Clovis approves wastewater agreement with cheese plant

CLOVIS — Southwest Cheese has been providing dairy products since 2006, and now the city of Clovis is prepared to open its doors, or rather pipes, for more.

The Clovis city commission on Thursday unanimously approved a memorandum of agreement between the city and Southwest Cheese, LLC to begin a test pilot project for the city to accept wastewater from the cheese plant.

City Manager Justin Howalt said the project will begin around Jan. 16 but he could not put a timeline on it because the city will need to wait and see what effects the project will have on the city's water treatment plant.

Howalt said Southwest Cheese has the capacity to send about 1.6 million gallons of wastewater per day but the project will begin with about 100,000 or 200,000 gallons per day. The city wants the water so it can be used in Clovis' reuse system for watering parks and recreation fields.

"I'm really excited about this," Commissioner Chris Bryant said. "We've been working on this for quite some time and it's accomplished, so I commend Southwest Cheese for working with the city and trying to work through this and get this accomplished."

Commissioners Sandra Taylor-Sawyer and Fidel Madrid were not in attendance.

Also at Thursday's commission meeting:

• The commission unanimously approved an implementation process for the city master water assurance plan. The commission decided on holding one to three public sessions scheduled outside of or at the close of commission meetings, with sessions limited to two hours.

Commissioners said they favored this plan due to the public reaction it will illicit.

A funding request for the assurance plan previously included on the agenda was removed after discovering the city had already been approved for inclusion on the New Mexico Finance Authority Bill from 2017 to 2019, Commissioner Ladona Clayton said.

• The commission unanimously approved the city's capital outlay requests for the 2018 legislative session. The requests include $350,000 for the reuse project from Yucca to Greene Acres Park, $300,000 for the Seventh Street reconstruction project from Norris to Maple and a request to reauthorize existing capital outlay funds from projects that have already been completed to be used for the Lyceum Theatre renovation project.

• The commission unanimously approved the items on the consent agenda which included an amendment to the city's traffic code to align with New Mexico standards on three-wheeled motorcycles and school buses, a request for the city to serve as fiscal agent for the Clovis/Curry County Chamber of Commerce for the upcoming legislative session, and approval of the annual Martin Luther King Jr. walk, which will begin at 9 a.m. Jan. 15 at Potter Park and end at First Church of God in Christ.

• Clovis-Carver Public Library Employee Sara Williford was honored as the city's Distinguished Line Employee of the Quarter for September through November.

Williford has worked at the library since July 2016 where she handle's adult services and donations.