What is the biggest issue facing the city? And who is best suited to lead the City of Vision through this next, unknown chapter?
RIO RANCHO, N.M. — This is a pivotal moment for Rio Rancho, as it faces rapid growth and change. The city is one of the fastest growing in our state and come next week, a new mayor will be at the helm for the first time in over a decade.
So what is the biggest issue facing the city? And who is best suited to lead the City of Vision through this next, unknown chapter? Here’s what the six mayoral candidates had to say.
Paul Wymer
“One of the key things that I think we need to work on, is to make sure that our water is water availability to our citizens, both existing and those that are future citizens…Hardly a day goes by that we as councilors and mayor city staff don’t get a complaint about the road conditions in the city is a fair complaint. We do have some roads that need work. There’s no doubt about it,” mayoral candidate Paul Wymer said.
Aleitress Owens-Smith
“Definitely infrastructure, for sure. Because I feel like that’s what’s really upsetting the residents as well. And then we have public safety. So some of the seniors are definitely concerned about public safety, but I feel like more we get things done for the kids, I feel like that’ll really slow down within our area,” mayoral candidate Aleitress Owens-Smith said.
Michael Meek
“Put emphasis on the roads. It is the number one complaint of residents in Rio Rancho. So we’ve got to keep our Geo bonds going. Nothing is going to be cheaper tomorrow, so we have to keep repairing the roads through the bond cycles, but we also have to find more ways to improve the roads. And I don’t hear that being discussed enough for the amount of people complaining about the roads,” mayoral candidate Michael Meek said.
Alexandria Piland
“We have the most expensive water in the state, I believe, and so we need to figure out how to keep our water safe and reduce the price…Infrastructure is a big issue. The current administration has been bragging that 51% of the roads have been replaced in Rio Rancho? Well, I live in the 49% and it’s bad, so we need to figure out how to get out and get the repairs done faster,” mayoral candidate Alexandria Piland said.
Zach Darden
“There’s a major resource issue on how we’re managing our water, how we’re managing our utilities, and I just see that that’s a problem that we’re gonna run into, especially in the future…The other thing that I’m starting to see, too, is that there’s kind of like this lack of involvement from the community with the kind of governmental decisions that are happening in the city,” mayoral candidate Zach Darden said.
Corrine Rios
“The top issue is just the transparency and accountability. It is probably the traffic and water studies when big development is coming in, those aren’t being done before the city council votes. And so that’s really upsetting the cities, because, you know, water is this. Water is so scarce right now, we’re not having water studies done before big development moves in,” mayoral candidate Corrine Rios said.
To learn more about the candidates, click here.
Election day is March 3 and early voting ends Saturday.
