Cannabis ordinance receives final approval

PORTALES -- A modified recreational cannabis business ordinance that applies a 300-foot minimum distance between cannabis businesses and schools and day care centers but eliminates other minimum distance requirements received final approval Tuesday from the Portales City Council.

The council gave the new ordinance a final vote after a public hearing at which no one spoke, and a review of the change from Stephen Doerr, the city’s attorney.

Doerr said the change was needed because the state law that legalized the recreational cannabis business in New Mexico requires that only the minimum distances specified in the state statute are allowed at the local level.

The council also heard an update from Eastern New Mexico University Chancellor Patrice Caldwell on enrollment decline, especially in students who live on campus.

Caldwell said enrollment has dropped from about 6,000 students in 2018 to the current level of 4,591 students, but she said ENMU officials are working to “bring that back up.”

The university’s recruitment efforts are aimed mostly at increasing the number of students who live on campus, Caldwell said. Resident students have impact on the local community, because they hold jobs in the area, shop, and often participate in community activities.

This year, she said, only about 324 students are living on campus, compared to about 600 who lived on campus in 2018. The drop is due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she said.

Caldwell said the university is working to increase the number of room-and-board scholarships to attract students to campus and pointed out that some programs, such as those that involve performance, cannot effectively be taught online.

ENMU is also trying to attract bilingual students, whose abilities are in demand in fields like law enforcement and social work.

The university is also targeting high school seniors who plan to enter college right after high school with social media campaigns and solicitation through the New Mexico Activities Association and high school programs like DECA, a national student business education club, Caldwell said.

“These are Tik-Tok-ers,” she said of the students targeted on social media, “not Facebook users.”

She said ENMU is also using events that attract high school students for recruitment by offering campus tours when they visit the campus.

Students have been drawn to online classes since about 2005, she said, because of the flexibility they allow, but with COVID-19 restrictions easing, ENMU can offer more in-person opportunities.

“It will probably never get back to 50-50,” she said, meaning 50% of students attending in-person and 50% attending online.

Asked about the promise of opportunity scholarships approved by the 2022 New Mexico Legislature, Caldwell said she expects they will aid significantly in recruitment efforts, but “we’re still waiting for ther rules to be written.”

In other action, the council:

• Authorized John DeSha, the city’s director of public works, to submit an application for $50,000 to update the city’s comprehensive plan through the New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration. The plan was last updated in 2018.

• Awarded a construction management contractd to Molzen Corbin, an Albuquerque-based engineering firm, for $48,500 to manage the Kolgore Avenue Rehabilitation Project, which is replacing pavement on Kilgore Avenue from New Mexico Route 88 and 18th Street.

• Authorized the city public works department to apply for $41,884.79 in state funds for improvements to Fifth Street between Main Street to State Route 88. The funds from the state Department of Transportation would be matched by $13,961.60, bringing the total project cost to $55,846.

• Approved state funding for a security gate at the Portales airport totaling $29,000, with no cost to the city.

• Approved an annual non-exclusive use agreement between the city and the Roosevelt County Little League for use of ball fields at Rotary, Lindsey and Morrison parks.

• Approved the release of a request for proposals for operation and maintenance of the Portales Animal Shelter.

• Declared three properties in two locations as “a menace to public comfort, health and safety,” and gave owners until April 19 to clean up the properties before the city comes in to conduct demolition, and cleanup operations. The properties include a dilapidated mobile home in the 200 block of 10th Street, and two plots located in the 1600 block of Fir Street, which city inspectors found to be “covered with ruins, rubbish, wreckage, or debris.” Melvin Hightower, owner of all three properties, said the city’s deadline will not give him time to complete the clearing operations. City officials assured Hightower they would work with him as long as he demonstrates a good faith effort.