Meetings watch: Roosevelt County Commission — Sept. 21

At the Roosevelt County Commission meeting Tuesday in the county courthouse, commissioners:

• recognized Mark Dunlap for 25 years of service with the county Road Department.

• approved Sole Community Providers Supplement money for Roosevelt General Hospital. The hospital is receiving almost $453,000 from the state, and county is to provide about $88,400.

• heard a report from Rob Burpo of First American Financial Advisers. Burpo said interest rates would be low for the next 12-18 months and would provide low returns on county investments. After that, he said, interest rates may rise to finance the federal deficit.

Burpo said the county’s portfolio has been out-performing the market, gaining 2.5 percent in the last three months and 4.06 percent in the past 12 months.

• accepted a proposal from Trane Inc. of Lubbock for the next phase of upgrades to the courthouse heating, ventilation and air conditioning system. The work includes installing new air handlers on the third floor and replacing sensors and costs $114,000. County Manager Charlene Hardin said a loan the county had already taken out would more than cover the cost, and the work would make the system serviceable for six to 10 years.

• approved a replat of land in Broadmoor Acres subdivision to allow an individual to buy two lots.

• approved a $15,000 grant from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management for the Milnesand Volunteer Fire Department to buy equipment.

• approved the county’s 2012-2016 Infrastructure Capital Improvement Plan. Priorities include road work, road equipment, Roosevelt County Detention Center improvements, further upgrades of the courthouse heating, ventilation and air conditioning system and a Community Development Block Grant project, Hardin said.

• agreed that Commissioners Gene Creighton and Paul Grider would meet with Lyndon Brinegar of Basic IDIQ Construction Management to determine a scope of work for bringing an indoor arena from Colorado to the Roosevelt County Fairgrounds and reconstructing it.

Brinegar gave a tentative estimate of a little more than $1 million to dismantle, move and reconstruct the building. The price could change depending on whether the commission wants to install restrooms, include a 50-foot addition or make other changes.

The county has acquired the building from gravel company Four Corners Materials Inc.

• heard Detention Center Administrator David Casanova say detention officers and sheriff’s deputies conducted a shakedown at the jail Sept. 8. They found tobacco, marijuana, a 12- to 14-inch shank, inoperable doors, altered clothes and miscellaneous contraband.

• heard Casanova report that five inmates were baptized Saturday. Baptisms at the jail had stopped for a time because of liability concerns such as someone slipping in the water or baptisms taking detention officers from other duties.

• held an executive session to discuss pending or threatened litigation, but took no action.

— Compiled by PNT Senior Writer Argen Duncan.