Healthcare, housing and developing a stronger workforce are areas of most urgent need to the local economy, said Sen. Martin Heinrich following a discussion with business leaders, educators and community advocates Thursday afternoon.
The discussion, which took place at New Mexico Highlands University, was organized by Heinrich and Sen. Pete Campos. Heinrich said the idea for the meeting came about when he met with Campos at the Roundhouse during the most recent legislative session.
Heinrich said he and Campos discussed how the area could continue to respond to the aftermath of the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire while also considering what kind of economy and community it wants to be 10 years from now.
“We wanted to pull the people together who could create that vision and make it happen,” Heinrich said.
Michael Quintana, who serves as the Las Vegas City Schools board president and owns Highland Construction, said it is challenging for him to retain employees. This is an issue that was echoed by others at the meeting. There is a need to teach work ethic and customer service, several people said.
“One of the biggest complaints that we hear is that there’s no workers, nobody wants to work, and they don’t know how to work,” said Margo Segura, owner of No. 11 Trolley Tours. “They don’t know how to service the community.”
Karen Torres, academic director for Career and Technical Education at Luna Community College, said she wrote a grant to do a Steps to Success program, which aims at helping youth in their career and personal development.
Torres said teaching youth customer service skills and work ethic starts by asking them to envision where they want to be in five years. After youth consider what they want to achieve, they are then ready to consider how they will get there, Torres said.
Youth should then be taught they will not achieve their goals by showing up to work for a week and not picking up their paycheck – an issue that Quintana mentioned – or by treating people badly, Torres said. She said youth need to consider how they want to be treated in customer service situations, and ask themselves how they would feel if they were treated rudely.
Dr. Carol Linder, president of LCC, said the school offers several pathways for students to quickly gain the credentials necessary to enter the workforce, such as its nursing program as well as its EMT program. However, she said, the school does not have the infrastructure to meet the needs of its students. She said the school’s enrollment is about 740 students this upcoming semester.
Linder said that recently, LCC had to scramble to find housing for 50 students after NMHU retracted housing agreements with them due to its own shortages.
“Housing needs are definitely a huge thing in this area,” Linder said.
Housing is also a critical issue when it comes to staffing a small, rural hospital, said Frankie Tenorio, CEO and administrator of Guadalupe County Hospital in Santa Rosa. He said the hospital is a 10-bed facility and is probably the smallest hospital in the state.
Also, Tenorio said, the hospital may be facing hardship due to cuts to Medicaid.
Tenorio suggested the concept of a vitality center, which would help connect people with resources, such as housing, exercise equipment and health education.
“I think this is a model that other facilities could use, other healthcare organizations could use, especially in rural New Mexico,” Tenorio said.
Heinrich and Campos also heard from Dr. D. Veena Parboteeah, Dean, School of Business, Media, and Technology; Phil Houser, owner of Houser Raspberry Ranch; Jake Jimenez, general contractor at Magnum Welding and Construction; Garrett VeneKlasen, Northern Conservation Director for New Mexico Wild; Jesse Lee, a fly fishing guide with Land of Enchantment Guides; Yvette Williams, CEO/president of Community 1st Bank Las Vegas; Elmo Baca, executive director of the Las Vegas Community Foundation and Elaine Luna, also a member of the foundation.