County government’s impact has never been greater

“The level of impact the county is having is at an all-time high,” Doña Ana County Manager Fernando Macias said in a recent interview.

The county is making record investments in roads, flood control, fire protection, economic development and other infrastructure and quality of life issues, said Macias, who began his second stint as county manager in January 2018. He previously was county manager 1997-2000 and served as a state district judge 2006-17. Macias also was a New Mexico State senator for 16 years and was on the Doña Ana County Commission for two years.

The county

With more than 223,300 residents (about 114,000 live in Las Cruces), Doña Ana County is the second most populous county in New Mexico. It is geographically twice the size of Delaware and three times the size of Rhode Island. The county’s 2021 median household income was $47,151 and its poverty rate was 19.3 percent, compared to $54,020 and 18.4 percent statewide and $69,021 and 11.6 percent nationally. The county has three cities (Las Cruces, Anthony and Sunland Park), one town (Mesilla), one village (Hatch) and more than two dozen census-designated places, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, including Santa Teresa, Chaparral, Doña Ana, Garfield and Organ. It also is home to the Las Cruces, Gadsden and Hatch school districts. The county has approximately 850 employees.

Roads

The county is engaged in “the most robust road effort in all of county history,” Macias said, with $20 million in county funds and $5 million from the state allocated “just for roads,” he said. That includes connectivity projects “to get people living in colonias onto major thoroughfares,” Macias said, as well as San Jacinto Road providing secondary access to New Mexico Highway 28 for Chamberino residents.

Economic development

“It’s like never before,” Macias said about economic development taking place in Santa Teresa, which he called a “driving force” in the state’s economy. The growth is “a prelude to additional large-scale manufacturing development” at the jetport and the industrial base in Santa Teresa, he said.

The county has requested $33 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation (with a $7 million county match) to build another overpass to “improve the flow of truck traffic through the industrial parks in Santa Teresa,” Macias said.

Located 40 miles southeast of Las Cruces, Santa Teresa and its cross-border neighbor, San Geronimo, Chihuahua, Mexico, have more than six million square feet of industrial space in use, and more than two million square feet currently under construction.

Fire service

The county is “becoming more and more a full-time firefighter operation,” Macias said, with “very strong county commission funding and support” to create “a more established base in which to respond to fires and emergency services.”

The county will add an additional 14 full-time firefighters in the new fiscal year to bring the total number of paid county fire employees to 59, including county Fire Chief Shannon Cherry, administrators, firefighters and EMTs. That is in addition to volunteer firefighters.

The county has seen a “really dramatic” increase in fire service in the past five years, Macias said, and is pursuing additional federal money to add “even more full-time staff.” 20 years ago, he said, the county had a fire marshal and one additional paid fire service employee.

County Triage Center

Thanks to legislation passed during the 2023 session and signed into law by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, the county will be able “to address liability issues voiced as impediments to the use of the (county) triage center,” Macias said.

The legislation, sponsored by state Rep. Doreen Gallegos of Las Cruces, allows for CTCs in the state to involuntarily admit and treat “certain individuals in crisis,” according to the bill.

Macias said about 1,500 individuals have received service at the triage center since it opened in July 2021. The county has also begun mobile crisis service, so individuals in need of treatment don’t have to come to the center, located in Las Cruces.

The CTC has been “very positive,” Macias said, as it “takes the burden off area emergency rooms.”

Flood control

Macias said the county has allocated $13 million to address flooding issues across the county, with millions of dollars in additional funding coming to complete projects in Hatch, Doña Ana, La Union, Chaparral, the East Mesa and elsewhere.