Year in review: Wind, storms pounded Roosevelt County

PORTALES — Roosevelt County had a wet and windy summer in 2017, with storms flooding over 60 miles of roads and pulverizing homes and buildings.

The weather ranked among the year's top stories for county residents.

The largest storm of the season hit on Aug. 3, flooding areas north and west of Floyd through to parts of the county south of Portales.

County Manager Amber Hamilton, seeing the scope of the damage, met with state officials just days after the storm hit to assess the situation.

"Our road department superintendent said that, rurally, that this has mirrored or even exceeded, at this point, the damage that we sustained during the Goliath (snow) storm in 2015," she said.

That work eventually culminated in a December declaration by New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez that the county receive up to $750,000 for "resources and services necessary to avoid or minimize economic and physical harm until the situation becomes stabilized."

Hamilton said the funds would be used to repair roads, to which rain damage was estimated to be roughly $4.5 million.

"Though we will not be able to repair each and every road damaged this past summer, we will be able to repair numerous miles," she said.

Several county residents were also affected by the Aug. 3 storm.

"Everything just went white because of the amount of hail that was hitting the house," said Julie Rooney, who lives in south Roosevelt County.

"When it stopped briefly, we looked out and our bird barn was missing, our shed was missing, our round pen was missing," she said.

Some structures were destroyed in the storm, including Jon Skinner's RV storage business.

The building was devastated, with pieces scattered in a ditch on the opposite end of New Mexico 206, but most of the vehicles inside survived, according to Skinner.

"They had little scratches here and there, but the building held up good. The boats, most everything is just damaged a little," said Skinner, who added he plans to rebuild the $250,000 building.

Also in 2017:

• County commissioners were informed by Sheriff Malin Parker in October that his department could soon be in search of new headquarters.

Parker told the commission in a meeting that the New Mexico attorney general's office sent a letter expressing a desire for the sheriff's office to either renegotiate its lease or relocate the building in favor of a national guard unit (the building formerly housed a national guard armory).

Parker said his office could move into the Portales Police Department's current facility, but wanted to wait until that agency moved into the former magistrate court building.

"We're all just trying to work as best we can for every situation. We don't have a timeframe yet. There was no timeframe in the letter. We'll wait and see," County Manager Hamilton said.

• In September, the county was informed by 9th Judicial District Court Chief Judge Drew Tatum that bailiffs would no longer be responsible for security during court hearings in Roosevelt County.

This prompted the county to consider commissioning a security officer (a cost of between $50,000 and $55,000 to the county) who would have the power to make arrests and serve warrants in the courthouse.

While no decision has been made on the issue, the sheriff's office has since reclassified its three transport officers as court deputies in order to provide security.

• A pilot program aimed at reducing opiate overdoses among jail inmates was given the go-ahead by commissioners in December.

The program, provided by a $550,000 statewide grant from the New Mexico Association of Counties, was introduced in an attempt to address a "huge opiate overdose problem and opiate misuse problem" in New Mexico, Roosevelt County Detention Center Administrator Justin Porter said at a December commission meeting.

The program identifies detainees that could potentially overdose on opioids and provides them Naloxone, as well as training in the use of the drug.