Federal funding has been secured for the construction of a fire station that will go up in a village of around 300 people in southwestern New Mexico.
In a press release, New Mexico Senators Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Lujan have announced that exactly $750,000 will go for the building of a fire station in the Village of Reserve. That funding will be added to the roughly $1 million that has already been allotted to the project from other sources.
Reserve, in Catron County, has a fire department manned by around a dozen volunteers and located at 15 Jake Scott Avenue in a residential section of the village.
Work on the project could begin later this year. Once a new fire facility is completed, the building on Jake Scott Avenue will be used for other purposes.
The funding is coming out of the recently passed $1.7 trillion Omnibus Appropriations Agreement for fiscal year 2023.
Of that amount, some $273 million has been appropriated for a variety of community projects across New Mexico. In a statement, Heinrich said the funding “gives us the opportunity to take community-based approaches to solving local issues.”
Funding is also going to a wide variety of mental and behavioral health care facilities, housing for homeless veterans, and Tribal infrastructure projects.
Bunched under the heading of “agriculture, rural development, food and drug administration, and related agencies,” the omnibus agreement is also providing funding ranging from $165,000 to $413,000 for new fire engines for half a dozen New Mexico cities and towns.
By Garry Boulard
