Public Works Committee Regular Meeting - July 23, 2025
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Public Works Committee Regular Meeting - July 23, 2025
The Clovis Public Works Committee met on July 23, 2025, at 8:30 AM in the North Annex. The committee discussed residential street lighting funding, voted to remove a median on Texas Street, received updates on city infrastructure projects and Clovis Municipal Schools construction and youth programs, and recognized volunteer committee members.
Consent Calendar
- Approval of Minutes: The minutes from the May 28, 2025 meeting were approved by motion and second, with no dissent recorded.
Discussion Items
- Residential Street Lighting: Justin Howalt presented an update on capital outlay funding for residential street lights. The city recently installed 22 solar street lights in District 3 at a cost of about $20,000 per light. A new $200,000 allocation is expected. GIS mapping identified 301 intersections without a street light within 100 feet, with district breakdowns: District 1 (68), District 2 (89), District 3 (78), District 4 (66). Howalt recommended a systematic approach, potentially continuing focus on District 3 per the state representative's intent, but also suggested completing areas before moving to others. Committee members discussed balancing needs across districts and considering crime hotspots, though crime data did not clearly correlate with lighting. No vote was taken; the item will return at a future meeting for a recommendation.
- Medians on Texas Street: Justin Howalt proposed removing the median at Texas Street and Prince Street, which was originally installed to enforce right-in/right-out traffic when Walmart was built. After NMDOT's Prince Street improvements, the median is no longer needed for traffic control but has become a location for panhandlers. A quote from K Barnett to remove the median and repave was $8,600 plus tax. A motion to approve the removal and paving passed with a voice vote: all in favor except one "nay." The recommendation will be forwarded to the City Commission.
Reports
- City Update (Justin Howalt & Clint Bunch):
- Martin Luther King project: about one month left; delayed by utility issues and rain.
- Main Street improvement project: bids received over budget; value engineering completed; will go to City Commission on July 29 for award to Nick Griego and Sons.
- Purdue and Eccles project: ongoing; storm drain system construction slowed by rain and a water line break; originally expected completion in August, now delayed.
- Goodwind Trails: parking lot paved; drainage improvements and playground installation remain.
- SERPTO transportation project fund: applications presented; results expected from State Transportation Commission in August.
- MAP funding received: medians at 21st and Prince streets (west leg) and signal replacement at Thornton and 7th Street.
- K Barnett residential paving in districts: Fairway Terrace and Sandia Street done; additional concrete work at 14th and Prince.
- Flashing radar speed signs installed on Hull Street, noted for slowing traffic.
- Schools Update (Jay Brady, Garek Sherrod, Mr. Hill):
- District construction: Barrie Elementary 99% complete; Marshall Auditorium lighting and sound finished; Norcom seating replacement reducing capacity by 300 seats; CHS B-building renovations for offices (completion by Aug. 8); library and office renovations at CHS; Freshman Academy renovations; roofs at Marshall and Sandia.
- Youth sports partnership: Reported participation numbers: flag football (637), volleyball (519), basketball (924), average 693 participants per season for free. Summer camps averaged 457 participants per week across sports and fine arts. New sports for 2025-26 include indoor soccer, cheer/dance clinics, and a field day. High school athletes and coaches lead the programs. The goal is to retain students and increase graduation rates.
- GO Bond for high school: The school board approved a resolution for a $20 million GO bond levy (no tax increase) for a three-phase, 10-12 year renovation and replacement of Clovis High School. Phase 1: lecture hall, band annex, systems upgrades; Phase 2: new two-story CHSFA (freshman academy) building; Phase 3: remaining areas including locker rooms. The bond would cover the district's 39% match for state funding. School flashers will be relocated to 21st Street, and parking enforcement in neighborhoods will increase with permits for residents.
Key Outcomes
- Median Removal Approved: Motion to remove the median on Texas Street and pave the area passed (majority in favor, one nay); forwarded to City Commission.
- Street Lighting Deferred: No recommendation made; staff to bring back a refined plan at a future meeting.
- Future Meetings: Next regular meeting scheduled for August 27, 2025 at 8:30 AM.
Meeting Transcript
Start over. Sure. Call the meeting to order with the clerk Carl Roe. Mayor Pro Tem Bryant. Cliff Martin. Here. Lynn Bose. Here. Isaac Crispin. Here. Commissioner Zamora. Here. Commissioner Porter? Here. Commissioner Jones. Randy Rodriguez. All right. I'd like to entertain if everybody's had a chance to read the um minutes from the last and get an approval for the minutes from May 28th. You need an approval. Yes, please. I moved to approve the minutes. Second. Second. All right. Uh underdue business. Uh discussion and recommendation regarding residential street lighting. Justin. Hold on. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. So the city of Clovis, we applied for Capital LA funding during the last legislative session once again for residential street lighting. And uh if you recall last uh legislative seat, the previous one before last year, uh we also had received uh uh capital LA for residential street lighting. Uh at that time, or we actually have just completed installing 22 uh new solar street lights uh in the community, and those were focused on district three. And so what I wanted to do, and and we don't have to make a actual recommendation today, but I just wanted to get because we don't have a grant agreement in place yet, but wanted to you start thinking about where we could potentially install this next set of street lights. Uh when we asked for them and we started talking about it, we were thinking about district three again. And so what I had our GIS uh consensus planning do is actually go out and map for us where we have street lights and where we do not have street lights in the community. And so that's what you see that's on on this particular handout. Uh everything that you see in I'm gonna say blue is actually streetlights owned by Excel Energy. Uh and then everything that you see in a pinkish red color, mainly on the east side of town and north side of town, are the street lights that are owned by Farmers Electric. Uh everything that has a red circle around it are intersections that do not have street lights at them currently. Uh since we did have the information available to us and obviously uh knew how many intersections we have in town. I actually had them run the numbers by district on the number of intersections that do not have street lights. Um I was kind of surprised at how evenly it was across all four of our districts. And so when you look at uh the top total there, so total intersections without a street light within a hundred feet, and so either our intersections are closer together or there's just a light that's randomly near the intersection, because we now require all intersections to have street lights in our code. Um so that's how they came up with these numbers. But uh district one has 68 intersections, district two has eighty-nine intersections, district three has seventy-eight intersections, and district four has sixty-six intersections for a total of three hundred and one intersections without uh currently without residential street lights. And so like I said, I was really surprised at how evenly spaced out it was across uh all of the districts when it comes to this. One thing that I think that we should think about as we go through this process, rather than randomly saying, okay, let's put three over here in district one, three over here in district two. Is let's start coming up with a plan to try to work our way across the city versus randomly spreading them out. And so that way we can complete maybe an area or a block, um, and then the following year we'd move on to the next block.
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