Rural Economic Opportunities Task Force

Sept. 20th, 2022 Had a great very informative discussion during the two day Rural Economic Opportunities Task Force, held at the beautiful Historic Fort Bayard Theater. These are a few things that were discussed: 1 The Annexation of Ft. Bayard to Santa Clara. I truly believe this could be an tourism magnet and an economic gold mine for the village and Grant County. 2 Mining District Water Infrastructure collaboration. Freeport McMoRan is offering 450 acre ft. and is working with the Mayors of Santa Clara, Bayard, Hurley and Silver City to help connect water pipelines to all those municipalities to assure citizens have affordable, reliable, clean drinking water. 3 The importance of logging for Forest Health and Rural Economic Opportunity in New Mexico. This was a presentation that encouraged thinning to prevent catastrophic Forest Fires and help improve our watersheds. They also expressed the major delays on receiving permits for logging in New Mexico. Although permits for Arizona are moving much faster even though the regional office is located in Albuquerque. 4. We also toured Chino mine. The mine provided 366 million in economic development to Grant County. 946 direct jobs and 3524 jobs. I want to thank Freeport McMoRan on helping to reduce their carbon emissions by using the world's first and largest wheel Loader. Again I want to thank all the sponsors: Freeport McMoRan, WNMU, Grant County Prospectors Village Santa Clara and Charles Goodmacher.