Eddy County Commission Chair James Bowen opened the April 16 Eddy County Commission meeting by apologizing for “dropping the ball” on the proposed review of plans for a new Eddy County Complex that would include a new courthouse, new detention center, and new administration/facilities building.
“A project of this magnitude should receive public input and the public should be involved in the decision making on this,” said Bowen.
The commission voted to table the motion until the completion of two town hall meetings, one at the Eddy County Courthouse and one in Artesia. The Carlsbad meeting will run from 6-8 p.m. Wednesday, April 24, at the courthouse and may be joined via Zoom at us06web.zoom.us/j/89892439843. Artesia’s meeting will be held from 6-8 p.m. Monday, April 29, at City Hall and can be joined via Zoom at us06web.zoom.us/j/86910912818.
In the previous several days, many Eddy County residents voiced their objection to building a new courthouse, including hundreds of emails, phone calls and social media posts. The current courthouse was built in 1891.
“Thank you for everybody that reached out,” said Bowen. “I spoke to 500 of you in the last 48 hours. Not one person was in support of anything going forward with the courthouse. It made me realize that I dropped the ball in not having a public town hall. I hope what we’ve done today rectifies that. I hope holding the meeting in the courthouse will allow everyone to see what we’re talking about. I encourage people to show up.”
“The public opinions matter very much,” said District 5 Commissioner Sarah Cordova. “We didn’t do our due diligence and get public input before this came out. The Detention Center has been a very big issue to me. We desperately need some changes in our detention center for our employees’ safety and the residents’ safety. Transparency is the most important thing we can do. Please make the time to come to the upcoming town hall meetings.”
District 2 Commissioner Jon Henry said the slowdown is necessary to make sure all potential possibilities are looked at.
“I also want to be clear this commission has no intention of selling or tearing down
the current courthouse,” he said. “It’s an incredibly importance piece to Carlsbad. We would also never stop any use of the front lawn. I think we do need to have more community understanding and discussion.”
“I was born and raised in Carlsbad,” said District 1 Commissioner Ernie Carlson. “The courthouse is a centerpiece of the community and it’s a historical building. I would never vote to do anything that would degrade it, sell it, or tear it down. We need to do something that makes sure there’s preservation funding for that courthouse in the future.”
District 3 Commissioner Fred Beard commented, “That magnificent old building will still be closed to the public as long as it’s a courthouse. That is requisite security under state law; you’ve got to keep that place shut down. That courthouse is a museum. The southwest architecture in that thing is magnificent.”
An Otis resident spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting regarding the opening of bids to tear down the Otis gym. He said he doesn’t see any structural issue and asked to hold a town hall meeting regarding the subject before May 7.
The resident said he had heard the county plans to build a $600,000 splash pad at that location. Carlson said the Otis gym was brought to the commission about five years ago and the board was informed at that time it wasn’t repairable.
“The vote was to divest ourselves of that property,” said Carlson. “That was advertised and there wasn’t a single person to protest the Otis gym at that time. It wasn’t something that was done behind the scenes.”
Henry shared that the money for the splash pad is capital outlay money from Santa Fe.
The commission voted to change the county website address to end with the .gov domain. Eddy County currently has a .us domain of co.eddy.nm.us, which was originally issued to state and local governments. Now, .us domains are available to any U.S. citizen or foreign entity affiliated with the U.S.
Since 2023, the Cyber Security and Infrastructure Agency (CISA), part of Homeland Security, began promoting that state, local and tribal governments register for a .gov domain since it is associated with official government information. This means all the county email addresses will change and anywhere these addresses are listed will be updated, such as business cards, which have a replacement cost of $230-$240 each for 500 cards.
The commission also voted to explore options for a new Eddy County logo. Eddy County Manager Roberta Gonzales brought forth the proposal to change the logo at the same time as the change to the .gov domain so as to make all the changes at once with business cards, letterhead, emails, marketing and branding tools, digitizing for embroidery, etc. The next steps would be putting together drafts of a new logo and have the commission vote on them.
Eddy County Sherriff Mark Cage reported three cadets will graduate from the Law Enforcement Academy next month. They also have 10 certified applicants to choose from right now and will be fully staffed fairly quickly.
“We are doing something right in Eddy County,” said Cage. “I’ve never seen this.”
The sheriff’s department has two deputies and the commander of the drug task force receiving awards from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. New Mexico was also awarded the national High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) award and Cage recently attended the awards ceremony. He said the award is due in large part to the Pecos Valley Drug Task Force who do incredibly good work. Cage also encouraged everybody to think about and act on creating secure parking at the courthouse for judges.
Eddy County Fire and Rescue Chief Joshua Mack reported the county has 30 first responders, 30 basic EMTs, eight advanced EMTs, and seven paramedics for a total of 48 licensed personnel. Mack also reported there are 10 staff actively testing and seven in classes right now.
The commission approved an over-hire for the Eddy County Payroll Manager position. The current payroll manager will be transitioning to a new position on Jan. 1, 2025, and this will allow the county to hire a new payroll manager by July 1 and provide six months of training.
The commission also approved a budget adjustment of $1 million for civil site and utilities design on the Corrales/West Loop intersection at U.S. 62/180 (National Parks Highway) in Carlsbad.
The commission voted to award RFP 24-02 to Emulsified Sealing Services for Eddy County and partnering counties.
Eddy County recognized the following employees with service awards:
- Timothy Howard, Sheriff’s Office – 20 Years
- Raymond Wissiup, Sheriff’s Office – 10 Years
- Danny Smith, Sheriff’s Office – 5 Years
- Garrett Silva, Sherriff’s Office – 5 Years
- Michelle Boudrie, Sherriff’s Office – 5 Years
- Gilberto Ramos, Public Works – 15 Years
- Patricia Carrasco, Finance – 15 Years
- Kenneth Dewey, Detention Center – 10 Years
The commission approved the following:
Resolutions: - R-24-34; G23SN0017A Region VI Drug Task Force Modification #2 – Pecos Valley DTF (Companion resolution to A-24-39)
- R-24-35; G23SN0017A Region VI Drug Task Force Modification #3 – Region VI Admin (Companion resolution to A-24-40)
- R-24-36; Eddy County Donation of Land Parcels to NMDOT (Companion resolution to A-24-41)
- R-24-38; Resolution for NMDOT Transportation Project Funding (TPF) Application 2024
Agreements: - A-24-39; G23SN0017A Region VI Drug Task Force Modification #2 – Pecos Valley DTF (Companion Agreement to R-24-34)
- A-24-40; G23SN0017A Region VI Drug Task Force Modification #3 – Region VI Admin (Companion Agreement to R-24-35)
- A-24-41; Eddy County Donation of Land Parcels to NMDOT (Companion agreement to R-24-36)
- A-24-42; FY 2023-2024 Annual audit services with Carr, Riggs, & Ingram, LLC
- A-24-43; Request Approval of Memorandum of Understanding between Office of the Secretary of State and Eddy County for an Election Security Subgrant
- A-24-44; Vector Solutions agreement
- A-24-45; PowerDMS agreement
