Truth or Consequences City Manager Gary Whitehead has gotten the skate park, Foch Street and now the new police building projects out of holding patterns and into construction using the state procurement code’s “design-build” method.
The design build method allows the city and the designer and the builder to confer to adapt what is built to meet the amount of money the city has in hand.
At the July 22 city commission meeting, the city commission approved a nearly $550,000 contract to J. Carrizal General Construction, based in El Paso, to do the “build” part of the design-build project.
The city had hired William Phillip Buckley of Solar Architects, once a resident of Elephant Butte, in August 2025, to do the design part of the design-build project, according to the city’s Chief Procurement Officer Carlos Miyagishima, who spoke to the Citizen on Monday, July 27. He was paid $27,250 from the Police Department’s gross receipts tax fund.
The $550,000 going to J. Carrizal will include interior upfit of the new police building at 210 Main St, as well as a “carport,” said City Manager Gary Whitehead.
According to Miyagishima, the $550,000 will be paid from the following sources:
–$360,000 capital outlay grant from the 2026 session, with 1 percent or $3,600 going to creating an art gallery in what was the bank foyer, which will display New Mexico State approved artists.
–$96,598 T or C Police Department GRT Fund
–$96,221 T or C General Fund
Still to be paid for is “the parking lot and security tech,” Whitehead told the city commission.
In March, Whitehead received permission from the city commission to apply for a $1-million grant from the Solar Access Fund, administered by the New Mexico Finance Authority and created by 2025 House Bill 128. See this prior article for more information:
If the city receives the grant, it will renovate the parking lot and build a solar-panel canopy.
Adding up what has and will be spent on the police building, the city’s general fund will have paid $200,000 for the building purchase and nearly $100,000 for construction. The PD GRT will have paid $230,000 for the building purchase and about $30,000 for design and $100,000 for construction, which totals $660,000.
Whitehead said J. Carrizal has over nine months or 280 days to complete his part of the project, but estimated it will be done in five months, which means the PD may move in around January 2027.