Managers discuss Sandoval County, Rio Rancho projects

RIO RANCHO — The City of Vision is the third-largest city in the state of New Mexico, expected to surpass No. 2 Las Cruces in the not-so-distant future, and City Manager Matt Geisel said it’s “big enough to be big but small enough to be small.”

That said, he told a gathering of about four dozen people Thursday morning at the NAIOP Rio Rancho Roundtable meeting at Rust Medical Center, it has become a “tug and tussle — retaining our roots as a small community, that hometown feel that Rio Rancho’s always had ” — namely being a small town faced with growth.

In addition to Geisel, Sandoval County Manager Wayne Johnson also extolled good news about projects elsewhere in the county.

Many of the challenges are in housing, Geisel said, and “If Rio Rancho weren’t growing, there would be no growth in the state of New Mexico right now. That’s good and that’s bad.

“Our community has high expectations of the city,” Geisel said, going on to highlight the city’s strategic plan for 2023-28.

The city’s infrastructure capital improvements plan, he said, is tagged at $613.9 million, and 17% of the city’s requests of the 2024 state Legislature was funded, although eight of the 17 projects went 100% unfunded.

Local legislators, he noted, allocated about $2.84 million of the $18.3 million available for them to allocate to the city. Among the capital outlay projects totally funded were field lighting on the Little League complex at Rio Rancho Sports Complex; equipment replacement at the Haynes Park pool; a bookmobile for the library; dual-band radios for the police department; and the replacement of an ambulance, pegged at $375,000.

“We’re grateful for the money we get,” Geisel said before recapping projects made possible through voters’ passing the bond issues last November.

The passage of the road bond leads to $9.28 million for the reconstruction of portions of Lema Road, 19th Avenue and Safelite Boulevard, in addition to previous projects leading to improvements on Northern Boulevard; Enchanted Hills Boulevard; and three roads in the vicinity of Rio Rancho Public Schools administrative offices and Rio Rancho Police headquarters, namely Quantum, Laser and Vortex roads.

Passage of the public safety bond led to the purchase of 17 new police vehicles, a new RRPD crisis negotiation team vehicle, which replaces a repurposed ambulance, and some equipment for the fire department. An ongoing project has Fire Station 6 in Mariposa Park reopening with a remodel of the facility, plus new vehicles and equipment, and the addition of seven new positions.

And the quality-of-life bond’s passage will feature improvements at Star Heights and Vista Sandia parks, plus library materials and library equipment. Geisel briefly talked about improvements for Phase 2 of Campus Park and Phase 2 of the Broadmoor Senior Center.

As for the county, Johnson said there are “over 58 projects” on its list, and $315 million came through capital improvements.

Enlargement of the district and magistrate courts’ building, estimated at $54 million, is nearly totally funded, Johnson said. “We’re a couple million away.”

Other county projects he was excited about are a new county animal shelter, which he jokingly referred to as a “puppy palace,” to be located on a 22-acre site in the Bernalillo area and costing $11-$15 million, “in the last phase (of programming).”

Once opened, and with plans to make it expandable, Johnson cautioned, “One thing we know, any time we open an animal shelter, it’s filled already.”

Also on the “programming phase” list are senior centers in Placitas and Pena Blanca, a remodel of the county administrative building on Idalia Road; and expansion of the public works department.

And, as Johnson said, funding is always needed for “roads, bridges and roads.”

The Paseo del Volcan corridor, ultimately connecting I-40 to US 550, is a focus for the county, with most of the right-of-way obtained but not the funding.

As for recent accomplishments, Johnson said everyone should look forward to a ribbon-cutting in May for the new sheriff’s department headquarters (originally a $4.8 million project that went up to $11 million because of inflation) into which deputies are locating; two of three bridges that needed repairs have been fixed — and all three would have been done had the original costs to do so not been exceeded by 50% (the third bridge, yet to be repaired, “is serviceable,” he said); and improvements to the Cuba Public Works shop, 90% complete, to service heavy equipment.

Sandoval County has challenges like everyone else: “Money doesn’t always match project needs,” he said, citing contractors aren’t always available to match the financing timeline — funds allocated for a project today may not be enough to cover the project when it begins several months or a year or two later.

“We got plenty of money, we just don’t have enough if it,” Johnson said. “We’re chasing that rabbit on every project that we’ve got.”