Torrance County, New Mexico - industrial development

New Mexico Business Journal, July, 1992 by Georgia Overlander

"I can bring anything in by truck," says Archuletta. "Shipments in and out are very attractive."

Dan Ivey of Mountainair meanwhile owns and operates Blackdog Machine Company, one of Torrance County's growing number of entrepreneurs.

Torrance County isn't a megalopolis, not by a long shot, but that's why a lot of its new residents came in the first place.

But jobs are jobs. And with a county population density that resembles something like three persons per square mile, urban-industrial sprawl is hardly on the horizon.

While some choose to commute to jobs in Bernalillo County, having jobs close by at home doesn't hurt.

Torrance County's rural visionaries say the jobs are coming.

Georgia Overlander is a free lance writer living in Moriarty.

IF YOU LIVE in an industry-anemic county looking for growth opportunities, why not go after what others are choosing to ignore?

That is part of the game plan developed by Torrance County leaders who want to capitalize on their history as an agrarian culture.

Pat Vanderpool, coordinator for the county's economic development programs, and other county leaders and business executives, are zeroing in on coaxing food processors to Torrance.

About 80 percent of the food grown in New Mexico is currently shipped out of state for processing and then returned for sales.

A recent feasibility study by the U.S. West REAL project turned up a definite need to locate food processing plants within the state.

Bill Gomez, an economic development specialist at New Mexico State University, says millions of dollars are lost by raw agricultural products being shipped out of state each year, when there is no real reason why processing shouldn't be done in New Mexico.

The push, says Gomez, is to set up an infrastructure in the state, not only in Torrance County but other counties as well, to keep those extra dollars from processing from being drained off.

A lot of the processing plants for New Mexico agricultural products are located just across the state line in Texas, some in El Paso and other located up and down the Texas-New Mexico border.