VILLAGE OF MILAN, N.M. – Local elections are quickly approaching and one of the positions up for grabs is the position of mayor for the Village of Milan. Felix Gonzales has been the Mayor of Milan for the past four years, and he is seeking re-election in March, but he will not run uncontested. Gonzales will be running against Manuel Molina. The Cibola Citizen reached out to both, so that the Milan community could learn more about their mayoral candidates. Here is a closer look at current Mayor Felix Gonzales. Gonzales has lived in the Village of Milan for about 52 years. Before that, he was born and raised in Peñasco, New Mexico, and attended Peñasco High School. Gonzales developed a love for sports playing basketball from the first grade through high school. Gonzales shared that he has always been drawn to leadership roles, referencing his history of leadership in high school and the army. Gonzales president of his freshman class, vice president of his sophomore class, secretary/treasurer of his junior class, and senior class president. Then, immediately after high school, Gonzales was drafted into the United States military, where he served as squad leader at various times, and then a sergeant after one year and three months into the service.
“That’s why I consider myself to be a good leader because I’ve always, not just myself, but others have showed the interest and showed me that they trust me and that I can be a good leader,” said Gonzales. The current Milan mayor then married his wife of 51 years and counting, of whom he shares three kids with. Gonzales retired from Continental Divide Electrical Cooperative in 2013, served as a Village of Milan Trustee from 2014-2018, and then mayor from 2018-present (2022), hoping for four more.
“I decided to get involved because I’ve always wanted to be involved with things here at our village,” Gonzales explained. “I love Milan, I’ve always said, you know, ‘We can do better. We can always improve the village,’ and that’s why I got into it. Now, as the mayor… there’s a lot of good things I see coming to the village in the near future, in the next two or three years, and I would like to be around to see all that happen.” Gonzales shared a bit about what those “good things” are and the projects he is looking forward to continuing with, should the village re-elect him. Some of the priorities Gonzales talked about included expanding on the village’s youth athletic programs, fixing up all of the fields, finalizing pool repairs and pool roof plans, see the Milan Fire Department and Airport Road improvements through to their end, preserving water rights and maintaining municipal water wells, and improving the sewer systems, water tanks, and lift station. Gonzales e xpressed that he is confident that he will be able to continue working with representatives, senators, and his fellow village employees, including department heads, project managers, the village clerk, financial director, and manager, to seek available funding for all of these projects. Gonzales also said that he would not mention all of these projects unless he thought they were feasible, and he believes all of them are obtainable “if we work together.” Gonzales also highlighted two ideas that he thought would be both feasible and beneficial for the village. Gonzales – who coached for youth athletic programs in the Village of Milan for 28 years, and also at one point coached the GHS Pirates Baseball team years ago when the program was at risk of being cut – would love to see more tournaments and competitions come to the village.
Gonzales expanded, “The fields are going to be fixed here pretty soon, and I would like to see them be able to hold tournaments, like baseball tournaments and soccer tournaments and flag football tournaments. Cause there’s people from all over the state of New Mexico who come to those tournaments, and they bring in their parents, their grandparents, cousins and stuff, and that would really… be an economic boost for Grants and Milan. People coming in, that’s what we need, is people to come in and spend money. Once we get those going… the other thing I want is… to see the pool be a pool where everybody can come and enjoy it and maybe, in the not-too-distant future, if we ever find a coach, we could have the high school kids who want to come swim and compete. Have a team come and represent the Milan and Grants area swimming, because my granddaughter used to do that in way back and we’d go to Albuquerque and stuff, so why not bring that over here?” Gonzales’s vision for the village also includes job creation through attracting companies to the upcoming industrial park and incentivizing Milan as a place for small business to come to. “That’s like the heart of a community, is small businesses,” commented Gonzales. The current mayor also mentioned possibly converting the current village hall, which is a historical building, into a museum whenever village hall is relocated to the old TBK Bank building recently donated to the village.
Gonzales also reflected on the highs and lows of the past four years, and what proved to be the true strength of the village during those times: “I really need to emphasize that nothing here at the village gets done without our employees. We have the best employees I think I’ve ever seen. In the village, we have really good employees. During the time that I was mayor, we went through three different managers. All during that time, I took it upon myself to be the interim manager all three times, and I had no idea, no idea, what it took to be a manager. But the first thing that I did was I called all the department heads and all the employees together and I said, ‘Hey, let’s put our heads together and let’s all work together and we’ll be okay.’”
Gonzales shared that many employees and individuals helped him along the way, including Village Clerk Denise Baca, Cibola County Financial Director Paul Ludi, Village Financial Director Candi Williams, Financial Consultant Michael Steininger, and now, new Village Manager Linda Cooke, among others. Over the past four years, the village faced three different managers being let go, financial struggles, division, the results of a worldwide pandemic, and equipment breaking down. “It seems like everything was hitting at the same time,” said Gonzales, “but we got through it, and like I said, the main reason we got through it is because our employees all got together and said, ‘We’re gonna do it,’ and we’re reaping the benefits of all their hard work… “Now, the village is in really good shape, and it’s never been this good before. And it’s all because of our employees. They were the ones that provided the brains for all this, and our employees, you can’t ask for anything better in tough situations like that.”
When asked what he has learned in the past four years that he thinks will help him should he be re-elected for another four years, Gonzales said that it is taking things one day at a time and acknowledging that the village receives the best results when all parties are working together as a team. As for what he would like to do differently these next four years, Gonzales said he would like to make better efforts to inform the public on decisions and get the community involved. An idea Gonzales had was to have town halls after meetings so that Milan residents interested enough could attend, ask questions, give input, and learn about the decisions the Board of Trustees makes, why they make them, and what they mean for the village. Finally, Gonzales talked about being a leader and what that means to him. To Gonzales, these are the qualities that make someone a leader: “You have to want to be one. You have to have the drive to be a leader. You have to have the mentality to be a good leader. A lot of people think they’re good leaders, but a good leader has to give and take… A good leader will be a good listener. A good leader has to not say yes to everything that comes along… Everybody’s gonna come to you with needs, and you gotta figure out which ones are going to benefit the village more than others, and then be honest about that. Honesty is a quality that is needed when you’re a good leader.” Gonzales listed some of the qualities that he believes make him right for the Milan mayor position as being that he is outgoing, loves to talk with people, honest, trustworthy, and decisive. “I’m a good leader. I’m upfront always with the Village of Milan and everything I do is for the Village of Milan,” declared Gonzales. Gonzales can be reached at 505-290-4104.
The Cibola Citizen attempted contacting Milan mayoral candidate Manuel Molina for questions, but Molina could not be reached. The Cibola Citizen hopes to publish a story featuring Molina in next week’s edition of the Cibola Citizen.