Posted on 12/30/2004 2:59:58 PM PST by Willie Green
For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.
For most New Mexicans, Encino is little more than a couple of gas stations and a reduced speed limit on U.S. 285 between Roswell and Clines Corners.
But for about 100 people, Encino is home.
The small town in far eastern Torrance County could soon become a ghost town because of the layoffs of 17 workers at a nearby rock and gravel plant.
About 20 of Encino's 100 residents worked at the Hanson Aggregates Inc. Pedernal rock-crushing plant eight miles west of town off U.S. 60. Hanson officials told employees in April that a majority of the work would be diverted to a newer facility.
By mid-summer, most of the Pedernal employees were notified that they would no longer have a job. The layoffs began in the summer and by the end of the year, only eight employees will be working at the plant.
Loretta Chavez is one of the lucky ones: She still has her office management position at the plant.
Chavez, who grew up in Encino and returned after spending a few years in El Paso, has worked in the Hanson plant for more than 20 years.
"It's kind of devastating," she said of the layoffs.
The Hanson layoffs are the most recent blow to a town that has been on an economic downward spiral for the last 10 to 15 years, Chavez said.
Most of Encino testifies to businesses that just didn't make it— a laundromat, several motels, a grocery store and even a bar stand as empty reminders of better days.
Hanson employed about 30 people at the Encino facility, including some from Moriarty, Willard, Vaughn, Mountainair and Estancia. All but eight of them are entering 2005 without a job.
Although Chavez is not sure she will be laid off, the mother of five already has plans to stay in the tiny town and help her husband get an auto repair business started. But she said younger families may not choose the same path.
Some— like her son-in-law, who also was laid off from the plant— have children in school and bills to pay, she said.
"If something doesn't come up, he'll have to move," said Chavez.
Hanson mined rock for railroad ballasts and building materials at the plant. The materials were used in New Mexico, Arizona, Texas and Oklahoma.
Hanson's quarry still gets small jobs from time to time, but Chavez said it's not enough to keep all 30 workers.
Only one of the Encino employees was asked to work at the new plant, according to Chavez.
In a memo Hanson sent to the Torrance County Commission dated March 26, 2004, company officials estimated that the quarry had a 25-plus-year supply of rock available.
The memo also stated that the crushing plant had 28 employees with a payroll of more than $1 million, and benefits and pension totaling more than $400,000.
In 2003, Hanson paid about $550,000 in sales taxes, $78,000 in excise taxes and almost $40,000 in property taxes— all to Torrance County.
While the situation is the latest episode in a series of economic downturns for the town, Estancia Valley Economic Development Association executive director Myra Pancrazio said it's not necessarily the end of the road for Hanson in Encino.
"I don't think that until the doors are closed that it's too late to do anything," she said. "We'll do our best and go from there."
Pancrazio said she will contact Hanson and research the company to find out if the state can offer incentives for Hanson to stay. She also plans to work with the Torrance Works Career Center to help laid-off employees find new jobs or develop marketable skills.
Finding a business to locate in Encino, however, may be the bigger challenge, said EVEDA president Bill Williams.
"It's a unique area," Williams said. "It's possible that EVEDA could recruit a business. Hopefully we can find somebody to go in down there."
Meanwhile, Chavez waits— in a town that is mostly abandoned buildings— for word that her job may no longer be necessary.
"It's a bad situation, very sad," she said.
THIS is the fallacy of the politically-hyped "Service Economy".
Get in your car and move to Albuquerque or Vegas, where there are many jobs advertised, last I looked.
You obviously have to be a little bit of a wank to live in a place like this to begin with,
Yeah some will leave but I'd bet that the crazies that call this seriously out of the way place home will stay and sell rocks or something.
In 2003, Hanson paid about $550,000 in sales taxes, $78,000 in excise taxes and almost $40,000 in property taxes— all to Torrance County.
Lessee, $1 million in payroll, compared to $668 k in local taxes.
I would have been out of there so fast, it would have left a dust storm.
Do the locals know that they taxed the town's only employer out of business, you think?
Well I'm tempted to take you up on that bet,
But since I'm basicly an honest guy, I think ya better take a look at these pictures of Encino first.
I've driven by and through these kind of towns out west mostly and the worst in New Mexico.
Why would anyone stay except that maybe it is home or no other place to go.
I'm not trying to be a smart ass here, honestly, just at the hopelessness.
I stopped in Encino for a smoke on a drive from Clines Corner to Roswell... nice little town.
You don't have to move fast to stir up a dust storm in New Mexico. They come all by themselves and often. I have eaten enough grit to make my blood look like clay red.
Someday soon someone will turn out the last light and they'll both be history.
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