New president's house to be near current location

PORTALES — It’s yet to be determined if the old building will stay or go, but a location for the Eastern New Mexico University president’s new residence and “public event venue” was selected Tuesday as “in the general area” of the existing residence at 1600 West Cherry Street in Portales.

Further detail on the project – funded by a state appropriation of $650,000 — and a more specific site will follow consultation between a committee of five and whatever architect is selected next month from among six still being evaluated by a separate committee.

ENMU’s board of regents unanimously approved the location selection following discussion in a special meeting Tuesday. They deferred picking a more precise site or deciding what will become of the existing residence — acquired in 1968 and currently inhabited by President Jeff Elwell and his wife, Edwina Gower — until an architect could weigh in on the best way to proceed.

That decision will also be considered by a committee of five, including two board members and student, staff and alumni representatives to be selected by board president Ed Tatum. Student regent Joseph Gergel specified he wished to see a member of student government as a voting contributor to that committee.

Regent Dan Patterson — who along with regent Terry Othick attended the Portales meeting via teleconference — said he felt it would be “premature” to get more specific about a site before talking to an architect.

“That’s why we have an architect, to give us some of that information,” Patterson said. “Maybe it is where the current house is, maybe it is beside it.”

The new residence project could still potentially be anywhere on ENMU’s 300-acre campus, but the board agreed Tuesday it would make sense to try to utilize the existing landscaping at the current residence.

Elwell said in the meeting he was fine with continuing to live at the current residence if and when construction begins nearby, though it might impact some of the student gatherings he would host there otherwise.

Regent Lance Pyle emphasized the importance of keeping the public abreast of the project as it continues to develop, since a new residence is “going to be here 50-plus years.”

Regarding a timeline for when the project would take foot, Tatum told The News “as soon as possible.

“Time is of the essence,” he said, noting the imperative for expending capital outlay funds in a timely fashion. “We need to be moving and moving before too long.”

Also at Tuesday’s special meeting, with approvals unanimous.

• Approval of a total of up to $1.6 million toward the Greyhound Arena re-roofing project, of which $1.35 million was approved in the regents’ regular meeting June 1 and an additional $250,000 allocated Tuesday from “existing capital project reserves.” In his motion to approve, Patterson requested that a more specific price be communicated to regents’ after a construction proposal was selected.

• Approval of the disposal of “various unusable, worn out, unused, obsolete inventory” in a public auction next month.