San Juan County | Wikipedia Commons/Dicklyon
San Juan County | Wikipedia Commons/Dicklyon
San Juan County is set to receive more than $28 million in funding for capital improvements once the governor signs the final version of the capital outlay funding bill, reported the Farmington Daily Times. The Navajo Nation is set to receive $25 million from the bill with $3 million dedicated to broadband infrastructure.
The bill includes more than $528 million in total funding for projects throughout the state.
The bill works similar to a lottery system with each entity submitting project requests. Legislators then choose which ones to include in the bill. The list of which legislator supports a certain project is not released, the Farmington Daily Times reported.
New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham
| Photo Courtesy of New Mexico Governor's Office
Capital outlay bill funds come from the general budget and severance tax bonds.
A new emergency response command center in Shiprock will receive the most funds of all the allocated projects in San Juan County. The community is divided by the San Juan River and all emergency response vehicles are on the north side of the river. If the bridge was inaccessible for any reason, the southern part of town could be without vital services, according to the Farmington Daily Times.
Once complete, the new command center will house a police substation, a fire station and an ambulance. The $3 million allocated for this project in this year's capital outlay bill is only a third of the total estimated cost of the facility. A request for $500,000 toward a new judicial complex in Shiprock was denied.
Many of Aztec's capital fund requests are going unfunded this year, including improvements at parks; water system and line improvements throughout the city; and new vehicles for the police, animal control and code enforcement. The city will receive $500,000 for an outdoor recreation manufacturing facility possibly located at Riverside Park.
Residents in the Totah subdivision still don't have answers to their water problems, reported the Farmington Daily Times. The best way to provide clean drinking water would be to connect them to the Farmington water and sewer lines, but the price per resident was determined to be too high. Funds were requested from the capital outlay bill but none were granted.
A complete list of San Juan County capital projects included in the final bill can be found here.
Alerts Sign-up