Most Carlsbad residents woke up to Round 2 of 2021’s arctic weather. Snow continued to fall across Eddy County and the Permian Basin throughout Thursday morning. Highs on Thursday remained below freezing with wind chill values as low as 16 °F. Please, please be careful driving on the icy roads and stay home if you are able to do so.
Schools were originally put on a two-hour delay and then cancelled as an official snow day. Who would have guessed that a week after our schools were finally allowed to open in the hybrid mode that we’d then face the worst winter weather in a decade?
According to a new press release from Xcel Energy, slight improvements in natural gas fuel deliveries and conservation by customers helped to prevent controlled outages on Wednesday. Due to Wednesday night and Thursday morning’s weather, however, the Southwest Power Pool has moved the region into an orange level Energy Emergency Alert. We are optimistic, as of Thursday morning, that this second round of cold weather will clear up quickly. The forecast for Friday is sunny with highs around 52°F. Thanks again to the road crews, first responders, solid waste crews, transit drivers and other members of our workforce who continued to do an excellent job throughout this week’s weather.
We did have some good news on Wednesday in the middle of everything else in that the daily COVID-19 update only indicated four new positive cases for Eddy County. If we can continue with that trend, we will be able to open up a lot more within the next few weeks. Reports we have received have also indicated that the other variable – the “positivity rate” has also gotten very close to where it is supposed to be. Meeting the gating criteria will allow restaurants to open for indoor dining, change the numbers in terms of what defines a “gathering” and allow our school districts some more leeway in terms of some of their policies.
Road update: Eddy County public works announced that it will begin work on Illinois Camp Road on March 1 and continue this project through the end of May. During this time period, Illinois Camp will be limited to a single lane. Construction will consist of sub-grade reclamation preparation and placement of a chipseal.
Finally, the United Way of Eddy County has a scholarship program open through March 5. The focus of this scholarship will be to help support non-traditional scholars. The recipient must be a full-time student in an undergraduate program or attending a technical/vocational school. For more information, please visit https://www.uweddyco.org/scholarship.
Sincerely,
Carlsbad Mayor Dale Janway