Portales prioritizes city projects

PORTALES — Expanding the local cemetery, improving roads and purchasing new city vehicles will be top priority projects in 2021 for the city of Portales.

The Portales City Council on Tuesday approved the 2021 to 2025 Infrastructure Capital Improvement Plan during its regular meeting.

The top two priorities for 2021 were once again to make wellfield improvements ($2,200,000) and upgrading the city’s fire protection and water circulation systems ($661,000).

The expansion of the Portales cemetery ($199,598) was the next-highest ranked project, with the purchase of a backhoe for the cemetery ($88,000) also near the top.

The widespread renovation of Portales roads is ongoing, but the ICIP outlined which roads will be the city’s biggest priorities in the coming years. Avenue A from First to Second streets ($208,656) was ranked the highest because of drainage problems, with improvements to University Avenue ($8,000) behind.

The purchase of a new dump truck ($100,000) and a new street sweeper ($235,000) were also ranked in the top 10.

Other highlights from the Tuesday meeting include:

• Curt Jaynes was appointed to fill a vacancy on the planning commission.

• The council approved to ratify the bills for July 2019 at the cost of $1,740,604.32. It was noted that this month’s expenses were higher than normal because of insurance payments.

• An update from the Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority by Orlando Ortega outlined recent progress and updated costs.

Ortega said the ENMWUA has approved a realignment of its Finished Water 3 project to go through the Lime Street water storage facility in Portales.

The council went on to approve the ENMWUA invoice for their 2020 membership contribution of $457,562.

• The council approved a budget increase of $173,544 for engineering design services from Stantec for the Water Storage Improvement Project.

• The council approved the submission of a funding request to the New Mexico Department of Transportation from Portales Area Transit for $340,340, of which $208,161.70 would be supplied federally and $132,268.30 would be locally funded.

A request for $50,000 in capital funds was included for the purchase of a disability-accessible mini-van.

• A public hearing was held for Ordinance No. 741 in regard to updating the city’s Collective Bargaining Rights and the rights, responsibilities and procedures in the employment relationship between employees and employers.

According to City Manager Sammy Standefer, the state informed the city it was out of compliance with state collective bargaining requirements and this ordinance would be the first step to getting back up to date.

With no comment in the public hearing, the ordinance was approved.

• The council presented a 20-year Service Award to Beatriz Valdez, the head custodian of the general services department.

The meeting ended with a closed executive session where the council was scheduled to discuss threatened or pending litigation under attorney-client privilege.

No action was taken following the executive session.