Photos by Lynn Janes
Article by Mary Alice Murphy

Romeo CruzSilver City-Grant County Chamber of Commerce Director Romeo Cruz at the August monthly luncheon on Aug. 8, 2024, introduced Grant County Prospectors President Carlos Lucero.

Carlos Lucero"Thank you so much for being here to support our lieutenant governor, Howie Morales, today," Lucero said "I just want to talk to everybody a little bit about the Prospectors. The Prospectors is a community organization that advocates for the needs of Grant County. We do that by hosting our legislative forum, usually in November, where presenters have the opportunity to speak to our legislators one-on-one, and then we provide the legislators information when it gets up to the Roundhouse, so they can know exactly what our community needs. And then we also host a Grant County Day each year in Santa Fe to have the opportunity for everybody in Grant County to attend and see what does happen up there at our legislature. So thank you all for being here. We really appreciate it. Our officers for the Grant County Prospectors this year is myself as the president, Romeo and Bart Roselli, our first and second vice presidents, and then our treasurer is Vladimir Gnilozubov, and our secretary is Misty Pugmire."

NM Lt. Governor Howie MoralesMorales opened his talk by saying: "It's always good to be home, and I truly mean that, because it's been a kind of whirlwind the last two weeks." He said he rarely leaves the state but in the past couple of weeks, he was part of a national panel in Detroit to talk about after school programming, out of school time and how to really engage students. "Then yesterday, I flew to San Diego. I was on a panel on education, when we talked about education compensation. Next I jumped on a plane, flew to Albuquerque, where I jumped to Advanced Airlines, and was here by the evening time. I had to make sure that I was in the state as quickly as possible, because when the governor is out of state, I have to be in the state."

"It's great to be here amongst so many individuals that I know. Many of you have been a part of my upbringing, if you will, whether it's in the political side of it, whether it's in education or in other areas. And it's really nice to be home to give an update, to answer questions, but most importantly, to learn from each one of you on what it is that can continue to do to make not only our community safe and better, but to make our state prosper in every way. So I'm proud to have been born, raised, educated, and hopefully to retire in this community, and I look forward to that. I was just sharing a story with Michael Morones. We were talking about when we played Little League Baseball together. My dad was our coach, and the memories that we have with so many people in our community that have remained here."

He said he wanted to have an opportunity to share just some background of what has been done and what has taken place, because a lot of times he doesn't share it publicly. He said he was always reminded from his dad who said, "'Never forget where you come from, no matter where you go.' So while we have a responsibility of all 33 counties in the state, we have a responsibility to make sure that we're taking care of everyone in the state, and we do that. Never forget. If there's an opportunity that can benefit where you came from, that you remember that. And I'm not just talking about Grant County, I'm talking about Hidalgo, Luna, Catron, Sierra County, all of us, in many ways, we have to rule for each other. "I always tell everyone, just call me Howie. And I mean that, and I truly mean that. But a lot of times, people don't realize and recognize how I even came to be Howie. I go by Howie, but I'm not named Howie. I mean, my name is Henry, after my dad, but because my name was Henry, my cousin, who now works at the bank right across the street, she couldn't pronounce it Henry, so it came out Howie, and it stuck that way. So I thought it was pretty cool. So I stayed with that. But I was named Henry after my father. Many of you may not have realized that my dad's name was Enrique, and he was born Enrique, but what was often experienced in our school systems is that they wanted to change really the identities of many individuals. So my dad being Enrique was changed to Henry.

"I want to share with you some updates today," Morales continued. "I want to talk a little bit about the state budget and where we're at. You know, we have an opportunity to really make significant changes during our administration for various reasons. One of those reasons because we have an ability to work together with our agencies, with our legislature, and we have a lot of revenue. I want to kind of just step back a little bit, because at the time when I came into the Senate, fortunate to have served as your county clerk, but when I came into the Senate, it was still at the time in 2008 where we still were doing fine across the country. I was fortunate, not because I was this great individual who came into the Senate but because I had people who were around me, Senator Michael Sanchez, Senator John Arthur Smith, Senator Tim Jennings, Senator Mary Kay Papen, who kind of took me under their wing, and when they did that, they placed me on Senate Finance Committee, but that wasn't the time that you would want to be on Senate Finance Committee, because hard decisions had to be made, because we had to balance our budget and cuts had to be made, that we all felt one way or another. We saw we were near 0% reserve, a drastic change from where we are right now. What I learned during that time is working with many of you here, and at the time with Representative Rudy Martinez, who was right there by my side on the Finance Committee, and Representative Dianne Hamilton, who was right there as well, that we were working together and really trying to maximize as many dollars, the little dollars that we had at the time to leverage. That is where I give special appreciation and special props to the Prospectors for the work that the Prospectors do, because you put this in an organized way to help us leverage funding. Because up until the recession, a lot of the thoughts were the funding that comes is just from capital outlay. While being on the executive side of it, I see that there's a whole lot more funding that takes place."

He held up a large notebook. "This is the notebook that Prospectors provide with every priority, everything that municipalities, counties, nonprofits, healthcare organizations, other areas of our community, they put it there, and every single community in the state has taken a part of that, and they try to replicate it. They can replicate it, but they're never going to be at the level of organization that we are. What I appreciate about the Prospectors more than anything is because the Prospectors do a great job. And right now, when there's so much divisiveness, so much rhetoric has taken place that pulls people apart because of politics, what I appreciate about the Prospectors is that you have always had the ability to, whether it's a red jersey or a blue jersey, get out the door and let's get to work, doing what's best for our community. That's how we move forward, and I want to say Special Thanks, even though Priscilla wasn't able to be here today, the work that she's done even today helping me get some of the data that I want to share with you. This is a collective effort from our community, and anything that's done is because of people within our community that's made us who we are.

"We're pretty special when you look at national programs like First Born program which pretty much originated right here in Grant County. When you look and see that Health Councils all around the state have not been able to make it or thrive, or even to survive, but right here in Grant County, we've seen that that was a start that really showed a lot of those efforts.

"And when you look at other areas, as I look back and see Terry Anderson, Shannon Rivera, Anita Rios, because I have the fortune to travel around the country and talk about one of the things that you know here well is that New Mexico is a leader in early childhood education. And why we're a leader in that is because we took the bold step forward to really focus on those important steps of a child's life ranked number one when it comes to early childhood education. And how did that happen? That happened because I carried legislation and a governor signed it. It happened with the dream of people like Terry who said, what if we do something different?

"And I can share a lot more examples of that, of looking around the room and seeing what needs to be done, and see how we can do that together and I want to share just a little bit. I'm not going to get into the slideshow right now. I wanted to share a little bit of some of the big ticket projects that have taken place. But before I do that, I shared that we were at 0% reserves when we hit the national recession in 2008. I think we're the last state to come out of that. Now, as we sit, we're at about 35% reserves. And really that's speaking just in the general revenue reserves. The reality of it, the state of New Mexico sits on about 100% reserves right now, and we have a $13 million budget. When Rudy and I were on the finance committees, we were about a $4 billion budget that shows how much revenue that has come in.

"We couldn't do this without the partnerships of the mines and what that means to recognize the jobs that are put in place and the partners that they've been able to be.

"We're very appreciative, recognizing that we also have the partnerships with our hospital, our HMS services that are provided, recognizing the importance of what the university means in this community. We're pretty unique, and we're pretty special. And I see this all around the state when I go and try to get people up to the level that we are, and why this is really meaningful to me.

"I was really proud to see that Gila Regional Medical Center last week, or two weeks ago, finally was able to open up the area where we did $2 million expansion to our area where our babies are born and labor and delivery. And what a huge accomplishment that was so Robert, thank you for guiding that through, making sure that we got that because it did take a while, but that was just one example.

"I know that many of you are seeing the rec center that's going up right now. This was something that was extremely meaningful, because I have to say that I felt a little guilty of deciding, okay, how do we use some of the executive dollars to really have an impact in your community? And I struggle with it because I know where we are when it comes to behavioral health and needing to provide support, as we had at the hospital at the time when we had our inpatient unit. We no longer have that, and I struggle. Do I really focus efforts on making sure that we can provide a facility for that? Or do I do that? We're putting one hand on the present and one hand in the future, that we can have activity, and we can have engagement from our children, veterans, seniors and individuals with disabilities, and working together with the city, I'm so grateful. But I think it'll have a tremendous impact. But when you look and see other areas where we have a big impact, when we see what is taking place out there

"I want to talk about Highway 180 and I know that that's an issue that, in many ways, is near and dear to us. And so I wanted to share some of that.

"Just last Friday, we were able to open up and have the three companies who are going to come in and they're vying to be the ones to help direct us in a way that we can start having community meetings input and to recognize what it takes to have the Fort Bayard that we want. That's pretty big.

"Last month we were able to move ahead on the Highway 180 project. But what happened is that the town of Hurley needed $350,000 to be able to move their pipeline, to get that project going to widen the four-lane highway. We're not in session, and we can't go in and get capital outlay. We use the State Board of Finance, and rapid emergency funding provided that, and so grateful that we have that support that keeps the project going. That is just kind of example of the different pots of money that are out there. That is the executive branch working together with the legislative branch to make sure that we can have the results that we need."

[Editor's Note: PDFs of the three phases along with maps are at the end of the article.]

"But I want to just take some time now to kind of share a little bit about Highway 180 because I get a lot of questions, and there's a lot of doubt that's out there. Lot of times people may not think that it's going to happen. And little backstory of that that I share in 2008, a lot of movement took place in 2008. But then Representative Manny Herrera passed away in early December. That was a hard day. Then later that month, Senator Ben Altamirano passed away. I remember when we got the phone call. We get a little choked up because it was an impact to our community. Also I didn't have the political stature, and, as well, Representative Martinez was new in his first year. And what happened at that point, in 2008 that project that was funded to do Highway180 was taken away. That project was funded up in Albuquerque to use those dollars. And every year as a senator, when we didn't have very much money, we would make the argument every single year that it was promised to our community, and we're going to keep fighting for it. DOT didn't put it on a priority list. And so we fought and fought and fought. One of the first things, when we got elected in 2018 before we took the stage on that morning, I was proud of two things. One is that the governor turned to me and said, I'm including your early learning department in my state address. I knew great things were going to happen, but she also said, I'm also going to make sure we fund Highway 180 because she heard not only from me and Rudy, she heard from all of you when she was here. So knowing that we have that leadership executive support behind us, we're able to see it. So immediately, in 2019. we started getting the studies. And it is somewhat frustrating, because it takes a long time, then you have a New Year with pandemic that hits from there as well. You had a lot of delay, but the studies started to happen. Senator Siah Hemphill was very instrumental, sitting on the Finance Committee as well. We met with DOT and we said, 'let's get this project up and going to make sure that we can have it on the state transportation infrastructure plan,' and we did that immediately, right away, to get those funds going. Then we broke ground. Many of you were there and we heard you when we broke ground. Why does it take so long from when we broke ground to where we are now? There's a lot of studies that had to take place. There were a lot of agreements that had to take place, not only from the highway department, but with the local communities, their environmental impact assessments, with our support from Freeport, who's been very instrumental to make sure that we can have that project move along. And so oftentimes out here, people say, we don't need that project. And even our cabinet secretary at times would say, well, there's other priorities. We reminded them this was a promise that we're going to follow up on. And so where we are right now, the project location is going to begin right here, from Bayard to Hurley on the first stage, and you have to break it up in stages just because of the type of project that it is.

"So it's going to be a little bit of a headache for all of us during construction. So as you can see right now, it's going to be from these mile posts on phase one. And you look at the dollar amount—$41 million and we're widening it from two lane to four lane. We're going to realign the roadway and the existing railroad track. We're going to make sure that as we invest in our outdoor economy and recognize the forms for bike lanes, that this is going to be part of that process too, to ensure that we can have people enjoy the communities that we live in.

He said on June 5, the contract was awarded among the state's contractors. The project is moving forward. It's taken a while. The agreement took a while. "We had to find the funding for Hurley to ensure that we could have it with no impact to their local residents. So they're getting a pretty big impact of $350,000 and the construction is set to begin November 4. This is where it's going to be important for you as a public to be part of that process, to have the discussions and to be able to review those kind of phases that are going to go in place.

Phase two is going to be from Hurley to the New Mexico 61 junction. "So this is another portion of it that we see that is going to take some time. It's not going to happen overnight, but we've already secured a majority of the $110 million in funding for Phase Two. So that was done, and we'll continue to work on that to make sure that phase is funded."

Then the next will be Phase Three. Phase three will finalize it to where it's ended off right now north of Deming. That estimate is $160 million. These are big dollar amounts. These are huge dollar amounts. "And while I still celebrate that we have interchange happening at the Interstate in Albuquerque, that's needed because it's my responsibility to look out for the whole state, but to recognize that when these big dollars come in for a project in our community, we need to make sure that we're maximizing it as much as possible."

"So with all of our local community members who are part of here, who are part of this meeting and part of being the leadership positions, that we can find creative ways of how we can use this as an economic development aspect, because economic development is a component where you try to bring jobs in, bring companies in. Sometimes that's the exchange of tax breaks. Sometimes it's an exchange of water rights, sometimes the exchange of land. I really love this project, because it is something that I'm extremely proud about.

"I want to make sure that I can open up the floor and use this opportunity to get some feedback from you, but also, most importantly, it's helped me to learn from you, because there's still so much more that can be done that we can work on together. We're a fortunate community. We have our hospital, we have our university, we have our minds, we have our education systems. We have our school systems. We have so much going on, our small businesses. We're pretty blessed.

"Before I get to the asking of questions or for you give us some input, I do want to share where the priorities are now. The Rec center is moving. We're hoping to have a grand opening. They're working hard. I drove in from Santa Fe one night, at three in the morning, and they're out there with the lights for the cement. We're maybe looking at February. It's been fully funded. We have the highway 180 project that's moving forward. We have a hospital that's completed. We have other projects that are done.What are the priorities that we want to work on? Do I invest in rehab or invest in beds or invest in treatment of mental health? I really want to focus our attention on making sure that we can be a pilot right here in Grant County of how we can have more beds for treatment for mental health. We can have inpatient bed treatments that is so important. Because right now, I believe, they go in and they have to be admitted, then they get driven in an ambulance to Las Vegas. Maybe Las Cruces is that? Is that accurate? Hopefully we can have an opportunity right here to utilize our systems already in place—HMS, Tu Casa, Gila Regional. So that way we can make sure that we're providing for those who need the services here. So I'm working on that with our behavioral health team across the state. How can we do this to make sure that it's a reality? We also want to impact in a positive way public safety. We want to impact in a positive way to address mental health needs, address substance abuse, which is an impact across the state that we see. How can we be an example here, just like we were with the First Born program, Health Council, early education department, how can we utilize that? And that's going to be my priority for the next two years, if I'm blessed to be in office for that time. Is there any questions that anybody may have?"

Lori Rogers asked how the Early Childhood program was measured to make it No. 1 in the country?

He replied that it was measured by the opt-out programming that's available. "And so in the state, we really made efforts to have not only daycare or childcare, but educational opportunities. And so our Cabinet Secretary Elizabeth Groginsky, she's pretty amazing, and she's well connected across the country. When we look specifically at what differentiated us, there are only four other states that have an early childhood department, so New Mexico is already a leader.The services that we provide for parents while they're at work, and the educational components, I think, is key, but we also didn't forget to make sure that we recognize at that time that children often have disabilities that we want to make sure that we can address at the earliest stages. And by having that component, that really set us apart."

The outcomes again, is that when we look and see early education, child care is directly related to workforce, and recognizing that there's a correlation right there. So when we see that jobs continue to increase, and we see the growth that's happening right there, that's a correlation right there. But the other piece of it is the funding. So we talked about the Permanent Fund, and that got passed, and we'll see how that plays out. But what's really important and impactful is that we started a fund, a permanent fund, for early childhood. We started with $300 million.That fund, right now with the $300 million investment, it now sits at $10 billion. It shows you that we're serious about education, especially at the earliest stages, where we can help that child to have the best start going into the K-12 system."

Kim Clark announced: "Howie, I just wanted to let you know that the Prospectors have set their date for Grant County Day. It will be Wednesday, January, 29, 2025 in Santa Fe some of the meetings will be at La Fonda, and some of the meetings will be at the Capitol building. And you can always find out more information at grantcountyprospectors.org or our Facebook page."

Morales said: "Thank you for the work you do, Kim. I see you guys in my office putting together notebooks, putting in information, and the Daily Press bringing in stacks and stacks of newspapers that they're going to distribute. This is a well organized community, and I want to say thank you, because it makes us up there in Santa Fe as representatives to really shine and be proud of the community that we are part of and you are the community that we represent. So thank you for that, Kim. January 29. I'll make sure that the governor's office knows. I'm really grateful for the governor, because in the six years we've been there, years through COVID, she's made sure to be in every single one of our Grant County Day meetings. And I think that has an impact, because when we want to have these funds, it's your advocacy that really helps us to make sure that we can maintain those funds."

An unidentified man thanked Morales for his time. And then said: "As you know and in many other communities around the country, we have a housing problem here for many different types of people. And I know I heard three or four months ago, read in the paper that we're looking at Fort Bayard development of certain types of housing, or for many, many different kinds of housing, and that committee was going to be formed in local towns to develop a plan. Can you update us on what that process is and also what the timeline might be?"

Morales replied: "Absolutely. And so from the housing aspect that's another high priority. We put $350 million that we asked for. Legislature came in, and I believe it was at $500 million to address housing issues across the state, because we know if you have a stable house, you have a family member that may be there, you have the educational support that comes along with that. So we invested heavily. I also sit on the Mortgage Finance Authority, so you're going to see a lot of movement. A lot of projects are going to be coming in for housing across the state, including this area. I had mentioned a little bit about the process on Fort Bayard, and that we first needed the commitment. GSD had to commit that they're going to be the ones responsible, because there's a lot of infrastructure needs out there. When we look and see what's happening underneath, with the water systems, with the electrical, with the roads, those are big dollar amounts that we can't assess in local communities. The General Services Division has given that commitment. They came over last week to meet with those that are applying for the RFP to help move within that community engagement. So that was given last Friday, I believe that there's a 45-day wait period before we award the RFP to one of the three companies that will then take it from that point to start getting community input, to start brainstorming, from economic development, economic gardening, from other ideas that may be out there, whether it's housing, whether it's film, whether it's recreation, whatever it is that we want as a community. Keep in mind that we have to respect that it was a veterans-centered approach, and we have to recognize that some aspect of it has to have a veterans type of component to it. We were glad to see that three quality, high-quality proposals came in. We'll make the decision in 45 days. Any other questions?

Patricia Cano asked: "To follow up on that: Will the general public be involved, or just certain stakeholders?"

Morales replied: "Both. I think that there committees that will be set up from the communities as well as at-large public opportunities. Because, I mean, we know our community best. We know what we think could really help to move far better than aa group from the Legislature, and we'll continue to work from the Legislative angle. I know that the representatives carry memorials to make sure that it doesn't fall off the table. Those are kind of things that we're going to continue to do. We're going to continue to work together. But I think that that's the next step right there, to make sure that we can have that become a reality, as well as working with the priority of a behavioral health system that can be a pilot for the rest of the state. Any other questions?"

"I don't see any other questions," Morales concluded. "Again. I just want to say thank you for allowing me to have some time, to be able to share and really flip the narrative where people often say only in whatever community, and we say only in Grant County and Silver City and in New Mexico, we have some pretty amazing things happening. Please take a look at that and see, in total, the dollar amounts, and see there's been a tremendous impact in our community, and we have all of you to thank for being part of that process. Thank you so much."

Cruz closed the session with: "Thank you, Lt. Governor. So first I need to make a correction in introductions. Former Senator Ramos, thank you. I apologize. And also I forgot one more. I forgot to introduce my board, and also Rep. Terrazas, so thank you. I'd like to introduce my board. You know, if you guys have any questions for me or the chamber, please approach any of my board members. My board president is Mike Morones, my vice president, Bart Roselli, past chair, Jack Herndon and my past past President Sabrina Pack. And Yes,Dr. Shepard is also another one of my board members."

"Anybody else? Well, the Silver City, Grant County Chamber of Commerce and the Grant County Prospectors really appreciate you guys coming out. You know, please, if you have any questions for any of us, we're here to support you. We're here to support the community. Give us call. Our doors are always open."