Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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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...
Work began on the first phase of the Kilgore Road improvement project in Portales Monday with preliminary surveying. The four-phase project will stretch from Highway 70 to 18th Street and the first phase will extend from 3rd Street to 18th, said John DeSha, Portales public works director. The work will involve completely replacing the road with six inches of asphalt, DeSha said. “The asphalt that was there has failed and the amount of traffic on it has caused it to breakout,” he said. This stretch of road is one-mile long and...
The Clovis City Commission voted Thursday to serve as the applicant for a loan from the New Mexico Environment Department to fund a study to determine the feasibility and costs of filtering per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances – known as PFAS — contaminants out of the well water south of Cannon Air Force Base. The first step would be to submit what is called a pre-application to the NMED Drinking Water Revolving Loan Fund program. EPCOR, the Clovis water utility company, approached the July 21 commission meeting to ask the...
The city of Portales has asked Roosevelt County to contribute financial support towards the cost of operating its dispatch center, the Portales Police Communications Center. The city and county have been discussing that request but have yet to come to an agreement. “The call center is responsible for all E-911 and non-emergency dispatch calls,” said Sarah Austin, Portales city manager. “This includes all emergency medical calls, fire calls, lockouts, home alarms, law enforcement calls, animal control, civil disputes, (and)...
Clovis Community College has been awarded a $50,000 grant to pay for mental health services for students from the New Mexico Higher Education Department. The Clovis Community College grant is part of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s $1 million Mental and Behavioral Health Grant Initiative across the state “to expand existing services, add new resources, conduct staff training, and engage in outreach campaigns encouraging students to seek help,” as stated in a press release. Marcus Smith, CCC’s director of counseling, advisin...
William Drake, 14, who will be a Grady Municipal High School freshman next fall, won a Gold in the nationals in the Snatch event at the Olympic Weightlifting Youth Division competition in Las Vegas, Nev., at the end of June. At that competition, he also came in third place in the nation in the 14-15 age group and 49 kilos weight class, said his mother Rene Drake, who is herself a professional weightlifting coach. "William snatched 55kg (131.25lb) and Clean and Jerked 65kg...
The Roosevelt County Commission voted 3-2 in favor of increasing the salaries of elected officials by 10 percent at its meeting Tuesday. The salaries resolution states: “no salary increase shall take effect until the first day of the term of an elected county official who takes office on or after January 1, 2023, nor shall they go into effect until the first day of the term for any elected official who takes office on or after January 1, 2025.” Commissioners Rodney Savage, Dennis Lopez and Tina Dixon voted in favor of the...
The Portales City Council voted Tuesday to enter into negotiations with Elida to provide the town limited law enforcement services. The council voted to instruct Town Manager Sarah Austin to draw up an agreement for possible approval at a future council meeting. Elida Mayor Durward Dixon spoke to the council saying the town’s main concern is “we need a little traffic control.” The town wants to pay Portales off-duty officers to monitor the school zones during the school year once or twice a week, the mayor said. The rate...
The city of Clovis held a public meeting Wednesday to update residents on the status of the Ute Pipeline Project. Clovis Mayor Mike Morris made the presentation at the meeting. Prominent in the discussion, which included questions from the public, was detailed information on the water levels in the Ogallala Aquifer and the Ute Reservoir. These are the two sources that will provide water sustainability to the city of Clovis and other nearby communities in the future. The city is proposing increasing its mill levy by one to...
It's summer and that means it is time for the All-American, now gone global, tradition of soap box derby races. Clovis, New Mexico held its local soap box derby race June 25 and 10-year-old DJ Padilla finished First Place. He will go onto the FirstEnergy All-American Soap Box Derby World Championship in Akron, Ohio held from July 17-23. "The Local Race Program is a race held annually by this Soap Box Derby licensed Local Race Organization," as stated on the...
The Ogallala Land & Water Conservancy, along with other members of the Clovis-Curry County community, have been working to forge an agreement with 10 farmers who own land to the north and west of Cannon Air Force Base. The mission is to take the water in the aquifer accessed by their wells out of production for irrigation for three years. An agreement is expected to be reached this month. The farmers would be paid to conserve the water in their wells, using only enough water for dryland farming, cattle grazing and personal...
Clovis Economic Development (CED) announced it is now accepting applications from businesses to qualify for funding assistance under the Local Economic Development Act. The purpose of the funding is to incentivize new retail businesses to come to Clovis and existing ones to expand, said Lee Malloy, president of the Clovis Economic Development Corporation. The types of businesses eligible for the funding are ones that fall into categories the city has identified as underserved. The City of Clovis had a gap analysis done that i...
The 2022 Curry and Roosevelt County 4-H Contest Awards have been handed out. Mindy Turner, Family and Consumer Science Agent for the Curry County Extension Office of New Mexico State University, said the awards were given out on Friday June 10 and included several youth who will go on to compete in the district and state competitions. “These are educational activities that we are providing to build life skills for our youth,” said Mindy Turner, Family and Consumer Science Agent for the Curry County Extension Office of New...
Clovis Mayor Mike Morris says the city needs to increase its mill levy by one to pay a share of the cost of constructing the Ute Pipeline, because the Ogallala Aquifer is running out of water. Morris spoke at the June 16 commission meeting about the critical need for the Ute Pipeline, which would provide a sustainable source of drinking water to the city. He addressed the proposal to increase the residential and non-residential property tax. Morris said in an interview Thursday that the need for the pipeline is “extremely c...
Eastern New Mexico University's summer camps, which are held on various dates from June to July, are now in full swing. Some space is still available for participants to sign-up. Inquiries are directed to [email protected]. The summer camps program "gives an opportunity for Eastern New Mexico University coaches and student athletes to instruct local youth and pass on their knowledge and skills on basketball courts to youth," said Cameron Brennan, ENMU Assistant Sports...
Eastern New Mexico University’s slogan will change this summer to more closely reflect the school’s commitment to every student’s success. The new slogan, “Student Success! That’s What We’re About!” will appear on all published university materials and will replace the former slogan, “Explore, Experience, Excel.” A focus group of faculty, staff and student leaders reviewed the old slogan last spring and decided to change the slogan to one that more closely reflects “a core value of the university,” the ENMU release states....
Clovis Municipal School District announced this week that it has “unlocked” its elementary parks and playgrounds for public use for the first time since the pandemic. “We want to make sure the community knows we unlocked our playgrounds,” said Jay Brady, Superintendent of Operations Clovis Municipal School District, adding the district previously had to close the playgrounds due to the pandemic. “On Tuesday, the superintendent of schools Renee Russ met with district cabinet members and a decision was made to open our playg...
The state of New Mexico Higher Education Department announced this week it is accepting applications for its 2022 Teacher Loan Repayment Program, which is designed to help pay off some of the burden of the federal student loans veteran teachers incurred paying for their education. Higher Education Secretary Stephanie Rodriguez said in an interview on Thursday that this program, which began in 2001, increased since 2019 by $3 million and this year has a total of $5 million in the fund available for applicants. Rodriguez said...
