Prowers County Board of Commissioners meeting August 27, 2024

In its morning work session, the Board heard updates from Paula Gonzales regarding the Administrative Office.  Judy Wittman, County Treasurer also presented an update which showed that July’s numbers are “in line with where we need to be”.  Revenue is up compared to this date in 2023.

Jenny Navarrette, director of the Domestic Safety Resource Center, spoke to the Commissioners about the need for extra funding for the center.  Currently, the center relies on two main grants for funding.  The first is from the VALE fund (Victim Assistance Law Enforcement) which provides funds from court fees and fines.  Due to a reduction in these fees, the grant was reduced from $50,500 to $20,000.  The second grant is from  VOCA (Victims of Crime Act), which also decreased from $111,837 to $81,641.  This loss of approximately $60,000 has had a large impact on the services they can provide.  Ms. Navarrette said she is asking both Prowers and Baca counties (areas most served by her office) if they can help offset this loss of funding.  She also explained that they have had an increase in the number of domestic violence victims this year which compounds the problem.  She said they are also working with the city to see if they can provide office space to help with costs, as well as working with WalMart and Safeway to add an option upon check-out whereby customers can round up their purchase or donate a specific amount to help, as they are a non-profit organization.  The Commissioners asked her to work out an exact amount she is asking for along with supporting data and present it at their next meeting which will be prior to new budget discussions.  Commissioner Grasmick told her “we can’t promise we can help but we can promise that we will look at it.”

Talara Coen, Principal at Alta Vista Charter School addressed the Board concerning their contract with Prowers Area Transport for bus service for students.  This year’s number of students is just below the threshold stipulated in the contract.  The Commissioners told her that, rather than re-write the contract if there is a possibility that student numbers could increase, they would prefer to leave the contract as is and re-visit this later to see if any changes have occurred.

The afternoon session had 21 action items on the agenda as well as 5 previously tabled items.  However, the afternoon meeting was scheduled to begin with multiple Executive Sessions before moving to these and in order to get this week’s Prowers Journal printed, we could not attend the late session but will report any significant news that may result from it.

By Barbara Crimond