City of Grants Makes Plans To Expand Future Foundations Family Center To Honor The Legacy of Founder Earl Chavez

GRANTS, NM – The City of Grants is working towards revamping the Future Foundations Family Center with an expansion. The expansion will include two indoor courts, outdoor courts, a turf dome, and an aquatic center.

Many individuals in the community are unaware of the history behind Future Foundations Family Center. In August of 1993 City of Grants local Crystal LaPierre, 12, was kidnapped and murdered by three teenagers. Mayor Erik Garcia said, “It is probably one of the worst murders Grants has ever had in the last 50 years.” After this brutal killing, Earl Chavez and a few others started Future Foundations Family Center in 1994. The slogan “Catch the Dream” is used to describe the purpose of the center which is to create a safe place for youth to participate in productive activities. Garcia said, “It was a good initiative to get that going, but what they learned is that it was very hard to maintain.”

In 2020, the City of Grants took over Future Foundations from Cibola county. Garcia said, “The leaders before didn’t continue the vision of what Earl Chavez wanted… It just stayed there, nothing expanded.” Garcia also said that now that the city has taken over, they can begin work on the center. Garcia went further on to say that there is really nothing else in Grants other than Future Foundations. Garcia said, “Now that I have kids I realized, wow, we really have nothing to do… We need to expand this.” Garcia believes with more available at Future Foundations, kids will get into less trouble.

Garcia went further on to say that as a businessman he asks himself why people are traveling out of town and that the city needs to keep people in Grants. He also said that the city needs to bring in more people by holding tournaments, because they will stay in the hotels, eat in town, and shop at local businesses. Garcia said, “I learned that the more people that I can draw here, the more money we make, and the more money we make, I get to put it to stuff.” He went further on to speak about how since Grants is a poor community, they have a tight budget, and the city can only do so much each year.

The city is using the cannabis tax to plan the expansion of Future Foundations. Garcia spoke about the $50,000 that they received which they used to bring engineers in to conduct an assessment and to begin blueprinting a plan. Garcia said, “I was the first mayor in the state to earmark the cannabis tax to go to something.” Garcia went further on to say, “I wanted to earmark this cannabis tax to go to the future foundations… when I asked the councilmembers, Councilman Fred Rodarte and Councilman George Garcia didn’t want to do it… But Beverly Michael and Zach Gutierrez wanted to, and I broke the tie.”

Garcia went on to talk about the plans surrounding the expansion. With the planning grant that the City of Grants received, they can map out the expansion. The plans include two new gyms. The gyms will allow more gym space for tournaments to take place in town, Garcia said it’s also to provide a way of life for the community that allows the adults and children to play without clashing with each other and causing issues. The plans include having an aquatic center with a pool and a splash pad, Garcia said he wants doors that open almost 360 degrees to bring in natural sunlight and fresh air to the aquatic center. The plans also include outdoor courts for basketball, volleyball, tennis, and other sports. Garcia said he wants a turf dome to also be included in the plans to allow kids to schedule indoor games, during the very hot summer months as well as during the winter. Garcia also spoke about how he wants the center to be the most economically friendly by utilizing solar energy and geothermal energy, Garcia said “I want it to be the easiest economical [building], I don’t want it to be a huge bill.”

Garcia also spoke about when he is wanting to see this project begin construction. He said, “Future Foundations is important. What I envision for the Future Foundations is… If we’re not breaking ground in three years, I’m going to be very upset, on phase one. I imagine there’s going to be three phases, I want to see ten million dollars there, if not more… It might be 15 million dollars now.” The expansion of Future Foundations is top of the priority after according to Garcia, “The community has spoken.”

Garcia wants to acknowledge the county’s legislators and thank them for all they have done to support Grants. Representative Harry Garcia, Representative Eliseo Lee Alcon, Senator Joshua Sanchez, and Senator George Muñoz are “The bomb and are moving mountains for us” according to Garcia. Garcia said that after the legislators have attended meetings, they can now see the vision of what they have planned for Grants.

Garcia ended with using a pyramid as an illustration of their plans to expand. The bottom of the pyramid begins with building back up the foundations in the community with future foundations family center and having a PRA in place so they can begin planning. The next rung is applying for and receiving grants, which will become available due to a plan being in place. The pyramid’s final piece is with the expansion being complete, a place for community members to have more activities, and bringing others into the community. Garcia said, “I’ve been making a big push for outdoor recreation.” This push includes not only the Future Foundations Family Center, but also many trails including the 2nd Street Loop Trail, the memorial, and the arena being built at the rodeo grounds.

The plans for Future Foundations Family Center are just beginning, but the City of Grants is working towards furthering the vision of Earl Chavez and honoring the memory of Crystal LaPierre through this expansion.