Portales ICIP committee reviews awarded capital items, reclassifies park reuse project and directs staff to refine project phases

The City of Portales Infrastructure Capital Improvement Program (ICIP) committee met to update its five‑year project list, remove items already signed into capital outlay by the governor, and prepare a capital‑outlay‑focused version of the ICIP aimed at competitive funding rounds.

The committee noted two recent capital outlay awards: "Okay, so it looks like we have $375,000 to plan and design a storm water drainage comprehensive master plan," and "we have $250,000 to plan, design, construct, expand, equip, and improve the Portales Cemetery," staff member Joe told the group. The chair said awarded items will be removed from the active ask list so the committee does not duplicate requests.

The meeting focused on preparing the ICIP in two ways: (1) the mandated five‑year ICIP that captures all infrastructure needs; and (2) a capital‑outlay version that prioritizes projects that fit the typical $100,000–$750,000 "sweet spot" for legislative funding. "We need to look at ICIP in at least two formats," the chair said, urging members to identify which projects are capital‑outlay eligible and to "rack and stack" them accordingly so staff can make shovel‑ready applications.

Committee members discussed specific projects and strategy. For the 18th Street drainage ask, members said an initial plan/design estimate was roughly $375,000 but a higher‑fidelity package needed to qualify for the Capital Development Project Fund (CDPF) grant raised the combined scope to about $700,000. Staff and members agreed that paying for planning and design is necessary to be competitive for large grants, even if that planning does not immediately fund construction.

A multi‑park project originally listed as "wastewater reuse park improvement" drew particular attention. Staff proposed rewording and reclassifying it as a parks water‑connection project to increase capital‑outlay prospects: "What if we just reverse that? City of Portales park connection to influent water rights," staff suggested. Members agreed to prioritize parks that already have connection points (City Park, Conifer Park, Lindsay Park) so work can proceed with limited environmental permitting, and to use a placeholder FY2028 ask (roughly $225,000) for an initial bundle of easier hookups. The committee also directed staff to break larger park/wastewater concepts into smaller phases aligned with the capital‑outlay sweet spot.

The group discussed project data hygiene and grant strategy. Staff demonstrated the CAPS/SharePoint spreadsheet color coding (green for larger asks, orange for phasing, purple for entries needing attention) and asked department leads to complete descriptions and justification fields. The chair emphasized the need for consistent descriptions so the city presents a unified message to legislators: "Let us work on the city hall side to get that kind of going so it's a little better, more efficient next time we meet."

Equipment and fleet requests were adjusted on the fly: committee members discussed combining small items (for example, a dump trailer priced at about $20,000) with larger vehicle asks to reach capital‑outlay thresholds and improve selection odds. Kelly, speaking for the airport, explained that airport fleet replacement is constrained by enterprise fund rules and that older vehicles incur high maintenance costs.

No formal motions or votes were recorded in the transcript. The committee concluded by directing staff and department heads to finalize project descriptions, provide clearer cost‑estimate breakdowns and supporting documents, and return draft ranked projects for committee review before the scheduled town hall and legislative outreach. Members discussed scheduling a follow‑up meeting prior to the town hall to finalize those materials.

The committee said it will remove items already funded by the governor from the active asks, reclassify and phase larger projects for capital‑outlay competitiveness, and present a cleaned, ranked FY2028 capital‑outlay package at the next review.