{"id":153967,"date":"2016-05-26T10:12:59","date_gmt":"2016-05-26T16:12:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=153967"},"modified":"2016-05-27T13:10:59","modified_gmt":"2016-05-27T19:10:59","slug":"residents-search-for-ways-to-improve-substandard-roads-in-vado","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2016\/05\/residents-search-for-ways-to-improve-substandard-roads-in-vado\/","title":{"rendered":"Residents search for ways to improve substandard roads in Vado"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t
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Cebolla Lane in Vado, N.M. after a rainstorm.<\/p><\/div>

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Myers Road in Vado, N.M. after a rainstorm.<\/p><\/div>

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Ward Road in Vado, N.M. after a rainstorm.<\/p><\/div>

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Myers Road in Vado, N.M. after a rainstorm.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n

VADO, N.M. — When Ruben Lugo sees children skateboarding, bicycling and playing in the dust of Vado\u2019s unpaved streets, he says a lightning bolt of sadness strikes his gut.<\/p>\n

Many residents of the rural community in Southern Do\u00f1a Ana County, like Lugo, have to get their cars repaired every few months because of the damage inflicted by Vado\u2019s unpaved, uneven roads.<\/p>\n

But, as Vado residents know, the\u00a0colonia\u2019s roads are not merely an inconvenience for kids\u00a0and\u00a0a financial nuisance.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast December, (a woman\u2019s) husband had a heart attack, and the ambulance and emergency services weren\u2019t able to get to the house on time [because the roads were unpassable], and the husband passed away and left behind three children,\u201d said Johana Bencomo, who works as a community organizer with New Mexico Comunidades en Acci\u00f3n y de Fe (CAF\u00e9).<\/p>\n

CAF\u00e9 is a Las Cruces-based nonprofit community organizing group that seeks to effect systemic change, Bencomo said.<\/p>\n

(Disclosure<\/a>: NMPolitics.net’s editor and publisher Heath Haussamen\u00a0is dating CAF\u00e9\u2019s executive director Sarah Silva.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Through hundreds of conversations with Vado residents, Bencomo said, CAF\u00e9 learned that the condition of Vado\u2019s roads was as big an issue to its residents as immigration and poverty.<\/p>\n

Children have had asthma attacks — and their parents weren\u2019t sure whether to call an ambulance, as they may not have been\u00a0able to get through the roads, or drive to the hospital themselves and risk accidents traveling\u00a0at high speeds on\u00a0Vado\u2019s roads, according to Bencomo.<\/p>\n

Vado\u2019s roads are particularly hazardous when it\u2019s raining, Bencomo said \u2013 not only because they are unpaved and not level, but also because of the community’s\u00a0location within the Organ Mountains floodplain, which makes rainstorms such as the recent downpour on May 18 all the worse.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t even tell where the road is sometimes (because of flooding) and a lot of these neighborhoods only have one way in and out,\u201d Bencomo said. \u201cSo community members are stuck \u2014 literally stuck \u2014 in these neighborhoods and on these roads that aren\u2019t safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Efforts to get county and state governments to help haven\u2019t brought the road improvements many residents say they need. Legal issues and money are among the roadblocks the community has encountered. But Vado residents, with CAF\u00e9\u2019s assistance, may have recently found help elsewhere.<\/p>\n

A ray of hope<\/h3>\n

In January, Do\u00f1a Ana County Commissioners Billy Garrett and Wayne Hancock held a community meeting, inviting Vado residents to discuss the conditions of the colonia\u2019s roads. More than 160 people in Vado, home to over 3,000 people, attended, Bencomo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were able to gain some media attention and the regional coordinator of the (Environmental Protection Agency) was there \u2013 and she reached out to (CAF\u00e9) after the meeting,\u201d Bencomo said.<\/p>\n

Debra Tellez, Region 6 coordinator for the EPA, put CAF\u00e9 in contact with a Texas-based recycling company that had a surplus of asphalt shingles, which are typically used as roofing material.<\/p>\n

Shingles are usually disposed of in landfills, but the EPA, as a \u201cdemonstration project,\u201d wants to see how effective shingles can be used in building asphalt roads, Tellez said.<\/p>\n

The recycling company is donating the paving materials, but the people of Vado still have to pay for machinery, labor and delivery.<\/p>\n

To help raise these funds, CAF\u00e9 members and Vado residents, including Lugo, sold burritos and bottled water at the rally Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders held in their community on Saturday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Vado residents, with the help of CAF\u00e9, raised more than $900, which they estimate is enough to cover the costs of starting to improve Vado\u2019s roads, beginning with the paving of Cebolla Road in a couple of weeks, Bencomo said.<\/p>\n

\"Vado

Billy Huntsman \/ NMPolitics.net<\/p>

Vado residents like Ruben Lugo, left, with the help of the organizing group CAF\u00e9, sold burritos and bottled water at the rally Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders held in their community on Saturday. They were raising money to improve their community’s roads.<\/p><\/div>\n

A history of difficulty<\/h3>\n

Residents and CAF\u00e9 used\u00a0Sanders\u2019 visit to Vado as an opportunity to bring attention to the community, which as, a federally designated colonia, often goes unseen, Bencomo said. A colonia is defined as a community near the U.S.-Mexico border that lacks sufficient housing and infrastructure.<\/p>\n

Do\u00f1a Ana, Grant, and Catron counties have the largest number of colonias in the state, at 34, 31, and 33 respectively. Other colonias in Southern Do\u00f1a Ana County include Chaparral, La Union, La Mesa, and Berino.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of these communities are lacking basic infrastructure, like paved roads, like septic tanks,\u201d Bencomo said.<\/p>\n

Some colonias \u201cbarely got hooked up to water systems a few years ago, or even gas systems,\u201d Bencomo said.<\/p>\n

Often, as in Vado\u2019s case, colonias are unincorporated communities. The significance of being an incorporated town or city, Bencomo said, is that residents \u201cget to have their own town governments, their own governing bodies.\u201d<\/p>\n

How did Vado become an unincorporated community?<\/p>\n

In the \u201870s, \u201880s, even \u201890s, Bencomo said, land developers sold parcels of land to poor homebuyers \u2014 often migrant workers \u2014 with the promise that the area around the land would soon be home to \u201cvibrant communities\u201d and \u201cof course they were going to have services\u201d \u2013 which often failed to happen.<\/p>\n

This was allowed to go on because of little to no state or county regulation, Bencomo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey became unincorporated communities of the county that nobody really knows what to do with,\u201d Bencomo said. \u201cNobody at the state or county level knows how to pay attention in a really meaningful way, instead of providing these bandage solutions for what people are really facing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Previous efforts to fix Vado\u2019s roads<\/h3>\n

In the past, Vado residents have successfully pushed for services including gas, sewage and water, Bencomo said, but “roads have really been a huge barrier.”<\/p>\n

Bencomo, who started working for CAF\u00e9 a year ago, learned about the condition\u00a0of Vado\u2019s roads by talking to\u00a0residents.<\/p>\n

Once CAF\u00e9 better understood the situation, the organization began working to help find a solution. CAF\u00e9 and Vado residents\u00a0hit a wall with the county government, which said many\u00a0roads could not be fixed with public funds because they are\u00a0privately owned \u2013 often by a patchwork of multiple landowners.<\/p>\n

\u201cCounty maintenance of a private road is illegal,\u201d Commissioner Garrett wrote in an email to NMPolitics.net. He cited the anti-donation clause in New Mexico\u2019s Constitution, which doesn\u2019t allow spending public funds for private benefit.<\/p>\n

The county has grappled with the issue of roads in colonias before. More than ten years ago, after people in many unincorporated communities complained, the Do\u00f1a Ana County Commission passed Resolution 05-22.<\/p>\n

\u201c(This) allowed for residents of the community of a certain road to \u2018deed\u2019 over a portion of their property to the county,\u201d Bencomo said. Once the land was owned by the county, it could legally maintain and even upgrade a road.<\/p>\n

This was a lengthy and sometimes complicated process that required the agreement of all people who owned parts of a road. The county paved several roads using this process, Bencomo said, but in 2013, the county commission suspended the ordinance that made it possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason they gave was it\u2019s too time consuming and it takes too much money,\u201d Bencomo said.<\/p>\n

Garrett elaborated on this, saying it \u201cturned out to be more expensive and cumbersome than expected.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTitle searches and surveying for a single road could cost in the hundreds of thousands of dollars,\u201d he said. \u201cJust one property owner could hold up the potential transfer of a road used by dozens of families by refusing to participate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garrett also said turning a potentially endless number\u00a0of private roads into county roads could deplete the County Roads Department\u2019s operating funds\u00a0and\u00a0existing county roads\u2019 conditions would decline.<\/p>\n

Garrett said Do\u00f1a Ana County is responsible for more than 1,300 miles of road, about 550 of which are paved. \u201cEvery year the county accepts a few more miles of road to the system it maintains,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

With 05-22\u2019s suspension, Vado residents are left to deal on their own with roads that are still privately owned, Bencomo said \u2013 \u201cwhich of course is very expensive for families.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite this, Lugo said, Vado residents attempted to fix the roads on their own, with their own money, which settled the issue for a time. Then, about a year ago, the Lower Rio Grande Public Water Works Authority came into town to install new water lines along Cebolla Road.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey left (the roads) in bad condition,\u201d Lugo said, as translated by Magdalena Giron, a certified interpreter for the State of New Mexico.<\/p>\n

NMPolitics.net contacted Karen Nichols, projects manager for the Water Authority. \u201cI would disagree with (Lugo\u2019s) assessment,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Nichols said the Water Authority, which owns and operates the water pipes beneath Vado\u2019s roads, was not aware that any improvements to Vado\u2019s roads had been made, nor did Vado residents produce any proof of improvements at a meeting between CAF\u00e9 representatives, Vado residents, water authority representatives and Garrett and Hancock several weeks ago.<\/p>\n

In a memo from Vencor Engineering, which oversaw work for the Water Authority, Vencor\u2019s Hector Vasquez said installation of the new water lines left Vado\u2019s roads in \u201csimilar or better conditions\u201d \u2013 as the contractor was mandated to do.<\/p>\n

Nichols said, from what she has seen, the area on Cebolla Road looks fine.<\/p>\n

But Vado residents disagree and so, once again, they attempted to talk with county commissioners about helping to fix their roads. That didn\u2019t lead to a solution. So the donated shingles are, at this point, the community\u2019s best bet for improvements to private roads.<\/p>\n

Lugo said because Vado residents pay taxes, he believes their roads should be maintained by the county and\/or state.<\/p>\n

Bigger than a roads issue<\/h3>\n

Beyond the roads, Lugo said, the real problem is that Vado residents do not feel part of their own county.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Vado you can live well and happy, but the problem is that they (elected officials) have forgotten us,\u201d said Lugo. \u201cWe feel (cast) to the side because we are walking on dirt roads.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bencomo said Vado\u2019s federal designation as a colonia gives county and state officials the idea that \u201cwe don\u2019t have to place as much priority on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of these communities have a lot of migrants that have undocumented status,\u201d Bencomo said. That makes it easier for elected officials to ignore the needs of these communities, she said.<\/p>\n

Giron, who translated during NMPolitics.net’s interview with Lugo, and\u00a0who also volunteers with CAF\u00e9, said the organization and Vado residents have attempted to contact all five commissioners, but nothing significant has changed.<\/p>\n

The issue of county\/private roads in colonias \u201cis among the most difficult of the challenges we face because of the potential financial impact on the county as well as the anti-donation prohibition,\u201d Garrett said.<\/p>\n

Garrett acknowledged that often people in colonias do not have the financial ability to fix their roads.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the same time, governmental agencies in New Mexico cannot work on private roads,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve never heard of an (non-governmental organization) interested in taking on this issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garrett made\u00a0no mention of reinstating the resolution that let the county take ownership of\u00a0private roads.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it comes to roads in colonias, we have a serious disconnect between legal authorities, financial capacity and standards of living,\u201d he said. \u201cThe \u2018system\u2019 just doesn\u2019t work. I don\u2019t know what the answer is yet, but I can\u2019t see anything substantial being done unless the public sector has an expanded role in the effort.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Efforts to get county and state governments to help haven\u2019t brought the road improvements many residents say they need. Legal issues and money are among the roadblocks the community has encountered. But Vado residents, with CAF\u00e9\u2019s assistance, may have recently found help elsewhere.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2959,"featured_media":153974,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[115,3275,146,3271],"class_list":["post-153967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-dona-ana-county","tag-infrastructure","tag-poverty","tag-transportation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2959"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}