On the comeback road - includes related article - Cibola Country

New Mexico Business Journal, July, 1993 by J.D. Meisner

Cibola County has endured severe unemployment and layoffs over the last decade due in part to the decline of the uranium industry, but economic indicators today are looking up.

New industries are locating in Cibola County, says Roberto Rios, executive director of the Greater Grants Industrial Development Foundation, hopefully to offset the 12.2 percent unemployment rate.

A Mexican food producer is looking at Cibola County, along with an aluminum and bronze foundry and a wood pellet manufacturer.

A Spanish entrepreneur meanwhile is looking at Cibola County for harvesting pinon nuts for export to Spain.

Larry Frank, president of Grants State Bank, says he's seen an increase in the real estate market this year, noting demands for loans and the deposit levels at the $40 million bank are consistent with a year ago.

"Things are relatively stable with gradual improvement," says Frank.

Tony Esparza, president of the $34 million First Bank of Grants, says the county is experiencing a more stable economy than it has in years.

Mike O'Connel, personnel director of the school district which is the county's major employer with 434 workers, notes student enrollment is holding its own.

Ed Jungbluth, executive director of the Grants/Cibola County Chamber of Commerce, echoes that economic indicators are up and that an upswing in tourism is ahead.

Although Grants is not a tourist destination itself, says Jungbluth, it is a base for visiting area attractions, including Chaco Canyon Cultural Park, Acoma Sky City, Mt. Taylor, El Malpais National Monument and Bluewater Lake.

The lodgers' tax receipts are also up from last year, says Jungbluth, with numbers through the first two quarters of the fiscal year showing a nine percent increase.

Jungbluth attributes part of the increase to the chamber's marketing program, which included sending out thousands of brochures and advertising in travel and retirement magazines.

The basement of the chamber's building includes a mining museum, a full scale mockup of a working uranium mine akin to operations that once thrived at Ambrosia Lake.

Jungbluth said 3,768 visitors came to the museum last year and that there were 11,474 inquiries. This year, 4,482 visitors have already come to the museum.

Jim Sanders, manager of the Inn Best Western, has done some coordinated marketing of his own to boost the county, says Jungbluth.

Marketing packages mailed by Sanders resulted in an East Coast group booking 42 rooms for one night this summer.

Holiday Express, a new hotel, is also going up at the eastern interchange, and a Gallup hotel owner has purchased an older hotel in the area, planning major renovations.

"We seem to attract retirees," says Johnny Head, who owns Johnny Head Realty. "The cost of living is cheaper than Albuquerque or Santa Fe.

"We're experiencing a few people moving in from the West Coast," she says. "I think it's people getting away from the hustle and bustle."

"Something's going on in our little town and it's great," says Marcia Leyba of MJL Realty.

Grants Mayor Jackie Fisher says the real estate market is far better than last year and improving.

Meanwhile a $12 million wastewater treatment plant, alfalfa fields and golf course are beginning to turn the slopes green below the towering Horace Mesa.

The treatment plant, already in operation, is a state of the art, zero discharge treatment facility and will irrigate an 18-hole championship golf course. The course, which opens next year, according to Bob Kamfe of Golf Inc., will have 16 lakes.

As a reminder of Cibola County's agricultural history, an old warehouse that once stored thousands of carrots awaiting shipment now encloses the largest home improvement center in the county. Tom Gutierrez with Diamond G Home Center says business is steady.

Throughout the area, businessmen are optimistic. Buddy Elkins, owner of Elkins' Indian Jewelry which employs 100 in jewelry production, says his company is thriving.

Joe Chavez, owner of JR Constructors Inc., notes that local businesses are investing in expansions.

David Calahan of Southwest Computer Services says his business is up 40 percent in the last three years.

Federal restrictions, accidents at power plants and cheaper foreign sources for uranium brought a decline to Cibola County's uranium industry with unemployment reaching 30 percent in 1983.

Residents began a push to recruit new industry.

Over 3,000 new jobs were created; AMCor's McKinley Paper Company is building a cardboard mill in western Cibola County expected to open by mid-'94 with 60 new jobs, not including another 30 spinoff jobs.

Jeff Murphy, a spokesman for McKinley Paper, says the plant will manufacture cardboard box liners, recycling old cardboard containers for the product. The facility will use the steam produced from the Plains Escalante Generating Plant.

John Samuelson, an official at Plains Electric, says the plant employs 130 and purchases its coal from Santa Fe Coal Corporation's Lee Ranch Mine in northwest Cibola County. The Lee Ranch Mine shipped 3.9 million tons of coal last year, less than the 1990 figure of 4.1 million, says spokesman George Byers.