Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
QCS Managing Editor
The Tucumcari City Commission has approved a contract to replace a water well for more than $409,000.
The contract calls for replacement of Well No. 8 at the city’s well field at Five Mile Park, Mark Martinez, project manager told the commission, before it approved the agreement on Feb. 12.
The project will be paid for with state Water Project funds, City Manger Jared Langenegger said.
The well replacement should be completed in May or June, and will give the city the capacity for another 250 gallons per minute of water flow, Martinez said.
The commission also approve changes in the city’s invoice and purchase-order procedures that allows department heads to approve purchases less than $1,000 but requires city manager review of all non-repeating purchases that exceed $1,000, according to the approved policy document.
For purchases between $1,000 and $20,000 in value, the procedure requires at least two prices to be obtained before a decision is reached on which seller to use. Purchses between $20,000 and $60,000 will call for three written quotes and the lowest bid must be used. For purchases over $60,000 a formal bidding process must be used, according to the policy document.
The commission also approved several resolutions that qualify the city to receive federal Community Development Block Grant funds through the Housing and Community Development Act. They included:
• A declaration of Feb. 12 as Fair Housing Day in the city.
• A citizen participation plan that requires the city to encourage citizen participation in public meetings with an emphasis on persons with low and moderate incomes.
• A residential anti-displacement and relocation asistance plan that discourages making people move from their homes because of city development plans, and offers assistance if plans do require residents to move.
• a fair-housing resolution that bars discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, disability, family status or national origin in the sale or lease of housing in the city.
• A “Section 3” resolution that encourages the use of local small businesses and the hiring of low-income residents in city contracting.
The resolutions were necessary to qualify the city for about $500,000 in Community Development Block Grant funds earmarked for low-income areas, Ralph Lopez, project manager, said.
The money will be used for more construction in the Daubs Addition, bounded on the south by Main Street, on the east by Rock Island Street, on the west by First Street and on the north by Union Pacific Railroad tracks, Lopez said.
The construction in the current phase will focus on a few east-west streets, the north-south streets and improvements on north-south water lines, Lopez said.
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