Meeting roundup: Carbon capture, budgets among this week's topics
FARMINGTON — The City of Farmington and Enchant Energy could apply for grant funding to study placing carbon capture technology on the San Juan Generating Station.
The City Council may approve applying for a U.S. Department of Energy Grant during a special work session at 9 a.m. Tuesday at Farmington City Hall, 800 N. Municipal Drive.
Farmington City Council meetings can be viewed online at fmtn.org. A draft application is available in the council's agenda packet.
Enchant Energy has contracted the engineering firm Sargent & Lundy to complete the feasibility study. The firm has previously conducted a carbon capture feasibility study on the San Juan Generating Station for Public Service Company of New Mexico.
The results of the carbon capture feasibility study will likely determine if the San Juan Generating Station remains open after 2022.
The City Council will also discuss the preliminary budget for fiscal year 2020 as well as short and long-term project priorities for the Community Transformation and Economic Diversification Fund. The fund was created last year when the City Council voted to raise gross receipts tax.
County to learn about food initiatives
The San Juan County Commission will hear a presentation from the local New Mexico State University agriculture extension agent Bonnie Hopkins as well as the manager of San Juan College’s Harvest Food Hub Erin Havens. Hopkins and Havens will discuss various local food initiatives during the presentation.
The commission meets at 4 p.m. Tuesday at the county administration building, 100 S. Oliver Drive in Aztec.
The meeting will include a closed session to discuss the San Juan Generating Station.
Prior to the regular meeting, the commission will have special meeting to discuss the fiscal year 2020 budget. San Juan County has struggled with lower gross receipts tax revenue than it had anticipated this fiscal year. This caused the county to cut spending. Fiscal year 2020 begins July 1.
The special meeting begins at 12:30 p.m. in the administrative conference room.
Farmington school board to discuss home school policy
The Farmington Municipal School Board will meet at 5:15 p.m. Thursday in the Central Office Board Room at 2001 N. Dustin Ave. The board will discuss changes to its policy regarding home school students.
Prior to its regular meeting, the school board will have a work session starting at 3:45 p.m. The board will discuss its budget for fiscal year 2020.
Interim committee topics include school district budgets
Public Education Department Secretary Karen Trujillo will discuss school district fiscal year 2020 budgets and the implementation plan for complying with the court decision in Yazzie and Martinez v. New Mexico during an interim Legislative Finance Committee meeting.
The court ruled that the state does not adequately invest in public education and did not provide programs to help underserved students in public schools. The case led the state Legislature to increase funding for public education by $480 million in the next fiscal year.
The discussion is scheduled for 1 p.m. Wednesday, however the committee will meet from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Wednesday and from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday in room 322 of the state capitol building in Santa Fe.