Curry County approves preliminary budget

CLOVIS - The Curry County Commission approved the preliminary operating budget for the upcoming fiscal year during Tuesday's meeting.

Curry County Manager Lance Pyle said a new grant with an additional $7,000 match from the county brought the preliminary total operating budget to $34,895,077. The final operating budget for the current fiscal year is $45,852,040.

Pyle previously told The News that the approximately $11 million difference is accounted for by the detention center and courthouse renovation projects nearing completion, with the majority of the funds for that construction already expended.

During Tuesday's meeting, Pyle said the county's biggest expenses besides salary and benefits come at the detention center, with about $1.8 million budgeted for inmate medical services.

He said the budget includes the elimination of a vacant position in the county clerk's office, while no new positions were added.

Pyle said the county's preliminary budget would be submitted to the state at the end of May and the final budget would go before the commission in July.

Also during Tuesday's meeting:

• The board discussed possible changes to polling locations for the 2019 elections and the 2020 primary and general elections.

Commissioner Robert Sandoval expressed frustration that the polling locations have changed frequently over the years, noting that he has voted at seven or eight different locations.

"We're supposed to be making it easier for people to vote ... (W)e're not doing that. I really don't have an answer to this question, but I believe it's the responsibility of the commission to look into it and find out why and what we can do about it," Sandoval said.

Chairman Chet Spear noted that early voting and absentee ballots are available and Commissioner Seth Martin said voters can use any polling location, rather than being restricted to just one.

Ben Salazar, field representative for Sen. Tom Udall, D-New Mexico, asked that La Casa Senior Center be added as an additional polling location, but County Clerk Annie Hogland recommended adding just one new location due to financial constraints.

Spear said an amended polling location resolution will go back before the commission at its next meeting, likely to include Hogland's recommendation of adding the county road barn located on County Road 6 as a new location.

• Jeff Blake, general manager for the Curry County Events Center, provided an update on the 2019 county fair.

Blake said they have a contract for a country act, but he could not announce the artist until the contract is completed.

He previously announced at the board's April 16 meeting that Los Palominos would headline Tejano night and be joined by Monica y Mezcal and Rick Fuentes and Brown Express.

The concerts will include a separate admission cost, which Blake said will likely be $12.

Blake said Midway acts for the fair will include spray can art, daredevils, and a clown show.

He said the fair received $19,000 in lodgers tax funding and will begin marketing on June 1, the same day tickets would be available via the fair's website.

• Orlando Ortega, executive director of the Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority, presented an update on the authority.

He said the pipeline for the project connecting Cannon Air Force Base to EPCOR's water storage system on Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in Clovis should be arriving this week.

Ortega said the authority's current fundraising focus is the 16-mile pipeline connecting Cannon and Portales. He said that project is estimated to cost around $35 million, with $1.8 million set aside and the authority will hear sometime over the next couple of weeks about possible $3.3 million in funding from the Water Trust Board.