No cannabis money coming directly to Curry County

Curry County isn’t getting copious amounts of cash from cannabis sales.

Curry County isn’t getting any direct money from cannabis sales.

The topic was brought up during Tuesday’s regular session of the Curry County Commission.

District 5 Commissioner Robert Thornton brought the subject up as he has had constituents point out road repairs they’d like to see in District 5 and wonder why such repairs and other needs aren’t being met with what they believe must be large amounts of money that must be coming in from cannabis sales.

The topic was discussed between Thornton and County Manager Lance Pyle.

Pyle said no money has come to Curry County from cannabis sales gross receipts tax because the county dispensaries are all within municipalities. County government does not share in the municipal excise tax.

Pyle told commissioners he had communicated with Clovis City Manager Justin Howalt about the matter, Howalt reporting even with the cannabis sales in Clovis the city has only received $23,000 in cannabis tax revenue.

In other business at Tuesday’s session an action item was removed from the agenda, action on the viewers report in consideration of closing a mile of CR11 from CR S to CR R.

As the session was wrapping up District 4 commissioner Seth Martin said he wanted the viewing committee to go back to the road and get a better report.

“If the commission doesn’t get a better report, remove the present viewing committee and get another,” Martin said.

The report read in part: “We viewed the road on the 22nd day of September 2022 at 10 a.m. In viewing the road we did the following: We drove the length of the road. We heard public input. We confirmed that property owners with lands adjacent to the road are in favor of closure.”

Committee members wrapped up the report to commissioners by recommending the one-mile closure.

After the meeting Martin commented he believes the viewing committee “did not fulfill their duties, to justify closing the one-mile stretch.”

Thornton requested approval from commissioners for a letter to be drawn up and sent to Holtec International calling on the corporation to provide training for emergency personnel for possible nuclear accidents.

Holtec International is the company that will be running nuclear waste shipments possibly starting in 2026 into New Mexico through Clovis, Portales and Roswell in route to a nuclear waste storage facility in Lea County.

Commissioners voted unanimously to have such a letter written and sent by county staff.

Proclamations were made as part of the meeting designating October as “Cybersecurity Awareness Month” in Curry County, October 2 as “Custodian and Maintenance Appreciation Day” and October 2 through 8 as 4H Week in Curry County.