{"id":16012,"date":"2015-04-20T20:51:21","date_gmt":"2015-04-21T02:51:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/krtnradio.com\/?p=16012"},"modified":"2015-04-20T20:51:21","modified_gmt":"2015-04-21T02:51:21","slug":"raton-basin-economic-development-views-regional-assets-chae-organics-tsjc-whittington-philmont-and-angel-fire-make-list-of-major-assets-for-the-region","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/krtnradio.com\/wp\/2015\/04\/20\/raton-basin-economic-development-views-regional-assets-chae-organics-tsjc-whittington-philmont-and-angel-fire-make-list-of-major-assets-for-the-region\/","title":{"rendered":"Raton Basin Economic Development views regional assets Cha\u00e9 Organics, TSJC, Whittington, Philmont, and Angel Fire make list of major assets for the region"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"WJ<\/a>by Bill Knowles
TRINIDAD \u2014 \u201cThere is an energy in the area that comes from the people who are moving into the region. \u00a0And that energy can be used to bring about change,\u201d notes the Executive Director for Trinidad and Las Animas Economic Development, Walt Boulden, who sees assets at hand that can be applied to the economic development of the region.\u00a0
\u201cBut this development is a work in progress and funding to help sustain the efforts is difficult to find,\u201d said Boulden. \u00a0He also knows that sources of funding which provide larger grants to feed business development like to see collaboration on a regional scale.
Fortunately, regional collaboration has a history in the Raton Basin area. \u00a0Trinidad State Junior College has a reciprocal agreement with Colfax County, New Mexico that clearly links the participants as a region. \u00a0Huerfano County and Las Animas County in Colorado, have traditionally shared services such as the County Health Department, Social Services, and District Attorney.\u00a0
Boulden notes that revenues the three counties in the Raton Basin region received from coal and gas operations are no longer available. \u00a0He recalls a bumper sticker he once saw on a pick-up truck in Wyoming. \u00a0It read: \u201cPlease God, one more boom. \u00a0We promise not to waste that one.\u201d \u00a0Boulden, John Galusha from Huerfano County, and Bill Sauble of Colfax County, New Mexico all agree the economic conditions in the Raton Basin region have seen better days.
The economics of energy development has shifted so that coal and gas are in the bust end of the cycle. \u00a0They all note that it is now necessary to nurture an environment that will support diversified business development. \u00a0
The college is a big asset for the region. \u00a0Trinidad State Junior College provides the academic base for the rest of the region. \u00a0One example is the Science and Technology program the college offers. \u00a0Boulden says with students from the program placing first in national robotic competition for the second year, \u201cThis is a program that will help boost the region\u2019s ability to attract high tech business and manufacturing, offering a trained work force.\u201d
Another example is the gunsmithing certification that TSJC offers. \u00a0This provides a trained workforce that the NRA Whittington Center, located in Colfax County, New Mexico, can draw from. \u00a0\u201cThis helps keep a trained work force localized,\u201d said Sauble.\u00a0
Retention of a trained work force drawing a good wage is necessary to economic development. Workers tend to stay in an area, building careers and families. \u00a0They purchase housing and send their kids to local schools. \u00a0Their children then stay and repeat the process. \u00a0Communities thrive. \u00a0
The chairman of the Colfax County commission also noted his county is home to the Philmont Scout Ranch, an internationally recognized Boy Scout Ranch that employs between 1,200 to 1,500 seasonal employees. \u00a0The ranch hosts around 25,000 scouts each summer. \u00a0\u201cWe need to keep Amtrak in the area. \u00a0The Southwest Chief brings a large number of the scouts that use Philmont each year.\u201d \u00a0Colfax County is also home to Angel Fire Resort, a ski area that draws visitors from all over the world.
At the north end of the Raton Basin region, \u201cHuerfano County has been successful helping businesses such as Cha\u00e9 Organics stay in the county,\u201d said Huerfano County Administrator Galusha. \u00a0The Cha\u00e9 Organics company, which makes high end organic cosmetics, has moved into its new building and has added 15 more jobs. \u00a0\u201cNext year when their new expansion is finished, they will add 15 more jobs,\u201d said Galusha.
Galusha calls the Raton Basin Regional Economic Development Plan ambitious. \u00a0\u201cIt is doable,\u201d he notes. \u00a0\u201cWe have to work together as a region because as the saying goes, \u2018No one is an island\u2019 and we have to compete together.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Bill KnowlesTRINIDAD \u2014 \u201cThere is an energy in the area that comes from the people who are moving into the region. \u00a0And that energy can be used to bring about change,\u201d notes the Executive Director for Trinidad and Las Animas Economic Development, Walt Boulden, who sees assets at hand…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15370,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","entry","rows-excerpt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/krtnradio.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/krtnradio.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/krtnradio.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krtnradio.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krtnradio.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/krtnradio.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krtnradio.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/krtnradio.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krtnradio.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krtnradio.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}