Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
Jim Morgan, left, director of the wind energy program at Mesalands Community College, talks with Tucumcari Mayor Ruth Ann Litchfield and Mesalands President John Groesbeck as Litchfield shares a certificate proclaiming American Wind Week in Tucumcari Aug. 5-11. The ceremony was part of Thursday's Tucumcari City Commission meeting.
A single rose in a vase marked the place where the mayor pro tem, Tucumcari District 4 Commissioner Robert Lumpkin, would have sat at Thursday's city commission meeting.
Lumpkin passed away on July 17, and the commission spent some time to honor Lumpkin's memory at Thursday's meeting.
Lumpkin's daughter Shannon Lumpkin addressed the meeting.
Her father was "passionate about what he could do in the city. He was all about the people."
She told of walking with Lumpkin at Sipapu Lodge as she learned to use a prosthetic leg after cancer surgery. It was there, she said, that Lumpkin got the idea to install the disc golf park at Five-Mile Park in Tucumcari.
"He always had ideas of wanting to help people," she said.
Audience members later proposed that the disc golf course and maybe even Five-Mile Park be named in honor of Lumpkin.
The commission voted to name District 5 Commissioner Todd Duplantis as mayor pro tem. The mayor pro tem presides over city commission meetings in the absence of the mayor.
In other matters, cash shortages in city budgets raised concerns as the commission approved budget adjustments for the last quarter of the 2017-2018 fiscal year and approved a budget for the 2018-2019 fiscal year.
City government fiscal years begin on July 1 of one year and end on June 30 of the next.
The city closed out fiscal year 2018, which ended June 30, with a cash balance of $489,990, a city budget document stated.
The city should have more available to cover contingencies, however, City Manager Britt Lusk told the commission.
Lusk told the commission he has given high priority to achieving better control of budgets and spending to increase cash reserves.
He added the city needs to improve money management and record-keeping to avoid repeats of the unfavorable audit the city received from the New Mexico Office of the State Auditor this year for its 2017 records.
The city received a rating of "disclaimer," which the auditor's office said is unfavorable and indicates incomplete records.
The audit report shows that two factors weighed heavily in that report, and Lusk agreed with the findings. One was the city had changed its financial record-keeping program and city administrators were still adjusting. The other was that both the city manager and city finance director left their jobs while the audit was conducted. City Manager Jared Langenegger resigned in March and the city's finance director Dennis Dysart retired at the end of 2017. Lusk has replaced Langenegger and Rachelle Arias has replaced Dysart.
The commission on Thursday also authorized the city's community development department to seek state funding for improvements on the Hoover water tank west of the city and a pipeline that delivers water from there to the city.
Community Development Project Manager Ralph Lopez said funding would come from the State Drinking Water Revolving Loan fund of the New Mexico Department of Finance Authority.
The commission also:
• Rejected the single bid for engineering on the Second Street resurfacing project downtown, which will eventually resurface Second Street from Railroad Avenue to Historic Route 66 because the bid was more than 10 percent higher than funds budgets for the project.
• Delayed action on moving $75,000 in lodgers' tax proceeds from the lodgers' tax executive fund to a Convention Center fund to finance remodeling and upgrades for the Tucumcari Convention Center.
• Approved an allocation of $62,111 to fund the city's share of funds to operate the Tucumcari Senior Citzens Center. The local funds are added to about $30,900 in federal funds and $160,300 in state Non-Metro Area Agency on Aging funds to bring the total available for senior center operations to more than $292,200.
• Proclaimed Aug. 5 through Aug. 11 as American Wind Week in cooperation with the wind energy training and education programs at Mesalands community College.
• Heard Lusk report on progress city crews are making to clean up city-owned property on the north side of the city, where residents say they have received citations for overgrown lots while city lots are not maintained. Lusk also said he is looking into selling some city-owned properties to private interests to reduce costs and increase tax rolls.
