Meetings watch: City/county luncheon

The following is a report from Tuesday’s city/county luncheon:

27th Special Operations Wing Commander Col. Timothy Leahy told city and county officials he is looking forward to continuing the relationship Cannon Air Force Base has had with the community.

Leahy assumed command of the base Monday when the base received a new designation as a special operations wing.

“Nothing will change the relationship of the base with the community,” Leahy said. “If anything, all military commanders like to take what we get and make it better.”

Clovis Municipal Schools Superintendent Rhonda Seidenwurm said community members are meeting today to discuss the possibility of building a career and technical institute. The institute would be funded by bond election, Seidenwurm said.

She also announced an upcoming event to recruit founders for an Education Foundation, who will act as academic boosters.

Clovis Community College President John Neibling said the college’s instructional technology program received a $1.7 million Department of Labor grant that will be used for the Upward Bound program, a college transition program for at-risk students.

He said the state is also looking at funding the college through performance-based criteria. The criteria includes retention of students and the number of students graduating and getting jobs.

Chamber of Commerce Director Ernie Kos said the chamber has received more donations of music artifacts since opening a temporary rock ‘n’ roll museum during the Clovis Music Festival. She said the chamber received a video of an 11-year-old LeAnn Rimes recording “Blue” at the Norman Petty Recording Studios. Petty Estate Executor Ken Broad also donated a gold record the song earned.

Kos said the chamber is working with the engineering firm CDM to design a more permanent museum in the chamber offices.

She said the city also received the first governor’s award for excellency last month at the Economic Development Summit.

City Manager Joe Thomas reported the city is working on two projects that will affect traffic in the city. He said the intersection of Llano Estacado and Main streets will be closed to traffic to add a left turn lane on Main Street and a resurfacing project on Sycamore Street will start soon.

“It’s an inconvenience now, but it’ll sure be nice when it’s done,” he said.