A courthouse renovation project in southeastern New Mexico may be in line for up to $1 million in state funding.
Local officials in Lea County have long wanted to update the historic Lea County Courthouse, which is located at 100 North Main Avenue in the city of Lovington.
The Art Deco building, a New Deal-era Works Progress Administration project designed by famed southwestern architect Orville Walker in 1936, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
If members of the New Mexico State Legislature approve, the courthouse renovation project would receive exactly $1 million in capital outlay funding.
That money would go for not only the renovation work itself, but any planning, design, or construction activity that the project may entail.
The Lea County Courthouse renovation is one of more than five hundred projects submitted by the state’s Local Government Division for capital outlay funding this year.
The requests range in size from the $7,000 to improve a performance stage at the Jemez Springs Public Library in Jemez Springs, to $65 million for planning, design, and building upgrades to the Kiva Auditorium at the Albuquerque Convention Center.
Other large requests include $10 million for the planning, design, and building of an Asian American community center in Albuquerque; and $5 million for facility construction and improvements at the Roswell International Air Center.
A request of $2.6 million is for a storage and distribution center that will be a part of the Mesilla Valley Community of Hope in Las Cruces; while $1 million will go for the planning, design, and building of a new animal control facility in Clovis.
By Garry Boulard
