More than a dozen senior recreation facility construction and upgrading projects passed earlier this year by the New Mexico State Legislature have now received final approval from Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham.
All of the projects were originally proposed by the state’s Aging and Long-Term Services Department in the weeks leading up to the 2024 winter session, with the largest construction project securing $575,000 in funding.
That project will see the building of Harding County Senior Center in the northeastern village of Roy; with the next largest capital outlay item in this category at $500,000 going for the construction of the Wagon Mound Senior Center in the village of Wagon Mound, also in the northeastern part of the state.
Exactly $300,000 has been approved for improvements to the Los Volcanes Senior Center facility in Albuquerque, while a capital outlay of $250,000 has received a green light for the building of the Gadii’ahi/To’koi Chapter Senior Center in San Juan County.
Exactly $175,000 has been approved for improvements to the Jicarilla Apache National Senior Center in Dulce near the New Mexico/Colorado border. An outdoor patio building project for the Coyote Canyon Chapter Senior Center in McKinley County is receiving a $110,000 capital outlay.
Repairs and improvements to the Barelas Senior Center in Albuquerque, meanwhile, are set to be funded by a $100,000 outlay.
Altogether, the Aging and Long-Term Services agency, which is tasked with, among other things, encouraging “healthy and productive aging,” submitted just over $4.3 million in senior center facility work to lawmakers.
By Garry Boulard
