Roosevelt hears Fairgrounds discussion

The Roosevelt County Commission on Tuesday re-appointed Tina Dixon as the board’s chair and Roy Lee Criswell as vice chair.

The action came as the session began, a meeting that lasted three hours, long compared to the commission’s usual sessions.

The meeting was the first of 2025 and the first for recently elected Fabian Muñoz from Commission District 1 and former county Sheriff Malin Parker from Commission District 2.

Commissioners handled a number of routine matters:

They heard a presentation on constituent services from Constance Williams from Sen. Ben Ray Lujan’s office on what is offered at her office.

At the behest of Parker, who said he will be bringing forth ideas on how to turn the Roosevelt County Fairgrounds into a moneymaking enterprise, there was a presentation from Kam Knight and Amber Workheiser.

Both women were described as having worked on fairgrounds promotions.

“I want to start a discussion about more events at the county fairgrounds,” Parker said.

Knight described the fairgrounds as a “beautiful facility; it’s sitting there empty.”

“The problem, 99% of it, is the ground,” Knight said, going on to say the soil at the fairgrounds needs work.

One discussion was about the 9 a.m. start time for the first meeting of the month.

Dixon liked the idea of having all commission meetings in the evening.

“I believe there’s better turnout,” Dixon said.

Muñoz made a motion to change all meetings to evenings but the motion failed.

Roosevelt County Detention Center Administrator Shayla Ramsey told commissioners the center’s population Tuesday was 12 female and 32 male detainees.

Ramsey noted the center is fully staffed now.

Arrests for 2024 totaled 1,041 with 817 releases.

Former state Senate and land commissioner candidate Larry Marker addressed commissioners during the “public requests” portion of the meeting, giving a presentation on the “Territory of Chisum.”

Territory of Chisum would be made of 12 contiguous counties of Eastern New Mexico: Roosevelt, Curry, Quay, Harding, Union, Colfax, DeBaca, Lincoln, Chaves, Lea, Eddy and Otero.

“We would petition the federal government for territorial status to break off from New Mexico,” Marker said.

The territory would be governed by the U. S. Congress with a goal of “eventually becoming a state.”

No action was taken on Marker’s proposal.