Only God can stop the wind from blowing, but Luna County can stop the dust from flying!

Luna County can do a number of things to reduce the dirt thrown into the air by the recurring dust storms moving through our community. Dust finds its way into every nook and cranny of our homes. It closes portions of Interstate 10 and NM 11—the crucial highway connecting Deming, Columbus and Palomas. It disrupts outdoor activities, including school sports. It aggravates asthma and threatens the health of children, older residents and people with heart or lung problems.

I can speak out about this problem now, but changing county policy will require action by the County Commission. If I am elected to serve as your county commissioner, I will fight for that change. So consider this.

For decades, Luna County has told Ranchette families: "Those unpaved roads are your problem, not ours."

Year after year, county policy has left Ranchette families living on roads the county does not maintain. Meanwhile, Luna County maintains approximately 1,673 miles of roads elsewhere in the county.

County Road Policy Has to Change

Current county road policy is not carved in stone. County Commissioners adopted it, and county commissioners have the power to change it. If I am elected, I will fight to do exactly that, change it!

For decades, owners of Luna County Ranchette property have paid county property taxes and an annual road maintenance assessment/fee. Yet the overwhelming majority of Ranchette roads have remained unpaved and largely unmaintained. What we need is a complete accounting of why this has happened.

The question is:

What obligation did Luna County assume when it began collecting road-maintenance money from Ranchette property owners, and why have people been paying for decades for maintenance they have largely never received?

My policy will be to recognize populated Ranchette roads as part of Luna County's transportation problem and begin improving them, starting with roads serving the greatest number of homes and pursuing state and federal dollars to stretch county resources as far as possible. Ranchette families should no longer be treated as though they don't count simply because they live on the other side of the pavement.

🛠️ How We Can Pay for It

Paving roads costs money, but Luna County does not have to foot the entire bill itself—and Ranchette homeowners should not be on the hook for those upgrades either.

New Mexico Transportation Project Fund

The New Mexico Department of Transportation's Transportation Project Fund can pay 95% of eligible transportation project costs, leaving a local share of only 5%. This isn't theoretical. Just last year Luna County received $285,000 for the Hermanas Grade Road project. And according to a federal environmental analysis the Hermanas Grade Road project is adjacent to agricultural land and traffic is associated with heavy agriculture use. A related Luna County road study characterized the traffic as heavy agricultural. Since Luna County has already successfully obtained state transportation funding for rural roads serving the agribusiness community, it's not out of the question that the county could apply for funding to improve roads where Ranchette families actually live.

New Mexico Local Government Road Fund

Luna County already receives state money through the Local Government Road Fund for county road projects. Recent county road agreements have used a 75% state / 25% county funding arrangement.

Instead of limiting these resources to the roads traditionally maintained by the county, we should make qualifying populated Ranchette roads part of our long-term road improvement program.

USDA Rural Development

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Development programs provide grants and affordable financing for essential infrastructure in rural communities.

USDA specifically identifies street improvements as an eligible use under its Community Facilities program. Luna County should determine which Ranchette improvement projects can qualify and combine USDA assistance with other state and federal funding whenever possible.

New Mexico Match Fund

Federal grants often require counties to put up matching money. New Mexico has created the New Mexico Match Fund specifically to help counties and other public entities meet federal matching requirements.

At least 40% of the Match Fund's matching-grant money is reserved for rural, frontier and tribal governments.

That means we should pursue state matching assistance to pave some but not all of the Ranchette roads

New Mexico Department of Health and Public-Health Partnerships

The New Mexico Department of Health is not a primary source of road-paving money, but it can play an important role in making our case that some of the Ranchette roads should be paved. The department tracks airborne particulate matter, dust events, asthma and other health outcomes. Luna County should work with the Department of Health, its Environmental Public Health Tracking Program, the Office of Border Health and the Luna County Health Council to document the health effects of recurring dust.

That health data can strengthen applications for much larger transportation and infrastructure grants and may also open opportunities for health-related environmental projects, monitoring and community education.

This is not just a road problem. It is a public-health problem.

Private and Philanthropic Grants

Private foundations are unlikely to pay for miles of pavement, but they can help with the work necessary to win much larger government grants—planning, engineering, environmental studies, health research, community outreach and grant preparation.

The McCune Charitable Foundation, for example, accepts applications from New Mexico governmental agencies for qualifying community projects.

The Southline Community Investment Program, administered through the Gila Community Foundation, allows municipalities and public entities to apply.

These smaller grants can help us prepare projects so that Luna County is ready when larger state and federal funding becomes available.

Use Existing County Funds Strategically

Luna County will still have to contribute money to some projects. I will fight to use legally available road funds, capital funds and other existing county resources for those matches rather than automatically placing the burden on Ranchette property owners.

The goal is to stack funding sources—state grants, federal grants, state matching funds, county funds and private grants—so that every county dollar brings as many outside dollars back to Luna County as possible.

🚧 Where We Start

We don't have to pave every Ranchette road at once, and we shouldn't. We start where people actually live.

Priority should go to roads serving the largest concentrations of homes, followed by roads regularly used by school buses, emergency vehicles and other essential services.

Then we keep going—road by road, year by year—as additional funding becomes available.

For decades, County Commissioners have told Ranchette families it's  “Not our problem.”

I believe if we change county road policy, we can start fixing the problem of unpaved Ranchette roads..

Only God can stop the wind from blowing, but Luna County can help stop the dirt from flying.