Round Rio Rancho

The 13th annual Bark in the Park special event, sponsored by Enchantment Pet Resort will be held at Olympus Park in Rio Rancho, NM on Saturday, September 24th from 10 am until 2 pm. The video is from the 12th annual Bark in the Park. If you and your family are “doggie” people, you will love the demonstrations, contests, educational booths and pet related vendors, – in fact everything about it! You can adopt a new pet, or even read to therapy dogs. For more information, call 505 891-4100.

NM House Bill 110 was introduced in the Round House on January 20, 2011. The bill proposes to amend the Metropolitan Redevelopment Act to allow the City of Rio Rancho to have limited powers of eminent domain condemnation. When Amrep Corporation first developed Rio Rancho, the entire city was platted (divided) into thousands of oddly shaped lots, including many which spanned arroyos and were nowhere close to utilities or amenities. These lots were most often sold to individual buyers from across the country.

In order to install streets, curbs, sewer and water lines to an area, it usually take development of a significant number of lots into a neighborhood. Trying to purchase even a hundred different lots from a hundred different owners can become a nightmare. Just a couple of holdouts can keep a project from moving ahead, and without a project, there is no planning. Without planning you can get chaos.

The video is of a presentation given by Mike Skolnick from Excalibur Realty at a recent meeting of the Executive Association of Greater Rio Rancho. Mike is an expert in land assemblage for development in the Rio Rancho, NM area. He gives an extensive history of the beginnings of Rio Rancho, a description of the bill now before the Legislature, and some of the difficulties the bill might solve and/or create.

This soft and cuddly kitty is available for adoption at the Rio Rancho Animal Control Shelter on Northern Blvd. He is about 1 year old, playful and pretty. His ID number is C 10 002191. If you’re looking for new best friend, call the shelter at 505 891-5075 to confirm his availability, If he’s already found a new home, they have lots of other wonderful pets there ready for adoption. (Note: The “C” in his ID # does not stand for “Cat”. It stands for “Canine”. Cats are supposed to be “F” for “Feline”. Somebody goofed… So it you really want the cat, don’t take no for an answer if they tell you it couldn’t be a cat with a C code.)

The Rio Rancho Animal Control Shelter is located at 3441 Northern Blvd, Rio Rancho, NM 87124. They are open Monday through Saturday from 9-5. They close from 12-1 for lunch.

People who do not live in New Mexico often have expectations of an environment replete with cacti, sand dunes, camels and extreme heat. The fact is, although there is a wide variety of terrain and conditions in the state, Rio Rancho is located at around a mile in altitude, and the weather is pretty moderate. We do get snow, usually a couple to three times a year, but it most often disappears within hours to a day or so.

The storm that we filmed just a week before Christmas left about 8 inches of the white stuff on the ground. Because schools do not always have plows and other snow removal equipment, this little bit shut down schools for the day. Since there was no school, local kids did what kids do in snow – made snowmen, forts, and threw snowballs at each other. The next day the sun was out, the roads were dry, and there was still snow in the shadows, but very little elsewhere.

Right after the Rio Rancho Christmas Parade the Parks and Recreation Department sponsored a Luminaria Tour at Haynes Park. Over 12,000 real luminarias (a candle burning inside a paper bag with sand at the bottom) formed pathways throughout the darkened park, leading from one park shelter or band stand to the other. Snacks, drinks and music were everywhere, as were lighted holiday characters of all kinds. Santa and Mrs. Claus paid a short visit to the event, and chatted with a number of small children. At 7:00 pm, there was a wonderful fireworks display. I’ve visited Haynes park several times in past years for this event, and never get tired of the sight of the thousands of glowing luminarias lining the pathways and the curving hills of the park. Kudos to the city staff for continuing this great tradition.

Another successful Rio Rancho Christmas Parade (officially the Winterfest Parade) has come and gone… The weather was great – not too cold and very little wind. Thousands of children and adults lined Southern Blvd. to watch bands, floats, and miscellaneous decorated vehicles go by. It was tough to decide who made more noise – the parade participants or the onlookers lining the streets. “Merry Christmas!” was the phrase of the night.

Bringing up the rear of the parade was a Rio Rancho Fire Department ladder truck, with Santa and Mrs. Claus waiving to the crowds from the top of the truck 

The weather for the recent 5th Annual Sundae is Funday event at Loma Colorado Park in Rio Rancho, NM was pretty darn perfect, encouraging what may have been the best turnout for this event ever! Not only was the attendance over the top, but the number and variety of booths and vendors was also a record. There were booths from local businesses, churches, political campaigns, animal adoption agencies, plumbing firms, government agencies and more.

In keeping with the play-on-words event title, there were a number of ice cream related events, including a 50 ft ice cream sundae, and the Mayor Swisstack Sundae, where Rio Rancho Mayor Tom Swisstack allowed children to turn him into a human banana split. (As I observed the carnage, the terms “nuts” and “gone bananas” came to mind.)  The man is braver than I…

There was a display of classic and collectible cars, various children’s games and activities and a wide variety of family friendly fun. In keeping with the original concept of an affordable family event, food and drinks were free or very reasonably priced.

The day was co-sponsored by the Rio Rancho Kiwanis Club, the City of Vision Civitan Club, the local Elks Lodge and the Rio Rancho Parks, Recreation and Community Services Department. Proceeds are earmarked to benefit  local Boy Scout Troops, the Rio Rancho Boys and Girls Club, and the Sandoval County Juvenile Justice Program and scholarships for children to participate in fee required recreation events. Co-Chairmen Dave Heil and Tony Popper plus Connie Peterson did a lot of the heavy lifting to make the event a success.

Almost 50% of our national military force is comprised of members of the National Guard and Reserve. Most of them also have jobs outside of the military.

Did you know that there is a federal law requiring that all employers, regardless of size, must do the following 6 things –

1. Allow employees to participate in Military Service;
2. Provide prompt reinstatement back into their former job following military service;
3. Continue accumulation of seniority, including pension plan benefits during service;
4. Reinstate health insurance on return;
5. Train or retrain job skills, including accomodation for the disabled;
6. Protect against discrimination based upon Guard or Reserve status.

To educate employers about USERRA (Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act), a DOD agency called ESGR (Employer Support of Guard and Reserve – Don’t you just love all the military acronyms?), regularly invites employers to participate in a “Boss Lift”.

This past week myself and a couple dozen other employers from the Albuquerque / Rio Rancho NM area were invited to the New Mexico National Guard Headquarters and Training Center in Santa Fe. We received some hands-on experience, training, and exposure to a number of military training scenarios. We got up close and personal with a Blackhawk Helicopter; several Military Humvees with weapons in place; explored a FOB (Forward Operating Base) set up to acclimate outbound soldiers with their living environments in the field; experienced the inside of a Humvee Roll-Over Trainer; and a VCOT (Virtual Convoy Operations Trainer). The group probably split as to the most interesting activity of the day, between rappelling down a 50 ft vertical tower, and firing laser-equiped weapons on the Virtual Firing Range.

Frankly, I was extremely impressed with the quality and technology of the equipment the New Mexico facility utilizes to train our local citizen-soldiers. I had no idea that their “classrooms” had progressed to this degree….

Getting back to the reason for our visit on base: What I took away from the day is that we can all do our part and more, for our friends, family members and employees in the Reserve and National Guard. If you have an opening to fill, consider hiring a Reservist or a Guardsman if possible. If they get called to duty, make sure they know that their job is one less thing they’ll need to worry about when they get back from protecting all of us while deployed. I’d also like to thank Lt. Colonel Shuert, Major General Kenny Montoya, and Gary Kaiser from ESGR for their time and the hospitality they showed our group.

The City of Rio Rancho is big on parades – including a Christmas Season Parade and a 4th of July Parade, but none of them approach the significance of the annual Memorial Day Parade. With the country slowly withdrawing from one war, and expanding another one, we all had good reason to take some to celebrate the contributions made by our men and women in uniform.

Following the parade there was a ceremony at the Rio Rancho Veteran’s Memorial.

With a high percentage of the active military contingent from New Mexico coming from the state’s National Guard and Reserve forces, we all need to support these organizations, their members and families. We’ll have more about the Guard and Reserves in an upcoming post.

The City of Rio Rancho was named #51 in the Top 100 Places to Live and Launch (a business) by Money Magazine in their latest issue. In 2006, Rio Rancho was #56 on the list, and was #83 in 2008. While there is some controversy about the magazine’s methodology in selecting their top 100, there is no denying that many things have been going right in Rio Rancho in the past few years…. Economically, Rio Rancho has been attracting a number of new and well known companies to settle here. Housing prices have remained moderate compared with much of the country, and the ups and downs of the national economy have had a lesser effect locally. You can see the statistical results for the latest rating below.

The Music in the Park series put on by the Rio Rancho Parks, Recreation and Community Services Department runs late Spring through the Summer at the Rotary Club Barbecue Pavilion at Haynes Park.
The activity is free, and people are encouraged to bring chairs, blankets and snacks. Sorry, they don’t allow anything harder than lemonade to drink. Most nights an ice cream truck shows up to offer cold treats. The video above features the Mudd Brothers Band.

Performances start at 7pm and end around 8:30. The rest of the 2010 season offerings are below:

July 11: Placitas Mountain Band (Bluegrass and Old Time Music)
July 18: Michael and Donna Coy (Folk)
July 25: Bosque Blues (Acoustic Blues Duo)
August 1: Rudy Boy Experiment (Hot Rockin’ Blues)
August 8: Dennis Higgins & The 2010 Band Folk (Folk, Blues & Contemporary Jazz)
August 15: Saints and Sinners (Classic Rock and Blues)
August 22: Twisted Mojo (Classic Blues, Rock and Soul)
August 29: Rio Rancho Symphonic Band (Symphonic Music)
*Musical acts subject to change

Haynes Park is located at 2006 Grande Blvd., which is across the street from Intel on N.M. 528/Pat D’Arco Highway.

For additional information, please call the city of Rio Rancho’s Parks, Recreation and Community Services Department at (505) 891-5015.

Well, another of Mark and Sheila’s Neighborhood Yard Sales in Rio Rancho came to a successful conclusion today… The weather cooperated, with warm, but not hot temperatures, slightly elevated humidity,  a light breeze, and it didn’t start to rain until an hour after the sale ended. Phew!

90 households (Yes – 90!) held sales in their own driveways in the Broadmoor, Ridges and Cascades areas – all within a few blocks of each other.  If you haven’t experienced this before, to have this many yard sales in one place at the same time is truly a unique shopping experience.  The fact is, if you started at 8:00 am and attempted to visit every sale site before they ended at 1:00 pm, (and spent just 30 seconds getting from site to site) you would only be able to spend 3 minutes going though the goodies at each location. Since we know that a number of people actually do make it all the way through the whole thing, it’s interesting to study their technique – evaluating the goods via drive-by, negotiating prices while their husband is already putting purchases in the car and Grandpa keeps it idling at the curb and maps the shortest route to the next sale site. It’s really intense!

Since by the morning of the sale most of our work of organizing things has already been completed, our job on sale day is to feed the Sellers and the Shoppers breakfast and snacks, to give out bottles of cold water to keep everybody hydrated, to arbitrate the occasional minor issue, and to keep the Shoppers shopping! 

At the end of today’s sale we filled about 3/4 of our moving truck with donations of leftover sale goods. The books and tapes went to Friends of the Libray of Rio Rancho, and the household items went to support Big Brothers, Big Sisters. 

The video shows just a few scenes from today’s activities. For a more complete view of what Mark and Sheila’s Neighborhood Yard Sale Series is about, plus dates and locations of our future sales, follow this link to our main Yard Sale web page.

On June 12, 2010 around 1000 participants converged on Balloon Fiesta Park in Albuquerque for the 1st Annual Prostate Cancer Awareness Walk, dubbed the “Walk For Your Man”. Although 1 in 6 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetimes, a lot of  men avoid going to the doctor for a simple test for the disease. The event name refers to the fact that often wives and partners are the ones that get educated and push their men to go have a PSA test or other screening.  

The Prostate Cancer Support Association of New Mexico is a local non-profit that provides education, support, and encouragement to men and their families throughout the state in making informed decisions for the detection and management of prostate cancer. With state funding for their activities drying up, the organizers are hoping that this annual event will provide funding for their continued operations.

Chief Meteorologist Joe Diaz on KOAT TV was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2009 — a disease that killed his father years ago. Joe, KOAT, and a number of other corporate sponsors pledged and delivered funds, supplies and marketing for this worthwhile event.  Joe has shared publicly how he dealt with the news, went through surgery, and how it all changed his – and his family’s – lives. Joe emceed the day and the station gave lots of air time to cover the event.

Joe’s wife Diane Diaz, who is a Senior Buyer Representative with the Mark & Sheila Real Estate Team at Coldwell Banker Legacy, raised hundreds of dollars in donations from Coldwell Banker Associates, staff and affiliates, including Legacy Mortgage. However, perhaps more importantly, the combined effort of all involved raised the awareness of the disease (and the need to get screened) of tens of thousands in the Albuquerque Metro area.

    We came across this video today and just had to share… In May of 2007, Sony opened its Imageworks Animation Studio in Albuquerque to take advantage of state offered tax incentives and to participate in the burgeoning local film production industry. (Probably as a recruiting tool), this video was created to tell the story of the first 40 employees, who for the most part were moving to an unknown community.  The sentiments shared by the relocated animators, production staff and technicians mirror those of most people I meet who have moved here from out of state – they are pleasantly surprised and newly enthusiastic about their new home once they experience it. 

The film is 25 minutes long, but if you are considering relocating to the Albuquerque area, what’s 25 minutes of research vs the good information to be received?

(To play the clip full screen, click on the icon just to the right of the volume control.)