Joint luncheon covers CATS, sports complex

Curry County and the City of Clovis held a joint luncheon Wednesday to collaborate on changes to benefit both the city and county.

Some of the items on the agenda that county and city officials discussed on Wednesday include extending the service area for Clovis Area Transit System (CATS), building a sports complex/youth recreation center, and constructing a new regional behavioral health facility.

Clovis Mayor Mike Morris said in his opening remarks that historically, the city and the county don't get along, but there's no reason why that rhetoric can't change.

"The opportunities that we have in Clovis, Curry County, and eastern New Mexico are too great to fail to work together on and seek those opportunities," Morris said.

The mayor added, "Let's work together and who cares who gets the credit, right? Let's make sure Clovis and Curry and Cannon (Air Force Base) win, doesn't matter who gets the credit."

County manager Lance Pyle, City Manager Justin Howalt, and Assistant City Manager Claire Burroughes each held the floor to address most of the items on the agenda, sharing information and opening discussion and questions from everyone present.

CATS

The first agenda item was the possible extension of the CATS service area.

Pyle said the county has started receiving phone calls from residents outside the boundaries who need transportation to places like medical appointments.

"So Justin, Claire, and I had a conversation on it. This came up several years ago as well. And there's been some discussion about extending that (service) to Cannon Air Force Base and the airport," said Pyle.

City manager Justin Howalt said city staff calculated the population in county areas adjacent to the municipal boundaries that CATS could serve.

Howalt said most of the funding for CATS is through federal programs the city applies for yearly.

"So actually, in anticipation of everybody being on board with us doing this, the last city commission meeting, we actually approved our application moving forward with these boundaries. Now what we're working on is trying to (figure out) how do we fund potentially the county's version of this project," Howalt said.

Sports complex-youth recreation facility

Another topic discussed was a feasibility study regarding a new sports complex-youth recreation facility.

Pyle said the county hired a consultant last year to develop some planning designs for the center. He said the community has clarified their want and need for the facility.

Pyle said the county had received $278,000 in funds for the planning design work for a sports complex, and earlier this year, the county reached out to Hunden Partners to talk more about a market financial feasibility study, which would show how much money would be needed to operate the facility.

"Because we know what everybody wants, what they brought up, but we don't know what it's going to cost to operate it and what it's going to cost to maintain it. And as a city and county, we can look back and see what we can cover within our existing budgets to offset it," Pyle said.

Howalt said the city and county will also seek grants to fund this study.

"We can build a brand new shiny building with all the features in the world and provide everything everybody would ever want, but if we can't afford to operate it, it doesn't do us any good, and so we really need to understand the operation costs," Howalt said.

Pyle said the county wants to move forward with the study in hopes of it being prepared for the 2024 legislative session.

Regional behavioral health facility

One of the last items discussed was constructing a new building to house a regional behavioral health facility in Clovis.

The big question is where the facility will be located.

"We have spoken with landowners near the hospital, and they're open to selling us about 18 acres of land to build this facility," said Howalt. The property is located west of the existing surgical center on the other side of the street and further down.

Howalt said the city of Clovis recently received $10 million from the last legislative session that can be used towards purchasing the property and constructing the building. Officials also need to identify who will build and operate the facility.

U.S. Air Force Col. Barry Roche of Cannon Air Force Base advocated for the behavioral health facility, particularly to serve the needs of Airmen at Cannon.

"The closest non-(emergency) type of care right now (for mental health) is about, I think, a three, three and a half hour drive away at least. So that's a lot of cost, a lot of time on the other airman who have to drive that individual to that in-patient treatment," Roche said.

Roche added that the base had received funding to hire about seven behavioral health personnel, which is different from building a facility that could house between 48 and 100 patients because their program is outpatient treatment only.

Roche said Cannon has a program called Exceptional Family Military Program (EFMP) for dependents of military members with some medical condition. Particiapants have to be approved to come to a location, especially in places like Cannon, that doesn't have all the specialty medical services that they require.

"And so what's happening is we're losing a lot of people that get assignments to Cannon because the Air Force looks at it and decides that they can't come. Our biggest area with that is actually behavioral health," Roche said.

Roche said the base is 100% supportive of an inpatient treatment facility.

Assistant City Manager Claire Burroughes said the city-county luncheons are held about twice yearly.

City Commissioner Brad Bender said the meeting was successful and hopes they can have them more often.

"This has been great if we're going to partner and do this the right way," Bender said.