain English, that’s from the blinking light to the Vietnam Memorial. The trail will eventually be part of a longer trail, planned by both Eagle Nest and Angel Fire, that will join Monte Verde Lake with Eagle Nest Lake and the Village of Eagle Nest.
The new trail will be built in the highway right-of-way. Its end point on the road to Eagle Nest is determined by village boundaries; specifically, the trail will end where the village of Angel Fire’s extraterritorial jurisdiction ends. (The village has certain authorities that extend three miles beyond village limits — the so-called extraterritorial area.) Beyond that point, the village will be required to negotiate with Colfax County on extending the trail.
Once built, the new trail will be maintained by the Village of Angel Fire.
Pedestrian Trails Committee meets
During their Thursday, June 26 meeting, the Village of Angel Fire’s Pedestrian Trails Committee shifted priorities for the construction of the next link in the chain of trails that will tie the two lakes together. Rather than pursuing the construction of the trail linking the “Solar Loop” behind Village Hall with Moreno Valley High School, the committee will be working on a new trail to join Olympic Park and Monte Verde Lake. According to committee member Bob Lagasse, the first step will be to secure permission from Angel Fire Resort to traverse a portion of the Resort’s property, and to secure from the New Mexico Department of Transportation permission to use a portion of the Hwy. 434 right-of-way.