Horse stall proposal on again

The off and on again proposition of covered horse stalls for the Curry County Events Center is on again.

During Tuesday’s special meeting, the Curry County Commission voted 3-2 to float an RFP (Request for Proposal) to determine the potential cost of the project.

Commissioners Wendell Bostwick, Angelina Baca and Tim Ashley voted to send out an RFP while Ben McDaniel and Chet Spear voted against the move.

Officials said the RFP would be based on the Populous schematic, keeping in consideration their numbers were based on the national average, which could mean lower cost estimates when scaling to the Clovis project specifics.

Prior to the vote, several Curry County residents shared their thoughts on the endeavor.

Event Center General Manager Joelle Reed offered the following:

“We paid money for Populous to do a schematic design and that is based on the national costs for the stalls and not based on local cost,” she said. “At this point, we don’t know what the price is going to be, but there is no cost involved in asking for the bids. If we don’t do it (cover the stalls) we are going to see a decline in the number of equine events. Other facilities are being built and improved upon and we are staying at the same level.”

State Sen. Pat Woods said spending funds on the covered stalls would be a boon to future generations.

“I agree that these horse stalls are needed for this community,” he said. “We have a heritage in this part of the world that I believe is worth keeping. Agriculture and kids programs and such is so important and I think this would be a good place to make an investment.”

Clovis resident Jose Griego offered a different sentiment.

“I’m more interested in human stalls than animal stalls,” he said. “If you’re going to put millions into animal stalls instead of human stalls, then I want everyone to know you’re more interested in animals than humans. Times are challenging but we need to put more emphasis on human development.”

Bostwick said the effort could be scaleable based upon the cost estimates, allowing the county to construct 100, 200 or 300 covered stalls, depending on dollars to be allotted.

“We have many challenges before us and as this facility becomes less viable the challenges mount,” he said. “To create economic development, you have to get resources from outside your region. That’s the only way to create economic development. There are ways to do it, but if we don’t move forward with an RFP, we won’t know.”

Spear said the covered stalls are on the back burner, with a trio of other county projects standing more urgent.

“I want these stalls as much as anybody,” he said. “Right now the biggest priority is water. My priorities are people getting water first, building the jail, working on the courthouse and then horse stalls These horses can't drink dirt and their owners can’t drink dirt. We’re talking about a lot of money to secure sustainable water.”

Ashley said the covered stalls serve as the event center’s missing link.

“I’m all about dollars and cents, but as it relates to the stalls, we don’t know what those dollars are,” he said. “This (RFP) is not committal. We just want to know what numbers are out there and don’t see a point in putting it off. What really concerns me is we’ve got $11 million stuck in a facility (events center) that without this piece (covered stalls), is in danger of becoming a white elephant.”