Serving the High Plains
QCS Managing Editor
T-4 ranch owner Phil Bidegain has renewed his quest to have 110,000 acres of the T-4 spread transferred to Quay County jurisdiction from San Miguel County, and this time he has company.
The owners of two other properties have joined Bidegain in an effort to have their San Miguel County land designated as Quay County. They are John Mast, owner of the Chappel-Spade ranch, and Sam Arnett and Abby Quinn, owners of the Clabber Hill Ranch, he said.
The Quay County Commission approved the request on Monday.
If all the landowners succeed, Quay County could gain 227,000 acres, a slab of land bounded roughly by the Canadian River on the north, Interstate 40 on the south, Conchas Lake on the east and the current county line on the west.
In property taxes, Quay County could gain about $15,600 a year if the land is annexed, according to Quay County Assessor Janie Hoffman.
Bidegain said a state statute says that a landowner may request to have land transferred to ownership of a neighboring county if no one lives on that property. That statute says that if the land qualifies, the home county “shall” cede the land to a neighboring county at the landowner’s request, Bidegain said, but even he is not convinced that it’s that cut-and-dried.
San Miguel County Manager Les Montoya said Bidegain has appeared twice before the San Miguel County Commission. The commission has told him his request does not meet “strict guidelines” to make the request valid. “He needs to show where he was displeased with our county’s services,” Montoya said, and he has not done so. Bidegain said, however, he has not received an official decision from the commission and may return to seek one.
Bidegain’s current San Miguel property holdings make up about 61 percent of T-4’s 180,000 acres. The rest is spread out in Quay and Guadalupe counties.
Bidegain’s reason for wanting the transfer is that it’s 100 miles from his home in Montoya to Las Vegas, San Miguel County’s seat, compared to 20 miles to Tucumcari, the Quay County seat.
Since he lives in Quay County, he said, his loyalties are here, and he said he’d rather have his tax dollars supporting Mesalands Community College than Luna Community College in Las Vegas.
John Mast of Nacogdoches, Texas, said the portion of his Chappel-Spade Ranch in San Miguel County is also closer to Tucumcari than it is to Las Vegas.
Mostly, he said, “It’s what my neighbors want, and I’m trying to be a good neighbor.”
A side issue for Mast, however, is that San Miguel County has passed a moratorium on drilling for oil and gas, which Mast said could result in lost opportunities.