FEMA funds added to road budget

Quay County commissioners approved adding $66,380 to Quay County road and emergency management budgets at their Monday morning meeting.

The money was paid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to the county as reimbursement for expenses the county incurred in cleaning up after the blizzards and heavy snows of the mammoth Goliath storm in December 2015.

The House area was especially hard-hit, according to County Manager Richard Primrose. It represents 75 percent of the approximately $88,400 the county spent to plow roads and repair damage in the storm’s aftermath.

Commissioners also took the following actions on Monday,

• Authorized the Quay County Sheriff’s Department to receive $24,200 in Law Enforcement Protection Funds from the New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration. The money will be used to buy and repair as yet unspecified law enforcement equipment, Primrose said.

• Authorized Fire Marshal Don Adams to obtain a brush truck from the Dexter Fire Department. Dexter has declared the truck, built on a 1988 Dodge 3500 truck body, to be surplus, but with a new engine and pump motors, Adams said, it will be a “plum addition” to Fire District 2’s fleet.

• Heard a report from Gail Sanders, executive director of the Tucumcari/Quay County Chamber of Commerce about chamber’s activities in the past year.

Sanders said the chamber is participating in planning efforts that include the Stronger Economies Together regional plan that also involves Guadalupe, DeBaca and Torrance counties and the Metropolitan Redevelopment Agency and Great Blocks programs focusing on downtown Tucumcari. Sanders also mentioned regular chamber activities, including “lunch bags” for state legislators that include maps, visitors’ guides, and samples of locally produced food and information on the holiday Parade of Lights and Home Decoration contest.

The chamber received $8,000 from the county for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30.

• Heard an annual report from the Quay County Assessor’s Office.

Since 2016, the net taxable value of Quay County properties has risen by more than $1.4 million, said a report from Assessor Vic Baum. That is 6.8 percent above 2016 total taxable property value of about $201.2 million, according to a report from the New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration.

— Compiled by QCS Correspondent Steve Hansen