The first-ever Sandoval County Collaboration Summit was a huge success. Officials from nearly every community in the county came together with state and federal legislators to discuss issues of importance to all county residents.
Topics discussed included:
- Regional Economic Development
- Delivery of health services, including mental health treatment
- Strategies for maintaining and building infrastructure such as roads, bridges, flood-control and water systems
- Ideas for improving transportation networks
- Criminal justice and public safety issues.
The meeting took place Wednesday, October 14, 2015, in Rio Rancho. Elected officials in attendance included U.S. Congressman Ben Ray Lujan, State Senators John Sapien and Craig State Representative Jane Powdrell-Culbert, as well as mayors, councilors and other official from numerous municipalities, unincorporated village and Native American communities.
Following three hours of discussion, including breakout sessions on the five major topics, it became clear that all communities across Sandoval County have similar priorities.
Chief among those priorities is economic development, and there was near-unanimous agreement that building successful local economies will require attending to some of the other issues, such as improving transportation and infrastructure, including roads and water systems.
There also was agreement that attacking these issues should be a joint effort among communities, and more collaborative sessions should take place in the future.
A detailed report on the summit is available here. See photos from the summit on the county’s Facebook page.