[Music]
you're
on
good afternoon everyone welcome to city
council work session uh today is Monday
February 12th uh
2024 it is approximately 1:2 PM I am
mayor Enriquez uh we will start uh as
you all know we had a very tragic and
unfortunate incident yesterday uh one
that's very close to home we're we're
all heavy-hearted today for our fallen
officer
um Jonah Hernandez and I ask you all to
please stand for a moment of silence and
we pay our respects to officer Hernandez
the Los Cruzes police department and
above all his family his wife and his
children if we could have a moment of
silence
please
thank you if you'll join me in the
pledge
allegiance I pledge aliance to the flag
the United States of America and to the
repu for which it stands one nation
under God indivisible withy and justice
for
all
all right thank you our first item is uh
pets of the week do we
have hello everyone my name is Amy def
Felix I'm with the Animal Services
Center of the msia valley and we'll
start off with the pets of the
week and of course we always start off
with the cat of the week and this week
we have Mina her number is 717 4 3 she
says I like taking my naps at the
tallest point possible so my dream home
must have at least one nice tall cat
tree for me to Lounge in I am shy but I
do love a good head Pat and even cheek
scratches for being such a quiet Kitty I
do have a decent purr I'd like a nice
quiet forever family that'll let me live
my life as an observer being a quiet
companion who will love them forever and
then of course we also have our dog of
the week his name is Luke his number is
2857 and he says if you're looking for a
calm gentle companion look no further
I'm I am an attentive and affectionate
boy who just wants cuddles kisses and
treats I'm such a good boy I even got to
go to the senior center and did amazing
with all the residents all I want is a
loving family to whom I can devote
myself to i' love to go on nice
leisurely walks and then finish the day
getting pets and cozying up to my people
and then we have a few events going on
this week um we do have our adoption
event our offset adoption event at
PetSmart this Saturday February 17th
we'll be there from 10:00 a.m. to 2:
p.m. and then we do have an adoption
special for Valen day the adoptive
sweetheart special so um all adoptions
so 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. are full
adoption hours all of our adoptions will
only be $14 so we definitely encourage
you if you're if you're looking for a
love a furry loved one definitely stop
by on Valentine's Day and and of course
I'd like once want again to remind
everyone about our drive-through
vaccination clinic um that's going to be
held Sunday February 25th at the Field
of Dreams we'll be there from 9:00 a.m.
to 2 p.m. the first 200 microchips are
free to the owners because they're
sponsored by the MCH charitable
Foundation and then all of the distemper
parvo for dogs and then fine demper for
cats all all of those vaccines will be
free to the owners because they're
sponsored by Petco love and then
everything else is only $10 so either
way it's an affordable way to get the
animals in the community vaccinated to
microchipped um and then links for
reference in general um our website
ascmv dog social media we have Facebook
Instagram Tik Tok and then YouTube and
Spotify and apple podcast we did last
week get our newest episode of our
podcast
up um we talked about capacity for care
so we definitely encourage you all to
listen in it's a definitely an important
animal welfare topic that we touched on
that is all I have thank
you all right thank you uh next we have
jobs of the
week good afternoon
everyone
my name is Sarah rainy I am the One-Stop
coordinator for the southwest region of
the workforce um Connections Office um
and I'll bring you the jobs of the week
for the last cruus
area for this week we have a 911 call
taker in the msia Valley Regional
dispatch Authority that's for the city
of Los crusis the position begins at
1872 an hour and the posting closes on
the 22nd we also have for the city of
Las crusis a library assistant one for
in the computer lab that position starts
at 1557 and the posting also closes on
the 22nd we also have a residential
maintenance technician um an entry-level
position on the White Sand Missile Range
that position is open until filled and
then depends on experience for the
pay bilingual personal banker is open at
the first National Bank of Texas um that
is here in Los cruus as far as the
location that is $12 an hour and the
posting closes on May May 6 sorry we
also have a field representative
Insurance inspections for verisk
analytics strategic analytics um
insurance services that posting says it
starts at $44,000 a year and it is open
until
May and lastly we have an accounts
payable specialist at the amilies and
youth Incorporated that's FYI Veron
Solano that pos position starts at $17
an hour to $23 an hour and the posting
closes um in
March as always we can always be reached
over on the in our office location at on
Alam at 524 6250 and then on all of our
social medias as well we are Facebook
Instagram LinkedIn YouTube and Tik Tok
I'm trying to get everything out there
we also are going to be focusing on on
um hot jobs throughout the week um on
our social media so thank you very much
for having
us all right thank
you next we'll move to our first U
agenda item which is 3.1 an update from
the New Mexico Department of
Transportation regarding the us70 North
Main Street construction project uh
Chris favor will start it off good
afternoon mayor city council Chris favor
with Economic Development um couple
weeks back City staff attended a public
meeting held by the New Mexico
Department of Transportation regarding
this project um it was really good
information and we kind of thought it'd
be nice for them to come share it with
the entire Council so we asked them to
come present today on the project
details the timeline the uh impact on
the businesses and so forth so uh at
this time I'm going to turn it over to
Aaron Chaba with the Department of
Transportation um and then staff will be
be available for questions
after thank
you mayor uh members of the council
thank you guys very much for having uh
letting us present to you today as Chris
said my name is Aaron chavaria I am the
district one engineer for
nmdot um along with me um is earol
Franks who's our construction engineer
and Ryan Tafoya who is a uh our project
manager for this project contractor for
this project which is the us70 main
street um from uh three crosses Solano
to just east of the Elks Travis
interchange um contractor is elero out
of Rio
Rancho
um our our Communications team um
uh We've Incorporated a a more robust uh
uh public awareness uh strategy for this
project uh Patty Watson uh she's our CWA
strategic Communications contractor
along with p uh Amy Evans our Pio for
the district they're going to work
together and U and handle the public
awareness for this
project there is a project website
um and we'll see it at the end of the
presentation we'll put it up but it's a
us70 Main
Street uh within that website you be
able to find uh all project project data
uh frequently asked questions any
questions the community members or
anybody asked you'll be able to see it
on that
website you'll you'll be able to sign up
for weekly updates if you're interested
in that um you'll you'll be able to see
our final layout of that construction
project
um and any any other thing that you're
looking for if uh if it's not on that
website you can always ask the question
and we'll get it on
there we will be having uh monthly
construction meetings as Chris said we
already had our our initial one uh but
we'll be having them every month uh they
will be posted on that
website so um
the us70 originally uh back in the 1930s
uh was a two-lane it started out as a
two-lane
facility uh the existing uh four-lane
facility with the bridges uh they were
constructed in the
1950s um this project came to be um
because of the bridge over Alam Royal it
is uh functionally obsolete so it needed
to be replaced so since we we were
replacing the bridge and adding capacity
uh we decided as a district to go ahead
and and uh increase the um the existing
Lanes from two lanes in each direction
to three lanes in each Direction within
the project uh limits that I talked
about um by doing this we'll facilitate
better traffic flow uh and improve
safety um these recommendations uh came
came forth through a feasibility study
that we did
that feasibility study started in 2016
and it was completed in
2018 uh part of that study we had
several uh public meetings and
stakeholder
meetings um we also Incorporated a
property uh owner interviews as well you
can find a copy of that study on that
website that I talked about it's uh it's
a phase AB
study um here's the our location for our
project uh the mall markers but it's
roughly uh there at
Solano um to just east of the Travis
alks uh
interchange um some of the benefits that
uh uh coming from this project are uh
for one we're adding one additional uh
Lane of traffic in each Direction so
it's going to add
capacity um we're going to be modifying
the intersection of uh Travis Elks inter
change um so we're going to have a
little bit better traffic flow at that
intersection uh we're having a new
structure over alomo
Royal uh so we're we're going to be able
to do a a pedestrian facilities from
Solano to alks and
Travis um there's a bike lane in there
it's not all the way but uh it's about
halfway we're adding a bike lane as well
um and then for the walking path that
goes under um elk uh under uh the Alama
Royal Bridge uh we're going to dedicate
its own little uh structure with
lighting um so it it'll be a little
better than what's there what's existing
now um and then a little more about this
project um it's about a n nine Monon
project uh weather permitting but we're
anticipating October of this year for it
to be
completed um working hours you know
roughly 7:00 a.m. to 5: um and as we get
closer to Summertime those hours will
extend you know daylight depending on
how much time the contractor
needs um and then uh we we we developed
this uh project phasing it's going to be
uh it's broken up into five phases um
within those 9 months uh some of these
phases are are being done concurrently
so it'll be a uh we're trying to we're
trying to get in and out as fast as we
can um and I want to pass it over to uh
uh Ryan tooya uh he's going to give you
guys a little more detail on the actual
Construction
good afternoon my name is Ryan theoa I'm
the uh project manager for the us70
project um I'll cover the construction
for you guys uh so part of the part of
the construction during the beginning of
the construction uh the contractor came
to us and asked if they could combine
some of the phasing so we reviewed it um
it made sense and I'll explain to you
guys why it made sense here in just a
bit again like uh Aaron said you know
the construction is where they're
permitting everybody knows here the the
wind and the rain that we get so there
is uh guarantee there is going to be
some days that the contractor can't
work so for most of the project the Alam
Ayo Trail will be closed um due to
safety of course the the existing
Bridges need to be demoed we don't want
anybody in or around while that's being
done also while the the new box covers
are going to be
constructed uh currently right now uh
traffic is 35 M an hour through the
project this is just a map showing where
where the bridge is being demoed and uh
the box covers are being
constructed
So currently this phase one is already
well
underway um if you guys have traveled
through there all of the traffic has
been moved over to the westbound Lanes
uh the eastbound Lanes or the eastbound
Bridge has already been
demoed excuse
me so part of the um combining of the
the phases was Phase 1 and 3A so in
order
to stop from having to move traffic all
over the place 3A was the whitening of
the eastbound Lanes so we allowed the
contractor to do the eastbound Bridge
along with the whitening of the
eastbound Lanes uh this is to include
you know the new sidewalk new curbing
gutter new lighting um so that way the
contractor can completely finish the
eastbound lanes and then we can put
track traffic on it and concentrate on
the westbound
Lanes so phase one also we we removed
all of the
um we removed all of the the medians uh
we paved in the median so we could
provide crossovers to move traffic over
to the westbound
side um along with that the uh phase one
Al included the demo of the existing
bridge and the uh construction of the
new box cover so in this project we will
build half of the box cover at a time
finish all of the the eastbound side and
then you know pretty much the the
westbound side is going to be the mirror
um construction of of the uh of the
westbound so the the only big
difference uh in in phase three is we
will be constructing some storm drain so
along with the with the whitening the
sidewalks the lightning the lighting we
will be we will be uh installing some
storm
drain so I I I'll hand the the rest over
to uh Earl
Franks mayor members of the council
thank you uh I'll be speaking briefly on
U phase three of construction and then
wrap up our
presentation uh phase three uh which is
also combined with with phase five at
this point in the project oh sir uh can
you state your name and then just uh
speak a little bit more into the
microphone so I apologize is that better
yes okay yeah My Name is Earl Franks I'm
the district one construction engineer
and like I said uh phase three it will
be combined with phase five at this
point the project will rapidly progress
toward substantial completion uh it will
consist of uh building storm drain man s
uh median at the Alam Alam Royal box
covert as well as uh dealing with the
crossover detour
locations uh at that point the uh Alam
Trail Crossing will
reopen
um both Eastbound and Westbound traffic
on
us70 will
uh
there you go both Eastbound and
Westbound traffic on us70 will have uh
left lanes closed uh with two lanes open
so basically it'll be the same
configuration as prior to construction
as far as capacity goes the contractor
will be working in the middle of of that
um we'll be removing temporary detour
pavement near Alama Royal Crossing and
other Crossovers and the estimated
duration is um six weeks if everything
goes
well talk about traffic impacts just
briefly uh I think motorists are already
seeking alternate routes uh we have uh
some variable message boards on the
interstates I both I 10 and
I25 uh I25 at exit 6 and I 10 at exit
135 um I I don't believe we're
experiencing any significant ific
increase in
congestion uh we are committed to
maintaining access to all residents and
businesses and uh construction updates
will be issued on a regular basis like
Aon said uh you can get on our project
website it's
www. us70 mainstreet.com and information
will also be available at
www. nmroads.com
uh Pat Watson is our contact for
concerns or
questions
oops during uh construction uh and here
is her contact information um and Patty
will be forwarding uh concerns and
questions to the construction team for
answers and with that I think we can
open it up to any questions that you all
have all right thank you any questions
questions U councilor
mlar yes I had a question about the
trail was there a detour planned or any
alternate route that was given for
that we do not have a detour for the
trail is that typical
or I think it's just a kind of
circumstance here there's uh really um
no good way to to Route pedestrians
around that area safely okay I'm just
saying for the future if we could
consider the trails as a part of our
transportation system that it's not just
about motorists so I'd like to kind of
put that out there that we would like to
have a detour I think specifically the
neighborhood behind could be used for
that so thank
you okay thank you Council M councelor
fres uh thank you Mr Mayor and thank you
Mr Franks
um with all due respect I think it's
very disingenuous of you to say that
there hasn't been a change in the
traffic jam since this started or or
whatever it took me I hard I don't go I
don't take that route uh very
frequently um and now I'm avoiding it
completely but the time I did it took me
it usually takes me 15 minutes to get
home it took me 45 minutes to get home
and um and I felt you know I thought
well you know just my little doggy
that's waiting for me not I don't have a
bunch of kidss or anything like that at
home anymore but um so and and councelor
McClure asked a very good question about
um having uh accommodations for other
things that are being impacted such as
the Trails um so why did you say that
there really hasn't been any change in
the traffic I mean it's iway 70 is very
poorly designed in my humble opinion I'm
not an engineer but I am a user of that
road and I think it's very horrible for
the bike Lanes there's no pedestrian
walkways um is that all being looked
into thank you yes councelor Flores I I
apologize I I was basing that on a
discussion that eron and I had just
earlier today uh we both passed through
the work Zone uh near uh peak hours and
at peak hours and uh I was comparing it
to you know prior to when uh traffic
control was implemented in fact the day
that we had the first public meeting I
had to pick up my daughter at ballet she
has ballet at Los cruus uh School of
Dance right on Main Street and the uh
traffic was backed up mind you this is
before any traffic control was
implemented uh was backed up close to
Madrid and I had to kind of work my way
around uh just to make it to the meeting
on top time uh so it it goes to uh this
speaks to what uh Aon mentioned earlier
the problem with this segment of highway
is functional obsolescence right the
city has expanded and outgrown the
facility uh that was originally designed
uh and um increased as far as capacity
goes in the 50s uh so we we obviously
see the need for additional
capacity and uh that's what this project
will provide uh you know that that was
just you know that statement was simply
based on my experience of of traveling
through there I expected it to to be a
lot worse um and I know obviously if
there was a congestion problem pre
construction during construction you
know there's going to be a congestion
problem and all we uh can uh hope for is
that people find their way around and
and uh and seek alternate routes and I
have another question um does the city
in any way um share the expense or the
work or is it State exclusively a state
project this is exclusively state funded
and federally funding okay because we do
have um bike lanes and um regulations
and all that in that regard so would it
be consistent with what we
have yes I believe so uh the so uh
preconstruction there were no in this
segment of highway there were no uh
pedestrian sidewalks uh or anything that
this project will build that uh facility
for pedestrian use great thank you very
much gentlemen thank you Mr
Mayor goad mayor protim thank you um
thank you all so much for being here I I
do just also want to note that we all
wish there was a magic wand for
construction right everybody hates it in
the meantime but it's it's good at the
nine months we'll all be thanking you
right now everyone will be mad at you so
I I am sorry for that um but cones these
cones generally mean progress right so
we have to be patient um I did have a
couple of questions for you actually
around pedestrian safety I'm wondering
if you could talk a little bit more
about what those will look like I don't
know if I don't think you included
pictures right but I am curious because
right now I I live on that side of town
travel that area often and um you're
right there is nothing for pedestrians
right out on that that pocket I'm
curious if you could talk a little bit
more about the protections for
pedestrians and cyclists um that you
know make room between them and the
vehicles um mayor um councelor yes so so
our standard is to build a 5ft sidewalks
so we are going to have uh we are going
to construct 5ot sidewalk Walks from
Solano to the AL Travis in intersection
uh on both sides over the bridge we'll
have a we'll have 5 foot sidewalks which
don't exist right now um we do have a
bike lane that we are constructing uh
there is no buffer between traffic and
the bike lane uh we're limited on Space
uh but it only goes uh roughly from
Solano to the temple
intersection um and then from there it
terminates
okay thank you um and then I was
wondering if you all could provide some
sort of signage on the zipper method I
think what I've seen is that people get
really frustrated about um they everyone
tries to get in one lane and the people
that are in this other lane then they
get people are like you can't cut me off
which generally is actually the positive
way to make flow traffic flow right do
you have any kind of signage that could
do some education around this or is
there any education we could partner on
for folks traveling this area Yeah we
actually have a DOT pamphlet who talks
about the zipper merge and you know how
to do it how to go about it um so so we
can actually post that on our website uh
to help and then we can probably talk a
little bit more about it just to promote
it um we were talking earlier in the
whole fact that people aren't rushing uh
typically they Rush at that taper and
and try to get in everybody's in one
lane just you know they're expecting it
um and that's kind of where the the
whole comment about congestion came from
um we've seen a lot of respectful
drivers um since this project started
which is it's not typical for a a a
roadway construction project um but on
this one for some reason I mean we're I
mean we're happy about it you know we're
not complaining so but definitely we can
add uh more uh that pamphlet to our
website since I you know this is mostly
an nmg project um if there's any way
that our Pio could work with you on
putting out some information about that
how to be safe while traveling this road
um on our social media and those kinds
of things I think that would be really
helpful for the public I uh thank you I
appreciate it um and just to let you
guys know it is it is a DOT project uh
but the uh city um uh staff has been
involved from day one so it's uh they've
been around they they know exactly uh
what our purpose was so thank you David
I feel like he's trying to say you can
also be mad at David not just me just
kidding than thanks again we we have a
good working relationship with the city
staff I mean you know we we we share a
lot you know our traffic uh we share uh
the same complaints city has we have as
well
so councelor Flores did you have
something else yes um appr propo of
letting people know uh what's going on I
mean you can get PSAs you know just all
the way you know people turn on the
radio on the way home generally and you
can just have PSAs you know and they
don't cost anything and and then it'd be
great to announ uh to provide people
with alternate routs that may be even um
shorter TimeWise than it would be to
even though that's a straight line might
be worth going you know going off Solano
and down Lowman or something if you have
to get to the East side and or the west
side you know get another
arterial um mode is that possible uh
mayor
counselor that's a great idea to do the
PSAs um we we do uh radio announcements
um every once in a while um we we do
stay away from uh designating a an
alternate route um because it would have
to be city
streets um and you know those uh we
don't detour we try not to detour
through city streets uh you know the
impacts to the neighborhoods or or other
other there's some other factors that we
may not know about so we stay away from
that yes councilor M well just on a
positive note you did a hell of a job
with the university over a past so this
is quite a project and a good
Improvement for that area thank
you mayor counselor Monti thank you very
much um Ryan was our project manager for
that project as well
so anyone
else uh just wanted to say thank you for
the presentation uh yeah 9 months seems
like a long time but uh it'll be well
worth it uh question I have is the
future flow going east do you anticipate
any any problems with the third lane
you're you're going from Three Crosses
to Elks then from Elks up to the East do
do we see any future uh demands or needs
for the flow or how does that look for
the
future mayor this is uh way way in the
future but uh we anticipate
us70 uh becoming a three-lane
facility um I just don't know when you
know Capa capacity needs are uh we're
getting close to that already um there's
a lot of bridge structures that we'll
have to
expand um to be able to do that but it
it's going to be in the future probably
in the near
future okay thank you uh at this time is
there any uh members of the public that
have uh question or comment for this uh
project okay seeing none thank you thank
you next item 3.2 a midyear marketing
and Industry Trend update from msia
Valley Economic Development Alliance uh
Mr DAV Lopez
thank mayor counselors good afternoon
thank you for having me today um and I
want to thank the staff for allowing us
to do a midyear update uh normally we
just present it at the end of the year
but uh you know end of our fiscal year
should I say on June you know after June
30th but uh we're working on a lot of
things nowadays and I thought i' I I
change this up a little bit differently
normally when I present to city council
I'm presenting our year- end metric
numbers but I thought we'd delve a
little bit more into how we go about
generating business and trying to grow
lost crues uh part of our mission is
industry attraction and that means means
we're trying to scour the United States
and sometimes internationally trying to
identify companies in Industry who will
Lo who will expand and put locations and
investment here in Los cruus uh that
sometimes entails trade shows we were
exhibiting at one last week in Anaheim
it was an advanced manufacturing trade
show a couple of our staff members were
there but in the last year and a half we
were able to hire the gentleman I'm
going to introduce you in just a moment
to uh Carlos po he's our director of
marketing and he's really been able to
now move us in a different direction or
an expanded direction should I say in
terms of marketing both utilizing new
types of
mediums uh both in terms of reaching a
new audience but using types of like
digital marketing in order to reach
those audiences as well so we want to
bring him up to the podium and just kind
of talk about what we're doing on the
marketing side to give more visibility
uh to Los crues for business attraction
so
Carlos all city council thank you for
allowing me to do this presentation and
let me
just yeah just for the record if we
could get you to state your name uh my
name is Carlos
Parra so first off I would like to start
to just kind of go over the basis of
these numbers come from just LinkedIn
alone so there are over 3 million seite
Executives in the United States and over
million decision
makers and quite honestly 90% of all
edos deliver them the same message um
and I'm going to kind of leave it open
if you anybody wants to chime in to kind
of guess what that message is feel free
to shout it
out I can tell you that right now Denver
has a great quality of life Las cruus
has a great quality of life Michigan has
a great quality of
life Michigan is also the smart choice
and so is
La Austin is open for business Carl's
Bad is open for business these are the
same messages that edos are delivering
to the same Executives that are making
the decisions for
expansion but if we look at it a deeper
level it's all about the we we have what
you're looking for it's all about that
state it's exact we have what you're
looking for we're we we have that great
quality of life we are the smart choice
we want to be able to break through that
that that's an old way of doing
marketing it's an old way of doing
messaging and so what I always like to
focus on is paino marketing and so
really what that is is we want to focus
on what those Industries are having
struggles with and so right now this is
an image of our Los crusis Innovation
Industrial Park it's not the entire park
but it is an image and so a lot of times
if we were to use use this inside some
kind of marketing material you look at
it and well it's all perspective right
thought might come in and say well it's
empty there's not enough but if we're
able to take that pain that that that
struggle that they that they're looking
at and that struggle and when we can
actually fill
it we're able to take this perspective
and change it so really and one of the
main things that we're looking at is
that there's a need for ready sites
there's a need for these companies to be
able to come in and we know the
utilities there we know that these
cities are ready for us to move in so we
took what would normally be of that
perspective of saying it's empty there's
nothing there and we're able to Brand it
so we're telling you this is your spot
your site is ready now with this we're
able to create
ownership create that message that says
this is your this is your place we're
ready for
you now when we build upon this
messaging we want to to discover
something so when I first came on board
one of the
biggest uh terms that we were use is
we're the we're the best kept
secret but with this these secrets are
Discovery so that's why we use discover
Los cruus in the borderplex region and
again it's not us it's not saying hey we
we have 2.5 million population and a
pipeline of 150,000 students you're
going to tap into that right so again
we're we're using the information that
we have we're looking at the FZ zones
we're looking at FastTrack permitting
we're looking at the site certification
right we're telling them exactly that we
are ready for you we are welcoming you
into and literally this spot that we
have is ready now you'll notice some
things here and there like a QR code and
I'll touch base on all of that later um
but I want to show you how all of this
kind of ties in together so what you're
looking at right now is a half-page ad
that goes into an industry magazine next
is a full page ad that goes into that uh
into another uh industry magazine now
again the messaging is all the same
we're going to be continuing this
messaging throughout the campaign itself
because we want that top of- mind
awareness whether they're looking at the
half page whether they're looking at the
full page or up next this is an actual
ad that shows up next to articles
themselves um and again we were trying
to create marketing campaigns so
whatever and anytime they see us they
find us the messaging is consistent
across the board that we are ready for
you we have your site so across the
board on um with site selection magazine
and expansion Solutions magazine we've
reached over 9 over
97,000 uh ex Executives and decision
makers so this is just this itself is
just through their print magazine and
their digital magazine so anytime
somebody visits their website and they
want to look at the the the presentation
of the magazine and be able to flip
through it this is what they're seeing
and this is the amount of people that
were able to
reach but something uniques happened
with a lot of these magazines is that
we've been able to
establish really concrete relationships
with them um and so with these
relationships we've turned this into
earned media so this is not us buying
ads we are presenting ourselves as
experts in the field so expansion
solutions they were doing an article on
digital media and they turned to us to
Mita for video game development and
what's going on in the video game
industry we have one video game
developer in Los crues but because we've
been able to speak to these
representatives and explain to them and
the knowledge of unreal uh the Unreal
Engine and zbrush and all of these tools
that the industries used that
incorporate that are that are being used
at NMSU and doniana Community College
where they're creating a pipeline of
Industry Talent with artists that are
sculpting and they're coding and they're
they're able to go into a an industry
that's a multi-billion dollar industry
that makes more money money than the
film industry itself one video game will
is outsold Avatar the movie just one
video
game so they turn to us as because we're
a growing Community we we are growing in
in that industry we have support from
the city we have support from the state
with the 30% uh incentives coming back
to those to to the the video game
industry so they wrote an article on us
and specifically on Lost curses becoming
a hub for these video game
developers site
selection the and this is this is their
title which is the three cities to watch
in the desert Southwest Davin Davin
Lopez uh had He got interviewed for this
this isn't about doniana County this is
specifically about Los cruus itself and
why this is one of the top three cities
to look out for so again these
relationships that were the that we've
started to build with a lot of these
magazines again is this is part of our
earning media and this is something we
wouldn't be able to achieve just by
buying ads but you'll notice on here
that we actually that half page
coincided and was produced and is by the
actual article itself again right we're
building that that connection between
your site is ready and the articles that
are being
written so you'll see here and again
this is your full page ad this is um the
one in the center which also looks like
the full page ad but that is for the
articles that we're that are showing up
these are ads that are running inside
the Articles themselves when they click
on it they're being taken over to
landing pages your half page and then
your email uh newsletters and then email
banners themselves um so this the this
is what's going to be appearing in our
the January February issues of expansion
Solutions as well as um site selection
magazine but and again we have QR codes
there because every time somebody's
looking at at least the print print is
the most difficult form of advertising
to track back you don't know whether or
not they've actually looked at it you
don't know if they've taken the time to
see it it's the most difficult form of
and it's always been the most difficult
form of of of uh a way to track uh
advertising however with the QR code
we're able to customize that experience
and further the conversation um and so
right now I have like breaking breaking
news so before I left to Anaheim uh
expansion Solutions oop sorry before I'm
jumping ahead of myself with the print
with the digital print with website
views with newsletters with email
subscriptions and using all of their
social media we were reach we were able
to reach 300 and
58,000 uh subscribers so this is our
audience of seite Executives and
decision makers um now on top of that um
like like I was uh alluding to where
last week I went to Anaheim so this this
information's a little old but expansion
Solution on January and February their
addition uh we had a full page
advertising that showed up we were the
fourth ad to show up inside this
magazine right next to the editor uh the
letter from the editors it's Prime
position and then again through these
relationships they actually interviewed
uh the uh nmed and so they had an
article about New Mexico and again
you'll notice that Carl's Bad is open
for
business and then the article itself
next to a quote was our ad that ad was
actually given to us free of charge
because the relationships that we've
been developing with these with these
site selection magazines and with a lot
of these industry magazines where
they're turning to us as experts they're
turning to us uh for information about
New Mexico and how it's growing um and
again with these relationships they had
requested a half page for filler if they
had the spot open because they needed to
to put an ad inside their in in their
print magazine then they would they
would fill it thankfully again through
that situation is we were able to
capitalize on that and show up on the
New Mexico article itself
now when I spoke about uh the QR codes
every QR code has its own unique landing
page and the reason why we have unique
landing pages is because we want to
tailor the messaging if we're doing an
ad about manufacturing if we're at a
trade show about manufacturing we want
to make sure when they are arriving to
this location that they get the
information about manufacturing not
about video game development not about
anything else but specifically a
targeted landing page this one's for the
L this Innovation Industrial Park you'll
notice that it says your site is ready
right so we're connecting the messaging
we're connecting the print and we're
connecting the digital and now when you
visit the landing page there's now there
there's now a representation of
everything that you've already seen with
these campaigns now below that we have
the site certification which was also
inside the ad itself now with
these with this page itself we've had 80
users and that means that we've had 80
scans across the board those 80 users
looked at 168 pages so they're just not
they're just not staying on the landing
page right they're actually exploring
the website what does the region have to
offer now with Google's new um analytics
they no longer look at your quote
unquote engagement it looks at events so
events are things that you've clicked on
videos that you've watched and so on
here we have a lot of things that would
create these events so you have video
you have Flyers about the certification
and what the city did to get that
certification what are all the
parameters that they actually met so
anytime they click on that they're able
to download it we have logos that show
actual businesses that exist and that
are being that are successful within the
Innovation and Industrial Park um now
I'm going to point out a couple little
things here which is the first one
that's highlighted which is uh we have a
we have a quick it's it's quick access
to information so we have photos of the
business development department we have
a phone number and we have an email
email it's not a form that people fill
out they're actually going to click on
it and then from there they're able to
to it loads their actual their actual
email client itself um and I'll touch
base a little further on on that the
next one that I like to call is a give
and get so anytime somebody wants
information on Los cruus and this one's
a specific flyer to Los cruus Innovation
industrial park they have to fill out a
form when they when we get something
they get something now the reason why we
do this is because it's it's called a
qualifier you're able to see whether or
not a lead is now being qualified
because they want information about the
industrial park and this goes into a
campaign that I'll touch further
on so part of our digital marketing is
our LinkedIn advertising and I'm a big
proponent of what's called AB campaigns
we figure out we have a campaign let's
say it's a display ad and B campaign is
a conversation ad and then after we run
these ads we get to see how each ad
performed who got the better engagements
uh what were the Impressions how many of
these Impressions turned into
click-throughs or or a CTA a a call to
action right did they click on that call
to action what was the percentage they
came on which ad is actually performing
better so we can look at our Impressions
here what we found was is that we got
better performance on What's called the
conversation ad so we got 56 over 6 over
56,000 impressions
40% click-through rate so your
clickthrough rate is every time
somebody's clicked on it 10% in this
industry is considered great so we're
well above
that we got we received 51 leads now the
unique thing about the conversation ads
is this is allows us to control a
conversation which you see over here
above over to the left of the numbers up
and sorry you'll also notice that again
we're tying in the campaigns with with
this with this with the uh digital ad
right discover Los crusis in in the
Border Plex region your site is ready
then right right there we have what's
what's considered a workflow now
workflow we get to see how our audience
is engaging with us what is the pain
point that we're communicating to them
and where are they flowing through this
conversation where's the last place that
they clicked did they fill out the lead
form after the lead form did they visit
one did they visit a landing page right
so we're able to track all of this so
this one it's itself has become the most
dominant and the most the easiest way to
track the pain points and our marketing
so we can become more effective at our
messaging itself so and out of 51 leads
we've had five engagements now five
engagements means that they have
requested more
information and I can tell you guys that
there there eventually becomes a break
in the tracking but this is very
effective to so again we can see how
people are engaging with us so we can
track how they're engaging with us and
again so we can monitor and we can
adjust our messaging to become even more
efficient at uh gaining
leads this is a an example of one of the
conversation ads uh this is a workflow
so we use a CRM I don't know how many
people are familiar with that but it is
a customer relationship manager now this
allows us through cookies to view the
engagement of an audience so
this is our conversation ad that hit on
May
2023 and it was until 5 months later
that we got the lead to be filled out
which was on October 14th but from
October 14th they went not only did they
fill out the Forum on LinkedIn but they
actually went back to the landing page
and then they filled out the Las cus
Innovation Industrial Park flyer so now
this tells us this is a higher more
qualified lead
because not only did they want the
information from LinkedIn but they took
the time to visit the website they're
taking the time to do the research and
they're requesting more
information so from here on my end this
becomes done this goes into our business
our business development and so they're
able to do the follow-up they're able
and I work with the team to develop
messaging now as I spoke kind of earlier
that we have this QR code right and
every time somebody fills out the form
or anytime somebody fills out form on
LinkedIn or they fill out the form on
our web page they're now going to go
into what's called a nurture campaign
and so we get to Market to these
individuals who want information we're
not spamming them we're not it's it's
not a list that they have they were not
signed up for they signed up for it
because they want information so here's
an
example and again we look at a
conversation ad that took place in
May and they actually open it and then
they continue this conversation and they
well it it happened over here in
December
so in December they filled out that lead
form now the next time going in is that
we did What's called the followup so as
soon as as soon as they fill out that
form on LinkedIn it goes into a nurture
campaign and it's automatic we send a we
send them a message and it's it's very
personal it doesn't look like spam and
we're thanking them for starting this
conversation and we want to continue
that conversation and because the
information they sent they now requested
more information um I have the names
blurred out but and it's a it's anara
you really can't see on the monitor but
this individual sent that email over to
the rest of the company it was opened 30
times so we're able to track how many
times that was opened what links they
clicked on and again we're looking at
these nurture campaigns of developing
further relationships but also knowing
and understanding our audience and being
able to adjust our messaging more
correctly and more aggressively but also
again building these relationships
because that's really what it comes down
to are these relationships and being
able to further these relationships so
they're always thinking about lost crues
right we receive that top of Mind
awareness whether it's in ads whe
whether it's through Linkedin whether
it's through social media we want to
make sure that we are constantly
communicating to these individuals to
our
audience so I I we we I I like to call
these a lot of like like your your
traditional right your trade shows
you're you're still walking the p
you're talking to people you're building
these relationships you're Gathering
leads but one of the one of the unique
things that came about was a sales
Mission and uh one of our business
developers uh Brett Buchanan he went to
a tra a sales Mission he got in front of
a site selector and the site selector
and I quote this is what he said if I
can't see your if I can't see an image
of who I'm supposed to be talking to and
there's not a phone number on there and
I can't click on the email not I don't
want to be taken to the to contact us
page I'm not going to look for you I
don't want a form to fill I want to be
able to tap on your email and have your
email client pop up and I want to send
you a message
immediately your city is out of the
running so I took that information and
now I make sure every landing page that
we have everything that they asked for
and again the these are things that I
can't get as an individual as a creative
right we're we're we're we're molding
this message and hope that we get your
attention but things like this are are
all part of relationships and what we're
getting from sales missions and we're
able to become more effective and more
precise in what we have on a user
experience and making sure that we're
able to fill that user
experience so and along with that is
that
traditional
print flyers and handouts and brochures
but you'll notice everything we're doing
now is is very precise very get you the
information as quickly as we possibly
can and then on top of that when I can't
fit that much information on a small
brochure then we have a QR code the QR
code is a dynamic QR code I can change
it at any given time and I can also
track the amount of scans now I can't
track where they're coming from and who
did it but I can track it once they fill
out the form then we get to see who it
was and look at the actual flow and what
pages they were looking at where they
landed and where they left
and again on the and you'll notice over
here too we have one in Tai in Taiwanese
in Mandarin so this was specific to the
Taiwanese Market that when when David
went on on an FDI a trip with the
governor we were able to take one
specifically in their language and we
worked with a with a professor of
Economics at NMSU to translate this so
it's not even our English we're broken
and we're we're you know creating
something that's bilingual this is in
their language and again the back of
that had a QR
code these are some of the images of uh
Brian Garcia's last uh sales Mission and
I believe this was in Atlanta and one of
these sales missions they actually went
to Chambers of Commerce and consulant
and they were able to again build these
relationships now again all of this goes
right back into a nurture campaign
specifically and it it's not a generic
nurture campaign these are specifically
thanking them for the meeting and from
here on out we can again continue to
Market to them about Los cruus The
Innovation industrial park and what's
going
on so Mita attended 13 trade shows and
again this is just for the this is the
midyear and and sales missions uh Davin
with the with with the New Mexico
governor's office uh looked at the
foreign direct investor so he had met
with 15 Taiwanese companies all speaking
about Los curses and The Innovation
industrial park and out of that that
created six uh projects coming in from
there so these are trade shows and sales
missions so we'll see some familiar
faces here um and so again this is our
social media we I I'm a big proponent of
video because it's what it's what the
algorithms are have changed to right so
I want to create that content for people
so anytime they're scrolling and we have
we delivered a precise message we we
provide a value statement a statement of
credibility and a call to action
everything's done in 15 seconds because
what it what Tik Tok has taught us is no
nobody has enough time that we don't
have 3 minutes 15 seconds or less you
need to deliver that message we've
developed a a message for that and so
not only that but anything like
automation up where we're looking at the
automation industry and grants and and
and programs that are going on within
the city right and so we're able to post
that uh life in the borderplex that was
me and my family we were hiking on a
mountain and there's a Paras slider a
parag glider I take out my phone
everything is content so I recorded it
and said this is life in the borderplex
New Year's Day people are out enjoying
this beautiful weather right it's it's
different saying yeah we have the
quality of life but here we're showing
this quality of life and it's being able
to be and it's being captured on the
spot in the moment uh any videos that
that take place we share that we share
it on YouTube Facebook uh obviously 90%
of our demographic is on LinkedIn
because that's where the decision makers
are at that's where the seite executives
are at but we take these videos as we
put them on our television during at
trade shows so we're able to create it's
it's called Uh create once post
everywhere cope and so it's an easy way
for us to create content and post it
everywhere and make sure we're tagging
and I I make sure that we're we're we're
tagging the correct companies and
individuals that way they're able to
share that content itself and then any
kind of news that's going on uh like
this one here with the uh with the two
companies that were awarded uh jtip and
one of them was higher cultures in Los
cruus so uh this is something that I've
showed
internally uh the the the department in
the city has seen this this is what I
call connected marketing and so print
leads to websites but also your print
now leads to trade shows trade shows
lead back to the website but also lead
back to your nurture emails your nurture
emails link back to your website and
they cross right because there are times
if I'm going to create a blog post or
news on the website then we put that
inside a nurture campaign our site
selection and decision makers or any of
those meetings they those get put into
social media and then we tag the
individuals correctly so now we're
getting movement we're getting that top
of Mind awareness right they're
remembering that we met um and then from
social media goes into digital marketing
but everything we want is to be able to
lead back to the website because that's
the foundation and we're able to build
these lists so then we can create our
our nurture campaigns and and again be
able to communicate effectively with our
own lists not depending on on what's hot
for the day right um and so even if we
look at what was three years ago when
Facebook and Instagram went down and
everybody was freaking out because they
didn't know how to Market people should
have just pulled up their email list
they should have been building for years
and so that's the goal is we continue to
build these for years so that that list
expands and we become again more
effective at our at our
messaging so this is a quick preview of
what is updated monthly so I always
invite uh mayor and any of our city
council to come to our monthly meetings
because this is more of the the what's
what's happening the boots on the ground
this is our report for last month we
talk about the trade shows and we break
this down into three forms of marketing
you have your traditional marketing you
have your relationship marketing and
then you have your digital marketing so
this is from last month I have yet to
update uh this month but you know when I
see you there you guys will be able to
to to get that information so and with
that that is my time thank you very much
for this
opportunity
thank you thank you Carlos and thank you
Davin uh any questions uh councelor
Flores yes thank you thank you uh Davin
and thank you um Mr Parra um yes uh
Davin I think it was at the November
meeting you mentioned that you had been
to Taiwan with the governor I believe
our governor was part of that um group
that went uh was there any positive um
outcome for Las crusis on that I know
that you have other clients and you
repres and you work closely with Jerry
Pacho and the Border Plex and all that
um and before I so that question but um
I believe Mr Carlos Parra said that
um he showed a picture of the industrial
um part of our city the western part but
said that it wasn't um ready in terms of
having the infrastructure that's
necessary um so what gives I mean what
how do you balance that and and by the
way my understanding is that yes it's
true that um there there aren't any
utility lines in there and portions of
that Innovative that Industrial Park
however um there is infrastructure I
believe Mr SEO can maybe speak to that
um more correctly or definitively but my
understanding is that it could be um uh
ready uh because there's places where
all of that can be installed and
connected but so back to my question for
you uh Mr Davin um what was the outcome
and what have been the outcomes of your
travels in so far as uh benefiting Las
Cruses so mayor counselors
um couple of questions I I'll start with
the um the trip to Taiwan first with the
governor's office um we have been making
a big push on foreign direct investment
over the last two years uh and
attracting foreign direct investment
that's the uh acronym FDI that Carlos
was referring to and here's the reason
why is because uh probably for the first
time ever we are now seeing a push for
companies to want to what they call
repurpose their production moving it out
of Asia primarily and into North America
it's been uh the term has been called
near Shoring if you're moving near uh
like into Mexico near the United States
uh the term for moving to the United
States has been called onshoring it's a
trend that um we're seeing millions of
hundreds of millions of dollars in
investment by these firms coming into
the United States uh we're seeing Mexico
so far as the biggest beneficiary
because of of course cost margins of
doing operations in Mexico but they all
have something one common a dominator is
all of these companies are are
repurposing production is because they
want to be closer to a US consumer
that's the primary reason why they're
doing that so there's a lot of
motivation because of supply chain
challenges that have taken place post
pandemic uh to move production over uh
have more secure Supply chains and have
greater access to that us consumer and
that's what we are leaning upon in terms
of our messaging and our marketing to an
audience um so the trip to Taiwan was
really reinforcing what we have here in
this region as how you can reach a 200
million population within a two-day
drive time how you can take advantage of
both parts of the border on the south
side and on the North side in terms of
manufacturing doing it all in one
location now the benefit that Los crus
has specifically received from that trip
is all the all the collateral we were
putting out there that we translated
into Taiwan e Mandarin utilize these
images of the Los cruus Innovation and
industri Park specifically and I'll be
the first to say I think the state's
done a great job of reaching out um to
uh to a foreign audience I think the
challenge that I have seen is that
there's been too much Reliance on only
talking about Santa Teresa so part of my
engagement was trying to bring that
pitch that it's not just Santa Teresa we
also have some valuable land Assets in
Los cruus that provide opportunity for
these companies here in North America um
so that was one of the the the biggest
things just the exposure that's come out
of it and we are working the leads I can
tell you that in this past fiscal year
so we're seven months into the fiscal
year we've had three site visits from
foreign companies to the Los cruus
Innovation and Industrial Park two have
been Taiwanese one have been South from
South Korea and we think this is going
to be a big portion of the business
that's going to come our way for the for
the reasons I just mentioned now getting
to the your second question on
infrastructure and the industrial Park
specifically um I would say up until
about maybe well post pandemic right
after the pandemic uh with all the
supply chain issues and this repurposing
and reshoring of production um we were
in a good position with infrastructure
at The Innovation Park uh the challenge
has been that over the past two years
we've seen a phenomenal growth in terms
of automate automated processes that are
that companies are putting into their
facilities
uh we are also seeing that um this leads
to more advanced
manufacturing types of um processes that
all Industries are now putting in place
which are requiring a lot more
infrastructure than they did two three
four or five years ago in fact I was on
the phone call with a client this
morning um if we would have heard in
terms of power about a 5 megawatt
project five years ago that was that was
a big project
now we're seeing minimum talks of 50
megawatts 100 megawatt projects these
are projects of size and scope we
haven't seen and and quite frankly most
of the United States hasn't seen either
so I would say we are I'm not saying
we're behind the eightball but we are in
maybe an opportune position
infrastructure infrastructure wise to be
competitive with other parts of the
country where we may in the past not may
not have been but that requires having a
plan that requires having a plan to get
infrastructure in place water Wastewater
and uh Power that can accommodate the
size of these projects if we're going to
land them so when we talk about site
Readiness that there's nothing wrong
with that but we're talking about site
Readiness in terms of 10 acre Parcels 12
acre Parcels that we have primarily
already at the uh Las crus Innovation
and Industrial Park if I may interrupt
you at this point
so um what if we build it and they don't
come I mean you're saying they're not
coming because we haven't built it
because we don't have the adequate uh
infrastructure given the increase in
yada yada so um what do we do what I
mean I I'm I think
that
um you know the yeah I I think that
we're in a between a rock and a hard
place right now and I in that regard if
that's the
scenario so what do we do do we do we
get that infrastructure going and then
sit and wait and see if something comes
along and then what if that something
doesn't come along
so and and that's I don't know if that's
something that you've spoken to the city
manager about or with Mr s and uh public
works department to get that mayor
counselor to answer your question yeah
we're not talking about a building they
will come scenario we're talking about a
Readiness scenario and what what I would
describe as a Readiness scenario is what
we're seeing on these major projects if
they're building 500,000 to a million
square feet of space it's going to take
them two to three years to build that
for this Advanced Equipment that they're
ordering uh nowadays because it's all
new to have it custom made it it's going
to take C two to three years as well so
I think what we're talking is a
Readiness Plan to say okay while you're
building this we can get infrastructure
in at the same time it you you should be
able to within that two to three years
from what we have heard from both uh
from most of the utilities the challenge
is we're not really prepared to have a
budget we don't have a budget ready for
this um I don't think the city does and
I don't think the state does and and as
soon as you start talking about well we
can build it in two to three years but
you start saying well we got to find the
budget first we all know how long that
can take you know you start putting it
on your priority list maybe you go to
Santa Fe three four or five times maybe
you get some grants from the federal
government by that time you know maybe a
mega site in Memphis or Michigan they're
already along the way
and in fact the past few year couple
years we've seen uh States like Michigan
Georgia some communities they are now
not only investing in Spec in
infrastructure but in having at least
funding ready to build it for when the
when the need when the need comes um
I've said this to the
state um I've said this in conversations
that I've had to other legislators we
need to start thinking about maybe
having some type of uh funding mechanism
that's ready to go on hold you don't
spend it you can make interest off of it
in the meantime but ready to go when the
time comes and that avoids that you know
building and hoping they will come or
not it's just having the Readiness for
it that doesn't take away from those 10
to 12 acre sites I mentioned I do think
we um we have a lot of capacity to
service the distribution industries that
are looking our way Interstate 10
connection to the C ports Valley and
Long Beach connection to the Mexican
port of Entry uh us Mexico Port of Entry
and Santa Teresa I think puts us in a
great proximity to take advantage of the
supply chain disruptions as companies
are now looking to find better routes uh
to service their trade along the I 10
Corridor and in that respect I think
we're ready but for the manufacturing
projects that's where we need to figure
out a Readiness Readiness program so um
a propo of um bringing all this uh
transnational uh tra traic I 10 is
perfect for that um how
um how how much does
that that traffic rely on um an airport
do you
know I mean how you know like they do
does some of the stuff do they ship it
like from Asia to
California and then they load uh trucks
or whatever how um or do they use
airplanes mayor counselors wellow
Logistics Worldwide Logistics has become
such a
complicated
um math mathematical model I think um
I'm always amazed when I hear a product
and I I heard this a few years ago I
heard when our pecans were shipped out
of here in bulk uh to China only for it
to be like recooked into a frozen pie
and then sent back here to sit in the uh
in the shelves of the US market markets
right so it's it's really interesting
and complicated how they do things so I
have heard and I understand that
airports are going to be more for high
valued Goods you know you want to get it
from A to B in a quick amount of time
because these are very high valuable
products right um but I think along the
interstate 10 Corridor along with the
rail the Union Pacific that comes
through as well as
BNSF as class one rails I think it's how
do we tie into those types of goods that
are coming through our region is really
following the supply chain into how
products get from ports like the C ports
Valley and Long Beach and how they get
to the US consumer and our I 10 Corridor
along with the I40 Corridor up in up in
the Albuquerque area we in New Mexico
have I think we have the opportunity
that we haven't seen in in my lifetime
to be a solution to the supply chain
challenges because cting California are
going up why should you have high why
should you have too many Goods you know
still um located there when you can ship
them internally and then reach a broader
US market from our location at least
that's my belief in terms of our
opportunity well from your lips to God's
here thank you very much uh Davin and uh
thank you Godless thank you Mr Mayor
anyone
else no uh no other question anyone from
the public any members of the public
that have any question yes ma'am come on
state your
name hello my name is Renee short and I
want to say two things very quickly one
I agree with you in a sense of will they
build it and will they come approach to
this because one of the biggest issues
we have is
water you go to manufacturing you're
going to have to have enough water in
order to accommodate manufacturing
second thing is education one of the
reasons why we don't attract as many
companies is because we don't have the
educated population in order to do the
jobs that are required for a lot of the
companies who may want to come here or
else they would already be here so
having said those two points I think
that we should be looking at industries
that perhaps
aren't as water
dependent
and we can provide more training a bit
quicker so that we can accomplish our
goal and our goal I think is if I'm not
mistaken is that we're trying to provide
jobs for the people who live here so
that we don't have the major brain drain
that we already have and the last thing
I want to say which is to address your
question which wasn't answered because I
used to be in the industry
um yes High valued items are transported
by air for various reasons but most of
the products that would have to come in
if they're using products that are made
somewhere else to be brought here in
order to build infrastructure for the
future manufacturing they will have to
come by ocean size and cost thank
you oh thank
you
anything you want to add to that de
mayor counselor no I I would agree I
think um one disting well first yeah
skill sets are everything and and the
changing of the skill sets to uh tackle
the new automation that's coming within
manufacturing that's coming with
Advanced manufacturing and with AI as
well it's going to change things we we
need to start training on jobs for the
future um our automation up program that
we've started is meant to do that it's
looking at trying to identify industry
certifications that can support skill
set development amongst existing
residents here in a quick amount of time
uh the same thing with the arpa dollars
that we are working with with your staff
on it's for the same thing it's a little
bit of expanded for the city we're
looking at maybe industry certifications
for coding uh for Aerospace related
activity for um uh tele medicine things
that can promote the workforce that's
growing here in Los crus es um I will
say with water we're we've always been
and have had a concern for water we are
in the southwest and we do not
necessarily go after in the first place
very uh heavy water dependent Industries
let me give you an example uh in terms
of semiconductor
manufacturing I'm I'm kind of amazed
we've seen like
Phoenix uh attract companies because
those comp like Taiwan semiconductor
because those companies utilize a ton of
water
we look for maybe a downstream type of
production process like which what's
called chips packaging so it takes the
semiconductor but it puts it into the
circuit boards the the the the skill set
is going to be a little bit more welding
and understanding that those symmetries
of those of those circuit boards which
does not
take nearly nearly that kind of water as
the actual semiconductor manufacturing
so we are very cautious and we try to be
uh uh in terms of the industries that we
approach and go after we we try to
really understand what their water usage
and you know what their uh carbon
footprint looks like so I just wanted to
add
that all right thank you thank you D
thank you for the presentation thank you
for your time good
thanks next item on the agenda uh 3.3
sister cities and urban exchange Network
trip to Berlin Mr Tim chap
good afternoon uh mayor and counselors
my name is Dr Tim chapel and I am the
the president of Las crus sister cities
Foundation see if I can find my
PowerPoint
here like the right
one
uh again thank you for giving me the
opportunity to come in and present where
Las Cruz's um sister city stands what
we've been doing some of the activities
we've been up to I think it's very
fitting that we just follow the the
gentlemen that were before me in um
promoting Los cruus because that's
really one of our key points of of
sister cities so I know we have new
mayor and new city council so what I'd
like to go over today with you is a
little bit of history of sister cities
some recent events a little bit of
history about the two sister cities we
are in involved with nberg Germany and
Laro Mexico plus last year we had a
unique opportunity to participate in
something called the urban exchange
project which I'll give you a little bit
more detail on and then upcoming events
and then we'll have some
questions please feel free if you have
any questions at any time to to please
let me know okay back in
1956 President Eisenhower started part
of the sister cities
program he was a a man that had a unique
opportunity he fought in two World
horrific world wars and being a a
president of the United States at the
time realized you know governments are
not necessarily the best things at
trying to get people to get along so he
started this um sister cities called
with with the idea of Citizen diplomats
having people go out exchange between
two cities around the world and and
share
um share cultural educational musical
even uh business benefits to try and get
more people to cooperate Las Cruses has
been sister cities with um Laro Mexico
and nberg
Germany and then um we are a 501c3
nonprofit organization and we also have
a signed agreement with the city so that
we can when we have a events we can
represent the
city um in recent past the we had a
visit from the a delegation from nberg
came to Los cruus in 2018 we also had a
visit from our Leo Leo delegation excuse
me in
2019 and then in 2023 we had two it was
a very busy year for us we had um work
with the urban exchange project as well
as we had a visit where we went to uh
nberg Germany for a trip and um we had
lots of participation with that I'll
talk about that in a
minute a little history nberg is in
lower Saxony Germany why they call it
lower it's kind of see up there it's
kind of up towards the northern part
right um and this is a picture of kind
of the downtown where they have lots of
um statues and stuff it's it's it's a
smaller population but we've managed to
share a whole lot lot of common interest
and it's just pretty phenomenal they're
just wonderful people I had the
opportunity to go this year for our
visit to nberg and and I was just
overwhelmed the the hospitality and um
graciousness of the people there was
overwhelming um this is a a nice picture
they have a farmers market too and they
have it's it's interesting when you get
to see it they have lots of flowers and
stuff but also at their Farmers Market
they have a number of um I don't want to
call them food trucks they're like carts
where you can go and they have butchers
and and people doing all kinds of
different stuff it's really kind of
fascinating to see they also have theirs
on um Saturday and on a Wednesday
coincidentally um we went to we went on
our annual not annual we went on a on a
visit to nberg in August of
20123 um and this visit um combines
several events at the same time time
okay we had the urban exchange project
pop up that we went to we were planning
this event to go visit in in August just
to try and rekindle our relationships
after the pandemic cut everything down
and so we got a chance to go visit so I
just wanted to show you this is it's
kind of hard to see this picture here
but this is um one of the streets in
downtown nberg and as part of the urban
exchange project one of the um
obligations we had is that we had to get
um spend some money on motels the sister
cities when you do an exchange usually
you'll do in home exchange you know they
try and get host families to host you
which um um mayor M yashima went and
just was he had always resisted that and
he said he was just overwhelmed by the
hospitality well the little hotel we
stayed at it's kind of hard to read
is Kasa Mexicana okay and
the the irony did not go over us but it
was really a beautiful place to stay and
you could come out and set out in the
evenings and stuff they were having a
heat wave at the time we were there and
um they don't have air conditioners so
other than the humidity it was it we had
a wonderful trip what I also to point
out here
on on on the other side is that's their
River they have a very nice river which
they actually have boats going up and
down correct me Jim Biser
vaser I'm plunk German no vaser River
okay and it's a beautiful River That's
goes right by the
city one of the interesting things that
we found out about on the on our visit
they did a couple of things where the
urban exchange and sister CI sort of Co
um had common events and one of them was
here on the left side where you see the
the young ladies wearing the colorful
jackets that is a recycling facility in
nber
and what we're standing on there was
actually what used to be their landfill
but now
nberg puts nothing in the landfill they
recycle everything and stuff that they
can't recycle like paper plastic um
Electronics um all of that kind of stuff
they ship off to an incinerator that
they incinerate and then use the heat
generated by that to generate
electricity so they have a they they've
really
taken to Heart recycling in in Germany
which I thought was just fascinating it
was wonderful to see to see all of that
on the other side where there's a couple
of cars they wouldn't let us take
pictures on the inside but nberg turns
out is a um glass recycling for one of
the regions in Northern Germany so they
recycle a lot of glass at that
particular facility they uh any of you
ever remember y Meister they make
Jagermeister bottles there and beex beer
all the beex beer bottles are made there
and um a a bunch other stuff so it was
it was really amazing to see that was an
industry by the way that doesn't use a
whole lot of water I mean they cool
stuff off but they can recycle it um and
so that was that was pretty amazing what
they do have is that their um their
furnaces are
electric and so um they have to be very
much aware because it turns out and I
didn't know this if you turn off one of
these high heat furnaces and they cool
off they'll
collapse and so when um when um Russia
invaded Ukraine they were worried about
their power supply so they had to
install some extra generators to make
sure they had enough to keep so they run
247 um toward the end of our visit I
mean I could go on and on with pictures
from here but this is a beautiful U
building was that a Jim was that a barn
or what was that
originally it was but it's I have no
idea this is um Jim mckenny he was one
of the people that went with us serves
on the board with me um it's a very very
old and they refurbished it on the
inside to be to be a meeting Hall which
I think is interesting but one of the
things I wanted to point out we had a
wonderful time at their farewell meeting
over there on the the right hand side is
this long table with food on
it we introduced the people in N nberg
to the
potluck you think about it they never
had a potluck it was just not a thing in
German Society for people to bring
plates of food and share it and stuff
and so they fully embraced that now
which I think is just um fantastic now
there was a ton of other events that
were planned while the time we were
there um if you want another um briefing
on the details of that that particular
trip I can do that I just wasn't sure um
how much time I was going to be able to
have today so that was our visit to
nberg so let me give you a little
history
of of Laro Durango Mexico it's got about
150,000 people it's bigger it's part of
the tri cities in Mexico of Leo toron
and Gomez palaso each kind of in a
different state so three states kind of
meet right there um it's a beautiful
place I was involved with the exchange
down there for about 10 years at the
donana community college and actually
counselor Karan got the opportunity to
go down with us one time which was which
was fabulous
um the the that's the the Plaza downtown
where they have the church and the and
the City Hall all sort of meet in one
downtown the last time they visited in
the summer of 2019 which was just before
before the
pandemic um we usually try to get
together at somebody's house during a
visit you know just because you get
everybody together and of course it was
one of those the one of two days in 2019
that we actually got rain so we had to
go inside and everybody was sitting
around talking and then we went outside
to the tables and had food and it turns
out that that was one of those incidents
where it worked out really really well
you know people were sitting down inside
nothing to do so we started carrying on
conversations talking about things that
were going on in the communities in the
world and when we went out people were
not you know you've been to so many
things where people get in little clicks
you know it's like oh this group I know
these people we were mingled all over
and just had an absolute wonderful
exchange they had brought um as we see
here we brought them down and toured um
City Hall down here and had a signing
um agreement where we resigned the the
confirmation of being sister cities and
it was the mayor brought several City
councilors with her to come down here
unfortunately um just after she left
they had an election she was not
eligible to run again and the current
mayor of Laro um does not he will not
meet with our counterparts in Laro
Mexico so um I'm going to I'm going to
implore the mayor to maybe try I'll get
you the information maybe try and reach
out to him say hey is there something we
can do we had a wonderful time you were
here at that time that they visited and
through the fire department and it turns
out their fire department down there has
issues the the chairman of their
committee down there his house caught on
fire when the fire department showed up
all their hoses sprung leaks and they
couldn't get any water to put it out and
and the the fire department here
graciously volunteered to say hey we've
got lots of stuff we can help you guys
out we got used equipment volunteered to
have them come up and get free training
for us the pandemic hit and of course
all of that sort of went went by the
we're trying we're really trying to
rebuild after that so I hope we get the
opportunity to we also toured them
around I don't know if many of you know
the
um the the the murals outside of here of
City Hall on the backside the uh marble
that is on there was um from Laro Mexico
they have some marble mines down there
and so we incorporated them into um into
into the city of Los
Cruses uh so let me talk a little bit
about the urban exchange project it
really ties with sister cities and stuff
it was a project um proposed by the
federal federal foreign office in
Germany and they said we want to take we
want to tie together two institutions of
adult education that's that's kind of
their equivalent of a community college
which is where I teach at but not the
same but one of the other requirements
is that they had to be sister cities
okay and they set up um Ron do you
remember how many there was
total
18 yeah nine teams with each City so
that's going to be 18 cities from the
US United Kingdom Germany and even into
the Ukraine okay where they teamed up
cities that were sister cities that had
um if you will community colleges and
adult higher
education and what they did is they said
okay here's
$100,000 nberg you get 50,000 Los crusis
you get
50,000 come up with something and they
had some goals that we had to meet right
some goals like oh we needed to get um
involvement because I was from the the
Community College involvement with the
city involvement with the community
involvement with citizens and come up
with a project well we were on a short
notice and was working over the holidays
and we came up with the idea of sister
Rivers past present and
future there's nothing you know water is
life so no matter where you're at we
wanted to bring these two things
together they have a river that has
water we have a river that sometimes has
water okay but it's
amazing um what we found to tie things
together okay so one of the first things
that we did here is we we came in here
and we couldn't have done this without
the support of the city the community
and the Community College well we got a
tour where we brought him down here I'll
try and point him out um this is Julia
Franny Claudia and back here in the back
is yorg they were the four people from
nberg that came came and visited us for
a week and we toured them all over the
place we did lots and lots of things
lots of activities kept them kept them
very busy and one of the places we
toured was the the water facility out
here and thanks to Ron's help we got
some wonderful um wonderful ideas
because it's not about recycling water
like we do here but also where do we get
our water
from okay and where do we get you you
know we irrigate with our water out of
the rag Grand but all other water we
pump out of Wells well it turns out in
nberg it all has to come out of Wells
because I showed you that picture of the
boat going down the
river they can't pull water out of it
there's boats in it so there's strong
rules about you got to leave that water
alone right so little things like that
um they were very interested or
fascinated by the fact that um we have
for um U building um bu businesses and
stuff that when you build a site you've
got to have a water holding Pond they
were just like that's a great idea how
to re how to re refill your aquafer
because like I said we were over there
during a heat wave water's become a big
issue over there as well
okay
um we touring them around they had a
they had a really great time we of
course we had to take him to laposta
right to show off what was going on
there they had a wonderful time over at
White Sands they'd never seen anything
like it we also took him to the space
Hall of Fame Museum over there um we
took him and toured him all around the
county here we I didn't have time I
didn't want to you know we took him out
to the river we toured the BOS out here
we toured all kinds of different places
it was a wonderful wonderful exchange
and one of the things that they said we
myself and John wattis there we went
down and met them at the airport when
they came in and we ran into de so we
drove them all around here we didn't
want them have to try and figure out how
to how to navigate El Paso's
construction right um and um they were
just overwhelmed by the hospitality that
we presented to them and so much of that
came with the ability the support of the
city of Las Cruses through Dan sto she
was just fabulous Ron barunda did it
excellent job went way and above and um
we can't thank you guys enough and it
showed at the end of this project in
December we had to submit a final report
and they were just the German federal
government was just
overwhelmed um Unfortunately they don't
know if they're going to be able to fund
it again so it may have been just a a
one-time thing Germany apparently right
now is having funding issues like a lot
of other countries and so they're
applied we'll just have to wait and see
if they're going to going to try that
again um to end up the project
project
myself Ron barunda and Dono they wanted
to to bring all of the country all of
the Cities together that were Partners
to
Berlin and just have an open discussion
about what was going on and it was so
amazing again it ties in so much with
sister cities you get people set down
face to
face share a glass of wine have a meal
get together and talk about all the
things that are going going on it's
amazing how similar things we have and
how dissimilar the people from
Ukraine um some of the guys couldn't
come because because of the war they
wouldn't let them leave the country
because they were fighting age men you
know and when you see and talk to people
and you know them that that really tears
at at your um heartstrings I had never
had a chance to go to Berlin before so
we got to see the Brandenburg gate which
is wonderful this is a boat um Berlin
has a has a they they've got a river too
which is really kind of cool and we
toured the city on that beautiful boat
and it was absolutely fantastic I I
could give a whole presentation on that
trip that trip by itself but the last
thing I wanted to point out here I know
it's kind of hard to read but these are
some upcoming events that we have so for
example you'll see presenting to the
city of Los
Cruses
um uh we just had our annual meeting
which went really really well we had
several new members join up and came um
Renee she here yeah came and had a had a
wonderful time has been working with Ron
part one of the projects of that Urban
exchange project was um to share
photographs and Rene is a wonderful
photographer and we shared photographs
between the two countries of the local
area and the water resources that are
going on there you know which was which
was really really f
fascinating um so we have we try each
um each um affiliation Laro and nberg
tries to have at least a regular meeting
once a month to go over planning and
stuff like that and then if we have new
things like last year every month we had
something for urban exchange project um
one of the things I do want to point out
is down here for the nberg meeting um in
March is we try and have those on
Saturday about about noon so that our
partners from nberg one of the things we
I I didn't find much good about the P
pandemic but Zoom is one of them because
now we realize we can zoom with our
counterparts in the country at the same
time and we did this at our last one
um uh we set up a a a display at the
farmers market and we have our meeting
down there in the branagan cultural
center so we try and get we're trying to
get more involved with what's going on
with with the city use City resources
and then it's down at the farmers market
so we may get more people involved and
we're excited about what's going on the
other things I didn't
get on here oh I forgot the other thing
part of the urban exchange project we
had the urban exchange lasus sister
cities and um we had four musicians a
quartet from NMSU with Jorge Martinez
leading him and while we were there
touring around they were going around
um playing music right they had a public
concert for everybody they would go to
senior facilities schools all that they
just did a wonderful job so we had a
whole lot going on there was almost 20
of us that went okay so it was a really
good thing
um we planning on going back to neber
next year because it's their thousandth
anniversary that's that's a long time I
was in sitting in one of the urban
exchange meetings and I go wow that's a
thousand is that one of the oldest
cities in Germany and they go no and I
go oh yeah the Romans were there about
2,000 years ago you know so um but it's
going to be exciting we don't have any
exact dates because they're planning
stuff for the whole for the whole year
to Celebration where we're going to find
a time when it's going to be when
they're going to have something going on
that's going to be appropriate for us to
go over and anybody from the city or
whatever wants to go we'll let you join
sister cities and you can attend with us
okay um the other thing that I'm excited
about is I also had a student approach
me last week from New Mexico state who's
in the communications department and
she's going to be working with us doing
an internship and helping us broaden our
um Network presence she's going to build
a Facebook page and look at some of our
stuff and flyers and she had turned out
she had come years ago when she was
younger and still in high school and
remembered us and wanted to can you know
devote some time to us so that's really
good are there any
questions all right thank you Dr Chapel
any questions from
anyone that's good thing about being
number three nobody wants any questions
third on the list thank you guys very
much um it's it's one of my goals to
make sure that we come and present at
city council so you guys are aware of
the things that we're doing there's a
lot more going to be going on and as
soon as we do and we'll we'll keep you
informed about what's happening okay let
me see if there's anybody from the
public that would like to come up and
any
questions seeing done no if you get me
that information I'd be happy to reach
out to lero and see if we can establish
something or start to rebuild thank you
so much I appreciate it I'll get that to
you soon as I can okay thank you for
your presentation thank you thank you
thank you all have a nice
day
okay that concludes our
presentations motion to
adjourn second by Flores go ahead
chrisy this is on the motion to adjourn
the work session councelor McClure yes
councelor
matis yes councelor Graham yes councelor
cran yes counc fles yes councelor bomo
yes mayor
yes okay we're adjourned thank
you
for