Serving the High Plains

Street upgrades get green light

Commission approves $45K for Second Street repairs from Main to 66.

The Tucumcari City Commission Thursday approved funding for the planning and design of improvements on Second Street from downtown Tucumcari to Historic Route 66.

The commission approved $45,431 in funds, of which $11,358 will be in local tax funds, to be used in 2019 and 2020 to plan and design the resurfacing of Second Street from Main Street to Route 66, Ralph Lopez, a community development project manager, told the commission.

The remaining $34,073 in the package will come from the New Mexico Department of Transportation.

The project will include removing concrete beneath the current asphalt on two downtown blocks, along with new curbs, wheelchair ramps and sidewalks, Lopez said.

“It will take a while,” Lopez said of the Second Street Project, “but we’re making progress.”

The commission also appointed Christopher Arias, a Tucumcari resident, to the city’s planning and zoning commission.

Neither Mayor Ruth Ann Litchfield or Mayor Pro Tem Robert Lumpkin attended Thursday’s meeting. The commission voted to designate District 5 Commissioner Todd Duplantis to preside over the meeting.

The commission agreed to District 1 Commissioner Ralph Moya’s suggestion that presiding duties should rotate among commissioners in future meetings that neither Litchfield nor Lumpkin attend.