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Thursday, March 13, 2008

County and Schools to Share Millions

By Laura Nesbitt
Mountain View Telegraph
    Torrance County and the Estancia School District could potentially receive payments worth up to $14.25 million over the next 30 years because of an ordinance adopted at the Torrance County Commission meeting Wednesday.
    The ordinance authorizes the issuance and sale of a taxable industrial revenue bond for High Lonesome Wind Ranch.
    High Lonesome Wind Ranch will become the first power generating wind farm in the county.
    As part of the industrial revenue bond process, the county will receive payment in lieu of tax, or PILT, that will be split between the county and the school district, County Manager Joy Ansley said.
    The PILT the county and the school district will split could be worth as much as $325,000 a year for 10 years, $500,000 a year for the 10 years after the first decade, and $600,000 a year for the final 10 years, although the parties are "still negotiating" final figures, Ansley said.
    "This is revenue that will have a lot of positive economic impact to the county. We're excited," Ansley said.
    An industrial revenue bond is a tool for counties and cities in the state to attract economic development projects such as the High Lonesome Wind Ranch. Representatives from the wind development project spoke in support of the ordinance to commissioners at the meeting.
    Commissioners voted to delay the industrial revenue bond process at a meeting in January because Commissioner Jim Frost and Paul "Tito" Chavez requested a review of industrial revenue bond material.
    In other county business:
   

Commissioners declared March 29 as Torrance County Health Improvement Day as a way "to bring awareness to public health improvement," Pat Lincoln, the project office coordinator, said. Part of the resolution includes a health fair sponsored by the Partnership for a Healthy Torrance County that is scheduled from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. March 29 at the county fairgrounds in Estancia.
   

Sheriff Clarence Gibson announced that he and Deputy Dominique Smith have joined the Regional Methamphetamine Task Force's 14-member board. Gibson and Smith attended a board meeting with Mayor Martin Chávez in Albuquerque several days ago. "We're charged with coming up with ideas, looking for alternate ways to deal with youth and the meth crisis, and (to see) what other options are available. It's finally looking outside the box," Gibson said in an interview after the meeting.
   

At 10 a.m. today, the Estancia Sixth Grade Energy Conservation Committee will give a presentation to commissioners in the commission chambers requesting that the county begin a recycling program.