Bills would set aside money for area

SANTA FE — While the capital outlay and “junior” spending bills are far from set in stone, the current proposals contain considerable funds set to flow through eastern New Mexico.

Each legislator was alloted at least $400,000 in the two junior bills, House Bill 548 and Senate Bill 536, a method of funding the state hasn’t seen since 2007.

Rep. Randy Crowder, R-Clovis, who is a member of the House Appropriations and Finance Committee, said the junior bills were brought back this year due to excess funds from the oil and gas industry.

One of the big winners locally was Eastern New Mexico University, which once again received money to operate a robotics competition ($150,000), in addition to $100,000 in 2020 for a program looking to find the next generation of New Mexico teachers.

“The goal is to basically attract these students by giving them the equivalent of tuition and fees for free if they went into teacher education and stayed and taught in New Mexico,” said Jeff Elwell, president of ENMU-Portales and chancellor of the three-college system.

“I think we have a great teacher education program ... and there’s a great deal of need in rural school districts ... so this is one way of meeting the teacher shortage in the state.”

ENMU also received $115,000 to provide workforce training at its Roswell campus and $100,000 for a public radio transmitter tower replacement in the two junior bills

Another local higher education institution, Clovis Community College, was the beneficiary of $125,000 to go towards operation costs of the new early college high school program with Clovis Municipal Schools set to begin this fall, as well as $50,000 for the nursing department.

CCC’s barracks demolition project was also included in House Bill 568 which reauthorizes previously approved capital outlay projects.

CCC President Becky Rowley told The News on Tuesday that the barracks project was completed with about $150,000 remaning in unspent funds which will now be put towards parking lot improvements by the welding building to be in compliance with the Americans with Diasabilities Act (ADA).

The city of Clovis also received reauthorization for its Lyceum Theater and new senior center projects in the bill.

City Manager Justin Howalt said abatement of the Lyceum Theater has been completed and the city is in the process of reviewing the building’s heating system.

Howalt said a floor plan for the new senior center has been approved and the city is now working on an application to the aging and long term services division for construction funding, which he anticipated wouldn’t be available until 2021.

District Attorney Andrea Reeb’s office received funding in both the House and Senate “junior” bills, a total of $115,000 to go towards operations and $100,000 to be split with the first judicial district attorney for the purchase of computers, software, equipment and vehicles.

“Really mainly it’s to help purchase some vehicles that are getting old and to upgrade our server and computer equipment,” Reeb said, adding that that the operations funds would be spent in part on costs related to expert witnesses.

Other local allocations in the House “junior” bill include $60,000 to the judicial district court for personnel services and benefits, $50,000 for research at the agricultural experiment station in Tucumcari and $50,000 to the child, youth and families department for support of sexual assault programs in Clovis and Portales.

The Senate “junior” bill includes $65,000 to the New Mexico State University Agricultural Science Center in Clovis for a carbon, nitrogen and sulfur analyzer to test soil organic matter and soil health, according to Crowder.

“There’s just a substantital amount of funding that will flow through our county,” Crowder said.

The supplemental spending and capital outlay bills, like all legislation passed by the House and Senate, are still subject to approval by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.

Senate Bill 280, the capital outlay bill, was not available on the Leglisture wesbite by press time, but portions of the bill shared with The News Tuesday morning by Crowder show eastern New Mexico did well there too.

Curry County will receive a total of about $2.44 million, with a little less than half of that to go toward road improvements and the remainder to be split among the construction of a fire station for the Ranchvale Volunteer Fire Department, parking lot improvements at the Curry County Events Center, a Main Street parking lot and a new roof for the La Casa Family Health Center.

The city of Clovis received $1.3 million for improvements to 7th Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

ENMU was once again a big winner in the capital outlay bills, receiving about $2.435 million, with the largest disbursements going towards Greyhound Arena improvements ($750,000), safety and infrastructure improvements ($700,000) and construction of a new president’s residence ($650,000).

Elsewhere in Roosevelt County, the city of Portales received $371,000 for improvements to Kilgore Avenue and the county receieved $275,000 for lanurdy and kitchen upgrades at the detention center and $100,000 for ADA compliance upgrades at the fairgrounds.