Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
PORTALES — With some shuffling from the general fund, the board of the Eastern New Mexico Water Utility authority left its meeting Thursday having secured almost all of the funds needed to complete the interim pipeline between Cannon Air Force Base and Clovis, while also retiring some loans.
Fixed Water 2, as the project is called, is due for construction by end of December or early January, according to ENMWUA Administrator Orlando Ortega. It will serve as an interim pipeline between north of Cannon and an EPCOR water storage system on Brady Avenue.
Ortega said Friday that recent concerns with potentially contaminated groundwater sources southeast of the base would not impact the project.
“It’s a different part of the base,” he said. “As far as I know, there have not been any questions on that at all.”
Through the approval of several new agenda items, board members authorized the allocation of $2.5 million from ENMWUA’s general fund as well as a $1.4 million advance on the city of Clovis’ member contributions, simultaneously securing money to pay off $725,927 in previous Water Trust Board Loans. That brings the total available funding for FW2 to $23.7 million.
Clovis will receive credit for that advance across the next three fiscal years, according to an intergovernmental agreement.
“The funding structure is designed to accomplish two goals,” Ortega said. “Goal one is to reach the EPCOR tanks at Brady Avenue. Goal two is to reduce existing ENMWUA debt by making a one-lump-sum payoff for eligible Water Trust Board loans.”
Also in Thursday’s meeting were routine presentations on state and federal activities, as well as an update on a visit by board members last month to Washington, D.C.
Ortega said the delegation was able to meet with state representatives and members of the Department of the Interior, as well as senators serving states with the four other Bureau of Reclamation projects competing each year with ENMWUA for federal dollars.
“What we did is we wanted to learn a little more about our friends that are doing basically the same type of project,” Ortega said. “We started working toward trying to maybe develop something that could be one voice for the five projects.
“We’ve got to keep working at it to make it work,” he added.
Board members Ladona Clayton and Doug Scioli were not present at Thursday’s meeting. The board next meets at 1 p.m. Nov. 15 in the Texico Fire Station.
