Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities

EPCOG meeting focuses on CARES Act grant

CLOVIS — A Clovis CARES Act Grant was a major topic of discussion at the Eastern Plains Council of Governments Board of Directors meeting Wednesday. Government Affairs Director Raymond Mondragon updated members on the $240,000 grant, for mortgage, rental, utility, and child care assistance that EPCOG is contracted to help distribute.

“What this does is we put a limit on mortgage and rental to $700, we put a limit on utility assistance for $300 … and we put $500 child credit per child. We did receive a lot of calls, a lot of visits, a lot of applications to process. We turned in 24 applications that we are recommending, about $18,000, for the city to review. Most of them were rental and utility assistance,” Mondragon said.

EPCOG assisted the city in drafting its grant application. After it was awarded the council continued to help with the process of creating documents and forms for the application process for Clovis residents.

From the $240,000, the city set aside $25,000 for mortgage and rentals, $25,000 for childcare, and $20,000 for rental or utility assistance.

Mondragon emphasized that while the application is just four pages, people still are not reading the full application as five applications from non-Clovis residents were rejected and other applications weren’t submitted in full.

“I have 12 (applications) waiting for paperwork,” Mondragon said. “We are having to do a lot of followup with each application to make sure these folks get it. We want them qualified, we want to qualify them, but we're having to do a lot of their work for them to try to get them qualified.”

Applications are reviewed and then turned into the city of Clovis every Thursday.

Board member Robert Thornton of Curry County asked Mondragon if he was following guidelines made by the city of Clovis or if he had made his own.

“I guess the question is, you have over $200,000 and you've only given away $18,000, is there a way that could be expanded?” Thornton asked. “I'd just like to say, and it may be something you could suggest, because the county did business instead of rental and utilities maybe you could talk to the city to see if you could expand that?

“If people need help they need help. If we're at not even 10% of that money spent maybe we should look at those other couple of applications. I know that's something you'll have to clear through the city but I do think that it is a question that should be asked.”

Mondragon said the distribution process will be evaluated at the end of the month and changes will be made if necessary and possible. Any money not spent by December will revert back to the state.

“If you can spend it within the city limits of Clovis that's fine,” Thornton said, “but if you're going to have a bunch of money left over and people actually need help I'd like to see us help them if we can.”

Mondragon said he will relay the message to the city.

Other issues covered at the meeting include:

• EPCOG was approved for a $400,000 economic administrative grant and prioritized purchasing tech equipment to ensure virtual meeting quality. The grant will also pay for two contractors — Jason Espinoza of legislative lobbying firm KW Consulting for commerce and industry and Dr. Robert Haggerford of New Mexico State for agriculture matters. Both will study impacts the pandemic has had on the local economy and how to approach its recovery.

• A new roof will be put on the EPCOG office building after sustaining hail damage earlier in the year. A fence will also be added to the property as a security measure against the vandalism the building has repeatedly experienced.

• Community Development Block Grants (CBDG's) have been awarded to Clovis and Fort Sumner. Both were granted a total of $750,000.

• Two new staff members were introduced at the meeting. The new Regional Planner is Raul Rodriguez, who will be assisting in transportation among other areas. Jai Courtney, a returning employee who set up EPCOG's wind energy training program a few years ago, will work part-time as a grant administrator.

• It was noted that this would be the last in-person meeting until the state's health orders change to allow groups of more than five people. While last Wednesday's meeting was in-person for board members, it was closed to the public. They planned to livestream the proceedings for constituents to watch on Facebook or the City of Clovis webpage, but they had technical difficulties that resulted only in an audio recording.