The Edgewood Commission began its regular meeting on Jan. 30 with updates from the town clerk, Rachel Martinez. Martinez informed the commission that the Santa Fe County Clerk’s office approved the commission’s special election, and is set to take place March 21.
“I am working with the Santa Fe County Clerk’s office on next steps,” Martinez said in response to Commissioners questions about an election timeline.
The all mail-in ballot special election, which will allow voters to determine the outcome of the anti-abortion ordinance, was approved by the Town Commission at their Jan. 8 special meeting. The ordinance was adopted in April 2023 to prohibit distribution of abortion medication or equipment through mail.
At the special meeting, town commissioners discussed the possibility of Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver striking down the special election since she rejected the vote to run on the Regular Local Election Ballot last year.
Now, the Santa Fe County Clerk’s office has approved the special election and the date is set but whether or not the special election will happen is still in Toulouse Oliver’s hands.
The Secretary of State’s office did not respond for comment as of press time.
Alert Santa Fe
Edgewood Chief of Police, Roger Jimenez, invited officials from the Santa Fe County Fire Department to the meeting to discuss the town’s new reverse 911 system, Alert Santa Fe. At the commission’s Jan. 16 meeting, Jimenez introduced the police department’s initiative to install a reverse 911 system. The department decided on Alert Santa Fe, a free emergency notification system that is used in Santa Fe to communicate with residents during emergencies.
Members of the town will need to register to receive alerts through Alert Santa Fe and they are able to select which alerts they would like to receive, such as emergency, wildfire or severe weather notifications.
“Emergency alerts are designed and sent out by either the fire department, sheriff’s department or the Edgewood Police Department will have authority to send them out as well, but there is also a secondary layer to this,” said Ignacio Dominguez, Santa Fe County Fire Department’s emergency management coordinator. “EPD has the authority to call into the dispatch center and have the system activated to send out in either a pinpoint area, or a special radius section, we can do a lot of different things through the system.”
Dominguez said the system can also access a type of Amber Alert notification. For example, in the event of a major incident on Interstate 40, or a weather emergency, officials could tap into the phone systems to notify travelers. Residents who have landline phones will automatically receive phone calls from the system as well.
Jimenez said the next step is to inform the public and make sure they are aware of this new system, so they can register and be notified of emergencies. He said resident can scan the QR code (pictured in this story) or by visiting https://www.smart911.com/smart911/ref/reg.action?pa=AlertSantaFe for more information or to register.