Vroooom! - motorcycle rally

Once the king of carrots and uranium, the region is successfully diversifying. A rallying point is a major motorcycle rally in July.

USED TO BE, MANY LONG YEARS ago, that Grants and Cibola County called themselves, with some justification, the "carrot capital of the world." That's because during the peak years of the 1930s and '40s, some 400,000 crates of carrots were shipped annually. When the premium carrot market was overtaken by cheap, topless types from California and Texas took a downturn (Grants carrots sported luxurious tops), the region's agriculture-based economy did likewise.

But in the '50s, uranium replaced carrots as the cash crop and at its peak, in the '70s, when uranium fetched nearly $45 a pound (today it's less than $9), the local industry employed some 8,000 in Grants alone (Quivira Mines, one of the few mining operations left, now employs 17). Talk about boom or bust.

The area's current cash crop is tourism, and that's growing. Indeed, if Grants' leaders achieve a new goal, the community may well be known as the motorcycle capital of, if not the world, than certainly the Southwest. On or about July 20, a currently unknown number of bikers and their families will roar into town for the First Annual Fire and Ice Bike Rally which celebrates the 75th anniversary of Route 66, the storied east-west ribbon of highway that runs through Grants.

Carmen Morin, the executive director of the chamber of commerce, says that between 5,000 and 20,000 folks plus motorcycles are expected. Most will be camping throughout the county (the region's 1,000 motel rooms aren't likely to accommodate this crowd). Cecil Brown, the project manager, says more than 100 volunteers are involved, making the rally the biggest event ever attempted in Grants. He's optimistic, since the specially built website (www.fireandicebikerally.com) has received more than 200,000 hits from presumed bike enthusiasts worldwide.

"We did our homework," Brown says. "We learned that 70 percent of bikers like to camp out, so we should be able to accommodate them. And, fortunately there are plenty of things to see in the area, ranging from the Acoma Pueblo's Sky City and Bluewater State Park to the Chaco Canyon National Park, Bandera Volcano and the ice caves (that's the "fire and ice"), El Malpais National Monument, Cibola National Forest and Mount Taylor, the highest point in the state.

If the rally is successful, it is expected to be an annual event. "If we can bring in a bunch of out-of-towners," Brown says, "they'll go home and let other people know about us. We think it's going to be great. It'll bring new money into the community and help our economy."

The research made plain, incidentally that the expected bikers are very definitely not of the Hell's Angels variety but are families and members of relatively sedate clubs whose members enjoy group excursions. Today's cyclists are an altogether different breed and when you check the price of a Harley Davidson, you'll know why.

The economy, by the way, is doing very well, according to the chamber's Morin. The New Mexico Connection, a new call center, has 200 employees and will ultimately hire 200 more. The women's correctional facility operated by the Corrections Corporation of America has expanded, as well as the county correctional facility and the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service facility.

Paul Milan, president of Grants State Bank (whose family once was in the carrot business and whose family farm eventually turned into a town--Milan--with a population of about 2,400), says the economy is stable but growing. "We need higher wages," he says. "The salaries at the prisons at the call center are good and are raising wages elsewhere. What we are doing, fortunately is accomplishing diversification. We are no longer a carrot and uranium economy"

Gaming at the nearby Laguna and Acoma pueblos is also helping with employment, The Acoma Conference Center and the Dancing Eagle Casino opened recently at the new hotel at Sky City sports 150 rooms.

Unemployment, which was at 11.5 percent in 1998, is down to 4.6 percent and is continuing to fall. And the 2000 census shows that the city and county are growing. In the last decade, the county grew from 23,794 to about 25,000, the city from 8,600 to about 10,000. This is an excellent sign, Paul Milan says, considering that in the '80s, thanks to the uranium bust, Cibola was one of the few counties in the state that lost population.

The new energy policy announced recently by the Bush administration places a new emphasis on nuclear energy which seem to have energized the industry Senator Pete Domenici, a nuclear power booster, has introduced a bill designed to kick-start the industry Given New Mexico's historic place in the development of nuclear energy and the scientific and technical work turned out by the Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories, it is at least conceivable that there could be renewed activity at the all-but-closed uranium mines in Cibola County Indeed, there has been 20 percent increase in the price since January according to Terry Fletcher, the manager of the Quivira mine in the county But there's a surplus of uranium, which suggests that digging for more won't happen anytime soon. In addition, it currently takes about 10 years to put a nuclear reactor on line, a combination of the intricate construction process and several hundred miles of red tape.

Fletcher says the building of new nuclear-powered generation plants in other areas of the world that are more depended on nuclear power than the U.S. is likely to use up the surplus in four to five years, which suggests that Cibola County at least in the long term, could look forward to renewed mining operations.

The county is not without other energy resources. The Lee Ranch Coal Mine in adjacent McKinley County has recently expanded operations and the Bush energy policy may well trigger additional expansion. According to Paul Milan, the Tri-State power plant that uses Lee Ranch coal has the ability to double its capacity which it very likely will do if there's growing market for power. One need only look to California to determine that.

So, as Milan observes, "we've got a lot of things going on."

Vanessa Gray, executive director of the Cibola Communities Economic Development Foundation, and one of the prime movers who helped snare the new call center, is pleased with the progress but remains on the lookout for more industry Over the last several years, she notes, the economy has been diversifying. No longer is the top employer a government entity Sky City tops the list of major employers with 639, followed by the Grants Cibola County schools (530), the CCA correctional facility (370), the Lee Ranch Coal Company (300) and Wal-Mart (275).

And while all of this has going on, Grants has been paying attention to its downtown. The visitor of three years ago wouldn't recognize Main Street (old Route 66), says Milan. There are new shops and a sense of bustle. A recently completed beautification project also helps.

So the citizens of Grants and Cibola County are looking forward to the thousands of bikers they expect will descend upon their communities in July Though most of them won't know it, they'll be visiting a new Grants with a new spirit.

JAMES WARREN IS A FREELANCE WRITER BASED IN ALBUQUERQUE.

COPYRIGHT 2001 The New Mexico Business Journal
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group