Certificate of completion signed for pipeline segment

CLOVIS — More than seven miles of pipeline, signed, sealed and delivered.

That was the report from Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority Administrator Orlando Ortega, who reported he signed the certificate of completion Wednesday for the authority’s Finished Water 2 project.

“This has been a good project,” Ortega said during the authority’s Thursday meeting at the Clovis-Carver Public Library, “with good people that guaranteed its success.”

The project is part of the authority’s interim groundwater project, a pipeline network connecting the authority members for groundwater delivery prior to the overall project’s final connection point at the Ute Reservoir in Quay County.

Finished Water 2 covered seven and a half miles of pipeline and connected Clovis and Cannon Air Force Base, with a total cost of $27.275 million — roughly $1.37 million under budget.

Chairman David Lansford said to be under budget on a project at the scale of FW2 was “unheard of,” but still hoped it was something the authority could do on future projects.

Ortega also noted that due to a state water trust board award, about $1.4 million in member funds weren’t expended on FW2 and will instead go toward Finished Water 3, which will extend the pipeline from CAFB to Portales — either the Lime Street or Johnson Hill tanks.

Jacquelynn Bowens, support services officer for the authority, took authority members through the bid process for FW3.

Advertising will begin this week, with bids due on April 28. Between those two points, the authority will have a pre-bid conference March 23 and 24 with an optional site visit March 24. Also, bid questions would be due April 8. An award date was not yet determined.

The project would run parallel to NM 467 along the east side.

In other business at the Thursday meeting:

• Lansford showed authority members an excerpt from the Curry County Commission’s Thursday morning meeting where the commission approved an engagement letter to hire Colorado attorney Peter Nichols to help set up a land trust. The commission also rescinded an agreement it had with the authority to hire Nichols.

The meeting excerpt was shown in its entirety, Lansford said, because he thought it would be easier than him providing a summation. He applauded the county for taking the first step in the land trust process, and said the authority will take part in a steering committee the county plans to establish in March.

Vice Chair and Portales Mayor Ron Jackson agreed with Lansford that Curry County acted appropriately, but added the authority did provide a good-faith effort with the agreement that was rescinded.

“There’s a lot of unanswered questions (about land trusts),” authority member Chris Bryant said. “I’m hoping Peter Nichols can aner those questions so we can move forward.”

• The board met in executive session for 45 minutes to discuss limited personnel matters, but took no action and adjourned immediately after returning to open session.

• The next meeting is scheduled for 3 p.m March 25 at the Portales Memorial Building.