Clovis Public Works Committee Meeting Summary - January 28, 2026
Clovis Public Works Committee Meeting - January 28, 2026
The Clovis Public Works Committee convened on January 28, 2026, to review recent infrastructure completions, approve new capital projects, and discuss future strategic initiatives. Key topics included the allocation of solar-powered street light funding, the potential closure of a railroad crossing, annual residential paving plans, and the utilization of road bond funds for major arterial improvements. The meeting also featured updates from the City Manager and School District Superintendent regarding ongoing construction timelines and facility strategies.
Consent Calendar
- The minutes from the July 23rd meeting were approved unanimously upon motion and second.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Commissioner Zamora: Expressed strong support for installing street lights in District 3 (specifically South Main Street and Brady Avenue) due to current darkness and safety concerns in the area.
- Commissioner Jones: Expressed support for a proposed street light at the intersection of Lew Wallace and Colonial Estates in District 1, noting that the citizen has requested this for several years and that easements are available.
- Commissioner Porter: Suggested a balanced approach, recommending five street lights in each of the four districts (totaling 20) to ensure equitable distribution, while acknowledging the specific requests.
- Commissioner Zamora (Railroad Closing): Expressed concern regarding emergency access (specifically for ambulances) if the Waldhouser crossing closes and the Brady crossing is also occupied by trains, fearing residents would be forced to travel significantly further to cross.
- Mr. Coyne: Inquired about the technical specifics of the repaving process to confirm it is not merely a cosmetic overlay but a structural reconstruction.
- Mr. Bunch: Extended a formal invitation for all committee members to attend the CERTPO (Southeastern Regional Transportation Planning Organization) meeting on March 4th to observe the state funding approval process.
- Mr. Hobbs (implied): Commended K Barnett Construction for sponsoring the upcoming CERTPO meeting lunch.
Discussion Items
- Solar-Powered Street Lights: The Public Works Department proposed installing approximately 20 solar-powered lights using funds from the 2025 legislative session. The city analyzed intersections missing lights within 100 and 150 feet. Commissioners discussed balancing district requests (specifically District 3's South Main Street and District 1's Lew Wallace/Colonial Estates) against equitable distribution.
- Railroad Crossing Closure: The city was notified by BNSF and NMDOT of a proposal to close the at-grade railroad crossing at Waldhouser due to low traffic volume (274 vehicles/day) compared to the Brady Avenue crossing (4,049 vehicles/day). The alternate route adds approximately one to two and a half minutes to travel time.
- Residential Paving Areas: Public Works recommended paving specific streets to utilize an approximately $1 million budget: Ennsdale Terrace (District 1), Axtel Street (District 2), 12th Street (District 3), and Christopher Drive (District 4), with an option to address Elm Street with excess funds.
- Road Bond Projects: The committee discussed utilizing the $3.2 million road bond for two major paving projects: repaving Main Street from 8th to 21st Street (including lane reduction, turn lanes, bike lanes, and parallel parking) and repaving 14th Street between Norris and Prince Street. Both projects are estimated to cost approximately $1.63 million each.
- City Updates (Mr. Hovalt): Reported the completion of the MLK project and ongoing Main Street and Purdue/Eccles storm drain works. Discussed Goodwin Trails progress and the upcoming 21st Street project which includes median replacements and access control changes affecting the Walgreens entrance.
- School District Updates (Mr. Brady): Discussed the final stages of the football/soccer field replacement and the initiation of the Clovis High School renovation/replacement planning. Announced a decision to retain the Rain Tree property to convert it into a food service facility, training center, and banquet hall, thereby avoiding a $3 million new build at the high school. Emphasized the critical need for the February 12th Capital Improvement Act tax election for facility maintenance. Highlighted that Clovis school district reading scores (Lexile) outperform surrounding states, contradicting state-wide rankings.
Key Outcomes
- Motion Approved: The committee approved the installation of approximately five solar-powered street lights in each of the four districts (totaling 20), with explicit consent from district commissioners to prioritize the lights in District 1 (Lew Wallace/Colonial Estates) and District 3 (South Main/Brady).
- Motion Approved: The committee unanimously approved the list of residential paving recommendations for the current fiscal year (Ennsdale Terrace, Axtel Street, 12th Street, and Christopher Drive).
- Referral Made: The road bond projects (Main Street and 14th Street repaving) were not voted on; the Public Works Department will return with finalized contractor estimates before a final decision is made.
- Administrative Action: The school district board (reported by Superintendent) approved a resolution to remove the Rain Tree property from the "for sale" list to repurpose it for food service and training.
- Future Planning: The 21st Street project will proceed with a structural pavement design involving lime stabilization and concrete median replacement, funded by transportation and MAP funds.
- Next Meeting: Scheduled for Wednesday, February 25, 2026, at 8:30 PM.
Meeting Transcript
Even if they just made the skills of things to say that I think you know we'll still do it once a month. Okay, we'll go ahead and call the committee to order of the uh public works committee. And Ms. Falcon, will you call roll, please? Mayor Pro Tem Bryant. Here. Commissioner Zamora. Commissioner Porter. Commissioner Jones. Clifford Martin. Here. Len Voe. Here. Randy Rodriguez. Here. Donald Goings. Here. Okay. Thank you. I also welcome Donald Goines is our new member for public work. We appreciate your interest in this committee. Thank you. Thank you for doing it. Okay, we're down to approval of the minutes from July twenty-third. Is there any correction, or do we have a motion to approve? Motion to approve. Second. All those in favor, take the common saying aye. Moves on to new business. And it allowed us to install around twenty uh solar-powered street lights throughout the community. It's kind of interesting that uh we received the money during the twenty twenty-five legislative session. We are now in the twenty twenty-six legislative session, so that kind of shows you how long sometimes it takes us to get the grant agreements in place uh from the state uh in order for us to go and utilize uh those capital outlay funds. Um, on packet page 14 uh in your packets, uh, we worked with uh our GIS uh folks, and they actually in as well as got data from Excel Energy and Farmers Electric on all the street lights that we have in town. Uh and then we analyzed the the intersections that do not have street lights at them. Uh and so we actually have it broken down in two different tables there. You'll see one where we don't have a street light within one hundred feet of an intersection, uh, and the other table shows where we don't have a street light within a hundred and fifty feet of the intersect of an intersection. Uh it's broken down by each district, so one, two, three, and four. Uh I'm just gonna use the top table for the example here. Uh within a hundred feet, we have a total intersections of three hundred and one uh intersections without street lights at them. Uh there are sixty-eight in district one, eighty-nine in district two, seventy-eight in uh district three, and sixty-six in district four. On packet pages uh ten through thirteen, uh we've provided kind of the each district uh shown there. So district is on packet page 10 is district three, they're not in order. Uh packet page 11 is district two. Packet page 12 is district uh one and packet page 13 is district four. We have had requests um in district one as well as in district three for the street lights. Uh in District Three, which is on packet page ten, uh we've had individuals request street lights down uh South Main Street in Navajo. Uh and so that's on the very southern portion of District 3. Uh and you can see there's probably about one, two, three, four, five, six, seven lights along uh South Main and then on Kimberley uh that don't have uh street lights at them. In District One, we've received a request for the intersection of Colonial Estates in Lew Wallace. That's up on the northern portion of the district on kind of the top left-hand corner of the page there.
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