This is just to let you know that we have just hit a double; not a home run, but a double.
The Jemez Mountains Electric Cooperative Board of Directors voted at its monthly meeting June 25 to sign a three-way Memorandum of Understanding with Rio Arriba County and the city of Española to jointly investigate and pursue methods of providing area wide broadband and dependable DSL.
Then, at the June 29 election Elias Coriz won a board seat by 654 to 476 and Ron Lovato won by a margin of 616 to 511. Hopefully Jemez may be coming around to a more pro-active board for the 21st century; not one fixed in the ways of the past, but a board ready and willing to plan for what will be required to successfully live in our corner of rural America in the future.
These victories are not the end, but a good beginning. Now we have to help the board and the new three-party group set up by the County, Española, and Jemez, create and implement a vision for the 21st century where people living in Northern New Mexico can live in our rural communities and still compete with others living in cities. I feel that in our changing future, fast, dependable, state-of-the-art communications will be essential for us to be able to continue to live our rural lives and still compete. We all have a stake in this future, so we all must contribute to making it a reality.
Also Al Franken won his U.S. Senate seat June 30 at the Minnesota State Supreme Court. If the U.S. Supreme Court doesn’t get involved in the case, this might finally be the end of that contest.
Steven Rudy
Alcalde