El Paso county offers public works services for small towns

With a number of growing smaller cities developing around the El Paso region, El Paso County commissioners are looking to make it easier for them to get important public works projects done.

“It’s kind of a menu of services that at any point in time they can contact the county in order to receive assistance,” said County Judge Veronica Escobar.

This week the county approved the first of an expected set of interlocal agreements, starting with Anthony.

“The court directed public works in December to go to all the rural municipalities and ask them if they wanted to enter into an interlocal agreement with the county whereby they could request certain public works services,” said Public Works Director Pat Adauto.

The stated idea behind the push is to make it more feasible for small incorporated towns to tackle projects, like much needed road work, without the overhead of individual public works departments.

“The need for striping, and some street resurfacing,” Escobar said. “It is far cheaper for the municipalities to contract with the county than it is for them to either go out to bid on these projects or create their own public works department.”

Individual municipalities will pay the county on a per-project basis. And with less overhead, the hope is to save taxpayer money in the long run. The county will next be discussing an agreement with Vinton for services on Monday.