HIGHLAND MEADOWS — A community on the far western edge of Valencia County now has improved fire and emergency medical services, thanks to the assistance of a neighboring pueblo.
At the Jan. 4 Valencia County Commission meeting, commissioners unanimously approved an intergovernmental agreement with the Pueblo of Laguna to allow pueblo emergency personnel to man the station in Highland Meadows while providing services to the county residents in the area.
The small community of about 460 people sits on N.M. 6, about 32 miles west of the village of Los Lunas, where the highway meets Interstate 40.
Photo courtesy of the Highland Meadows Volunteer Fire Department Facebook page
Valencia County Fire Chief Matt Propp said there were two or three active volunteers with the Highland Meadows Fire Department, but last year that dropped to only one regular volunteer, who has a full-time job.
“As we all know, Highland Meadows is at best a 30-minute response from the central part of the county,” Propp said. “In the past, we’ve asked Laguna to respond, which they have.”
During a meeting with the Laguna fire chief last June, Propp learned the pueblo was looking for a way to expand its service further east into the pueblo and possibly build a new station.
“We felt it would make more sense to have Laguna staff the (Highland Meadows) station and respond to Highland Meadows. They respond to the Route 66 Casino (on I-40) and the area around Highland Meadows,” the county said.
Under the terms of the agreement, Laguna will provide two firefighters at the station, who will respond to emergency calls and transport medical patients from the area.
“They are transport capable, so it’s not that they respond then wait for AMR (ambulance service),” Propp said. “From a community standpoint, this is definitely the best thing.
“They have gone from, ‘Hey, do we have personnel?’ and then wait 30 minutes, to ‘We have staff to respond 24/7.’ This made the most sense. It was hard (for us) to put staff there with the call volume being as small as it is.”
Valencia County will retain the building and existing equipment at the station, Propp said, and Laguna will provide its own rescue unit. Staffing will also be taken care of by the pueblo, with plans already in the works to hire more people.
“They had planned to do that but they just weren’t sure where they were going to put them,” he said. “The upside for them is they don’t have to figure out where to put a new station.”
Valencia County will continue to administer the state fire funds it receives for the fire station, allocating it to Laguna through the end of June. When the new fiscal year begins in July, the funds will be transferred to Cibola County, which has an agreement to distribute the money to Laguna Pueblo.
Julia M. Dendinger began working at the VCNB in 2006. She covers Valencia County government, Belen Consolidated Schools and the village of Bosque Farms. She is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists Rio Grande chapter’s board of directors.
