On Monday evening, many Carlsbad residents had an unexpected introduction to our early warning siren system. These sirens, places around town, are supposed to go off if a tornado or other form of severe weather is coming to the area. The idea is to let people who are outside know that they need to get inside as quickly as possible.
Unfortunately, a glitch in one of the sirens meant it went off numerous times on Monday when it wasn’t supposed to be doing so. The situation was further confused by the fact that Carlsbad did have a major storm coming through on Monday. The early warning tower (in north Carlsbad) that was experiencing problems was disabled Monday evening.
The plan is to examine the tower to find out what the problem is before restoring it to the network. The sirens are supposed to be used for a tornado watch or severe thunderstorm watch (steady tone), a tornado warning or severe thunderstorm warning (wailing tone), or for a possible hazardous event (shorter wailing tone). In most cases, the signals mean to get inside. We apologize for Monday’s glitch and we are working to remedy the problem.
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Here’s some more information from this weekend’s Combat Challenge. Carlsbad Firefighters Richard Ramirez and Kirby Wheeler placed 2nd and 3rd respectively in the competition. individual competition over the weekend. Ramirez also took first place in the Over 40 Male category with a time of 1:50.78. Carlsbad also took first in the “New Relay” team competition, which is obviously for teams competing for the first time. Their time in the New Relay was 1:28.71.
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Eddy County is second in the state in private sector average weekly wages, according to the quarterly census of employment and wages for the first quarter of 2022. The report lists Eddy County’s wages at $1,324, while Los Alamos is at $1,896. Grant and Lea County are listed third and fourth. As has been stated many times, this is certainly good news overall for our area, but also means there are a number of major challenges in terms of finding a workforce.
The most recent report from the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions lists unemployment in Eddy County at 3.9 percent. The state average is 4.5 percent, and data ranges from 10.1 percent in Luna County to 2.5 percent in Los Alamos County. Eddy County’s unemployment was reported at 7.4 percent at this time last year. Unemployment in Lea County is still listed at 6.0 percent and it is reported at 5.3 percent in Chaves County.
The New Mexico Labor Market Review is a great source for economic summaries of the area. We’re happy to see a good report for Eddy County.
Sincerely,
Carlsbad Mayor Dale Janway