Water project gets final approval

The Tucumcari City Commission on Thursday gave final approval to arrangements to fund a $5.5 million project that will divert treated water from the city’s wastewater treatment facility to a nearby field to irrigate crops.

The commission authorized a package that includes $770,000 in local funds and a $4.7 million, no-interest loan through the New Mexico Environment Department’s Clean Water State Revolving Loan Program.

The loan will be repaid from wastewater treatment plant revenues, Lusk said at an earlier meeting.

The city will pump the treated water to irrigate 318 acres of cropland next to the treatment plant the city has arranged to buy from local farmer Jack Smith for $427,000.

The city devised the plan to comply with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency requirements to keep treated wastewater out of streams leading to waterways.

At a public work session before Thursday’s meeting, the commission heard Joe Dean, owner of Lumenscapes, a Santa Fe lighting design firm, talk about his plan over a period of three to five years to renovate the Princess Theater, which has been abandoned for decades on Main Street. Remodeling the Princess has been a focus of efforts to revitalize the downtown area.

Dean said he hopes to renovate the theater in two phases.

The first he said would be developing “a bar and a museum.”

He said the museum would be “an immersive experience” like Meow Wolf, the walk-through art and museum facility in Santa Fe where visitors can experience different interactive art displays as they walk through the facility.

Dean has also designed lighting and electrical systems for the Meow Wolf.

In addition, he said, the museum space would be arranged to allow exhibits to change frequently.

A second phase would be to install a performing arts space in the theater for live music and theater.

Funding, Dean admitted, is uncertain, but he said he is working with “strategic partners” on plans that would include grants and private spending.

“We want place that will get people off the highway and have some appeal to the people in the community,” he said.

First, Dean acknowledged, the Princess still needs major renovations, and finding such funding continues to be a focus of Tucumcari MainStreet.

At the workshop, commissioners also discussed installing micro-transmitters at the city’s murals and other landmarks that would broadcast background information visitors could pick up on cellphones. The idea was called “Radio Tours.”

Connie Loveland, executive director of Tucumcari MainStreet, presented the idea to commissioners.

At its regular meeting the commission also:

• Approved an ordinance adopting amendments to the state’s traffic code that defines traffic offenses and sets penalties for violations. The city approves such updates annually.

• Approved a change order that would restore $16,000 to the budget for a Community Development Block Grant that has been used for street and water line improvements on the city’s east side.

• Approved a change order for a water-line expansion project on Mountain Road that will allow a larger space to encase larger water lines, Lusk said.

In his city manager’s report, Lusk announced two of the city’s tourism campaign media, a video program featuring artist Doug Quarles and the city’s tourism website, visittucumcarinm.com, had won top prizes in the Top Hat Award program of the New Mexico Hospitality Association. The video program can be viewed on the website.

Lusk also said he had looked into a city planning document from 2007 and learned, even then, resurfacing streets would cost at least $2 million per city commission district.

Doing all the work to restore roadbeds and replacing infrastructure such as water and gas lines under streets would “at least double the cost.”

Working with Loveland, Lodgers Tax Board members and Johnnie Meier, a well-known promoter of Route 66 sites in the state, Lusk said a plan that could declare some of the city’s historic neon signs as landmarks, making it difficult to remove them, is being considered.

Lusk also told commissioners the time had come to consider the city’s Infrastructure Capital Improvement plan (ICIP), which could be assembled as early as December. The ICIP plan serves as a basis for capital outlay allocations from the New Mexico Legislature, as well as a prerequisite in applying for grants, he said.

There was debate on whether the city should present one large project for the legislators to consider, or up to five, as is usually done.

Lusk said some advise that presenting a single project may increase the odds of receiving capital outlay funds, but some commissioners disagreed.