Brewer to seek liquor license

CLOVIS — A prospective local brewer is getting ready to set up operations on Main Street, and will seek a small brewer liquor license Thursday from the Clovis city commission.

Bandolero Brewery has been granted preliminary approval by the New Mexico Regulation and Licensing Department, but the city commission is given the initial opportunity to have a hearing on the matter. The commission must either approve the license or disapprove the license with reasons for the disapproval within 30 days of a public hearing.

The public hearing is part of the commission meeting set for 5:15 p.m. at the North Annex of the Clovis-Carver Public Library.

Bandolero’s application required a waiver from the city because it was within 300 feet of Potter’s House Christian Fellowship Church and Waypoint Christian Church.

The commission granted a waiver to Bandolero during its Feb. 21 meeting via a 7-1 vote, tentative on Bandolero obtaining all necessary approvals and licenses from the state within a year. District 4 Commissioner Gary Elliott cast the lone dissenting vote, and has frequently voted against granting variances when consumption of alcohol is involved.

Attached in the agenda is a petition of objection from the Potter’s House with 41 signatures.

Other items on the agenda for the Thursday meeting include:

• A 4:45 p.m. executive session preceding the meeting to discuss pending or threatened litigation.

• Reports on the Clovis EMS reorganization, playa lake restoration efforts and the Curry Resident Senior Meals Association.

• Presentation of quarterly awards for distinguished supervisor (Ruben Alfaro, wastewater) and line employee (Amanda Cook, purchasing).

• A grant-loan agreement with the New Mexico Finance Authority and the Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority for Finished Water Three pipeline construction. The agreement is $2.868 million, with 10% of the total a loan and the rest a grant.

• A request to approve a $436,800 design of roadway and drainage improvements on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard between Seventh and 21st streets. Capital outlay from the state will cover $300,000 of the design costs.

• Nearly $990,000 in budget adjustments, with projects including Hillcrest Park fencing, an airport shredder deck, K-9 team replacement and training, a new eight-passenger van for the Clovis Area Transit System, library landscaping, a loan payment for a fire department city aerial and a remodel to the restaurant at Colonial Park Golf Course.

• An amendment to the commission’s agreement on employment for City Manager Justin Howalt. The amendment would list Howalt’s start date with the city as Jan. 5, 2009, for purposes of calculating retirement and other benefits. Howalt began as city engineer on that date, but did depart the city in 2015 to be the executive director for the Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority. He returned as city manager in 2017.