Where a lake really counts: Elephant Butte is this recreation center's economic asset, but there's more - Economic Profile: Sierra County

New Mexico Business Journal, Jan-Feb, 2002 by Lyn Kidder

ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN TRUTH OR Consequences (the town named for a l950s television show) seems to follow a pattern. The potential business owner comes to town, soaks neck-deep in hot mineral water and suddenly says, "What a nice town. I think I'll buy some property and stay here forever."

That's pretty much how the owners of the town's two new restaurants decided to relocate. John Kenny. owner of the Cajun restaurant The Stoplight (at the town's only one), moved his family here from Oklahoma, joining his parents who had already retired. "We just fell in love with the community," Kenny said. "I like the mountains and the healthy climate. And I love the hot baths."

Serge Raoul, a Frenchman who had operated a restaurant in downtown Manhattan since 1975, first visited New Mexico in 1991. A friend told him T or C's climate would be good for his chronic headaches. "I came here, soaked in the hot water, had a Reiki massage and next day my headaches were gone," Raoul said. He told the owner of the Sierra Grande Lodge that he wanted to buy it.

"We went back and forth on the price and I finally said okay. She just laughed, she thought I was joking." The joke was on Raoul when an architect assessed the amount of work the 1932 structure needed. "I thought, a little plaster, a coat of paint," Raoul said. But because the building sat on top of a hot spring, the foundation needed substantial repair. He looked for investors to back the project.

"Some people from New York City were interested," he said. "They flew to Albuquerque, drove down here. They didn't even get out of the car! They just said, 'Thanks a lot, but you're crazy.'" Raoul spent over $1 million on the renovations, which include custom-made furniture, a copper-covered bar and a huge stained glass window of the Elephant Butte Dam, made in 1917 and found in a local junk shop.

The Lodge has 18 rooms, including several suites. The restaurant offers simple French cuisine with New Mexican touches. It's the sort of place that is more often found in Santa Fe, but Raoul reports customers from Albuquerque and El Paso and visitors from back East. His chef is offering cooking classes to encourage the locals to give it a try.

His original idea was to market to foreign tourists. "For Europeans, this is the Wild West--the desert, the mountains, cowboys, Indians," he said. "Unfortunately Europeans aren't travelling now. The economy is slow at the moment, but we have to be optimistic." Raoul has delayed opening the spa facilities, which will include individual hot tubs scattered on the terraced hillside behind the lodge.

Communities that depend on tourism perhaps feel the pinch of a slow economy sooner than others do. T or C's gross receipts for 2001 are comparable to those collected in 2000; however, figures were not yet available for the period following September 11.

Elephant Butte, on the shore of Elephant Butte Lake, experienced a busy summer, in spite of low water levels. "This summer, our gross receipts were up 20 percent," Mayor Bob Barnes said. "A lot of people came for the whole week over the Fourth of July. The level of the lake was down and the price of gas was up, but people still came."

Barnes reports that the town, incorporated in 1998, is slowly making civic improvements. A 3,600-sq. ft. municipal building was built with funds from the state legislature, "funds that we didn't need to take from our local treasury" Barnes said. Funding from the state highway department, matched by the town, paved the town's two main thoroughfares.

"We take a conservative fiscal approach," Barnes said. "We like to explore all the financial possibilities." An example of this approach is the town's wastewater treatment plant. A committee with representatives from three communities, Elephant Butte, T or C and Williamsburg did a feasibility study on the possibility of a single facility serving the entire region. "Because of geography and geology, we found that one or two facilities for whole area won't work," Barnes said. "We're just too far apart." The communities plan to work together to secure funding for the $20 million project.

The town relies on visitors who come to the 44-mile long lake to fish, boat and camp. More than half of the town's homes are vacation residences. The Chamber of Commerce promotes events to bring visitors during the off season. They've moved the Balloon Regatta from windy springtime to September. "We got cancelled too many times," Barnes said. "We couldn't take it anymore." A December Weekend of Lights, with luminarias along the lakeshore, brings visitors during the town's quietest month. A new condominium development will add another 12 housing units to the community, and a new subdivision near the Oasis Golf Course, will offer single-family lots. "Things are happening," Barnes said. "It's just slowed."

Work on the Leyenda golf course and development hasn't slowed--it's stopped. In March 1999 championship golfer Ben Crenshaw hit the first ball into what would be the new course. The economy was in full swing and plans included a half-dozen gated communities, with home prices ranging from $600,000 to over $1 million. Twenty-one founding memberships at $50,000 each were sold but the project is now at a standstill.