Events center to celebrate 10 years

CLOVIS - This is setting up to be a make or break year for Curry County's foray into the concert business.

With the 10-year anniversary of the Curry County Events Center on the horizon, the Curry County Commission voted on Thursday to host a concert to celebrate the occasion, as well as spend an additional $52,500 on musical talent for this year's county fair.

Commissioner Robert Thornton said the county should look to bring in bigger name acts this year than it has in the past before determining whether or not the county should continue to budget for two concerts each year.

"If we're going to be in the concert business, we need to get in or get out. I think that this is the year we try it, go big or go home, try to work it as hard as we can and if it doesn't work, then we move on from that," Thornton said.

"But I think this is something that we need to really focus on and try to turn this thing where it can start actually being more of a part of the community. This 10-year anniversary I think is a good place to do that."

The commission also voted to authorize County Manager Lance Pyle to approve concerts up to $149,500, the amount budgeted for the two concerts plus the fair, a job previously left to the commission.

Commissioners Ben McDaniel and Chet Spear said the county has missed out on acts in the past due to the extra time required for a concert proposal to go before the commission.

Commissioner Seth Martin voted against that action, as well as the $50,000 budget for the 10-year anniversary event.

Martin motioned to combine one of the already approved $34,000 concerts with the $50,000 budget for the anniversary, with the idea that with $84,000 the county could bring in a better act and limit its exposure by hosting two concerts in the year instead of three. That motion died without a second.

With the additional money spent on talent for concerts at the fair, the annual country and tejano concerts will become ticketed events in the range of $15 or $20. The tejano night will move to Saturday and the country concert will take the Thursday spot, which Thornton said may increase attendance on Saturday.

Also at Thursday's meeting (all votes 4-0):

• The commission took care of some new year business, adopting its Open Meetings Act resolution and selecting Spear to serve as the board's chairman and Thornton as vice chair.

• During his report to the commission, Pyle said the county will soon be filing a sixth capital outlay request in the amount of $400,000 to build a fire station for the new Ranchvale Volunteer Fire Department.

Curry County Fire and Safety Director David Kube said about 14 members are currently going through training, with the hope they will be responding to calls in the next 30 to 60 days.

Kube said the department still needs to procure some firefighting equipment and repair a truck donated by the Field Volunteer Fire Department.

He said once that is complete, Ranchvale will seek certification from the state fire marshal, hopefully by March, which will qualify the fire department for about $35,000 in state fire funds.

• The commission approved a resolution supporting pre-filed legislation from Rep. Randy Crowder, R-Clovis, that would make it a fourth-degree felony to make terroristic threats.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Brian Stover told the commission prior to its vote that while the state does have laws against making a bomb threat, there is no similar statute for mass shooting threats, which this legislation would address.

• Martin requested that the commission consider a resolution supporting border security for border counties and the president.

• Thursday marked the first time since Dec. 19, 2017, the final meeting before Martin's appointment to the commission by former Gov. Susana Martinez, that the commission met with one of the seats vacant.

Tripp Stelnicki, director of communications for Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, wrote in a message to The News on Friday that he did not have an update on the timeline for an appointment, though he believes the governor's office is accepting applications.

The District 1 seat was previously held by Angelina Baca. Her re-election bid was halted when she was removed from the Nov. 6 ballot for failing to pay a fine resulting from the late filing of a financial form.

The seat became empty as of Jan. 1.

Baca has said she hopes to be reappointed to the seat.