I took the initiative in 2005
to start an Economic Development Committee, with approval from the
Governing Body. The Economic Development Committee was committed to
enhancing economic development opportunities within the Village. Since I
lost the Mayoral election in 2016, the Economic Development Committee
was disbanded.
This Economic Development
Committee had a number of important accomplishments. They developed a
proposal and applied to the New Mexico Economic Development Department
(NMEDD) to establish Bosque Farms as a Certified Community. The proposal
was successful and Bosque Farms was officially a Certified Community.
This brought several things to Bosque Farms. First, the Village received
a grant of $5,000 each year from the NMEDD for being a Certified
Community. The designation was good for two years, whereupon a renewal
was required. We renewed for many years. The NMEDD granted the Village
between $4,000 and $5,000 per year, depending on how much the
legislature had given to the NMEDD for the CCI program. With the monies
received, the Village developed a quality web site for economic
development. Unfortunately, when the current administration hired a
contractor to redo the Village web site they completely left out the
economic development web pages.
When I attended the NMEDD Rural Economic Development Workshops over the
years it was stated every time that the most important thing a community
can do to enhance the potential for economic development was to have a
quality web site that promoted the community and provided demographics.
I stated this many times as a member of the Governing Body. It is
sad that this activity was discontinued. If re-elected I will
re-instate an economic development web site. Most businesses these
days do a lot of their up-front research into a community through the
web before making a commitment to relocate. So a web site is a must.
When Tractor Supply came to Bosque Farms their regional manager
commended the Village for the economic development web site. It
helped them gather the necessary demographics they needed without having
to do additional research. Quite a positive outcome for a small
effort.
In addition, the NMEDD grant money was also used to produce promotional material to advertise the Village and its economic potential. The Certified Community designation also made Bosque Farms eligible to participate with the New Mexico Partnership, a non-profit entity established by the NMEDD for the purpose of bringing out-of-state businesses to New Mexico. The New Mexico Partnership had a goal to bring 60% of the businesses to rural areas of the State, and Bosque Farms qualifies for that status. The Village had put forth a number of proposals to the NM Partnership to try to bring new business here. With the NMEDD CCI funds, Bosque Farms also hired an economic development consultant to prepare recommendations for economic development activities that might bear fruit. One of the recommendations was to organize a "Go To" event that would draw people to the Village and give us some name recognition. Bernalillo has their wine festival and Corrales has their arts and crafts fair. Bosque Farms needs something unique. Ideas would be most welcome. Volunteers to help organize an event would also be appreciated!
While developing the Certified Community Initiative proposal, the committee also developed an economic development ordinance. The ordinance was recommended to the Council and passed into law. It gives the Village the potential to negotiate incentives with companies considering to locate in the Village.
The Committee was also successful in seeking marketing funds from the NMEDD to be used for outreach activities. This resulted in a $2,000 grant from the State.
When Tractor Supply Company
was considering opening a store in Bosque Farms, they asked for economic
incentives. The State's Local Economic Development Act (LEDA) did
not allow communities to do economic incentives for retail businesses at
that time. I talked to our Legislative delegation, the New Mexico
Municipal League, and the Mid-Region Council of Governments (MRCOG)
(upon which I was a member of their Executive and regular Boards) about
getting this changed. Because of my efforts, MRCOG put this on
their legislative watch list. Other communities also voiced a need
for a change. The result was a change to LEDA that allows
communities under 10,000 people to use economic incentives for retail if
they so desire. This is a big win in an effort to attract
businesses to our community. Sadly, without a Village economic
development web site businesses do not even know that the Village has
this important incentive to offer them if they want to locate in Bosque
Farms.
The NMEDD web site is a good place to look for information on economic development initiatives: http://www.edd.state.nm.us