Board approves easement agreement

PORTALES - Another easement agreement down and a few more outstanding. They all count, as discussed at Thursday's meeting of the board of the Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority.

The board approved an offer and easement agreement of approximately $1,800 with Carl D. Moore to run the Finished Water III pipeline through his land just south of the Curry/ Roosevelt county line.

ENMWUA Administrator Orlando Ortega said last month that 16 easements had been acquired and another 27 were still in progress for the stretch of some 16 miles between Clovis and Portales that is FWIII. Ortega said Thursday that all easement letters had been sent out and they were "starting to get replies."

That construction itself is still a ways out, but the easements come first. Securing funding for that $24 million portion of the Interim Groundwater Project will require "prov(ing) that we're shovel ready, which means that the easements have to be ready to go."

ENMWUA chairman David Lansford asked for an estimate as to when those easements could all be secured, to which Ortega replies "it's hard to tell," but "we're hoping" for steady progress.

The board meets next at 3 p.m. Oct. 24 in the Portales Memorial Building. Also at Thursday's meeting:

• Approval to form an ENMWUA development and policy committee, to be comprised largely from members of the ENMWUA finance committee. The new group will lead investigation and development of a policy for leasing and purchasing water, a preemptive step anticipating the completion some years hence of the interim groundwater transmission infrastructure.

• Approval of an amendment to the 2010 contract with Jacobs Engineering concerning the new location of a water storage facility on Lime Street in Portales at the terminus of the FWIII pipeline.

• Adoption of an ENMWUA vehicle use policy.

• No action following an executive session of approximately 45 minutes, during which board members discussed limited personnel matters and potential pending litigation.