Portales votes to continue services with EPCOG

PORTALES — With no noted opposition, and no change in annual dues, the Portales City Council decided Tuesday night to continue services with the Eastern Plains Council of Governments.

Executive Director Sandy Chancey said the council provides various services for the $2,964 annual fee, and that a resolution authorizing services is intentionally broad because the council wants to provide service first without being tied down to a resolution’s boundaries.

“We’re still providing the same services,” Chancey said, “but in the last year that has taken on a different look.”

Chancey spent about 15 minutes reviewing the various services EPCOG provided in the prior fiscal year, and that pandemic-related restrictions forced everybody to find creative solutions.

Councilors asked if EPCOG could get back into housing rehabilitation grants. Chancey said the council hasn’t done that work for more than a decade, and is currently hampered by the state capping administration expenses at 5%.

Chancey said the council would be glad to set up a job fair like one it sponsored in Clovis recently, which featured about four dozen employers and more than 400 job seekers.

“People are wanting to work,” Chancey said. “They just don’t know where to go.”

As part of its vote, the council also retained Veronica Cordova as its voting representative and Daniel Boan as the alternate.

In other business at the Tuesday meeting:

• The council introduced an ordinance to repeal Ordinance 741 covering collective bargaining and fall into line with state guidelines. The final decision on repealing the ordinance is scheduled for the July 20 council meeting.

• Portales’ portion of a loan/grant between the Water Trust Board and the Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority was approved.

The $5.793 million award is 90% grant, 10% loan. Portales, which has a 21.75% share in water authority expenses, would cover about $126,000 of the 20-year note. Authority Administrator Orlando Ortega said the payments are covered in the city’s annual dues to the authority.

The money will be used on Finished Water 3, which will take the authority’s pipeline project from Cannon Air Force Base to Portales. The authority is building the pipeline locally before its eventual connection to the Ute Reservoir in Quay County.

Mayor Ron Jackson, who is vice chair of the authority board, said he feels the project has great momentum and instead of just dreaming about project completion 50 years from now, “I’m thinking we’ll see (significant completion) in eight to 10 years; we’ll see it in our lifetimes.”

Councilors Jake Lopez and Oscar Robinson, the two elder members of the council, joked they weren’t so sure the statement applied to the entire council.

• The council approved a usage agreement between the city and Portales Municipal Schools, with school athletic facilities hosting city league sports and some city properties serving as home fields for Portales High teams.

Recreation Director Jodi Diaz said the agreement is similar to prior years, except this year’s version is consolidated instead of one agreement per facility. Also, the agreement temporarily eliminates Brown Early Childhood Center from the fold because of upcoming construction.

• The council approved an updated joint powers agreement with the New Mexico Municipal League.

Deputy City Clerk Carla Weems said the update was necessary to eliminate some outdated language, and to update the records for various municipalities that lost their copy of the original decades-old agreement.

“We did find our copy,” Weems assured the council.

• The next council meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. July 6 at the Memorial Building.