Jewish Center agenda item postponed second time

The fate of the Jewish Center on Grande Boulevard is still waiting for an official decision from Rio Rancho’s governing body as the agenda item that would decide its fate has been postponed a second time in a row.

The item was originally scheduled to be heard at the Nov. 16 governing body meeting. However, the owners of the property requested more time to arrange the necessary cleanup. The

governing body voted to postpone the item to its Dec. 14 meeting.

At that meeting, City Manager Matt Geisel asked the governing body to postpone the item again.

“We are seeing some positive progress. So far the property owner and their contractors recently submitted a demolition permit to the city. We need a couple things from that contractor for us to be able to approve that permit,” Geisel said.

Mayor Gregg Hull asked about the owners of the building working with the state on an asbestos remediation permit. Geisel confirmed that is taking place.

The building was dubbed an unsafe structure in March due to serious damage done by multiple fires from last year and this year. The Rio Rancho Police Department has responded to calls for service 47 times and dispatched 82 officers to the property from December 2022 through October 2023. Those calls for service consisted of a structure fire, area checks, suspicious activity, criminal damage and public nuisance calls.

According to the resolution, Rio Rancho Fire Rescue code enforcement has found the property to be so damaged that the building and surrounding area constituted a problem to the public, finding that removal and/or repair of the building was warranted.

Had the resolution been passed by the governing body, the owners of the building would be required to either repair or remove the building.

The governing body voted unanimously to postpone the item to the Jan. 11 meeting.