Socorro County: high tech and heritage - Socorro County, New Mexico - South-Central Region

New Mexico Business Journal, Dec, 1993 by Sharon Frink

Socorro County in south-central New Mexico's wide open spaces, a blend of high technology and rich heritage, is looking to the next century with an eye toward an improved economy and diverse change.

In fact, the county's nearly 16,000 population could well double, even triple in the not too distant future with its menu of science, education, research and development, agriculture and ranching.

"It's no secret where we sit," says Socorro city manager Pat Salome, an economist and Socorro native.

While Socorro to some may be considered a stopover to some place else, Salome says its charm, hospitality and amenities are Socorro's ace in the hole.

Californians, incidentally, are discovering Socorro and looking for a permanent move, says Salome.

"We have more youth, recreational and seniors' programs, for instance, than do most larger cities," says Socorro city council member Cindy Jaramillo.

Socorro, claiming to be the frontier to the future, doesn't falsely boast, considering that nearby is the startling, space age facility called the VLA (Very Large Array) of 27 mammoth dish-shaped antennas taking radio photographs of the sky.

From the Plains of San Agustin, the facility is 45 miles long and 15 miles wide, part of the world's largest dedicated astronomical instrument spanning 5,000 miles from Hawaii to the Virgin Islands.

New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro meanwhile is among the nation's leading technical universities, ranking seventh in doctoral production along with MIT, CalTech and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute of Albany, N.M.

The small, high quality institution specializes in science and mineral engineering and is internationally known as a center of research in atmospheric, earth and materials sciences.

"If we continue to build the infrastructure," says Salome,"... if we get the basics in place, growth will come."

Those basics include a 640-acre research park near New Mexico Tech, an industrial park on the west side with 32-bed Socorro General Hospital and Good Samaritan Village and more diversified industries.

Things are looking up," says Socorro County manager Tony Jaramillo, a former real estate broker. "I see more activity in both the city and rural areas.

"Our budgets are growing. We've gotten out of the hole," he says. "We're really doing pretty well. Even the Department of Finance is happy with us.

"The city has been very progressive in providing basic services -- police, fire, water and recreation."

Socorro's rising prominence, say insiders, is a case of unabashed public-private collaboration.

In addition to the influence of New Mexico Tech and the VLA managed by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, other boosters include Plains Electric, Socorro Electric Coop and White Sands Missile Range to the south.

Adding to the economic chorus for growth are the Alamo Reservation, home to about 1,400 Navajos, and the smaller towns of Bingham, Magdelena and San Antonio.

The economic barometer, indeed, indicates positive change in Socorro based in part on lodgers' tax figures.

Lodgers tax receipts for the fiscal year ending June 1993 were $98,969; a year earlier, the figure was $89,997; and in Fiscal '91, $78,287.

A Holiday Inn is in the planning stages just off the interstate on the north end of Socorro; a convention facility is being considered in a 5,000 plus square foot building in the downtown area.

The Socorro Municipal Airport got a new crossway two years ago and the runway is expected to be resurfaced soon; a proposed county landfill would replace five smaller ones.

Street repaving and a new waste treatment plant are on the planning boards.

"It's vital to everything else we do, if for nothing else than health reasons to have a new waste treatment plant," says Salome."...But if we're to support any industry at all, we need that treatment plant."

Socorro County manager Tony Jaramillo and Salome credit part of the success to Dr. Revi Bhasker, Socorro's mayor, described by both as a man who likes to get things done.

"Municipal budgets everywhere are getting smaller, so we've got to be as efficient as we can," says Salome. "Provide the basics and let the private sector fill in.

"When we get to the point where we feel comfortable with the basics, where we're meeting the budgets, we'll look to more growth.

"We're getting there.

"The largest growth opportunities could tie in with what New Mexico Tech does," Salome says. "They're a community that gives us a lot..."

Salome and others, however, aren't looking to helter-skelter growth as a panacea for Socorro.

"As long as we get steady growth and somewhat predictable growth it's good," says Salome. "We need to let the schools expand comfortably."

Socorro has a public high school, middle school and four elementary schools in addition to one private school.

Enrollment at New Mexico Tech is at an all-time high, up 7 percent from a year ago to 1,722 students from more than 45 states and 46 countries.

Although there are 27 buildings on the 320-acre main campus, Tech president Dr. Daniel H. Lopez says laboratories and classrooms can't hold many more students.