Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Portales City Clerk Joan Martinez-Terry, left, receives a plaque signed by various city employees Tuesday night at the city council meeting recognizing 40 years with the city. Martinez-Terry was also presented her 40-year pin by Mayor Pro Tem Mike Miller, right.
PORTALES - The city of Portales has various awards, but it gave out one of its rarer ones Tuesday night to longtime City Clerk JoAnn Martinez-Terry.
Mayor Pro Team Mike Miller presented Martinez-Terry with a 40-year service pin, marking her start date in 1981 - before two current councilors were born. Miller said he wasn't sure what the city would do without Martinez-Terry.
"I'm sure you'd do fine," Martinez-Terry responded jokingly. She added the time with the city has been a pleasure, and that "it's always new and exciting."
In other business at the Tuesday meeting:
• City Manager Sarah Austin advised councilors Bobby Roybal would be appointed as the city's new alternate municipal judge.
Roybal will replace Charlie Smart, who had to resign the position because contract work he's taking on with the Portales Police Department creates a conflict of interest.
• Miller, who conducted the meeting in the absence of Mayor Ron Jackson, said he attended a conference on new cannabis regulations in the state. On July 1, recreational marijuana became legal. The state will begin accepting applications for dispensary businesses Sept. 1 and allow sales to begin April 1, 2022.
Miller said City Attorney Steve Doerr was working on an ordinance based on information covered during the conference, and that it should be a city goal to have its own ordinance in place so it doesn't have to rely on state standards when Sept. 1 arrives.
• The council retained Jackson and Jim Lucero as its representatives on the Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority for additional two-year terms.
• The council approved a $121,532.43 runway improvement project at the Portales Municipal Airport to be done by Maxwell Asphalt, Inc.
The Federal Aviation Administration grant will not require the 5% city match normally seen for airport projects.
• An agreement with the New Mexico Tourism Department was approved to allow the city to accept a $5,072.32 Clean and Beautiful grant. The grant normally pays for various beautification projects and funds local trash pickup events.
• A right-of-way vacation was approved for Roosevelt General Hospital in association with two new buildings it is constructing. City Planning and Zoning Director Donna Rutherford said the right-of-way issue took months to resolve because it needed to check with CenturyLink to be sure a utility line in the area in question was out of service.
• Councilors approved a zone change at 124 and 128 E. 18th St. to allow K& B Properties, LLC the chance to create multi-family housing units. Councilor Chad Heflin, who served on the lower board that recommended the zone change, said nobody spoke for or against it in the public hearing. Lucero said it was a good fit and moved for approval.
• Austin told councilors the city was doing as much as it could to fix recent potholes, and had one work on 18th Street, Main Street and the intersection of Third Street and Avenue F.
"The problem is we need help," Austin said. "We have job openings."
Austin later said the city had 16 job openings, but they were not all in the street department.
