The Carlsbad Veterans Memorial Park is a wonderful facility that delivers a powerful, ongoing message of this community’s debt to our veterans.
One of the individuals who made this park possible is Mario Salinas, who served on the park’s board since its creation and played an especially important role in bringing war monuments to the park. We were informed Wednesday afternoon of Mario’s passing.
Mario was a veteran who also served in law enforcement for many years, and he remained a dedicated community servant long after his retirement. He was involved in the police department’s Citizen Advisory Board, American Legion Post 7, LULAC, the Heritage Park Committee, Boys State and the Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship committee. Beyond any sort of list of boards or organizations, however, Mario was a friend to so many in this community who was always willing to lend a hand. Mario Salinas was an outstanding person who will be greatly missed. We offer our condolences to Helen and Mario’s family.
Congratulations to Kat Davis, who is now serving as the new Executive Director for the Pearl of the Pecos Arts and Cultural District in Carlsbad. Kat replaces Julie Chester, who did an excellent job establishing the program. According to a news release, Kat describes herself as a lover of the arts who originally came from Ireland, but who has been in the United States for seven years now. Kat will work closely with new MainStreet Executive Director Ashly Key, Julia Heaton and everyone with the Fine Arts and Acquisition Vetting Committee, and many other organizations around town. We know she will do a great job.
New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham will be delivering an update on Thursday and include a status on the state of schools. We did not meet the gating requirement for the two-week period between Sept. 15 and Sept. 28, according to the New Mexico Department of Health. Our positivity rate for that period was 11.60% and our daily cases per 100,000 was listed at 25.50. Both numbers need to go down significantly for Eddy County schools to be eligible to move into the hybrid model, according to previous state reports.
There were a few commercial developments removed from the print edition of Sunday’s report. We felt like it was important to share these developments, as many residents want to keep up with construction around town. Those developments are:
Renovation of the Odd Fellows Building: This project located at 215 W. Mermod now houses the new space for Milton’s Brewing as well as a large community room on the second floor with planned roof top dinning in phase-2.
Mainstay Suites: Located at 3621 San Jose Blvd. The owner is Stay Carlsbad, LLC. The contractor is First Choice Builders. Work is underway on the 80 planned units. Valuation is $5.2 million.
Best Western: Located at 2601 Patrick St. This hotel will have 78 units. Work is underway. This project is 50% complete.
Brininstool Commercial development: located at the old Fiesta Drive In on San Jose Blvd., this development will be a commercial park for oil field related business.
Fire Station 6: located at the Cavern City Airport. White Sands is the contractor. The cost is $1.6 million.
OXY Project: located at 1608 Commerce Dr. This project is a 69,000 sq. ft. office building and a 100,000 sq. ft. fabrication/warehouse facility. The valuation is $3.2 million. The project is 35% complete and is currently on pause.
Sincerely,
Carlsbad Mayor Dale Janway