Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
The Quay County Commission on Monday approved a preliminary budget of $15.08 million for the upcoming fiscal year that includes $1-an-hour pay increases for county employees.
The budget for the 2021-2022 fiscal year must be submitted to the state by June 1, and the county commission will approve a final budget by July. The previous year’s preliminary budget was $16.16 million.
Finance Director Cheryl Simpson said “I feel comfortable” with the proposed budget. The pay increases, she said, rewards employees who continued to work at the courthouse during the COVID-19 pandemic. She said the pandemic had little effect on day-to-day county operations.
Commission Chairman Franklin McCasland said several counties attempted to let employees work remotely during the pandemic, but constituents expressed dissatisfaction with that.
“That’s what we have to do — serve the public — and we can’t do that remotely,” he said.
Simpson briefly described how other budget funds would be spent:
• Road projects that include Quay Roads AP and 63 and a new bridge on Old Route 66 between San Jon and Endee;
• Four firetruck purchases for rural fire departments;
• Changing an emergency manager and rural addressing positions from part time to full time;
• Improvements to the jail;
• Internet technology upgrades to the emergency dispatcher office;
• $1 million in support to Trigg Memorial Hospital;
• $3 million in building improvements and computer system upgrades.
Simpson acknowledged $1.6 million in federal coronavirus relief funds to the county — with an $800,000 installment anticipated by next month — were a “wildcard” that officials would have to spend carefully.
County manager Daniel Zamora agreed with Simpson, saying the guidelines are vague and that the county “will go slow” on spending the funds. Simpson said that money probably can be spent for the sheriff’s department, jail, emergency services and broadband infrastructure.
During other business at the meeting:
• Commissioners approved $10,000 in support to Tucumcari MainStreet that will be split between this summer’s Fired Up Fridays and the Tucumcari Railroad Museum.
Connie Loveland, executive director of Tucumcari MainStreet, said the $5,000 to the museum, which MainStreet took over operations last year, will be used to improve displays, buy a bookcase to catalog historic documents, upgrading the website and bringing a Dawson Railway historian for a presentation. The museum’s hours are from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday.
Fired Up Fridays, which occurs each third Friday at the railroad plaza through September, replaces the annual Fired Up festival that was canceled for a second straight year because of the pandemic.
When asked about the completion of the Second Street project in downtown, Loveland said the asphalt lacks proper compaction and would lead to potholes. She said city officials are recommending full removal of the asphalt and laying down a new road surface. She acknowledged “it’s beyond frustrating” for the project’s delays.
• Commissioners also approved a memorandum of agreement with the New Mexico Department of Health of Primary Health Care Act services that would provide $111,920 in funding, the same as last year.
• Commissioners approved an acceptance of award terms for the American Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Fund.
• Commissioners approved a New Mexico Finance Authority agreement of a $150,000 loan to help purchase two firetrucks for the Nara Visa Fire Department.
• Commissioners approved a federal Emergency Management Performance Grant application for $21,228 that would cover one-half of the emergency manager’s salary and benefits. Zamora, who was emergency manager before being hired as county manager this spring, said the new emergency manager would take office June 1.
• Zamora said gross-receipts tax revenue has been a “roller coaster” from month to month, but the county had received 100% of its budgeted amount with one month remaining in the fiscal year.