Looking back, looking ahead
It’s been a while since I left the Alamogordo Daily News, heading west over the Organ Mountains to Las Cruces.
But now I’m back, 17 years later, just like the cicadas.
In case you hadn’t heard, El Rito Media, a New Mexico-based group of investors, purchased the Alamogordo News June 1, along with the Ruidoso News and the Carlsbad Current-Argus. The El Rito folks hired me to lead the transition in both Alamogordo and Ruidoso.
Harvey Yates of Artesia, one of those investors, knows the mission to revive local newspapers in these communities is a formidable challenge. And the Alamogordo News won’t soon look anything like it did when I left in 2007. Back then we had about 35 employees, printed our newspapers on site, and had a legion of carriers delivering the newspaper door-to-door.
But Yates and a dedicated group of others, including myself, believe the challenge is worth making. After all, a free press is something protected in our Constitution’s First Amendment and, we believe, something very important to a free society and especially a small community. And so, we are making the first baby steps of bringing these newspapers back.
It will not be easy.
I love the fact the Alamogordo News is once again New Mexico-owned. That has not been the case since Alamogordoans Aubrey Dunn and Billie Holder sold the newspaper to the Donrey Media Group in 1983. While I am forever grateful Donrey brought me to southern New Mexico in 1995, I was always a bit saddened knowing so many of the company’s profits went back to Donrey headquarters in Fort Smith, Arkansas.
Subsequent ownerships have sent proceeds to Birmingham, Alabama;
Denver, Colorado; McLean, Virginia; and who knows where else, frequently benefiting shareholders who may not even know New Mexico is one of the 50 United States.
But El Rito is a company that not only is New Mexico-based, its executives can tell you the subtle differences in their favorite red or green enchiladas around the state, and can tell you without hesitation their favorite green chile cheeseburger.
Since I returned and have visited with people in the Alamogordo and Ruidoso areas, I have been pleasantly surprised at the incredible amount of work being done in these communities to make life better for their citizens.
When you drive by a place along the highway, you can’t know the passion going on inside those buildings every day, motivating people to improve. I see that everywhere here, whether it’s the dedicated airmen at Holloman Air Force Base, moviemakers in Alamogordo, small business owners in Ruidoso, or charitable event organizers in Tularosa.
It’s been wonderful re-connecting with old friends and meeting new ones. A frequent question people have asked is: “What are the most striking changes you see in Alamogordo?”
Thankfully, there are a lot of great things that are still the same, but here’s a list of things that are gone or drastically changed.
• The water tower on the campus of the New Mexico School for the Blind and Visually Impaired.
• Sadly, many of the beautiful cottonwood trees that adorned Alameda Park for the better part of a century, are now reduced to stumps.
• The El Camino Mexican restaurant on White Sands Boulevard, whose unique red enchiladas I consumed on many a Friday afternoon.
• Hastings, which I always viewed as the cultural center of Alamogordo, and regularly took my money for books, music and even the Batman steering wheel cover that was on my Zia yellow Nissan Xterra for 21 years.
• Perhaps saddest of all, Kids’ Kingdom. I worked on that project the first month I arrived, back in 1995, and it remains one of the best examples of what this community can do when it works together.
There are also a number of really good things that have arrived in Alamogordo since I left, including the following items.
• A burgeoning number of tempting food trucks.
• Live music, seemingly everywhere, including at the Wine Down Wednesdays at Heart of the Desert Pistachios
• Another place that features both food trucks and live music, and may have replaced Hastings as Alamogordo’s cultural center: 575 Brewing Company.
• The recognition of the national Altus Trophy, which formalizes what we’ve always known: Holloman and Alamogordo is among the best base-and-community partnerships in America.
Another thing that has changed is me. I’m about 15 percent heavier, and my hair’s about 85 percent whiter.
I told someone recently “It’s great seeing these Alamogordo folks again. They’ve got the same great smiles and energy. Only thing is, people are a little grayer up top and a bit slower in their walk.”
My friend replied, “Have you looked in the mirror lately, Richard?”
Between Alamogordo and Las Cruces, Richard Coltharp has practiced journalism in southern New Mexico for 29 years. You can reach him by phone or text at 575-439-7548.
This article originally appeared on Carlsbad Current-Argus: Looking back, looking ahead
