Meetings watch: Roosevelt County Commission

The following were actions taken at the Roosevelt County Commission meeting Tuesday in the Commission Room of the Roosevelt County Courthouse:

• Commissioners approved accounts payable and payroll from Jan. 1-Jan. 31.

Payroll totaled $167,551, checks totaled $373,367, and drafts totaled $115,695.

• Portales Mainstreet Executive Director Sandy Vigil gave commissioners an update on her organization’s plans for 2017.

Actively Supporting Commerce Through Volunteer Initiatives, or ACT Downtown, helps “connect our merchants to other merchants, and our merchants to volunteer groups,” Vigil said.

“I’m very much into the barter system— you scratch my back, I scratch yours. Fashion Girl was our first one, and they partnered with Nick’s Painting, who provided a great discounted rate to paint the facade of their building. We’re hoping to move forward with that, and be able to help some more of our merchants,” she said.

The Facade Grant Improvement Program, an initiative designed to help businesses with their outward appearance, will begin this spring, according to Vigil.

• In her report, County Manager Amber Hamilton shared concerns regarding potential tax increases in this year’s legislative session that she said would balance the state budget “on the backs of local governments.”

Hamilton presented an editorial written by the New Mexico Association of Counties asking Martinez not to raise taxes, and said that she and Curry County Manager Lance Pyle were working toward raising awareness of the issue in spite of what she saw as a lack of local media coverage.

“The part that I think is a shame is that our local paper has failed to pick this op-ed up. Several other counties and communities have ran this in their paper. For some reason, our editorial coverage has not been the same here within eastern New Mexico, so both myself and county manager Pyle have had that discussion, so we want to do our part, so we’re discussing it in a public meeting,” she said. “If we cannot secure the accurate media coverage that we feel is important, then we want to do what we can to raise awareness, too, so it will be going on our website. We’ll be sending it out to all of our employees.”

Hamilton also informed commissioners that, after speaking to City Manager Sammy Standefer, a decision regarding improvements to Roosevelt Road Q 1/2 would likely be made at the March 7 Portales City Council meeting.

Hamilton mentioned to Standefer that the commission was in favor of barricading the south side of trailer houses located next to the road (an estimated cost of $31,165), and said that he also favored the choice, but had concerns about pushing the barricades further back.

Options to improve the safety of the road, which contains a deep pit, were discussed at the Feb. 7 commission meeting.

• Commissioners approved the closures of three roads: North Roosevelt Road 3 for two miles east of North Roosevelt Road BA, South Roosevelt Road O from South Roosevelt Road 15 to South Roosevelt Road 16, and Franklin Road for 5.71 miles from Highway 60/84 to Hill Road.

While the commission chose to take action on the three roads, they decided to wait to close North Roosevelt Road 22, North Roosevelt Road AY, and Roosevelt Road 16 1/2 until the commission’s March 7 meeting, so that the property owners on those roads could be contacted first.

• Commissioners approved three applications from Road Superintendent Ricky Lovato for projects through the New Mexico Local Government Road Fund.

The first was a County Arterial Program project for improving 13 miles of various county roads. The total cost was estimated to be $375,473.

The second application was for a co-operative project designed to make improvements for 5 1/2 miles of various county roads. The total cost was estimated to be $120,809.

The third application was for the rehabilitation of 5 1/2 miles of county roads as part of the 2017/2018 school bus project. The total cost was estimated to be $222,876.

• Commissioners approved a resolution opposing the state requiring counties to make additional financial contributions to its Medicaid program.

Roosevelt County’s annual contribution to the program is $190,000 every year, according to Hamilton.

If increased, Hamilton said the county will have “absolutely no reserves left for anything.”

• Commissioners approved a resolution opposing any reduction or elimination to hold harmless gross receipts tax distributions.

Hamilton said the resolution directly opposed Senate Bill 451, which would stop state food and medical hold harmless payments to counties.

“The interesting thing is, we’re looking at a $22 million adverse impact on counties throughout New Mexico, and we would see a reduction in this fiscal year’s revenues, because they want to make it effective April 1,” she said. “We’re looking at an approximate almost $100,000 hit to our revenues, potentially, which would cause issues operationally, and we would anticipate a further reduction of over $300,000 in fiscal year 18.”

— Compiled by Staff Writer Eamon Scarbrough