New Mayor Shares Priorities for Jal
By John Earp
Last week, after all recounts had been done, the website of the New Mexico Secretary of State finally declared the results of the November election official. Mayoral races in both Tatum and Jal were literally decided by one vote. Philip Little defeated incumbent Stephen Aldridge for the position of Mayor of Jal.
Asked about his thoughts on the long, drawn-out process of declaring the electoral results official, Little said, “You know, I think it’s crazy. They tell you to go out and vote, and you got to vote on November 4th, and by the time they get all the recounts done, and process all the paperwork, it’s over a month, or longer than a month, and it was just…to me, it was kind of lengthy, the way it was. And I get that there’s a process with the state, or, you know, the county, and I understand all that, I just think it’s crazy. The amount of time it took to get it all done was just lengthy.”
As noted in our interview during his campaign, Little says his priorities for the city remain housing, water, and being pro-business. Little says the city has been working on water and housing as priorities already, and he intends to continue with those priorities. He says he has talked with and met with some people already on housing and water, but it’s still too early in the process to project a solid timeline on these. He said, “Prior to all this, I had other things I wanted to present to the city, and now it’s going to be a little easier to present to the city, now that I’m there. I think it’ll go a lot smoother. And then still, you know, still work on cleaning up the town. Get all these old houses torn down, and [the city] is working on it. Everything that’s needing to be done is in the process, but we’ve got to get it moving along a little faster. I know everything takes time, and, like I’ve told everybody, the first 6 to 12 months is going to be a learning process, not just for me, but for the council members, too, and it’s going to be a learning curve for everybody.
When asked if there were some specific areas of town where he would like to see development, he said, “There are some different areas and I think too, once they get some of these old houses torn down, that they could sell the lots or not give them away, of course, because that’s not the way to do it the proper way, but if they sell the lots, we can bring in some kind of housing group for all these vacant lots that we’re going to have once they tear these houses down. I think it’ll be a real nice place. It’ll fill the neighborhoods back up like it used to be.”
Little mentioned the need to build out infrastructure outside the present city limits in order to bring in new housing as well, but said, “Once these old houses are torn down and hauled off, there’s going to be a bunch of lots that are empty and places to put some nice homes. I mean, whether they’re singlewides or doublewides, or maybe small barndominiums. You know, there are going be places for people to really be able to build new things in the community, and it’s going to be really nice. And it’s not gonna happen overnight.
When asked about potential additional sources of drinking water for Jal, Little said, ”Yeah, for sure, you know. I do have some information, but I don’t have all the information and I don’t want to disclose that right now until I know it’s hard facts that it’s going to happen right away. I have been talking to some people, and this was all prior, you know, to me even running for mayor, and I would have done this for the city, to help it as a community for sure. But now, I think we can get the water a little quicker. I think it’s all going to work out, but I’ve got to still read all the fine lines of the way it’s got to be coming to the city.” When asked about the possibility of tapping into the Ogallala Aquifer from the northern part of Lea County, Little said, “That’s one of the places that I can probably go show you sometime and show you the area where the water could come from. And I think, I think the city will be able to acquire water from that north area. And there’s gonna be more water coming from the west.”
Little also mentioned, “There’s some talks about, produced water and the state has been down here, and they brought a little demonstration of things they’re trying to do too, and there’s so much fine lines of the way the law is and the way it’s going to have to be written, and all the paperwork to that is, that’s going be a task.”
Regarding the city being more pro-business, Little said, “There’s companies that want to come in, but they haven’t had no luck with getting down here and getting established and they’ve had 50 reasons why. But we’ve got to go out there and tell them, hey, we want you guys here. We want to have new businesses. It brings more jobs for the residents. Everybody’s looking for jobs, especially at the end of the year. Some of these companies that could come here, could bring more business, get more jobs for the people. And we’ve got to be more open-minded to it and really try to get them down here and get things rolling.”
To the voters, Little said, “I just want to tell everybody, thank you for their time and support, getting the whole deal, and I know it took way longer than expected. The people were calling every day, saying, ‘Hey, what the heck’s going on? What are we doing down here?’ And I said there’s a way they have to do it the right way. And I said, ‘This is the right way.’ Thank you for the support, and as always, if they have problems, or they just want to talk about things, just to reach out to me at any time.”