Curry creates engagement letter for attorney

CLOVIS — The Curry County Commission agreed in November to pair with the Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority on hiring Colorado attorney Peter Nichols to help set up a land trust.

Little has transpired since then, and the commission decided Thursday to rescind that agreement and create its own engagement letter for Nichols, which will include an in-person workshop to cover land trust goals and requirements.

Commission Chairman Robert Thornton and Commissioner Chet Spear said there’s been talk of water conservation and preserving the Ogallala Aquifer since they began, but the movement has been too slow.

“There is nothing more important than preserving our water,” said Spear. “A land trust will provide us with the leadership and opportunities to preserve water in the paleochannel and find additional resources.”

Spear also floated an agenda item at the commission’s Tuesday meeting to establish a steering committee.

Local officials are optimistic the Department of Defense’s Readiness and Environmental Protection Initiative could provide up to $15 million annually to incentivize farmers surrounding Cannon Air Force Base to halt irrigation farming, and move water rights from agriculture designation to a much less taxing municipal designation. A land trust would help local entities sort out issues that may arise from those efforts.

“It's already been 100 days since we talked about (hiring Nichols),” Thornton said. “It's been four years since we've talked about needing to do some conservation. It's very important we move forward with this.”

Thornton said cooperation with the authority and other entities can come down the road, but, “right here, right now, the whole idea behind this thing is to get engaged with the lawyer.”

Commissioner Seth Martin kept his thoughts limited after disclosing his family has property in the paleochannel, but agreed with the effort. “I know Chet worked on it at great length; I do think it’s critical we make this first step.”

Commissioner Bobby Sandoval said he would vote for the engagement letter because he agreed with other commissioners on its importance, but stressed the need to get other entities on board.

“All we're doing,” Thornton said, “is setting up the in-person workshop to figure out how to create the land trust. We are not building the land trust tomorrow. We're getting (Nichols) in here to figure out what we're going to do. As we get that, we will involve other entities and they will learn more. We will get more of a consensus to move forward with that.”

Commissioner James Ridling told Nichols the question he keeps getting is what a land trust would cost annually. Nichols said it depends on how extensive the land trust activities are. Many trusts get off the ground for just the cost of an executive director and, “some communities get one for way less than $100,000.”

The authority held its regular meeting later that afternoon, and simply watched archived video of the commission meeting. Authority board members voiced their support for county actions and their to participate in the steering committee.