Hidalgo County approves pay raise, detention center health contract
Commissioners gave elected officials a pay bump, renewed detention-center health care with Roadrunner, and began drafting moratoriums on major land-use projects.
Hidalgo County commissioners approved a slight salary increase for elected officials, renewed a medical services agreement for the county detention center and opened the door to possible moratoriums on data centers, mining and renewable-energy projects.
The salary decision, set out in the July 8 agenda as Resolution 2026-40, applies to terms beginning Jan. 1, 2027 and later. The July 8 agenda also included Roadrunner Health Services Amendment #5 for detention center medical services, continuing a contract line that had already appeared on the county’s April 8 agenda.
Roadrunner Health Services is headquartered in Albuquerque and has served correctional facilities in the Southwest for more than 25 years. It provides inmate medical care, mental health care and behavioral-health services. The detention center has also drawn scrutiny on the security side, after 10 people were arrested in a contraband-smuggling case tied to the Lordsburg facility.
The July 8 agenda called for ordinance drafting on possible moratoriums, or regulation, covering data centers, mining development, geothermal development, solar electric facilities and wind farms.
The same meeting included a presentation on New Mexico Tech wireless towers and a Bureau of Land Management item on mining and geothermal issues. Hidalgo County already has a geothermal precedent in Lightning Dock, which was the state’s only utility-scale geothermal plant at the time in 2024.
County leaders had already encouraged public participation through a July 2 meeting in Animas with guest speakers and a question-and-answer session on proposed data center, mining and geothermal projects. The commission also discussed displaying donated replicas of the Charters of Freedom during the Hidalgo County Courthouse’s 100th anniversary celebration. Regular commission meetings are held the second Wednesday of each month at 5:30 p.m. in the Commission Chambers at 305 Pyramid Street in Lordsburg.
This article was produced by Prism’s automated news system from verified source data, official records, and press releases, then run through automated quality and moderation checks before publishing. The system is built and supervised by the people who set the standards it runs under. Read our full AI policy.
Did this article answer your question?
