The City of Anthony, New Mexico was officially incorporated in 2010. In “2019” the city officials having the vision of their city, growing into a much larger municipality, were able to acquire the Dos Lagos Golf Club and lakes, an approximately 108-acre golf course, with its valuable water rights. Since then, the city developed a preliminary “Comprehensive Plan” with a grant from the "US Economic Development Administration” to develop and help finance new city structures that assure the well-being and quality of life of their citizens.
The city completed Phase I of its Multigenerational Community Center and Phase II of the Multigeneration Center design is scheduled to be completed by December 2023. Eventually, that facility will include office and conference rooms, a commercial kitchen, a fitness center, restrooms, a multipurpose room, and an indoor basketball court.
The Las Cruces Memorial Hospital has already broken ground for a 3,300-square-foot clinic that will feature six exam rooms as well as X-ray imaging and lab capabilities. In the future, the city plans to include its municipal building, police station, library, and grocery store. The new facilities will include several main streets connecting all the new planned streets with main arteries that will allow easy ingress and regress through the city. In May of last year, the city hired Mario Infante Juárez as the Anthony city manager. Mr. Infante brings impressive credentials and holds two degrees from NMSU, one in civil engineering and the other in transportation highway engineering with a specialty in water resource engineering. Mario previously worked for Wilson and Company, an engineering and architectural firm with their main office in Albuquerque. He has been successful in bringing several large grants to the city and continues to apply for other grants for the continual development of the city. He also works part-time in the city of Sunland Park as interim director of economic development.
Before the city of Anthony NM was incorporated in 2010, Ralph Hartman served as the area state representative and was the owner and operator of the Anthony Water and Sewer Works. When Ralph passed away, the Anthony Water and Sewer District was formed and has continued to exist as a separate entity from the city, with its own separate facility and staff. The Anthony water and sewer board serves as a charter elected board with Jose Terrones as the Superintendent who answers to three elected board members. The current vice chairman is Ron Gillet who was the previous owner of Dos Lagos and will be running again for his same Water and Sewer District board position in the November 07 elections. Members serve for a six-year term, without pay and normally meet once a month by telecommunication. It is the Gazette’s understanding that the two other board trustees will each run in staggered yearly terms. The Gazette intends to become more familiar with the operation of The Anthony Water and Sewer District. In all fairness to anyone involved with that operation, we will be requesting further information from the district under “The Freedom of Information Act” and consequently, relay to our readership any error we may have made, or public information that the city voters need to become more familiar with.
Municipalities In New Mexico normally are responsible for providing their citizens with all the municipal utilities and services. These include upkeeping the paved streets, sidewalks, curbs, gutters, and high-pressure water hydrants that need to be installed throughout the city for the protection of homes and businesses. Again, cities are normally entrusted to ensure that high-quality quality safe potable water is available in a city that meets the NM state’s standards. The Gazette believes that The City of Anthony would be in the best position to start applying for state and federal grants, not just for merging the Water and Sanitation Special District into the city’s municipal services, but also, to start upgrading the services, that obviously have been unattended for too long and now, must be replaced. The Gazette is concerned as to whether the Anthony Water and Sewer District is overloaded with high wages and other overhead expenses, thus not leaving funds aside to spend on necessary city improvements and the manpower to provide the residents with a better living environment.
The city of Anthony has turned out to be a confusing and unreliable independent water and sewer district. Fortunately, today the citizens can simply run candidates that are sympathetic to bringing order and changing the existing water and sewer district. Candidates with these priorities in mind would be a great asset to the city and serve the better of the community.
In this city election, The Rio Grande Gazette is not going to endorse any of the candidates that are running for the two city council positions.
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