A popular community gathering place located in the Village of Tijeras may soon see substantial facility improvements.

Los Vecinos Community Center, at 478 New Mexico State Highway 333, has long been a local favorite, housing a multi-purpose room, gymnasium, computer lab, dance room, and kitchen, among other amenities.

The center is particularly known for its three pickleball courts.

Now members of the Bernalillo County Board of Commissioners have given their approval to targeting up to $1 million to upgrade the two-story facility. The funding, according to county documents, will also go for what is described as “site renovations.’

Work will include the building of a new skateboard park, and improved Americans with Disabilities Act access to both the center itself and adjacent parking lot.

Also planned: a new stage, updated draining, irrigation, and lighting systems, and the replacement of the current soccer field.

The $1 million designated for the project is coming out of the county’s general fund. According to the publication Independent News, Eric Olivas, county commission board member, noted that the center is a “not just one of the oldest centers across the country, it’s a pillar of the East Mountain community.”

A 10-year master plan for the facility developed in 2014 noted that the center serves one of the largest communities in the county and has always had an emphasis on providing activities that “promote personal and social well-being.”

County figures have indicated that the center has accommodates more than 40,000 visits from area residents on a yearly basis.
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Work on the center is expected to begin next month.

By Garry Boulard

As Americans enjoy the coming Labor Day, a day designed to celebrate the country’s labor movement, economists, historians, and union activists are asking: where does the U.S. labor movement stand in 2024?

Just looking at the numbers alone paints a depressing picture for the movement: according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, exactly 10% of the country’s workforce is currently made up of union members.

That statistic represents a swift decline from 1954 when upwards of a third of the national workforce was represented by a union.

Conversely, while actual union membership is at a more than 70-year low, the number of people who support the idea of a labor union is at a historic high. According to a recent Gallup Survey, 70% of respondents said they approved of the idea of labor unions.

That level of support has remained the same for the last two years and is significantly higher than what Gallup recorded just two decades ago, when only 53% of respondents felt positive about unionization.

Despite the overall decline in national membership levels, notes the publication The City, recent membership efforts have proven surprisingly successful “with more than 75% of all private-sector organizing attempts from mid-2023 to mid-2024 resulting in union victories.”

According to the most recent annual State of the Union report compiled by the City University of New York’s School of Labor and Urban Studies, Boston has seen a 75% union election success rate, followed by Chicago at 72%, New York at 64%, and Seattle at 56%.

The CUNY report additionally notes that younger organizers, buoyed by successful elections at Amazon, Apple, and Starbucks, have also been “actively unionizing journalists, museum workers, nonprofit staff, medical interns and residents, and especially graduate student workers and adjuncts in colleges and universities.”

The Bureau of Labor Statistics report, meanwhile, reveals that Hawaii and New York have the highest union membership rates, at 24.1% and 20.6% respectively, while South Carolina and North Carolina recorded the lowest rates at 2.3% and 2.7%.

Union worker representation has proven to be particularly on the low side in the West, with just 4.8% of all workers in Arizona in a union; 8.6% in Colorado; and 9.1% in New Mexico.

By Garry Boulard

In a move to make electric vehicle charging stations more available throughout Arizona, the state’s Department of Transportation has announced a project that will see the construction of 18 such facilities.

The project, according to Jennifer Toth, ADOT director, is designed to put in place a “network of reliable and convenient charging stations that the public can count on.”

One of the inspirations behind the project is an effort to reduce what Toth referenced as “range anxiety.”

Such anxiety, first mentioned in the San Diego Business Journal in 1997, centers on the fears of drivers on rural roads who feel that their vehicle may not have enough battery capacity or fuel to make it to the next city.

Range anxiety is thought to be the most prevalent when driving on throughways in the desert West.

To lessen the incidence of no electric charging stations in any section of Arizona, the new station construction effort will see facilities built along Interstate 10, which runs east to west across the southern part of the state; and Interstate 8, between Casa Grande and Yuma.

Station construction is planned off Interstate 40, which cuts east to west through the middle of the state; as well as Interstate 17, which heads north to south from Flagstaff to Phoenix.

Interstate 19, connecting Tucson with the Nogales at the southern end of the state, will also see new charging station work.

As planned, the new stations will be spaced no more than 50 miles apart.

Most of the funding to build the facilities is coming through the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program, under the auspices of the Federal Highway Administration.

Officials with the ADOT have indicated that plans are currently in the talking stage for the construction of additional charging stations that would likely go up state highways and roads in the next two years.

By Garry Boulard
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​Image Credit: Courtesy of Pixabay 

Planning is moving forward on a substantial project in Las Vegas, New Mexico that will see the building of a new central water treatment facility.

Two years ago, what is now classified as the largest and most destructive wildfire in the history of New Mexico - the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire - swept through large swaths of San Miguel, Mora, and Taos counties, scorching more than 341,000 acres.

The fire, which started after a prescribed burn at the Pecos/Las Vegas Ranger District got out of control, eventually destroyed around 900 structures, nearly a quarter of which were homes.

Such large fires typically create a multitude of natural habitat and built infrastructure issues, which in the case of Las Vegas meant tons of debris floating down the Gallinas River and polluting the city’s reservoirs.

The impact to the Galinas, in fact, prompted the Washington-based group American Rivers last summer to classify it as one of the nation’s “most endangered rivers.”  The City, for its part,  imposed Stage 5 water restrictions during a time when it was down to a supply of only 17 days of remaining water.

Now Las Vegas has secured around $98 million in federal funds to replace water facilities that were inundated by the floods and debris flow.

The funding, according to a City news release, will not only support the construction of new water infrastructure, but also a “comprehensive reassessment of emergency response protocols, flood management systems, and community resilience measures.”

The new funding, coming through the Federal Emergency Management Agency, comes on top of another $2.6 million from the agency granted in early 2023 to pay for needed engineering reports related to the water facilities project.

An exact timeline of when work will launch on the project has not been released, but it is expected that the planning phase will take at least a year, with a 23-month design phase to follow.
Actual construction may take as long as 3 years.

By Garry Boulard

Aluminum use in construction is enjoying a new high and on its way to a forecast nearly 10% increase in the next three years.

So says a new report put together by the Troy, Michigan-based Ducker Carlisle Consulting Company that also sees increased aluminum use in both commercial buildings as well as in solar installations.

The report, Building the Future: Trend of Aluminum Use in the U.S. Construction Market, additionally notes that nonresidential construction has accounted for more than 60% of the 2.5 billion pounds of aluminum used in building projects, with the highest proportion of aluminum being used for window frames.

The material, notes a press release from the Aluminum Association, is now poised to supplant “wood in fencing and masonry in commercial building cladding due to aesthetic trends, longevity, and ease of installation.”

The Ducker Carlisle report comes as the price of aluminum on the market saw a 9% decline in July. According to the Aluminum Monthly Metals Index, prices subsequently saw what has been since been described as a modest 2.2% increase during the first two weeks of August.

Prices overall have been on a fairly consistent level between August of 2023 and April of this year, before an upward spike played out between late April and early July.

Like other building materials, aluminum was impacted in 2020 by the Covid 19 pandemic, seeing a 35% price decrease, while substantially rebounding the following two years.

Overall aluminum inventory levels internationally, meanwhile, are described as well-stocked, with Chinese overcapacity in many ways defining the current global supply landscape.

By Garry Boulard

Image Credit: Courtesy of Pixabay 

A modernistic office building in northwest Phoenix built in 1975, and substantially renovated in 2018, is now on the market with a listing price of just over $7.1 million.

The 4-story building at 5060 N. 19th Street is part of the larger Camel 19 Business Park, which includes both office and commercial structures occupying a full block between N. 19th and North 20th Street.

Expanding outward, the business park is a part of the city's popular Camelback Corridor, known for its fine dining restaurants and boutique retail stores. The corridor is named in honor of the Camelback Mountains that it fronts.

Designated as a Class B structure, the 5060 N. 19th Street building comprises just under 55,000 square feet on a less than 2-acre site.

Listed by the Scottsdale-based realtors Lev Rose Commercial Real Estate, the building is currently around 82% leased.

​By Garry Boulard

Image Credit: Courtesy of Unsplash

Yet one more new data center appears to be in the making in southern Arizona with plans revealed for a nearly 100-acre site on the northwest side of the city of Florence.

A company identified as Judd Ventures LLC has submitted a request to the Pinal County Board of Supervisors to rezone the site in question, which is located at the intersection of North Felix Road and Judd Road.

That land, according to the site datacenterdynamics.com, is currently "designated for moderate to low density housing."

According to county documents, what is being called the SunHill Project will see the development on currently vacant land of not only a data center, but also battery energy storage systems, mixed-use residential housing, and some recreational space.

The idea behind the battery energy storage systems is to "promote energy infrastructure reliance," while also supporting the data center itself.

A staff report for the Supervisors Board said further analysis of the project will be gathered via "additional research and community feedback," with the staff making an outright recommendation on the project in future meetings.
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The data center industry has been booming in recent years in southern Arizona, with a little over ninety such facilities now operating in just metro Phoenix alone.

By Garry Boulard

Image Credit: Courtesy of Pixabay 

Although the rate of inflation has greatly decreased in the last year from its daunting high of 9.1% in the summer of 2022 to a current 2.9%, the subject remains the number one topic of concern for would-be voters in November.

That, according to a survey completed by the website Motley Fool Ascent, means that 60% of respondents still regard inflation as the top issue influencing how they may vote in the presidential election.

That 60% far outweighs the 5% who pointed to the cost of childcare as their primary issue, the 10% who pointed to the stock market, and the 22% who regarded the cost of education as issue number one.

On the equally worrying issue of Social Security, an issue always clothed in fears that at some point the system will prove insolvent, members of both parties expressed concerns. But the issue, perhaps not surprisingly, played out differently depending upon the age of the respondent.

Baby Boomers, or those born between 1946 and 1964, indicated a somewhat low 28% confidence level regarding Social Security’s future. Only 21% of Generation Z respondents born between 1997 and 2012, meanwhile, expressed similar sentiments.

The Social Security confidence level declined to its lowest among Generation X members born between 1965 and 1980. This generation, now nearing their retirement years, expressed the lowest confidence level, at 18%, in Social Security’s solvent future.

At the same time, members of all age groups, from the Baby Boomers to Generation Z expressed overwhelming agreement on one Social Security issue: on average, roughly 80% of each group said they would like to the system to increase its benefit offerings.

Support for raising the federal minimum wage also showed wide cross-generational support, ranging from 58% among the Baby Boomers to 78% for both Generation Z and the Millennials, born between 1981 and 1996.

According to a narrative accompanying the survey, the prioritization of financial issues varied depending upon one’s party registration, but not by much: “Inflation is a higher priority for those who believe a Republican president will do a better job handling their financial priorities, while Social Security is a higher priority among those more confident in a Democrat president.”

Bottom line: “The Democrats’ messaging on Social Security resonates more than Republicans’, while the GOP’s talking points on inflation are more impactful.”

By Garry Boulard
​Image Credit: Courtesy of Unsplash

The 11-year-old Colorado Eagles hockey team has just announced its intention to build a new home arena that will go up on the west side of Greeley. More specifically, the structure would be built at the intersection of U.S. Route 34 and Colorado State Highway 17.

The team, playing in the pacific division of the American Hockey League, has had its home in the 7,200-seat Blue Arena, located at 5290 Arena Circle in Loveland, which was opened in the fall of 2003.

But now Eagles officials say they want to play in what will be a mixed-use facility with a seating capacity of up to 9,000 for hockey, and some 12,000 seats when used for entertainment events.

As planned, the project would also include a separate space for a recreation rink to be used for youth hockey. Renderings of the planned arena also show a large and spacious lobby area with marble floors and wall murals.

The larger site outside the multi-tiered arena, meanwhile, could see the construction of a water park and several hotels.

Referenced as the “West Side Project,” the overall arena site is being officially described as a “mixed-use, transit-oriented, entertainment district development,” that will also include some mixed-income and affordable housing.

Developer of the project is Martin Lind, chief executive officer of the Water Valley Company.

Launched as an expansion franchise in the Central Hockey League, the Eagles became a part of the American Hockey League in 2018. Playing in the Blue Arena, the team has regularly seen attendance rates of just over 5,000.
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Although an exact construction schedule for the project has not yet been announced, a Memorandum of Understanding regarding the development of the arena has been entered into by the Greeley City Council and the Water Valley Company.

​By Garry Boulard

Public input meetings are expected to take place in El Paso early next year, focusing on the possible updating and modernization of busy Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

The Texas Department of Transportation is hoping to launch a full-fledged corridor study of the boulevard, otherwise known as Farm-to-Market Route 3255, in order to get a feel for the throughway’s future traffic patterns.

According to a TxDOT website, the goals of the study include strategies for “accommodating traffic growth, enhancing mobility, and improving pedestrian and bicycle connectivity in the area.”

Running parallel to the Franklin Mountains State Park, north to south, the boulevard includes residential, commercial and rural areas and, says the TxDOT, “serves as the connection for thousands of people who live and work in Northeast El Paso and Southern New Mexico, as well as freight traffic delivering goods in El Paso and beyond.”

Data collection and analysis has been underway on the project since this past spring, with TxDOT hoping to issue a final corridor study that will identify needed improvements for the next two decades by next spring.
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Routes labeled farm-to-market are particularly unique to Texas and identify a county road or highway used by ranchers and farmers to connect an agricultural area to a market town. While the El Paso City Council unanimously approved naming the road in honor of King in late 1988, it is still also referenced by the TxDOT as Farm-to-Market Route 3255.

By Garry Boulard