Around $300 million in road construction and repair projects has been approved by the New Mexico House Appropriations and Finance Committee. The funding is part of a significantly larger $7 billion budget plan that has also won the approval of that same committee. That legislation is now expected to be voted on by the full House. If it survives there, the bill will be sent to the Senate. The committee budget vote represents an 11 percent increase in spending over the current fiscal year’s budget. Money for the roads will fund project design and construction, as well as maintenance and reconstruction of state-managed highways. The largest budget appropriation at $449 million is slated to go for such educational purposes as pay raises for teachers and enhanced pre-kindergarten programs. Officials with the New Mexico Department of Transportation have said that any funding approved by the legislature goes directly to both heavily traveled city roads, as well as decaying rural roads. The DOT’s regular budget is made up of a state road fund, mostly used for highway maintenance, and federal funding awards that go for construction and debt service payments. The DOT has said that its current unfunded maintenance needs are at $344 million, which includes $276 million to rehabilitate and build roads, as well as another $50 million for bridge replacement and repair. By Garry Boulard
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Plans have been announced for the construction of a travel center that will go up inside the boundaries of the Taos Pueblo in northern New Mexico. As envisioned, the center will be built on a mostly vacant site at the northeast corner of U.S. Route 64 and Hail Creek Road. Members of the Taos Pueblo Tribal Council have recently voted to approve a schematic design for the project. That design by the Albuquerque-based NCA Architects provides the center, which will also serve as a gas station, with some grocery and fast food restaurant space. Work is expected to begin on the facility this spring with an anticipated fall opening. The Taos Pueblo is a Native American community populated with one and two-story adobe structures built some 900 years ago. The entire pueblo site, with a population of around 4,500 people, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. By Garry Boulard Despite some reports in the national press suggesting otherwise, a new study released by the Brookings Institute indicates that in their migration patterns, members of the Millennial and Baby Boom generations are not necessarily attracted to the same parts of the country. The report by Brookings senior fellow William Frey also suggests that where both generations have increasingly settled, offers economic opportunities for businesses needing either their labor or purchasing power. “Millennials, a highly educated and diverse generation now squarely in their late 20s and 30s, are forming the backbone of various regions’ emerging labor forces and consumer bases,” the report, titled How Migration of Millennials and Seniors Has Shifted Since the Great Recession, indicates. At the same time, Baby Boomers, “now all aged 55 and above, can reinvigorate communities that retain or attract their more affluent members.” Using statistics compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau’s 5-year American Community Survey, the Brookings report shows that Millennials in the West have been most attracted to the Denver metropolitan area, with the Phoenix and Tucson area proving a secondary lure. Baby Boomers, on the other hand, have increasingly moved out of metro Denver, but have been hugely attracted to the Phoenix and Tucson area, one of the largest recipients of Baby Boomer immigration in the nation. The report additionally notes that while Baby Boomers continue to be attracted to a “smaller set of exclusive Sun Belt destinations that have long been associated with retirees, warm climates, and recreation,” Millennials are more attracted to metropolitan areas with high tech opportunities and “knowledge-based economies.” A press release issued by the Association of General Contractors, in responding to the Brookings study, suggested that these migration patterns should be of interest for developers and contractors looking at such age-specific building projects as schools and senior housing complexes. By Garry Boulard With well more than half of the residents of rural Arizona still lacking access to the internet, a move is underway to fund new broadband construction. Arizona Governor Doug Ducey has announced the creation of an initiative that will be housed inside the Arizona Commerce Authority specifically devoted to spurring grant funding for rural broadband development programs. In his 2019 fiscal year budget, Ducey observed that “high speed internet is essential for accelerating economic development, enhancing education, expanding access to healthcare, improving public safety, and modernizing government services.” The Governor added that some $3 million will be made available in matching funds for the purpose of offsetting “the construction costs of expanding broadband services in underserved rural areas across the state.” Those areas also include tribal communities where the lack of high-speed connectivity has been particularly high. A report published last year by the Arizona Department of Administration indicated that while nearly 80 percent of the more than 7 million people who live in Arizona today have access to the internet in their homes, there are still nearly 900,000 people in the state with little or no internet connectivity. The new initiative will spur a competitive rural broadband development grant program. Grants, according to the Governor’s budget proposal, will be awarded to “local partnerships or ventures with clear and achievable plans to improve broadband services in one or more underserved rural areas.” By Garry Boulard Responding to population growth on the north end of Colorado’s El Paso County, public input is being sought on a project that will see the construction of a new nature center there. El Paso County already has two such centers up and running: The Bear Creek Nature Center is located at 325 Bear Creek Road in Colorado Springs. Built in 1976, that facility measures around 9,000 square feet and recently underwent a $250,000 upgrade. The other such facility is the Fountain Creek Nature Center at 320 Pepper Grass Lane in the city of Fountain. The 4,100 square foot building underwent a $600,000 expansion some six years ago. Both one-story facilities house a variety of educational, visual arts, and interactive exhibitions designed to promote a better understanding of El Paso County’s natural surroundings. County officials have yet to decide exactly where the new nature center will be built, but it is thought that it could go up in either the Black Forest Regional Park in Colorado Springs or the Fox Run Regional Park, also in Colorado Springs. A third potential site would have it built in the Pineries Open Space, a more than 1,000-acre wooded area purchased by the county in 2010. Ideas and plans for the new nature center are currently being reviewed by El Paso County staff as well as the Denver-based Altitude Land Consultants, a surveying, land development, and urban design firm. By Garry Boulard More and more urban areas are expected to embrace the fundamentals of Smart City technology this year, says an engineering technology website. The Smart City movement in 2019 is “going to take a longer view into the future,” contends the website Interesting Engineering. With urban officials everywhere constantly looking for ways to reduce building costs, the Smart City movement is proving particularly alluring because it avoids the necessity of digging up “the same streets over and over every year in order to add infrastructure for the new applications.” Defined as any place where the application of communication and information technologies is used to enhance both sustainability and efficiency, the Smart City movement remains an “outlier of things to come,” technology writer Llewellyn King predicted earlier this month. “Smart cities are the precursor to big changes in everything from transportation to entertainment, from food delivery to garbage control,” writes King in the site InsideSources. In September, the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade announced it was investing $500,000 in the Arrow Electronics company for its testing of Smart City urban environment concepts. Earlier in the year Panasonic unveiled a Smart City testing ground near the Denver International Airport. In Arizona, the Arizona Technology Council is advocating that state lawmakers meeting for the regular 2019 session of the Arizona State Legislature should embrace Smart City development programs, while Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller announced in December that he is looking for ways for the city to implement its own Smart City effort by installing cameras and sensors to optimize transit and other services. A new report released by the EastWest Institute of New York contends that as the Smart City movement continues to gain traction, cities across the country need to identify a Smart City Vision, adapt government structures, and ensure a wide stakeholder participation. With such goals, notes Smart and Safe: Risk Reduction in Tomorrow’s Cities, urban areas will be better able to make strategic decision in advance, “instead of as an afterthought.” By Garry Boulard A new press box and scoreboard, along with concession stand renovations, are among the upgrades currently in the planning stage for the popular Aggie Memorial Stadium on the campus of New Mexico State University. Those planned upgrades to the 40 year-old stadium, which has a seating capacity of just over 30,000, additionally include new skybox seating, end zone bunker suites, and expanded restroom space. School officials say the stadium upgrades are part of a larger campus athletic master plan designed to keep current one of the most well-used athletic facilities in New Mexico. The home to the NMSU Aggies football team, the stadium has also served as a concert venue for The Eagles and Paul McCartney, among other performers, and in 2017 hosted a football camp sponsored by Garth Brooks. Kansas City-based HOK Architecture, a firm specializing in public facility projects, is helping NMSU put together an upgrade vision for the stadium. How much all of the work to the Aggie stadium will cost is not yet known, although it has been reported that the new press box would carry a price tag of at least $8.2 million; while about $5.3 million would pay for the new end zone bunker suites. Once plans for the stadium are officially approved, funding could come from a variety of sources, including private donations. By Garry Boulard A stretch of vacant desert land in Tucson, that in recent years has been used for illegal dumping, could turn out to be the home to more than 20 acres of new commercial development. The Pima County officials are contemplating the idea of building restaurants, shops and hotels on property adjacent to the big Kino Sports Complex at 2500 East Ajo Way. The move comes just weeks after the Pima County Board of Supervisors approved more than $9.6 million in funding for an expansion of the complex, adding some 145 acres to a complex site that already measured 155 acres. Originally constructed for $38 million in 1997, the Kino Sports Complex has served as the home for both the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball team as well as the spring training venue for the Chicago White Sox. County officials have expressed confidence that an adjacent complex commercial project would be successful not only because of its proximity to the sports facility, but because it would be located just off of Interstate 10. By Garry Boulard In a stunning announcement, online commerce giant Amazon has announced it is pulling out of a deal to build a new $3.6 billion headquarters in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens, New York. The announcement comes in the wake of angry opposition from many local and state political leaders, in particular members of the New York State Legislature, who have criticized incentives offered by the state to Amazon to the tune of nearly $3 billion. In a statement, Amazon said that even though recent polls showed an overwhelming majority of state residents wanted the company to build in New York, “a number of state and local politicians have made it clear that they oppose our presence and will not work with us to build the type of relationships that are required to go forward with the project that we and many others envisioned in Long Island City.” Responding to Amazon’s decision, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo blasted what he called a small group of politicians who “put their own narrow political interests above their community” in opposing the project. “The New York State Senate has done tremendous damage,” Cuomo continued. “They should be held accountable for this lost economic opportunity.” But New York Mayor Bill de Blasio blamed Amazon for the failed deal, saying there was a minimum of communication between the company and local officials and residents. “Instead of working with the community, Amazon threw away that opportunity,” the Mayor said, also in a statement. Although Amazon has affirmed that it is going forward with building a separate part of the second headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, the company has not announced what other city might replace New York. In the national competition to offer a new home to Amazon, hundreds of cities offered a variety of incentives and other amenities. Ultimately Denver was placed on a top twenty finalists list in early 2018. According to sources, Denver officials have remained in touch with Amazon, even after the company announced its New York pick last November. During the earlier bidding process, Denver had submitted thirteen sites to Amazon as possible headquarter locations. In an analysis published just three days before Amazon’s New York exit, Yahoo!Finance picked Denver as one of its top three choices to replace New York, along with Newark, New Jersey, and Austin, Texas. The web news service argued that Denver is a “serious tech hub, with hundreds of startups based there.” Colorado’s relationship with Amazon has seen the company so far build three of its fulfillment centers in the state. By Garry Boulard A facility designed to house up to 800 people at any given time seeking immigration status in the U.S. could see construction later this spring. The facility, which has long been proposed by immigration officials, would measure around 250,000 square feet, roughly the size of the largest Walmart Supercenters, and would go up on the west side of El Paso. The project would belong to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, is designed to replace a series of small cells that are currently used for holding purposes. Those processed at the centers will primarily be migrant families who have crossed the Mexico/U.S. border, but were subsequently apprehended by Customs and Border Protection agents. Plans for the center are particularly animated by a changed migrant profile which was once almost exclusively single males, but in recent years has increasingly been made up of families. According to Customs and Border Protection records, some 8,600 migrant family members were apprehended and processed by agents in 2017. But that number has dramatically increased to more than 25,700 just between October of 2018 and January of this year. The new structure is expected to cost $190 million to build, money that has been included in new federal border funding legislation just passed by Congress. That legislation also includes $564 million for ports of entry inspection equipment and $100 million for border surveillance technology. A construction start date for the project has not yet been announced. By Garry Boulard |
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