Free Senior Tax service is now  available at the Ruidoso Community Center by appointment only.

Interested parties can call Mike Shafer at 257-4565.

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As of February 26, 2021:

*Includes testing by IHS & NMDOH

**New cases: 1 (since 2-23-21) (average of 0.33 new cases/day)

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SANTA FE – Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Friday signed House Bill 11 into law, delivering $200 million in grants to support New Mexico businesses to ease the hiring or rehiring of employees.

“New Mexico will continue to get meaningful financial assistance out the door to businesses all across the state,” said Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. “Our economy will bounce back. And businesses will get back on their feet.”

“We are grateful to Governor Lujan Grisham for her support on House Bill 11, and for all of her leadership throughout this challenging year,” said Speaker of the House Brian Egolf. “We convened the 2021 session knowing that getting economic relief into local economies was the most critical action that we would take as lawmakers. Now we are continuing our work on subsequent bills. Help is on the way.”

“I’m encouraged knowing that this funding is out the door. New Mexico’s small businesses have been shaken by the pandemic and they need our support,” said Rep. Christine Chandler of Los Alamos. “Direct funding to help pay for rent, equipment, and other operating costs will help businesses in my district and across the state keep their doors open and payroll going.”

The applications and payments for the grants provided for in House Bill 11 – sponsored by Speaker Egolf and Rep. Chandler – will be managed by the New Mexico Finance Authority at nmfinance.com. A formal announcement will be made when the application portal is open for HB 11 grants.

Each business may qualify for up to $100,000 to be distributed in four quarterly payments.

Among the guidelines:

• Businesses must be operating in New Mexico with fewer than 75 employees per location;
• Businesses must demonstrate a loss of revenue for at least one quarter between 2019 and 2020;
• Funding must be used for reimbursement of rent, mortgage or lease obligations;
• The grant must be accompanied by job creation for each quarter prior to one of the quarterly payments; and
• The grants will be paid out in quarterly installments.

Funding is allocated through the Economic Development Department’s LEDA job-creation fund, requiring business owners who accept assistance to rehire workers or hire new employees. Benchmarks for the hiring will be agreed to in advance and monitored by the EDD as is required for all other LEDA investments. Businesses can use the funding to make current or back payments for rent, lease and mortgages.

“Thousands of New Mexico businesses will be able to receive assistance through this grant program so they can hire or rehire employees,” said Economic Development Cabinet Secretary Alicia J. Keyes. “Building this new capacity to create jobs is a cornerstone of the state’s recovery plan.”

There will be two primary application periods – the first before June 30, 2021 and the second by December 31, 2021; a later application deadline will be set up for any businesses that are not yet eligible to open and apply by these deadlines, and funding will be set aside for these businesses.

HB 11 also amends certain definitions in the Local Economic Development Act, such as language restricting the kind of businesses eligible for the grant relief, opening the grants to restaurants, hospitality and retailers.

A second section of the original legislation, which would make New Mexico more competitive by changing how LEDA can be utilized for large job-producing developments, will now be part of Senate Bill 5, an economic reform bill sponsored by Sen. George Munoz.

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Information provided by VAW Case Manager, Hazel Spottedbird

In observance of Valentine’s Day our program sponsored a Fun Walk on February 13, 2021. One of our goals is to bring our community together to address topics on domestic violence throughout the year. Of course 2020 was not a good year as we had to deal with the pandemic. So it is in our plans, for 2021, to have more outdoor events and possibly a Conference.

Our event, which was the “Valentine’s Day Fun Walk” was a success. We had over forty participants. A t-shirt was given as an incentive, and prizes were also given via a drawing.

The VAW staff did a wonderful job in preparing for this event! Notices for this event were posted throughout the community weeks in advance… from there we started receiving phone calls for sign up. Our team worked on signs which were set up along the walking path. Awesome work!

Parents with their children and grandparents with their grandchildren were in attendance. We had couples join us. We also had Councilwoman Marilee Garcia participating. Thank you for supporting our cause! All in all it was a wonderful morning to come together with the community. The weather couldn’t have been any better!

February is recognized as “Teen Dating Awareness Month”. As parents, and grandparents, we always look out for what we feel is best for our children/grandchildren. Some look at this as being traditional in our home(s). Control is not always the answer for teenagers, so we must do our part to educate them on what a relationship should be like, and could be, if they are made aware of improper distractions. Information related to this topic was made available for the participants during the Walk.

Again, as part of our event we had twenty-two prizes to give out. The following is a list of the winners:

A few pictures were taken which we want to share with you.

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“Thank you” to EVERYONE who took the time, on a Saturday, to join us and participate in the Walk.

Look out for more event announcements to come!

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Congratulations, students!

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Only 4 counties at highest-risk Red Level, down from 14 two weeks past

SANTA FE – The New Mexico Department of Health on Wednesday announced the updated statewide COVID-19 map for the two-week period beginning Feb. 24, with 19 New Mexico counties at the Yellow Level and six at the Green Level, at which there are fewer restrictions on commercial and day-to-day activities amid decreased virus risk.

Four counties reached the Turquoise Level, the newly designated least-restrictive level, and four counties were at the Red Level, signifying very high risk.

Every county in the state now reports a positivity rate below 10 percent, close to the threshold for moving to a less restrictive level.

The state’s county-by-county system uses key health metrics – the per-capita daily incidence of new COVID-19 cases and average COVID-19 test positivity within county borders – to determine the level of public health risk and requirement for each county. A county that meets one criterion may operate at the Yellow Level; a county that meets both may operate at the Green Level. A county that has met both for two consecutive biweekly map updates may operate at the Turquoise Level.

Counties that met one of the health metric thresholds and may operate at the Yellow Level beginning Feb. 24 are: Bernalillo, Chaves, Cibola, Colfax, Curry, Grant, Guadalupe, Hidalgo, Lea, Lincoln, Luna, Rio Arriba, Roosevelt, San Juan, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Socorro and Valencia.

Counties that met both of the health metric thresholds and may operate at the Green Level beginning Feb. 24 are: De Baca, Los Alamos, Mora, Quay, Taos and Torrance.

Counties that met both of the health metric thresholds for two consecutive biweekly map updates and may operate at the Turquoise Level beginning Feb. 24 are: Catron, Harding, Sierra and Union.

Counties that met neither of the health metric thresholds and must operate at the Red Level are: Doña Ana, Eddy, McKinley and Otero.

Doña Ana had reached the Yellow Level with a positivity rate of 4.33 percent as of Feb. 10 but regressed, with a positivity rate of 6.77 percent as of Feb. 24; in accordance with the operative public health order, a county that moves to a more restrictive level must begin operating at the more restrictive level within 2 days.

The counties of Colfax (9.6), Curry (9.7), Hidalgo (8.4), Lea (9.6), Roosevelt (9) and Santa Fe (8.3) are each near the threshold for new per-capita cases of fewer than 8 per 100,000, which, when reached, in conjunction with keeping their positivity rates below 5 percent, will permit them to operate at the Green Level.

Thirty of 33 counties saw their new per-capita daily case rate improve over the two-week period, and all but six counties saw their positivity rates improve over the two-week period.

The color-coded tier system – Red Level, Yellow Level and Green Level – enables counties to shed restrictions and provide local communities the flexibility to operate more day-to-day activities as soon as public health data show the virus is retreating within their borders.

The public health order, the red-to-green framework and frequently asked questions are all available at cv.nmhealth.org/redtogreen, where New Mexicans can also view the test positivity rate and new case incidence for each county.

The categories and definitions for each risk level are available below and available at cv.nmhealth.org/redtogreen.

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As of February 23, 2021:

*Includes testing by IHS & NMDOH

**New cases: 0 (since 2-22-21)

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As of February 22, 2021:

*Includes testing by IHS & NMDOH

**New cases: 10 (since 2-12-21; average of 1 new case per day)

***New deaths: 3 (since 2-12-21)

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The Mescalero Community Center and Tribal Offices will be closed for the rest of the day due to heating and water issues.

Normal business will resume tomorrow, February 23, 2021 at 8AM.

Closure only applies to businesses within the Community Center/Tribal Offices building.

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Wednesday, February 24th — 9am to 12 noon

Location is Inn of the Mountain Gods Convention Center.

All Tribal and Native American residents and Affiliates – IMG, Casino Apache and Ski Apache employees are invited.

• Must be 18 years of age and above.
• Please park on 5th level oversize parking lot.
• Non Native employees must bring your work ID badge.

Face Coverings are required and Social Distancing will be enforced.

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