Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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The Roosevelt County Commission on Tuesday discussed the negotiations between the city of Portales and the county with regard to progress on the creation of a joint powers agreement to operate a regional emergency dispatch center. The two governments are working on a draft agreement. Commissioner Tina Dixon said: “I would like to see us get somewhere with this. “I feel like there’s some conflict –there’s been conflict from the beginning. I don’t know if it’s hurt feelings. I don’t know what it is. “I have checked around an...
The New Mexico Supreme Court last week issued an opinion that states:“People have a constitutional right to walk or wade on the streambed of water flowing over privately owned land when they fish or engage in other recreation.” “Walking and wading on the privately owned beds beneath public water is reasonably necessary for the enjoyment of many forms of fishing and recreation,” the Court wrote, as stated in the court’spress release. “Having said that, we stress that the public may neither trespass on privately owned land...
This week the state of New Mexico announced it has consolidated its housing assistance programs into a single access point called the New Mexico Home Fund. Through these programs, a total of about $167.1 million in rent aid has been awarded and the state has received another $55 million in federal funds to support homeowners, according to a state press release. “The Home Fund provides a single access point for several emergency housing programs, including rental assistance, utility assistance, temporary housing assistance, re...
Road maintenance is a “never ending thing” so the New Mexico Department of Transportation Project Fund Grant award of over $2.7 million this week to Roosevelt County will be “money well spent,” said County Commissioner Dennis Lopez. Maintaining the roads is “all about public safety and protecting our constituents,” Lopez said. “The funding will be utilized to enhance approximately 62 miles of County Maintained Roadways, with about 59 miles of chip sealed roadways to be resurfaced with a micro-seal emulsion,” a county news r...
Eastern New Mexico University, having secured a liquor license, will for the first time sell liquor at sporting events. At its recent meeting, the City of Portales Council approved a liquor license for ENMU to serve alcohol at the Greyhound Arena and the Greyhound Stadium. The ENMU Board of Regents asked the university to "investigate having alcohol at certain events," said Jeff Long, Vice President for Student Affairs at ENMU. "The university already secured a license to...
A community meeting will be held at 6 p.m. on Thursday at the Clovis Church of the Brethren to discuss the recent surge in crime. The church is located at 101 Acoma Drive just off Manana Boulevard in Clovis. One of the meeting organizers, Josefita Griego, said the purpose of the meeting is to bring to the community an awareness of the rising crime rate, especially the rise in number of incidents of gun violence. “I think there has been a rise in crime in general in New Mexico,” Griego said. “I have always been a belie...
The New Mexico State Legislature’s Water and Natural Resources Committee hosted a meeting in Clovis this week at which the Ute Water Pipeline was one of the topics of discussion. New Mexico State Engineer Mike Hamman was one of the speakers. The News interviewed Hamman after his presentation. By way of historical background, Hamman said the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission built, owns and operates Ute Reservoir. The reservoir, created in 1963, was built, in part, for the purpose of providing drinking water to the p...
The Portales City Council voted on Wednesday to deny a request by a developer to change an ordinance that established building standards for Raven Wood Estates Addition, a subdivision that the city annexed in 2010. The city’s Planning & Zoning Commission had recommended the council deny the request to make the change. The ordinance provided that the houses in the subdivision have brick exteriors and cement block fencing, as stated in the ordinance. Removing these requirements in future homes in the development could reduce t...
The price of water to the customer varies in Roswell, Portales, Clovis and Lovington, but not widely. The one exception is that the city of Clovis water has a higher rate per gallon charge. Clovis' water is provided by EPCOR, a private company, unlike the other cities. As a private company, EPCOR's rates are set by the state Public Regulation Commission. The other distinction is the city of Portales, which has not raised its water rates in some areas for more than 10 years,...
Local experts talked to The News about how water is priced to the customer. EPCOR provides water to the city of Clovis. Senior Communications Advisor for EPCOR Matt Atwood answered some questions posed by The News last week. “In New Mexico, regulated water providers, including EPCOR, must have their rates approved by the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission (NMPRC),” Atwood said. “Customer rates are based on the actual historic cost of providing that service. This includes everything that goes into providing safe, relia...
Some residents said they had concerns after hearing Portales City staff proposed a 30 percent increase in residential water rates per year for five years at the recent council meeting. The city had scheduled a special council meeting for Friday to provide more information to residents, but it was cancelled due to a lack of a quorum, said City Manager Sarah Austin. The city plans to address this at its next council meeting on Wednesday. The proposed rate increase is across the board and would include residential, commercial...
The cities of Clovis, Lovington and Roswell have all had water rate increases in recent years, but the city of Portales has not had one for more than 10 years. At its Aug. 9 meeting, the Portales City Council was asked to approve a 30 percent increase in water rates each year for five consecutive years for residential and commercial users. The council voted to postpone the item and asked the staff to revise its numbers before bringing the matter back for consideration. City Manager Sarah Austin said in an email on Friday: “Th...
The New Mexico state Higher Education Department for the first time this fall semester has extended its Opportunity Scholarships to students working on a four year degree. Students who are attending Clovis Community College and Eastern New Mexico University in Portales both can take advantage of these scholarships and college administrators say they are doing just that. The state first rolled out the Opportunity Scholarship in 2020, according to a state release. Dr. Patrice Caldwell, chancellor of the Eastern New Mexico...
CLOVIS -- New housing construction is on the uptick in Clovis. Developer Brenner Campbell, owner of Brenner Investments, and a Clovis resident, is planning to construct 200 luxury apartments on an 11-acre site at the northeast corner of Main Street and Townsgate Plaza in Clovis. The Development, Sendero Luxury Apartments, in its first phase will contain 64- one, -two and -three-bedroom units. The building permits are filed with the city, Campbell said, and the project is...
Roosevelt County Commissioners voted at their regular meeting Tuesday to accept a New Mexico Food Security grant from the state for $137,797, which will pay for the construction of a building to serve as a permanent location for the Food Bank of Eastern New Mexico in Roosevelt County. The county agreed to act as the fiscal agent for the grant. Food Bank Executive Director Dianna Sprague said in a later interview that the building will be located at 1111 W. Fir St. in Portales. Sprague said the food bank currently operates...
Staff returned to the Portales Municipal School District on Monday to begin the new school year. Students in grades third through 12 will return to classes on August 12, according to the district. August 22, kindergarten through second grade students will return to classes and August 23, pre-kindergarten classes begin. The Portales Municipal School Board met on Monday, at which time Superintendent Johnnie Cain presented a report to the board. He stated in the report that the district hired “two new individuals to become our a...
PORTALES -- The Portales City Council voted Tuesday to postpone consideration of a proposal to increase the water, sewer and garbage rates across the board for all residential, commercial and industrial users. The proposed rate would increase the cost of residential water inside the city borders for the first 2,000 gallons by 30 percent every year for a period of the next five years, as stated in the city proposed rate schedule chart. Council member Michael James Lucero led off the lengthy discussion saying he was “kind of i...
According to a recent report, the longterm water supply for the city of Portales “looks promising.” However, the city’s water supply until the pipeline is turned on is a reason for its water conservation efforts. City Manager Sarah Austin said the city’s water conservation efforts are tied to the city’s current water situation. Long term, the city’s water supply situation looks better. “Portales’ long-term water supply looks very promising because of the City’s participation in the Eastern New Mexico Rural Water System’s Ut...
Portales City Manager Sarah Austin in an interview Wednesday said the city plans to raise its water rates in all categories and explained why. “With the water situation not improving, it is in the best interest of the city to implement rate structures and penalties that assist with the water situation as well as implementing stricter water restrictions,” Austin said. She said the city plans an across-the-board rate increase sometime this year. “The water rates have not been raised in over ten years,” Austin said. “We ant...
PORTALES -- The city of Portales has set punitive water rates for commercial and industrial users who consume above a base allocation in an effort to conserve the city’s water resources. The change came to light at the July 26 meeting when the council addressed a request by a cannabis producer to get a manufacturing/industrial resource service permit to operate a business in Portales. The applicant requested an average of 15,000 gallons a month as his usage. According to the new city water rate structure for new commercial a...
Portales City Council voted 4-3 against a motion July 26 to approve an intergovernmental agreement with the village of Elida to allow its off-duty police officers to patrol traffic in Elida for 12 hours a week. At its July 5 meeting, the council had instructed City Manager Sarah Austin to draw up an agreement for possible approval to bring before council at the next meeting, which she did. However, at the start of the discussion at the July 26 meeting, council member Daniel Boan said he contacted the state police and several...
Roosevelt County Commissioner Rodney Savage said at Thursday’s county commission meeting that the city of Portales had accepted the county’s proposal to work toward a regional dispatch center. The city of Portales has been operating the center that serves both city and county residents for some time and in April asked the county to contribute financially to the cost of the operation. Commissioner Tina Dixon said that the “only thing” this proposal changes basically is it adds a governing board and she said she liked the ide...
The Portales City Council had a visit from Roosevelt County Commissioner Rodney Savage at its meeting on Tuesday. Savage told the city council that the county was offering an initial $175,000 as an incentive to get the county to transfer to a regional dispatch center. “(This is) quite a bit more than I personally thought you deserved,” Savage told the council members. The commissioner presented the county’s proposal in response to a request the city had made several months earlier asking the county to contribute finan...
The Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority Board selected an alignment for the pipeline that will take the water from the Ute Reservoir and pipeline project to the community of Elida. Jim Honea, project manager for Jacobs Engineering made the presentation. He said the committee compared the cost and non-cost components of the lateral as it is called or pipe alignment. The committee concluded and the board approved the alignment north of Portales along Roosevelt Road #3 going west and south on Roosevelt Road U, ENMWUA...
Rich Hudson, president and CEO of Global One Media, Inc., a Las Vegas, Nev., based media company, said he recently bought Rooney Moon Broadcasting in Clovis and Portales because he “fell in love with what Steve Rooney and Duffy Moon had created.” Monday, Hudson said he is going to pay $1.1 million for the company, the sale of which has yet to be approved by the Federal Communications Commission. The approval should happen in early September, he said. Hudson said he was impressed with the company’s “market sound” and just...
