City council meeting canceled

A special Portales City Council meeting set for today has been canceled because the bill the councilors would have discussed was withdrawn, City Manager Debi Lee said.

Lee said the sponsor of House Bill 861, state Rep. Anna Crook, withdrew the bill from consideration by a committee Wednesday.

The bill would have created an Eastern New Mexico Water Authority with governing power to manage water and wastewater facilities of its members.

The city supports a project to pump water from Ute Lake in Quay County to several entities in Curry and Roosevelt Counties, Lee said.

However, Lee continued, Portales officials want to continue to own and operate the city’s water and wastewater facilities independent of any water authority.