State legislators report capital outlay wins for Grant County, including funds for cancer center and Silver City parks

Representatives attending the March 24 Silver City Town Council meeting summarized capital outlay and 'grow fund' allocations they said will support projects across Grant County and the town. Representative Lewis Dasis told the council that legislators had worked to secure funding for the Hila Regional Cancer Center and several local infrastructure needs.

"We were able through Senator Ramos's hard work and us going back and forth with finance committee to get [the cancer center] put in the budget," Dasis said, describing the legislature's effort to fund equipment replacement. Dasis said the cancer center received $5.5 million in funding for equipment needs. Senator Gabriel Ramos also discussed the cancer-center allocation and later referenced a $5.7 million project total with the hospital contributing $200,000 toward the need, a numerical detail that differs slightly from the Representative’s figure.

Lawmakers described broader allocations to Grant County: Dasis said the delegation helped secure more than $15 million across roughly 27 capital-outlay projects in Grant County and explained how representative grow funds (about $2.5 million per representative) and senate allotments (about $4.2 million per senator) are used to match local priorities. Both lawmakers listed specific Silver City items they said were funded or prioritized, including $300,000 for Scott Park improvements, $200,000 for Silver City Golf Park and $320,000 for municipal vehicle purchases; Senator Ramos additionally mentioned a $55,000 recycling allocation and $300,000 for landfill vehicles and equipment.

Speakers framed the funding as targeted to retain local services and medical providers and to help municipalities fund small but essential capital needs. Senator Ramos tied passage of medical-malpractice reform (House Bill 99) and interstate licensure compacts to preserving and attracting doctors, arguing those legislative changes were necessary to keep providers in rural areas.

Council members thanked the legislators for the allocations and said they would follow up with staff to prioritize remaining local needs during the town’s budgeting process. A few numerical points varied between speakers on the record; the transcript records both a $5.5 million and a $5.7 million figure for the cancer-center needs and notes the hospital plans to contribute $200,000 toward the project.