A vision and hope for the future
GRANTS, N.M. – After a competitive election, Erik Garcia was sworn into office as Mayor of Grants on April 1, 2022. This was no April Fool’s joke; Mayor Garcia intends to treat his time in office with the utmost seriousness the job requires. Mayor Garcia’s method of governing is one of meritocracy – taking the best ideas of the past and meshing them with the best ideas of the present and future to make Grants one of the best communities in New Mexico.
Mayor Garcia sees a boom of economic activity in the near future; he is ready to grab hold of this opportunity and lead the charge to welcome economic growth.
“It’s a new day in the City of Grants,” Mayor Garcia said, “Let’s get to it.”
Praising the Staff
Confirming that Donald Jaramillo will remain the Grants City Manager, Mayor Garcia said, “Oh yeah, most definitely, Donald is good. When Mayor [Martin] Hicks wanted him – was ap pointing him to that position, I thought, ‘Donald is really good.’” Garcia praised, “Donald to me is worth $10 million, he knows how to get things done, how to find funding for all this stuff. He’s a professional.”
Mayor Garcia went on to praise Shannon DeVine, the city’s new Special Projects Manager. DeVine has been an Administrative Assistant for the city’s code enforcement office.
Plans for the Future
“Picture this,” Mayor Garcia said, “You’re a broke college student and you’re looking for something to do. You love the outdoors; you like to get out and go hiking. Well, there is no better place to do it than right here in Grants,” Mayor Garcia said. Touting the many trails the City of Grants has, Garcia explained that he is excited to put money toward the Master Trail plan. “This doesn’t cost you any money, it’s fun and free.” An emphasis on recreation opportunities is the mayor’s plan. Fully connecting the city’s trails and joining them in the Grants Bio Park, once the project is ready. Garcia said he is excited to bring recreational sport tournaments to the city, which will bring families from out of town to spend money locally. Tom Gutierrez, a role model of Garcia’s, inspired him to build for the children, because that’s when the money comes. By fixing Grants recreational centers and parks to start attracting games.
Working with Grants Police Department and Fire and Rescue, Garcia wants to see the two under one roof where they can work side-by-side to better serve the city. “We have to get ready for the city to grow, and if new businesses see that we are working to better protect our city, they’ll know we care about our businesses and be more willing to come,” Mayor Garcia sad.
Garcia has a number of plans, which include expanding on the East side of Grants and preparing it to bring new businesses into town.
Addressing Problems in the Cemetery
Grants Memorial Park – the city’s cemetery – has been under attack by graverobbers. Some people have been attacking the cemetery, stealing items from the final resting place of Cibola’s dearly departed. This is a crime, and a serious issue for Mayor Garcia who plans on securing the cemetery. “It’s not people in their right mind coming and stealing from our dead, it’s people on methamphetamines and drugs,” Garcia said he is working to address this problem.
Garcia seeks to buy a device with flashing lights and an attached camera to patrol the Memorial Park at night, seeking to scareoff would be criminals and protect the resting place of so many Cibola residents. Mayor Garcia has already spoken with Grants Police Department about this issue, and they are working on coming up with a solution to have more police presence in the park after-hours
“Our loved ones are here; this is their resting place. When you come and steal their stuff, it’s like you’re breaking into their home,” Garcia said. “The cemetery is a big deal of mine; this is the place of our loved ones. We’re going to try some new things – I would say, we’re probably in the top 10 of cemeteries in the state.”
Outside of burglars, Grants Memorial Park is the victim of flooding when even a light rain comes to the city. To keep the flooding from disturbing families and dirtying the park, Mayor Garcia is looking at adding funds to the cemetery in the next budget cycle to finish paving parts of the park that haven’t been finished.
“We’re going to make some improvements,” Garcia said. Putting an emphasis on the needs of the citizens, he said, will be a top priority.
Working with the City Council
There is no secret that Mayor Garcia has butted heads with sitting Councilman Fred Rodarte. The conflict between the two began during a tumultuous period in Grants’ government that saw city hall turn from a respectable place of governance to a fight club. During this period, Garcia proved himself to be an ally of former Mayor Hicks, even during an attempt to remove Hicks from office. That movement was sponsored by new Councilor Beverly Michael.
Several Grants-based businessowners expressed to the Cibola Citizen a fear that these might cause issues in city government that would prevent the city from accomplishing work.
“Where we’re at, butting heads. So, Mr. Rodarte – yes, I um, yes, I butted heads with him because – getting to know the city, and what we’re supposed to do as council, and learning the systems last year – Mr. Rodarte has broken his oath of office, he went behind everyone’s back and had a quorum with the lawyers to try – and spend $14,000 – when Mayor Hicks was just trying to open people’s eyes, and the council failed to recognize its oath of office, what they’re supposed to be doing is learning the financial systema and learning how the city operates. When you know how the city operates, then you can say ‘you need to take money from here and put it here, yes, no,’ and then you can agree or disagree, but on the day-to-day stuff, you don’t get involved.”
Mayor Garcia said that he looks forward to working with Councilor Michael. “We talked about the vision – the vision of where we are in Grants, and what we want to see. We can agree to disagree on certain things, but at the end of the day we agree on the most important thing: We agree on Grants. I told her the plan of what I want to do with the Master Trail Plan and tie it into Mayor Hicks Master Drain Plan. We agree on Grants.”
Moving up from councilor to mayor leaves a vacancy on the city council, as mayor, Garcia has the opportunity to select a candidate for the seat. Mayor Garcia selected Zachary Gutierrez for the position. Gutierrez is the Principal of Los Alamitos Middle School in Grants. His appointment was made official at a special city council meeting on April 11. The council will meet with Gutierrez and vote on his confirmation at the meeting on April 21.
Garcia said, “With the new council coming in, we – well, it’s going to be fun.”