Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities

Projects go on without state funding

Editor's Note: Portales City Manager Sammy Standefer recently discussed several current Portales city issues on behalf of Portales Mayor Sharon King.

Now that this year's 60-day session of the New Mexico Legislature has finished, what is the status of the legislative requests for the city of Portales?

Before the legislative session, the top five priorities for Portales were a) fire protection/water circulation upgrade; b) new Portales Fire Department sub-station; c) Senior Center improvements; d) new loader purchase; and e) Rotary Park and ballfield improvements.

The majority of these projects must begin even without Capital Improvement dollars from the state. We are always working on our fire protection and water circulation upgrades; however we just may not be able to upgrade quite as much as we would like to. The Portales Fire Department sub-station of course is not an emergency, but we will continue to seek funding from other sources, such as federally backed programs; and we should be beginning a planning and design phase this year. The Portales Senior Center is badly in need of a new roof; we hope to be able to find this money within our budget for this upcoming fiscal year. The new loader purchase, Rotary Park and ballfield improvements, of course, are highly dependent on our budget projections for next year. Staff has begun that process, and we should know more about what we will be able to fund next year within the next couple of months.

If state lawmakers do not go back into special session and pass a statewide capital outlay bill, which projects in Portales will be most affected?

It would be great if we received capital outlay funding, but we must begin to work on these projects with or without monies from the state. It may be that these projects will take us longer to fund and complete. It could be that we would not do everything exactly as we had intended, but we must still try to achieve these goals. These top priorities are still our priorities and we look at every available option to complete them.

Recently, homes, businesses and schools throughout Portales lost water service for one to two days when a contractor working on the wastewater pipeline project struck a city water line. What precautions are being taken to ensure this doesn't happen again?

The water distribution system was shut down for 24 hours while the water main was repaired. In addition, the system was flushed and purged for six hours. This incident revealed a potential vulnerability in our water distribution system.

The Portales Water Department is currently working closely with the contractor to locate the city underground utilities. We have located older maps, contacted retired employees and spent considerable time surveying the work areas ahead of the contractor. We also are maintaining a stronger presence on the job site to assist the contractor. Water Department staff members are working to locate additional valves, operate existing valves to check for viability and plan to install valves in critical areas. We cannot guarantee that there will be no outages in the future; however, we are in better condition to mitigate leaks of this nature.

In addition to posing a health and safety issue, losing water service means lost revenue for many area businesses and lost time for schools. Can you please explain why more has not been done already to map the city's water lines and do more to avoid water outages?

The last water break did have a lot to do with improper mapping, as well as mapping of valves to isolate the leak. We believe this area of mapping was more of the exception than the rule and this small area of insufficient mapping was not a reflection of the city mapping as a whole (in Portales).

The current city staff has been working to improve the mapping of all the city utilities. The last 42 months have seen an increase in the number of located and mapped utilities, the production of a sewer system map and a program to fully utilize the GIS (Geographic Information System) at the city. We are in the process of building a new, comprehensive water map that incorporates all of the old and new data. We have located several old maps that have “lost” data and are consulting with retired employees who have valuable anecdotal information.

What is the latest news concerning proposed increases in water rates for Portales residents and businesses (as part of monthly fees for water, sewer and garbage service and wastewater treatment)?

Unfortunately, we must raise the rates to pay for and complete the new wastewater treatment plant, as well as the reuse line that will redistribute the effluent water for irrigation. However, this project is probably one of the best things we have ever done or can do to begin to ensure that our community remains sustainable and viable. The Portales City Council has not officially approved any rate increase at this time, but will be considering a proposal from the Portales Finance Committee in the near future.

— Compiled by Janet Lyn Bresenham