Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities

Curry road funding request denied

CLOVIS — Curry County’s request to receive disaster relief funding from the state due to road damage caused by rain has been denied.

Curry County Manager Lance Pyle said the request was denied because there is a strict criteria in order to receive the funding, which Curry did not meet.

Pyle said the criteria includes that the request must be based on a singular event that occurs suddenly, threatens the health and safety of citizens and responders and causes property damage that must be repaired.

Curry’s request was based on the accumulated damage over sevent months — March through September — rather than one individual event, which led to the request being denied, Pyle said.

“In the past they’ve allowed for seasonal events but that practice is no longer utilized,” Pyle said.

Pyle said he did not know how long that policy has been in place and multiple attempts to contact the New Mexico Department of Homeland Security & Emergency Management Public Information Office this week were unsuccessful.

The county has until Feb. 3 to appeal the decision, but Pyle said based on his conversation with NMDHSEM Cabinet Secretary M. Jay Mitchell he does not think the county would win an appeal; none of the county’s 10 weather events would meet the criteria if considered individually.

“The county tried and if we felt an appeal would be successful we would do it in a second, but I don’t see that the county fits that criteria, which is unfortunate for our county and the condition of the roads,” Pyle said.

Curry’s denial comes just a month after New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez signed a declaration that allocated $750,000 to Roosevelt county in disaster relief funds.

Pyle said a tornado touched down in Roosevelt County, which did not occur in Curry County and Roosevelt suffered more severe damage than Curry, which could be a reason for the difference in the two decisions.

Curry now must turn to other options to repair the roads.

“The county will continue to work on improving the roads in the county,” Pyle said. “This fiscal year the county commission transferred $1,232,659 from the general fund to the road fund to assist with road improvements in the county.”

Pyle also said money for road improvements is a part of the county’s capital outlay requests and the county is exploring other opportunities to receive grant money this year.

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