Portales approves raises

PORTALES — The Portales City Council on Tuesday approved raises for the mayor, mayor pro tem, council members and municipal judge among other business.

The council held a public hearing and approved Ordinance No. 738 that would increase the salaries of the mayor, mayor pro tem and council members to $1,000, $700 and $600 per month, respectively.

With no comment in the public hearing, it went on to approve the ordinance.

Immediately after it held a public hearing and approved Ordinance No. 739 that would amend Ordinance No. 657 to raise the salary of the first newly elected municipal judge after the date of the increase to $2,083.33 per month, $25,000 per year.

The changes do not affect the current judge or councilors, but will be in effect for the next people to win election to those seats.

Like before, there was no comment in the public hearing and the council went on to approve the ordinance.

The council also approved an amendment to the tower lease agreement with phone service provider AT&T to increase the size of its leased premises at Rotary Park and to adjust the rent accordingly.

The reason for this amendment was to add a generator to service the site. After several additions since the area was first leased to Plateau in 2006, the leased property brings in about $12,000 a year, with this addition expected to add $400 a month to that amount.

The updated lease will last for five years with a five-year renewal to commence when the equipment is added.

Finally, the council held a public hearing and approved Ordinance No. 740 to approve applications from Nixon Enterprises, Inc. and Roosevelt County Community Development Corporation for public support from the Local Economic Development Act.

There were no comments during the public hearing and the ordinance was approved.

During the other business portion of the meeting, council members briefly discussed who will be responsible for repairing damage caused by ongoing road work in Portales, affirming it will be the responsibility of any companies or contractors responsible for the damage to do the repairs.

The next meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Aug. 20.