Roads named top Roosevelt capital outlay priority

PORTALES — Roads are the top priority in regard to capital outlay funding, according to Roosevelt County officials.

They laid out the plans for Infrastructure Capital Improvement Plan (ICIP) projects for Roosevelt County commissioners on Tuesday.

“As we know, the last few years, capital outlay money has been limited, and I’m not sure how the ‘weather’ will be by January, but we definitely want to be prepared, and have a deadline that will be approaching soon,” County Manager Amber Hamilton told commissioners during a workshop that followed their bi-monthly meeting.

She told commissioners she does not anticipate receiving the entire $900,847 the county is requesting in capital outlay for 17.5 miles of roads, but “it is a good goal to ask for, and we can phase all of these out.”

The following were the list of roads prioritized by the county road department as having the biggest needs:

District 2

• South Roosevelt Road 4 between SRR P and SRR N (2 miles)

• SRR 3 between U.S. 70 and SRR O (1 mile)

• SRR 6 between SRR L and SRR M1/2 (1.5 miles)

District 3

• SRR 6 1/2 between SRR Q 1/2 and New Mexico 206 (.5 miles)

• West 22nd Street between South Avenue A and New Mexico 206 (.25 miles)

• South Avenue A between 21st Street and SRR 6 1/2 (.25 miles)

• 21st Street between SRR Q 1/2 and New Mexico 206 (.5 miles)

• South Avenue B between 18th and 21st streets (.25 miles)

• SRR Q between SRR 7 and 8 (1 mile)

• SRR 8 between SRR Q and New Mexico 206 (1 mile)

District 4

• SRR S 1/2 between SRR 7 and 8 (1 mile)

• SRR T between SRR 7 and 8 (1 mile)

• Highlands (1.1 miles)

• SRR U 1/2 from U.S. 70 to south (less than 1 mile)

• SRR U between U.S. 70 and SRR 8 ( 1 mile)

District 5

• SRR V Place between SRR 5 1/2 and 6 (less than 1 mile)

• 5 Lane between SRR V and SRR V Place (less than 1 mile)

• SRR 5 1/2 from SRR V west (less than 1 mile)

• Chalk Hill Road (less than 1 mile)

• SRR V between New Mexico 267 and SRR 6 ( 1 mile)

• SRR V between New Mexico 236 and New Mexico 267 (1 mile)

• SRR 3 between SRR S and SRR T (1 mile)

Hamilton told commissioners she had already received input from all of the county departments on capital outlay needs.

Hamilton said a lot of the fairgrounds will be resurfaced before the fair in August, but by providing the materials needed, Hampton Farms is splitting the cost with the county to resurface the fairgrounds parking lot since their employees often use it.

Hamilton told commissioners the sheriff’s office needs several vehicles that are listed somewhere in the top five on the ICIP list, but the roof and HVAC system for the sheriff’s office has been removed from the list due to the owners of the building, The Army National Guard Armory, paying for those repairs.

The front steps of the courthouse need to be redone, and the county is estimating $500,000 to $750,000 in cost, because “we’re going to have some structural issues; those beams underneath are very substantial,” Hamilton told commissioners.

She said Special Projects Manager Carol Flores has been looking for grants since the courthouse is considered a historical building.

The Roosevelt County Detention Center HVAC upgrades, “we have at number six (on the list),” Hamilton told commissioners. “We will need to begin really working and phasing out those. We are replacing three of those units up at the front that were built in the late ’80s.”