When an Artesia teenager was discovered to have thrown her newborn baby in a trash can earlier this year, it had a profound effect on Edgewood Mayor Ken Brennan.
“When I saw that on the news, I almost lost my lunch, that somebody could actually do that,” he said during last week’s commission meeting. “And they probably thought they didn’t have any options.”
In the aftermath of a similar occurrence several years ago in Hobbs, the state Legislature last year expanded New Mexico’s safe haven program and created a fund to establish one baby box for every county.
The Edgewood Commission unanimously agreed to begin the process of putting one in the town at the Santa Fe County Fire Department building on NM 344 near Venus Park.
According to a letter from Shanna Sasser, state Rural and Frontier Equity Ombudsman, the state can provide $10,000 to buy the environmentally controlled boxes.
The local government is responsible forinstallation costs, which can run from $3,000 to $11,000, depending on the amount of work needed to fit the box into the targeted building, Brennan said.
That money can be raised through a cooperative agreement with Santa Fe County or possibly through a residential fundraising drive, he said.
There are boxes in place in Española, Carlsbad, Belen and Hobbs, the latter of which has already been used.
Edgewood has already gained a measure of notoriety for its law – which cannot be enforced since it was successfully challenged for referendum – that bans the receipt of abortion materials through the mail.
“Everybody knows we did the ordinance on abortion,” Brennan said. “And everybody is commenting that government doesn’t do anything to help these mothers in need and in crisis.”
This, he said, is one way where government can step up.
“This is an amazing piece of technology,” Brennan said. “It is an environmentally controlled box that is placed at a safe space, in this case, the fire station. A parent or parents that feel they cannot take care of the baby, are just not ready for it and they don’t want anybody to know, can use this. The baby boxes are a safe place where they can go to put the baby in.”
Brennan noted that the fire station is manned around the clock, ensuring the infant will get quick attention to ensure its safety.
“Once they open up these baby boxes, an alarm will go off and EMS is notified right away that the box has been opened,” he said. “And once a baby is put inside and it is closed, there are sensors that recognize that something has been put inside and another alarm goes off. The fire station is manned 24/7 so they’re right there so they can go ahead and access the box from the inside of the building, take the baby out, get it to an ambulance and get it to an emergency room where that baby can get checked and taken care of and go into the system.”
Brennan moved that permission be given to the town manager to begin working with the fire department “to move forward in getting information and the clerk start filling out the paperwork in applying for the money to make sure we are eligible and then we can bring this back for approval to move forward.”
If all goes well, the box could be in place and operational by the summer, he said.
“The thing is, the baby is safe,” Brennan said. “The baby doesn’t end up in a trash can.”