New Mexico American Water Company has reached an agreement with the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission to drop its request to increase Clovis water rates this year. City Attorney Dave Richards told the city commissioners on Thursday the company may file another rate case next year. Under the agreement, New Mexico American Water will continue to charge a surcharge it enacted in 2001 to pay for the purchase of additional land, but Clovis residents will pay no more for water than they are paying now. The PRC will approve the agreement Nov. 18, he said. The city of Clovis, which filed with the PRC as an intervener in the rate case, will neither sign on to nor protest the agreement, he said. Also Thursday, commissioners: n Introduced an ordinance setting minimum operation standards at Clovis Municipal Airport, despite a protest by Ronald Byrd of Blue Sky Aviation. Byrd said a requirement that the businesses keep facilities open on Sundays is unnecessarily expensive. n Awarded Wilma Fulgham the “Mayor’s Citizen of Character Award.”