WINTER 2015
To the First Annual Music Holiday Vendors Food Community Tree
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FROM THE EDITOR ONE O’CLOCK A.M.
EARLY RISERS & LATE PARTIERS KEEP RESTAURANT BUSY THREE O’CLOCK A.M.
CPD RIDE-ALONG FIVE O’CLOCK A.M.
DONUT TIME IN CARLSBAD SEVEN O’CLOCK A.M.
KEEPING THE KIDS SAFE
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NINE O’CLOCK A.M.
ANOTHER BUSY DAY IN CAR SALES
PHOTOS IN FOCUS ELEVEN O’CLOCK A.M.
SHIPPING BUSINESS NEVER SLOWS ONE O’CLOCK P.M.
TOMORROW’S BUSINESS PROFESSIONAL THREE O’CLOCK P.M.
NAPQUEST: SHORT AFTERNOON SNOOZE FIVE O’CLOCK P.M.
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LUCKY DOGS
SEVEN O’CLOCK P.M.
AN EVENING STROLL NINE O’CLOCK P.M.
ON DECK: MAGIC: THE GATHERING ELEVEN O’CLOCK P.M.
LIGHTS OUT CARLSBAD FOCUS ON MAINSTREET
BUSY TIMES AT CARLSBAD MAINSTREET FOCUS ON THE CHAMBER BUSINESS DIRECTORY BUSINESS BRIEFS
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ABOUT THE COVER
Taking a trip around the clock. A 24-hour look at what goes on in Carlsbad. Kyle Marksteiner, Editorial Director - Rachel Hughes, Advertising Photography by Kyle Marksteiner, Ken Hooten, Eve Flanigan, Amanda Melvin & submitted. Special Contributors: Eve Flanigan, Staci Guy, Amanda Melvin, Ken Hooten, Karla Hamel & The Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce FOCUS ON CARLSBAD IS PUBLISHED QUARTERLY BY AD VENTURE MARKETING
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WINTER 2015 | A COMMUNITY MAGAZINE
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F O C U S from the editor
TicTocTime WELCOME TO “CARLSBAD AROUND THE CLOCK.”
KYLE MARKSTEINER Editorial Director
FOCUS ON CARLSBAD
We did something very unique in this edition in that we took a different time slot for each story and profiled someone or something going on during that period. By no means is the topic we covered the only thing going on during that time period in Carlsbad, but we tried to cover a spectrum of activities that represents a diversity of ages and interests. This has been, by the way, one of my favorite editions of Focus on Carlsbad ever, in terms of planning and writing, because it forced us to think a little outside of the box. I’d done something similar years before for a different publication, but the focus of that publication was largely career-based. As you will see, we have time slots in this edition dedicated to napping, walking the dog and hiking, which may just reflect a change in my values as I’m growing older. Who is still up at 3 a.m.? You’ve got a few police officers, firefighters and nurses who are still at work. You’ve got the night crew at Walmart, several Allsup’s clerks and the folks who work at our 24-hour restaurants. You’ve got the night shift at WIPP, some crews on drilling rigs and, I’d imagine, some people out there who are up to no good. You’ve also got insomniacs, people with babies and binge watchers, but most of us are fast asleep. Everything changes by 5 a.m.
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FOCUS ON CARLSBAD | WINTER 2015
That’s roughly when a huge chunk of our working population wakes up and heads east (generally) for another day at Intrepid or Mosaic or WIPP or the oil patch. Most of Carlsbad’s largest employers have graveyard shifts, but the early morning extractive industry rush (especially during an oil boom) is fairly apparent to those of us who periodically have to get up at that hour. 5 a.m. in Carlsbad is pickup trucks, donuts and breakfast burritos. By 7 a.m., we’ve woken our kids up for school. We’re trying to remember whether it is Character Counts day or Cavemen spirit day and checking to see if our kid likes the Frito pie listed on the day’s school lunch menu. The morning people are looking at their watches (or smartphones) wondering when the non-morning people are going to show up for work. 7 a.m. in Carlsbad, to me, is crossing guards and coffee and blinding sunlight from the east. I’ll let the rest of the magazine take over from there. To make things a little easier, we divided our trip through an entire day by two-hour segments beginning at 1 a.m. Some of these stories are a little bit shorter than our typical features, but
we had a lot more ground to cover, chronologically speaking, than some of our previous editions. Enjoy this 24-hour trip through Carlsbad! In other news, the amazing “Journey to Bethlehem” will be 6-8:30 p.m. Dec. 2, 3, 4, 5 at Paradise Ranch. Go on a Biblical journey through time with a cast of more than 100 people. For reservations, please call 575-200-5665. A B O U T T H E E D IT O R
Kyle Marksteiner is the editorial director of Focus on Carlsbad. He can be reached by email at editor@ad-venturemarketing.com.
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FOCUS ON CARLSBAD | WINTER 2015
F O C U S one o’clock a.m.
Early Risers and Late Partiers Keep Restaurant Busy
by Kyle Marksteiner
It’s 1 a.m., the start of a new day in Carlsbad, but the night is still young for Carlsbad’s revelers. At Carlsbad’s two 24-hour restaurants, servers are preparing themselves for the evening bar rush, which generally begins around 1 a.m. and could last until 5 a.m. The bars and dance clubs nearby close their doors by 2 a.m. “I usually work from 2 to 10 p.m.,” shared IHOP server Tyler McGhee, “but sometimes I’ll stay past 1 or 2 a.m. when everyone from the bar is coming out. They tip very well.” The restaurant is packed early Saturday and Sunday morning, McGhee noted, and many of the customers are a little on the loud and energetic side, thanks to a few alcoholic beverages they consumed earlier in the evening. “Sometimes they get a little crazy, but they are nice,” he stated. “They just want their food, and we are trying to get them served as fast as possible.” He said he almost always gets along with the late night customers, and added, “I’m pretty laid back and can get along with everybody.” McGhee, originally from San Antonio,
began working for IHOP in Hobbs when he was 19. He moved to Carlsbad about a year ago.
“We pretty much stay busy for 24 hours,” McGhee concluded.
“Interacting with people is one of the best things about the job,” he said. On a Tuesday night, McGhee was rotating between checking on his customers and training an employee who was moving from host to server. Working nights is usually hit or miss, because there are some very slow times. That’s when the restaurant’s servers take care of their side-work and cleaning projects. Carlsbad’s IHOP has about 20 total servers, McGhee noted. There’s not really anything special about working nights. “Everything here is the same as during the day,” McGhee explained, and there are busy intervals throughout any given 24-hour period. The restaurant’s food trucks arrive on Monday and Thursday morning. Even on nights where there is no
IHOP Server Tyler McGhee said he enjoys working nights because the late crowd tips very well.
PHOTO:
bar rush, the restaurant almost always has a few customers. Several police officers will take their dinner break at around 2 a.m., McGhee declared, and the folks at the local Food Jet will come over to take orders by 4 a.m. By 5 a.m., the morning oil and gas breakfast rush has started.
WINTER 2015 | A COMMUNITY MAGAZINE
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F O C U S three o’clock a.m.
CARLSBAD POLICE DEPARTMENT
RIDE-ALONG
All Is Quiet (For At Least One Night) on the Graveyard Shift
S
by Eve Flanigan
ome establishments in our town never sleep in order that the rest of us can sleep in peace. One of those is the Carlsbad Police Department (CPD). On the Friday night before Labor Day 2015, I spent the hours of 3 a.m. to 4 a.m. with department personnel. This is what I saw. 3:00 a.m. The CPD lobby lights are the only beacons of light on this dark block of N. Guadalupe Street.
Community Service Officer Gilbert Ortega greets me cheerfully from his post behind the lobby desk as the ball game on the television behind him muffles the unexpected sound of snoring coming from a darkened corner of the large room. In that corner, a male figure is lying on the floor, head propped on a rolled-up jacket. Ortega makes a call “upstairs” and offers me a better chair, but I decline, figuring hard chairs are good for staying awake at this hour. The man in the
PHOTO RIGHT: Dispatcher Imy Parraz looks at a monitor showing the locations of patrol units. PHOTO BELOW: Parraz staffs one of four such consoles in the CPD nerve center.
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FOCUS ON CARLSBAD | WINTER 2015
corner, he explains, is fresh from being booted from the nearby substance abuse treatment facility for having bullied another patient and is awaiting news about a ride home. The phone rings and Ortega answers. In a moment, he calls the man in the corner to the phone, saying “It’s your sister.” After the conversation ends, the man asks Ortega, “Where’s the Greyhound Station at, and how long is it going to take me to get there?
The bus comes at 1:30 this afternoon.” Ortega replies that it’s not far from Walmart, where he wanted to go also, but it’s a few miles, so “I’ll take you there when I get off later this morning.” My thoughts were reflecting on the compassion demonstrated in this simple sentence when… 3:07 a.m. Senior Communicator Imy Parraz, a longtime acquaintance of mine from the runners’ community, appears in the lobby and invites me to join her. We take the elevator, elongated and with doors at both ends to accommodate, I imagine, the many gurneys it carried when this place was St. Francis Medical Center. We depart the elevator into a quiet hallway and then into a room that looks not unlike the control station of the Starship Enterprise. Parraz, a nine-year veteran of CPD dispatch, shows me the impressive array of hightech displays that she and her fellow communicators rely on. There are three of them working tonight. A huge screen hanging from the ceiling shows a detailed map of our fair city and the location of every patrol unit and the name of the officer in the unit. She points to one. “He’s on his way here to pick you up for your ride-along,” she tells me, then suddenly stops mid-sentence, looking at a coworker responding to something only they can hear in their headsets. Parraz’s colleague presses some buttons and speaks into the headset. Suddenly, the little cartoon-like police cars on the big screen move in unison toward the same spot on the map. Parraz reveals, “That was a woman calling to say she just hit a
bunch of parked cars with her car. She sounds like she might be drunk, but you never judge that from this position.” 3:25 a.m. Parraz updates me: the woman who was so concerned about her own driving a few minutes ago was refusing a breathalyzer and denying any problem exists, so into custody she goes. Five minutes later, on yet another screen, two police officers bring the woman into a room where she sits and waits. 3:27 a.m. A uniformed officer enters the dispatch area and motions to me. Now it’s time for our ridealong. Patrolman James Logsdon clears a stack of papers from the front passenger seat, and off we go into the dark city. “This is usually the only time of day when there’s time to not be reactive. We’re complaintdriven almost all the time, but at night like this is the time to follow up on traffic and drug interdiction,” he states as we turn off W. Texas and onto N. 4th Street. Logsdon’s intense gaze focuses on each property as we go by, looking for any sign of trouble. He’s also watching for an old Dodge pickup, which police are on the lookout for, wearing an oversized camper and a license plate that’s supposed to be on a Chevy pickup. A few minutes later, a dispatch call comes across the speaker—an apartmentdweller had called to complain about loud music in the courtyard. That call came during the hittingcars episode, the dispatcher explains, but units were called to that more urgent matter first. Logsdon radios back that he’s now on his way to check it out. >>>
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3:40 a.m. The unit’s headlights and Logsdon’s gaze scan the parking lot of the apartment complex. “You can get out, but stay with the car,” he says, and leaves to check the situation. In a couple minutes, he returns. All is well for now. 3:51 a.m. Cruising by the many late-night convenience stores in search of the Dodge truck but finding nothing, it seems a good time to ask about that elephant in the room—the current rash of unprovoked, often deadly attacks on police. I remark to Logsdon that it appears the public has suddenly realized police have a job that never stops being dangerous. “There are people who realize that, but what’s happening now is that even what you might call ‘good people’ are disrespectful,” he concedes, citing recent traffic stops during which he was called insulting names simply for being a police officer. He also cites his experience in the military, “mostly outside the wire,” in high-risk environments
as great preparation for exercising the awareness needed to protect oneself from an ambush-style attack such as the recent murder of a police officer at Houston gas station. 4:00 a.m. Policing, as Patrolman Logsdon says, is 95% routine. It’s that other 5% of the encounters that endanger
lives and attract public attention. As we pull into the CPD parking lot where he obliges my request for a photo, I reflect that I’m not alone in being thankful that officers like him are out there at all hours, in all weather conditions, preventing crime and intervening to keep Carlsbad safe.
PHOTO: The middle of the night is the middle of the shift for Patrolman Logsdon.
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F O C U S five o’clock a.m.
When Is It Really Time to Make the Donuts? by Kyle Marksteiner
BY 5 A.M., THINGS ARE ALREADY IN FULL SWING IN CARLSBAD’S “DONUT DISTRICT.” Carlsbad’s two donut shops, Sarina’s Donuts (1215 S. Canal Street) and C&T Donut (1507 S. Canal Street), are only separated by the Dark Canyon Bridge, and the bakery at the adjacent La Tienda Thriftway is busy as well. That’s a lot of one town’s donuts being made in one small area. There’s scores of donut purchasing going on at 5 a.m., but the donut making process begins much earlier in the morning. Sarina Neak arrives at her donut store at around 2 a.m. every morning to prepare for her 4 a.m. opening. Just across the bridge, Long Ha, a baker for the past 15 years and
originally from Vietnam, begins his shift at midnight to prepare for C&T’s 3:30 a.m. opening. Neak has operated her donut store since 2010. She said she received help from Jeff Campbell with the Carlsbad Department of Development in finding an affordable location for her shop. Originally from Cambodia, she also ran a donut store in Monahans, Texas, from 2009-2013. “At first, it wasn’t what I wanted to do,” she admitted. “I was interested in the medical field, but I ended up liking it (running a business) and the money is
better than it would be working for somebody else.” Neak’s family members help her run the store, which, like C&T, is open 7 days a week. Paula Lu, also originally from Cambodia, owns C&T. She also owns a wing place in Pecos, Texas, and is looking to open a noodle shop in El Paso. She recruited Lu through a mutual friend to serve as her baker. When Neak arrives to work, the first thing she does is turn on the fryer. Then she begins working on mixing the dough and then cutting everything into shape. The opening process is pretty much the same for
PHOTOS: Sarina Neak, owner of Carlsbad’s Sarina’s Donuts, is ready to bake another batch. Sarina shows off a few of her completed donut holes.
WINTER 2015 | A COMMUNITY MAGAZINE
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each donut. “Then you are doing things like figuring out where to pour the cinnamon,” she continued. “Then you start doing your glaze and your chocolates.” Neak averages 10 quarts of dough a day, which translates to some 60 dozen donuts, including about 12 dozen “fancy” cakes, such as apple fritters and her popular bear claws. Leftovers each day will usually be donated to the Community Kitchen or another nonprofit organization. The first batch takes an hour or so to complete. Her busiest time during the weekday is from 5:30-6:30 a.m. and then again at 7:30 a.m. Both donut stores also offer savory items such as burritos and tacos. For example, C&T serves menudo on weekends. Lu said she had some friends teach her how to prepare the PHOTO: C&T Donut owner Paula Lu and baker Long Ha wrap up another busy day.
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FOCUS ON CARLSBAD | WINTER 2015
traditional Mexican soup. Running a seven-days-a-week business means you don’t get many days off. Neak will occasionally take some time off while her mother and sister-in-law run the store. When asked when he takes time off, baker Ha shrugged and replied, “Some holidays.” While business is tied in with the oilfield, Neak said the fact that oil prices have gone down hasn’t really slowed sales. “It’s honestly pretty consistent,” she shared. “We do about 60 dozen donuts Monday through Thursday. On weekends we do twice as much, since we have several churches who want large orders.” She also does a large delivery to the Carlsbad Municipal Airport on a regular basis. Neak goes to bed at around 6 p.m. every night, and gets back up at 1 a.m. to start the donut day. She’ll often have someone helping her at the store during the wee hours of the night, but
she will blare music to keep herself awake, too. Over at C&T, Ha was recruited by Lu to move from California to help with the business. His first batch of donuts is ready when the store opens at 3:30 a.m. “Sometimes I have customers already waiting outside,” Lu declared. “The donuts are fresh every day.” C&T’s rush is between 4-7 a.m. every morning. You never know when someone is going to come in with a huge order. “We’ve had people come in and say, ‘Give me all of them,’” Ha stated. C&T closes when the store runs of out donuts on weekdays, sometimes by 9:30 or 10 a.m. That’s when Ha heads home for a shower and his time away from work. The next day is always coming soon, however, and that’s when it will once again be time to make the donuts.
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F O C U S seven o’clock a.m.
e h t g n Keepi e f a S s Kid ner by Kyle Markstei
sign. She also works the graveyard shift at Walmart.
“I get off, go home and change, and come back out here quickly,” she stated, sitting in her truck at ECEC’s parking lot on Lea Street while waiting for the September rain to subside after her morning crossing guard shift has concluded.
S
chool zones and crosswalks can make navigating Carlsbad especially difficult each morning, but getting the kids safely to their classes is clearly the top priority. Each morning, Erma Fierro grabs her stop sign and safety vest and parks her truck next to Carlsbad Municipal Schools’ Early Childhood Education Center (ECEC). Fierro is one of the newest members of Carlsbad’s 17-member crossing guard corps, but she’s no stranger to stopping traffic. She previously worked for a construction company and handled traffic control there. These days, she’s employed as a crossing guard for ten hours a week through the City of Carlsbad and supervised through the Carlsbad Police Department. However, Fierro doesn’t start her day with the stop
PHOTO: Erma Fierro on crossing guard duty outside of the Early Childhood Education Center
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FOCUS ON CARLSBAD | WINTER 2015
Fierro works as a crossing guard until around 8:15 a.m. every morning, then she goes home and sleeps for the day before returning back to ECEC at around 2 p.m. to help make sure all the kids get home safely. Serving as a crossing guard at Carlsbad’s kindergarten is a little different than the same position at other schools, since not many kindergarteners walk to school. Fierro’s focus is to control the flow of vehicle traffic along Lea Street and in the drop-off parking lot to allow the school’s buses the ability to come and go. The Carlsbad Municipal School District has 17 different school campuses, and several require more than one crossing guard. Fierro said she received on-thejob training during her first day at ECEC. “I didn’t want to come out here
by myself,” she recalled. “There was someone here who gave us flags.”
She quickly adapted to the role and said Carlsbad motorists, for the most part, behave themselves. “There was one lady who just wouldn’t wait while I was in the middle of the road,” Fierro declared. She reported the concern to her sergeant, who advised her to get the license plate next time that happened. Overall, however, Fierro has enjoyed her first year as a crossing guard, and she sees it as an important role. “I enjoy working with the kids and helping the community,” she added. Then it is back to the street to let another bus out—another busy morning as a Carlsbad crossing guard.
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F O C U S nine o’clock a.m.
Another Busy Day in Car Sales by Kyle Marksteiner
First things first. James Bajis would like to dispel any myths out there about car salesmen. Bajis, the used car sales manager with Carlsbad Chevrolet, declared that all the sales people he’s ever worked with are playing by the rules. “I know there are stereotypes,” he noted, “but in the seven years I’ve been doing this, I’ve never seen any salesperson ever lie. What I have seen are breakdowns in
communication or miscommunication.”
James Bajis, used car sales manager with Carlsbad Chevrolet, is ready for another busy workday.
As a manager, Bajis arrives at Carlsbad Chevrolet at 8 a.m., but everyone is usually on call by 8:30 or 9 a.m. to attend the morning meeting. Then it is time to hit the floor.
PHOTO:
He proclaimed a different stereotype about car salesmen and women to be true, however: sales people really have to be assertive. “If you are not selling, then you are not eating,” Bajis observed. “You absolutely have to be a people person.”
Mornings are usually pretty slow, Bajis admitted, but members of the sales team are advised to use this time to call their customers. “We really stay pretty busy making calls to sold costumers and contacting unsold customers to see if they have any questions,” he shared. “Are they still in the market and is there something we can do?” The service department stays busy throughout the day, and customers often come over to the sales side to look around as well. Afternoons and evenings are busy, and the sales team spends time meeting with both walk-ins and scheduled appointments. A single car sale takes an average of maybe 3½ to 4 hours, though the variance
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FOCUS ON CARLSBAD | WINTER 2015
is very high. That process includes the initial sales process, a test drive and the financial and credit discussion. “Last night, we were here until 10:30 or 11 p.m. because it was the last day of the month sale,” Bajis added. Carlsbad Chevrolet sold six cars that day. The average is around four cars per day. Bajis estimated that Carlsbad’s big dealerships, combined, sell about 275 cars over a single month. Test driving remains an important part of the process. You have to be 18 to test drive, and even then, the members of the sales crew will use judgment before allowing someone a chance behind the wheel. “We may not let an 18-year-old kid drive a $75,000 Corvette,” Bajis assured. “We try really hard to prequalify customers and land everyone a vehicle they can afford.” Bajis said when he is test driving with customers, he likes to let them drive around town for a bit and then has them take the vehicle out on the highway. Test drives don’t cause a new car to become a used car. It’s considered new until it is registered, regardless of the mileage. And, yes, there are a few people who show up from time to time and test drive vehicles with no real intent of making a purchase. Another misconception is that the whole thing is a trip to the bartering table. Sales people often don’t really have too much negotiating leeway, especially in the case of new cars. And the markup is often surprisingly low, he noted. There’s a little more leeway when it comes to selling used cars. Bajis praised the sales team and the high level service of Carlsbad Chevrolet and the rest of the Krumland Auto Group. He’s a 2008 graduate of Carlsbad High School who played golf and baseball. He began working in the automotive industry a year later. “Honestly, it’s the money,” he concluded. “You have the opportunity to make as much as you want if you work hard for it.”
FOCUSNM.COM
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E NE R G Y SU MMIT
1 • Billionaire T. Boone Pickens accepts a special award from Carlsbad Mayor Dale Janway. Pickens was the keynote speaker at the 2015 Southeastern New Mexico Mayors’ Energy Summit. Also pictured is master of ceremonies Angela Johnston.
SE NAT O R DO ME NICI
2 • Former Senator Pete Domenici is escorted off of a boat during a special visit to Carlsbad.
C O MMU NIT Y FO UN DATION
3 • Joe Stell (center) was honored at this year’s Carlsbad Community Foundation awards. Also pictured (from left) are Larry Henderson and Mike Antiporda. 6
B U B B LE B A SH
4 & 5 • The United Way of Carlsbad & South Eddy County’s first Bubble Bash drew hundreds of participants, including many children who just wanted to play in the bubbles.
FIR E FIG H T E R C HALLEN GE
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6 & 7 • This year’s Firefighter Combat Challenge competition in Carlsbad included a special course for children.
16TH O F SE PT E M BER
8 • Children enjoy a chance at the piñata
during this year’s 16th of September celebration at Ray Anaya San Jose Plaza.
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R IVE R WA LK W R ES TLIN G
9 • Territory League wrestling at the Riverwalk Recreation Center in Carlsbad drew a full house on September 26.
WINTER 2015 | A COMMUNITY MAGAZINE
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F O C U S eleven o’clock a.m.
SHIPPING BUSINESS NEVER SLOWS DOWN by Kyle Marksteiner
OH, THE PLACES
RAYMOND RAMIREZ, JR.
WILL GO—ON A DAILY BASIS!
Ramirez runs Carlsbad’s downtown route for United Parcel Service (UPS), a company that, by Christmas, he will have been with for 27 years. He started delivering packages one December and apparently did a very good job at it. “I worked the Christmas help,” he reflected. “I guess they liked the way I worked, because they left a note saying I should come back to UPS.” He worked three years as a part time employee before going full time. Carlsbad’s UPS hub is a warehouse on Texas Street. Depending on volume, local drivers will meet there between 7-7:30 a.m. to sort and load their packages into their trucks. On a typical day, Carlsbad has nine drivers while Artesia has four. “We distribute it pretty well,” Ramirez explained. “We have a little system where if someone is overloaded, then another guy will help. It’s really a team effort.” Ramirez has Route 4, which everyone calls “Ray’s Route,” and he sorts his daily deliveries in a way that makes the most sense. He has been doing it for so long that he knows most addresses by memory. In fact, family and friends UPS driver Raymond Ramirez has been with the company for nearly 27 years now. He is one of seven UPS drivers assigned to Carlsbad and South Eddy County on a daily basis.
PHOTO:
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FOCUSNM.COM
An average day for Ramirez is between 120 and 130 stops. During Christmas, that goes up to nearly 200 stops a day. He sees a lot and hears a lot each day. “I’d like to chat some more,” he laughed. “But I really can’t. I’ve got to get all the stuff delivered.”
are often amazed at how well he knows where everyone in Carlsbad is located. He is also a good witness to Carlsbad’s recent growth spurt. “There are a lot of new faces in town,” he noted. One of his goals is to handle business deliveries as early as possible in the morning. He carries an electronic device with him that marks completed routes. “We used to have paper a long time ago,” he confessed. “This is really helpful. At the end of the day, I can find out what I’ve done.” How does a package get to Ray? He called it a “beautiful process.” Say you are mailing a package from Chicago to Carlsbad. The driver in Chicago will scan the package to register that it is in transit. It will be flown from there to a regional hub, say Dallas or Albuquerque, then loaded on a truck and shipped to Carlsbad’s warehouse. It’s a 24-hour process. “It’s all in a cycle,” Ramirez beamed. UPS hires seasonal help for Christmas, when things get pretty crazy. The second busiest time period of the year is before Mother’s Day, and Ramirez enjoys delivering gifts. “You get to see all those beautiful ladies with smiles,” Ramirez shared. Valentine’s Day and, yes, Christmas in July sales also keep the UPS team busy. Ramirez delivers a lot of items from Amazon.com, which has its own system for quickly getting a package to UPS.
Ramirez also has to adjust to construction or traffic flow changes in Carlsbad. He can usually do his entire route with one truck load, but there are exceptions, such when a customer has a huge order. One day that really stands out in Ramirez’s mind was the tragedy of September 11, 2001. UPS had informed its drivers of what happened, but they still delivered throughout the day. “Everyone was glued to their television sets, and it really hit me in the heart,” he said. Ramirez had joined the United States National Guard the year before, but he’d assured his wife that he would not be deployed unless someone attacked American soil. After the tragedy of 9/11, he was deployed for two years to Washington, D.C. to assist with the effort to secure the Pentagon and Capitol. He returned to Carlsbad and UPS once his deployment concluded. Ramirez works every day until his shipments (and packages received) are complete, then it’s back to the warehouse the next morning to start over again. He stressed again that employees are always willing to help each other out if one gets overburdened with a huge delivery load. “If UPS sees that I’m having to work a bit later, I’ll get help,” he added. “Everybody is balanced out very well.”
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The Baumann Marionette Project: Surfacing Museum Treasures through Technology November—January An exhibit developed in collaboration with New Mexico Highlands University, New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs, AmeriCorps Cultural Technology Program, New Mexico Museum of Art, and the New Mexico History Museum.
Supported by the City of Carlsbad & Carlsbad Lodgers Tax
Showing how technology can make fragile museum collections accessible, this exhibit invites you to a digital experience with Gustave Baumann’s wooden marionettes. Carved by the famous Santa Fe artist, the marionettes are now digitized and brought to life at the museum through new interactive technology. Integrated into this exhibit is Gustave Baumann and Friends: Artist Cards from Holidays Past, the popular exhibit from the New Mexico History Museum.
418 W. Fox St. Stay informed about upcoming exhibits, events, and classes at your museum!
www.cityofcarlsbadnm.com
Carlsbad, NM 88220 575.887.0276 museumstaff@cityofcarlsbadnm.com
F O C U S one o’clock p.m.
Today’s Student ,
Tomorrow’s Business Professional by Staci Guy
It’s a little after 1:00 p.m. While most students at Carlsbad High School are knee-deep in classroom instruction, 17-year-old Kayla Schwertner is busy helping run the mayor’s office at city hall. Just an hour prior, however, her attention was focused on her economics class. Kayla is a second-year BPA (Business Professionals of America) student with aspirations of studying physical therapy in college and eventually opening her own practice.
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According to the organization’s website, the name BPA is derived from three different aspects: • Business - The field for which students are prepared. It emphasizes the organization’s efforts to educate its members to work efficiently not only in an office setting but also in a wide variety of business situations. • Professionals - Students are offered
a wide variety of professional development opportunities as part of their affiliation with the organization. • America –The use of “America” in their name symbolizes pride in country and its free enterprise business system. In addition to BPA, Kayla is actively involved in student council and honor society. She credits BPA, however, with providing her the hands-on experience and knowledge that she
PHOTO: BPA student Kayla Schwertner speaks with Cheyenne Methola, executive assistant to Carlsbad Mayor Dale Janway. Schwertner works at Carlsbad City Hall from 1-5 p.m. on weekdays.
anticipates will help her adjust to life after high school and in her post-college career. On any given day, BPA students are learning presentation skills, studying about taxes, researching colleges and cost-of-living statistics, and perhaps most importantly, they are learning how to apply for, interview for, and obtain a paying job. “Your sophomore year you apply (for BPA) and classes start your junior year,” Kayla explained. “We learn about job etiquette, how to get the job, skills you will need, and then your senior year is when you start working.” Before the beginning of her senior year, Kayla and the other BPA students were asked to list their internship preferences from a group of possible internships available. Various local entities offer the paid internships. However, just like in the real world, students must first apply for the jobs and then be hired. And also like the real world, there is stiff competition for each job. “Our teacher (Francis McCoy) taught us how to fill out an application, so we bring in a resume and completed application and they set up a time to interview,” she noted. “We also learned about the etiquette of follow-up letters because they show you are interested in the job, so we write those as well. There are only certain jobs available, so there’s competition for the jobs we can choose from.” Number one on Kayla’s list of desired employers was the City of Carlsbad; more specifically, she hoped to be hired as an assistant in the mayor’s office. Much to her delight, she applied and was hired, and she wasted no time jumping in and getting to work. She spent her last summer of high
TicToc we have clocks! BPA LOGO: The four points of the BPA shield stand for ambition, leadership, sociability and poise. The shield itself stands for honor and dignity and the importance of business in America. The stripes represent education, citizenship, loyalty, patriotism, competency and dependability. The bar represents the service provided by employees in business occupations. The quill and inkwell represent the stability of business occupations through the ages, and the torch represents worthy goals.
school working full-time for the City. After the school year began, she transitioned back into being a part-time student/ part-time employee. Her days begin at 7:45 a.m. with BPA class during zero-hour. Regular school begins at 8:45, when she heads to pre-calculus for first hour. That is followed by anatomy and physiology for second hour, English for third hour, and finally, economics for fourth hour. Her school day ends at 12:30 p.m., when she heads home to grab some lunch and change into her “professional attire.” From 1:30 to 5 p.m. she is on the clock for the City, where she works under Cheyenne Methola in the mayor’s office. Methola serves as an assistant to Mayor Dale Janway, and Kayla’s responsibilities include assisting Methola in ensuring everything runs as smoothly as possible. While a typical day in the mayor’s office for Kayla might include loads of filing, shredding and running copies, most recently they turned things up a notch with the preparation for the 2015 Southeastern New Mexico Mayors’ Energy Summit
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“It’s such a cool program! I love it so much!” featuring famed oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens and Governor Susana Martinez. The annual event drew a large crowd with this year’s numbers exceeding 1,300 in attendance.
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“It was complete chaos around here for a couple of weeks before the summit,” she joked. “I wasn’t even dealing with regular office work; it was all work for the summit. The Friday before the summit we stayed here until 10 doing name tags. Monday I got excused from school so I could go to the energy summit and help.” Some of her duties during the summit included talking to the speakers and informing them of everything that would be going on; handing out gifts to each speaker; and other assignments as they came up. “I got to meet Susana Martinez (governor of New Mexico) and T. Boone Pickens, so that was really neat,” she added in excitement. The event proved to be a valuable learning tool for the high school senior and will likely make an impressive addition to her resume.
SATURDAY, NOV. 28th • 3-7pm Electric Light Parade “Old Time Christmas” begins at 7pm!
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LIVE MUSIC • FOOD & VENDORS • SANTA & MORE!
When school is not in session or students are released early, you won’t find Kayla sleeping in until noon and hanging out with her friends all afternoon. Instead you’ll find her hard at work in the mayor’s office. “I work three-and-a-half to four hours per day, but some days we get off earlier because of early-out, and some days we don’t have school, either for certain holidays or for teacher
in-service, so I come in from 8-5 like a normal job,” she shared. Like most jobs, the more she works, the more she is compensated. It might only be a minimum wage job, but for a 17-year-old high school student, the money can add up quickly if she works hard. Outside the classroom, Kayla enjoys drawing and attending her family’s sporting events, and she finds great joy in attending NASCAR races with her grandparents. She especially looks forward to traveling with them twice a year to the races in Dallas at the Texas Motor Speedway. After high school she plans to attend Texas Tech University, where she hopes to obtain a bachelor’s degree in business management, followed by a master’s degree in physical therapy. “The business part of it will help me with opening my own physical therapy business,” she speculated. Currently, BPA students are learning how to apply to colleges, and in the spring semester they will begin applying for scholarships. “Mrs. McCoy will help us with essays and show us how to find scholarships,” Kayla remarked. “We are on computers every day. She taught us all of the programs, and it helped a lot.” When asked about her overall feelings regarding BPA, there was no hiding her affection. “It’s such a cool program! I love it so much!”
F O C U S three o’clock p.m.
NAPQUEST:
A SHORT AFTERNOON SNOOZE by Kyle Marksteiner
T
here’s a revolution going on across Carlsbad and the entire country, albeit a yawny, stretchy one. More and more adults are pushing aside the stigma that afternoon naps are only appropriate for toddlers. Members of the workforce are napping as a way of recharging their batteries for the second half of the day. In the case of Don Hughes, owner of Carlsbad Radio, a nap now and then is a way of refreshing his creative juices. Hughes said he’ll come home to have lunch every day with his wife, then use the rest of the break to do a little work on his computer. “And then sometimes, I’ll step aside for a little bit and lay down,” he admitted. “Sometimes I’ll just sit for a second, but sometimes I’ll take a little bit of a nap.” The refresher clears his mind, he stated, and helps him work out ideas floating around in his head. “When you are in the advertising business, everything is about ideas,” he explained. “I’ll lay down for a few minutes and get refreshed. I have a notebook next to my bed and I then hammer out some ideas for my clients.” Hughes noted that he gets some of his best work done at home as well. “It’s lunch, and sometimes a little nap after that,” he reiterated. “I’ve read numerous articles about big
corporations that are providing space for their executives to sit in a reclining chair for a few minutes.” Hughes is right, at least according to SleepFoundation.org, which states that a nap of 20-30 minutes can help improve mood, alertness and performance. The web site goes on to list Winston Churchill, John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison as afternoon nappers. For Michelle Roberson, a mother of two and a part time employee with the Carlsbad Museum and Art Center, a 3 p.m. nap is a welcome endeavor that she only gets to enjoy occasionally. Roberson stressed that she doesn’t nap on the job, where she works from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. She picks up her daughters, ages 9 and 5, after that. Her husband, Jeff, works for the Bureau of Land Management as a natural resource specialist from generally 6 a.m. to 3 p.m., so the entire family gets home at about the same time. “Maybe once a week (during the weekday), when I don’t have something going on, I then get a nap in,” she shared, “except for the weekend. I totally nap on the weekend.”
PHOTO: Michelle Roberson, an employee of the Carlsbad Museum and Art Center, will occasionally take an afternoon nap after she gets home.
Roberson said she recently read an article about a museum that had “nap pods” set out for visitors who wanted a little break in between seeing exhibits. “Some people may be embarrassed,” concluded Hughes. “But for me it is just the opposite. It is an important part of my day and I’m doing something that is healthy.” Nap well and prosper.
Her two girls aren’t always napsympathetic, but now and then Roberson is able to steal a short break (while her husband is on kid duty), before moving into the evening’s activities such as dinner. WINTER 2015 | A COMMUNITY MAGAZINE
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F O C U S five o’clock p.m.
A VISIT TO THE CARLSBAD DOG PARK by Amanda Melvin
Where do you go after 5 p.m. when you want to talk philosophy, politics and upcoming community events while taking in the sounds of geese squawking at people passing as the setting sun paints O’Keeffe-like colors across the surface of the Pecos River? Carlsbad’s Dog Park, of course! Located within a two-acre area on E. Lea Street beyond the railroad tracks, the dog park borders the Pecos River. It took two years for Faith Rodriguez and Rich Vallan to stumble upon the park. They were walking their dogs, Bella and Coco, along the river PHOTOS (LEFT TO RIGHT): Carol Belski and Lucy • Park Rules • Mary Carr with Tank, Rich Vallan and Faith Rodriquez with
Bella and Coco.
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walkway south of the Bataan Bridge when they noticed the fence and red benches and joyfully realized they had found the dog park. The dog park was created by the City of Carlsbad in 2011. In response to why it was created, Carlsbad Mayor Dale Janway stated, “There are so
many people who have dogs, not only here in town, but who come through town, and a dog park is one of the things they look for. It’s important from a tourist standpoint and a quality of life standpoint. Plus, it’s the best view in the country for the dogs.” Agreeably one of the best locations for a dog park, the entry fee is one furry canine friend with an agreeable disposition and a willingness to play. By 6 p.m. the locals have all arrived. Lucy, along with Bella and Coco, are a few of the gang. Included are their human pals Caro, Faith and Rich. Another 6 o’clock regular, Mary Carr, brings Tank, her daughter’s dog. While the pups play, their human pals socialize. Their discussion topic is usually unpredictable except for the mention of a daily visitor—a phantom of sorts that provides delightful entertainment for all the dogs in the park.
As the tale goes, dusk nears when the phantom—a German Shepard—appears outside the fence on the side nearest the river. It lingers quietly near the southeast corner and waits to be seen by the dogs in the park. Once it knows it has been noticed, the phantom springs into motion without hesitation. One, two, three—every dog in the park runs with the phantom along the fence, up and back multiple times. As fast as the phantom appears, it is gone just as quickly. The moment is over and regular activities resume. The canines jump and play under the watchful eyes of their humans. Visitors to the park don’t refer to themselves as pet owners; rather, they refer to their dogs as family. In the words of Rich Vallan, “You don’t find many people here who look at dogs like toys.” Mary Carr, Tank’s grandma, admits that while she doesn’t always recall the names of the regular humans, she remembers the names of their dogs. Socialize long enough and you will hear references to regulars take the form of “Stella’s mom,” “Sadie’s mom” and “Jake’s dad.” It isn’t hard to appreciate the joy shared by visitors to the
park. Watching the dogs play along the backdrop of the Pecos River takes away the stress of the day. When asked about a favorite park memory, Faith mentions a time when all the park regulars were invited to the wedding of a couple from Kansas who were living in Carlsbad temporarily for work. The bond between visitors to the park is strong, and undeniably, it is centered on their love of dogs. Fascinated by the sight of a visitor without a dog writing a story on things to do in Carlsbad, the discussion on that given day was about the future of the park. Someone mentioned an idea for a doggy Slip’N Slide and other water activities, to which Mary replied, “Unlike the rest of you, I have to bring Tank back to her home, and her parents wouldn’t like a muddy girl.” Nearing sunset, the activity in the park slows, some of the dogs come to their people and prepare to leave. One can’t help but imagine what awaits these eager pups—dinner and a plush bed sounds good. Others aren’t quite ready to leave and resist the posted park hours, 6 a.m. to sunset. Eventually, though, the people and their pups depart knowing that tomorrow is another day and another opportunity to play and socialize at the Carlsbad Dog Park.
DANIEL’S SALON HAS BEEN SERVING OUR COMMUNITY SINCE 1984. We became an Aveda Concept Salon in the early 1990s. Our educated stylists offer many services including anything haircare, Aveda nondamaging hair color, Aveda botanical deep conditioning treatments, Aveda smoothing treatments for curly hair, anything nailcare, airbrush makeup, makeup lessons, waxing and threading. We also offer consultations with board certified plastic surgeon Miguel Gallegos. All of us at Daniel’s would like to give a special thanks to all of our wonderful clients for supporting us over the years. We welcome new clients - so please call for an appointment to come in and experience our salon.
Thank you for your support! Owners: Valerie Branson and Jordan Bowen (STYLIST) Stylists: Daniel Castaneda, Rachel Galindo, Dora Howell, Carol Wolffarth, Patsy Ybarra, Selina Guevara, April Lopez, Tiffany Newman and Karli Thompson
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CARLSBAD, NEW MEXICO
F O C U S seven o’clock p.m.
An Evening Stroll “The Ocotillo Trail is one of three beautiful places to walk for exercise and to be with nature. The Riverwalk and Carlsbad Caverns are also wonderful places to take a walk.” “I try to walk every day on the Ocotillo Trail, and to make it more interesting, I carry my camera. I try to capture wildlife in its natural form. If you keep your eyes open, you can see all kinds of animals, birds and creatures that crawl on the ground. There are also many different plants—all kinds of vegetation.” “One day in May I was really surprised to see a little javelina scurrying along searching for food in the bottom of one of the deep canyons by the trail. There are always deer all over the place, but sometimes you have to look very close because they are masters of camouflage.” “We should all be very particular about protecting and keeping the trail clean for everyone to enjoy. Carlsbad has many beautiful things that most other towns don’t have.” “The city has done a wonderful job with the beach area and the Riverwalk, and of course, Carlsbad Caverns really is one of the wonders of the world.” - KENNETH HOOTEN
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Editor’s Note: For retiree and photographer Ken Hooten, the evening is a good time to stroll up Carlsbad’s C-Hill. You’d be surprised who, or what, you’ll meet along this beautiful nature trail.
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F O C U S nine o’clock p.m.
ON DECK:
Magic: The Gathering Night at Local Store by Kyle Marksteiner
Mana is tapped, Shivan Dragons and Llanowar Elves are in play, Counterspells are looming. In short, it’s just another Magic: The Gathering Friday night at Hastings. Magic: The Gathering is a trading card strategy game that was first published in 1993. Players draw a handful of cards and then use the land cards
from their draw to bring out creatures and other special abilities to try to defeat their
Michael White stands in the Magic: The Gathering aisle of Carlsbad’s Hastings. Once a week, White oversees Magic play at the store. PHOTO BELOW: Matt Walker, left, and Dakota Thompson, begin a game of Magic: The Gathering at Carlsbad’s Hastings. On a good night, 20-30 players will participate. PHOTO RIGHT:
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FOCUS ON CARLSBAD | WINTER 2015
opponent. The local Hastings, where the cards are also sold, offers players a chance to play during Magic nights. That’s where Michael White comes in. White, 22, is the sort of referee/ judge/pit boss of the informal evening gaming sessions, which generally last from 6-11 p.m. A good night will draw
20-30 players ranging in age from 12 through 40. “My job is a lot different than what it would be if this place were sanctioned,” he responded. “Here, my job is pretty much to exist and to clarify the rules.” White works at a local bank throughout the week, but he has a five-hour part time gig with Hastings every Friday night. He moved here from Santa Fe, where he played in competitive northern New Mexico tournaments and earned around $1,000 a year doing so. “Carlsbad’s not a huge Magic area,” he noted, “but there are enough people here.” Periodically, White will have to settle a rules dispute during his job at Hastings. He’s qualified to serve as a judge for full tournaments, where he may have to check competitors’ decks to make sure nobody is cheating. Why does he like Magic? “That’s going to take a reasonable amount of thought,” White declared, and said he would need to think about his response after he completed setting up tables for the Friday session. He said he first developed an interest in the game when he was 12 but decided a few years later that he wanted to play competitively. He went online to research competitive decks and built one. White finished in eighth place at his first tournament in Albuquerque, which included a field of about 1,000 competitors. He said he was one victory away from qualifying for the national event, but he did receive about $100 worth of cards as a reward. He has stayed competitive since then and said he winds up making more out of his
competitions than he invests. His favorite style of play is to use a blue deck, which includes cards that focus on negating what the other player does and stealing his or her creatures. “When people ask me what kind of strategy I use, I tell them that I didn’t have a lot of fancy toys as a kid, so by playing Magic, I like to take other people’s toys away,” he confided. White declared that there is a rock, paper, scissors element to competitive play, and it sounds like there’s even a touch of Vizzini’s logic from The Princess Bride thrown in to this card arms race of sorts. There’s a handful of ultracompetitive decks out there, and certain other decks beat those decks, so a competitive player is guessing at what adjustments the others players are making based on the decks used in the previous tournament and then trying to top that. Magic: The Gathering isn’t White’s favorite game, strategy-wise, “but I would say it has the strongest competitive base and the biggest following.” Magic night on September 25 in Carlsbad was pretty slow. In fact, it was the slowest night ever during White’s time with Hastings. Did he think it had anything to do with the Carlsbad/Artesia football rivalry game going on down the road? “No,” he paused. “There’s a prerelease event going on at a game store in Artesia tonight. I think a lot of people are there.” While it may not be for everyone, Magic: The Gathering night at Hastings is a part of Carlsbad’s 9 p.m. fare.
Annual Artesia
Events Main Event Car Show & Cruise Last Weekend in March
Smokin’ on the Pecos BBQ Championship Last Weekend in June
Fourth of July Celebration Red Dirt Black Gold Festival Last Weekend in August
Clays Crusher Fun Shoot Third Weekend in September
Art in the Park
Third Saturday in October
Balloons & Tunes
First Weekend in November
1-800-658-6251
ArtesiaChamber.com
F O C U S eleven o’clock p.m.
Lights Out Carlsbad
I
by Kyle Marksteiner
t’s 10:45 p.m. on a Friday, and the biggest rivalry football game of the year has been over for an hour. Fans have headed home, coaches have delivered their inspirational speeches and memories have been made.
Some of the stadium lights are still on, however, at least for a few more minutes, which enables the few remaining stragglers the opportunity to complete their remaining tasks.
By 10 p.m. after a Friday night home game, the visitor lights have been shut off, but it will be another hour before Ralph Bowyer Cavemen Stadium goes dark.
PHOTO:
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FOCUS ON CARLSBAD | WINTER 2015
Several teenage couples are sneaking embraces amidst the shadows of Ralph Bowyer Cavemen Stadium; there’s a radio crew and a few school district employees closing windows to the press box and loading equipment; there’s the sound of a woman’s voice, the apparent alpha mom of the concession stand crew, outlining the details of the next assignment to her fellow volunteers. Eventually, the few remaining stragglers depart, and all that is left to mark the majesty of the annual county rivalry are a few scattered nacho trays and empty plastic bottles. Oh, and there’s John Gonzales, assistant head custodian at Carlsbad
High School and the night shift guy. Most nights, Gonzales is the last man standing, the employee who cuts the power to the stadium, locks the gate and heads home. Cutting the power after a Friday night football game isn’t just a one-button task, however. The school district leaves the baseball and softball lights on during and after the game to help with traffic. Gonzales cuts those lights and the lights on the visitor’s side by around 10 p.m., but he leaves the home lights on for another hour during the final phase of the cleanup process. The idea is to signal that it is time to move on. “If we leave them on, people will just
stay,” he observed.
John Gonzales flips the switch to turn off the lights of the stadium, marking the official end of yet another Carlsbad-Artesia football rivalry game.
PHOTO:
Gonzales has been with the school district for six years, and he’ll soon be starting his fourth year on night duty at the high school. During a late night game, he’s busy patrolling the bathrooms and emptying trash cans from the concession stand to make sure everything is OK. He also has other duties at other points on the Carlsbad High School campus. “I get pretty busy on Friday nights,” he admitted. He and other school employees complete much of their cleanup that night, but after a big game, such as the Carlsbad/Artesia rivalry, there’s usually more work to be done. Ralph Bowyer has to be cleaned up for Saturday morning freshman football and soccer. Many members of Friday night’s custodial crew will work
another half day on Saturday morning. “We turn back around and some of us come back at 6 a.m. tomorrow to clean-up,” he said, glancing around. “It’s really not that bad tonight. It was busy, but it has been much worse.” With that, it was time to enter the maintenance room to switch off the remaining stadium lights. Ralph Bowyer went dark, but not so dark that Gonzales wasn’t able to walk the property one more time to make sure everyone was out before he locked the gate.
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Good night, Carlsbad. We’ll see you tomorrow.
This Year, Stuff Their Piggy Banks This Year, Instead of Their This Year, Stuff Their PiggyStockings. Banks Instead of Their Stuff Their PiggyStockings. Banks Instead of Their Stockings.
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F O C U S on mainstreet
Busy Times at Carlsbad MainStreet There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the skies. (Ecclesiastes 3:3)
KARLA HAMEL Executive Director
CARLSBAD MAINSTREET
How do we measure time? We measure through the apparent motion of the sun across the sky, the phases of the moon, the swing of a pendulum, the flow of sand in an hourglass, the beat of a heart. Time is also of significant social importance, having economic value (“time is money”) as well as personal value, due to an awareness of the limited time in each second, minute and hour of every day in our earthly life span. No matter how one may measure time, we can all agree that time goes too fast. It seems like yesterday I walked into the MainStreet office for the first time as the new executive director. Months have passed and the running hasn’t stopped, but it has slowed down since I hired an awesome assistant director, Sharon Bentley. Sharon’s extensive background in banking, community non-profit boards and being a successful business owner has been a great asset to MainStreet. Thank you, Sharon, for joining MainStreet! The events that Carlsbad MainStreet has sponsored over the last few months are only a small glimpse of what MainStreet is all about.
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FOCUS ON CARLSBAD | WINTER 2015
The Carlsbad Downtown Farmers’ Market has come and gone, and I am happy to report that it was once again successful. The success has been due to the support of our vendors, volunteers and market manager, along with the many residents and guests of our small town who got up early every Saturday morning for over three months. We had many super volunteers that came every week to help set canopies up, sell raffle tickets and help with taking canopies down at the end of the market day. Right at 500 volunteer hours were logged for this season. Our vendors reported more than $34,000 in revenue with 4,300 total visitors strolling the market. At the end of the season, all of the vendors gathered for a pot luck dinner at the Hagerman House. We are looking forward to another successful season next summer. I am pleased to announce that Carlsbad MainStreet’s first Cornhole Tournament was also a success! A generous donation by Lowe’s of $300
worth of gift cards was awarded to our first, second and third place teams. The tournament was held on August 22 at the Riverwalk Recreation Center. Thirteen teams of two participated, and 24 volunteers assisted in setting up canopies, chairs and cornhole boards. Around 50 spectators watched as the teams competed in the double elimination tournament. Team Outlaw went undefeated and won the first place prize of a pair $75 Lowe’s gift cards. In second place, winning two $50 Lowe’s cards, was Pro Big Stick. Los Locos came in third, and both team members received $25 Lowe’s gift cards. The participants were happy with the execution of the tournament and indicated interest in competing in our next tournament. I would like to give a special shout out of thanks to the Riverwalk Recreation Center for providing a large space for the tournament along with setting out tables and chairs to accommodate the teams, spectators and volunteers. Three of our downtown restaurants were featured in MainStreet’s Third Annual Progressive Dinner on October 8. The theme this year was Fête de la Vendange—Festival of the Grape Harvest. Over 60 people attended our dinner, where everybody enjoyed appetizers at the Lucky Bull, entrées at Yellow Brix and dessert at the Trinity Hotel. A live auction was added to the fundraising event this
year. Our host emcee, preacher Dave Rogers, encouraged the participation of all audience members as he auctioned off donated items. There were gift cards, gift baskets, jewelry, candles, crosses and other items donated from businesses throughout Eddy County. I would like to give a big thank you to Mark Ruiz for giving a generous donation from Albertson’s to cover all costs incurred by MainStreet for this event.
and third place winners will be rewarded. The park will be full of music, food and craft vendors, and food trucks where visitors can purchase dinner if they didn’t get a chance to dine at one of our four downtown restaurants. Every detail has been planned, and we haven’t forgotten jolly old Saint Nicholas, i.e., Santa Claus; yes, he will be there too! Children from 1 to 99 will have a chance to have a photo taken and to express their requests to Santa for Christmas treats.
The Carlsbad Elks Lodge 1558 was the title sponsor for our 20th Annual Fall Festival. It is hard to believe that Carlsbad MainStreet has hosted this event for the past 20 years. Each year the event has grown, and this year was no exception. Our merchants and local businesses reported that over 1,500 pieces of candy were handed to the children dressed in their cute, fun and scary costumes. The costume contest for children ages 0-2, 3-5, 6-8 and 9-12 took place on the Eddy County Courthouse lawn. There were first, second and third place winners who received prizes. Because time didn’t allow many of the children in the contest to cruise the sidewalk in front of the merchants, each child who participated received a goody bag of treats. A photo booth was set up near the MainStreet office, where children of all ages were given an opportunity to have their picture taken and printed out before they left. Many volunteers helped to make this event successful. I would like to thank the Carlsbad AntiDrug and Gang Coalition, CHS Student Council, United Way and Constructor, Inc. for all the time they donated, and Carlsbad Elks Lodge for their financial support.
The singing of Christmas carols will fill the air while people await the start of the Electric Light Parade, which will be led by the grand marshal beginning at “dark-thirty” (that is, about 30 minutes after it gets dark). Big floats will be decorated with lights, balloons and music. Horse drawn carriages, trucks and cars will follow the parade route that runs directly by the Halagueno Arts Park and City Hall, cross Pierce Street to go by the Eddy County Courthouse lawn, then proceed all the way down Canyon Street, turn at Church Street to head straight to the river and stop at the beach band shell. First, second and third place trophies will be awarded in the categories of business, individual and organization as well as one to an overall winner!
MainStreet will start the Christmas season on November 28 by plugging in to the Night of Lights. This event will begin at 3:00 p.m. at the Halagueno Arts Park with holiday festivities including a contest to light up the park. Contestants have been selected to decorate portions of the park, which will then be judged, and first, second
As the MainStreet director, I am still thrilled to have the opportunity to meet with and get to know so many different people. I continue to meet Carlsbad individuals that have a genuine interest in revitalizing our town to make it a place where people want to be, whether that is to visit here for a day, a weekend or a week, or perhaps to raise their family and retire. MainStreet continues to strive to make Carlsbad downtown a place where people can come shop, eat and be entertained day or evening, seven days a week. The plans for the future of Carlsbad are exciting!
Outpatient Mental Healthcare AVAILABLE IN CARLSBAD AND ARTESIA One out of every five individuals will experience a mental disorder that disrupts their life. With proper medical attention and emotional support most behavioral health issues can be successfully treated. Whether it’s depression, panic attacks, grief, suicidal thoughts, anxiety or stress, help is available!
For more information about Outpatient Mental Healthcare, please call:
575.725.5562
F O C U S on the chamber
IT’S CHRISTMAS ON THE PECOS TIME! Enchanted evening boat tours on the Pecos River provide panoramic views of illuminated backyards and islands of twinkling lights. It reflects what has become one of New Mexico’s grandest holiday light shows, Christmas on the Pecos. The 24th anniversary season runs November 27 through December 31, 2015 (excluding December 24). Bundled up against the winter chill, you stare in fascination as your boat glides through a fairyland of twinkling lights created by more than 100 Pecos River homeowners and corporate sponsors who spend hours creatively decorating backyards and boat docks with millions of lights. Christmas on the Pecos tours are 40 minutes long. Boats set sail several times each night between 5:30 p.m. and 9:45 p.m. Tours depart from the Pecos River Village, a quaint, turnof-the-century park located at 711 Muscatel. Come early and grab a bite to eat or shop for unique holiday gifts. Tours sell out quickly, especially on
Thanksgiving weekend, Fridays and Saturdays, and Christmas Day. Tours are not offered on Christmas Eve. Tickets may be purchased between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday at the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce located at 302 S. Canal Street, at the Christmas on the Pecos ticket office from 4:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. on days of departure, or online at christmasonthepecos.com. Space is limited so advanced purchases are strongly suggested. Be sure to wear warm clothing; layers are best as it is cooler on the river. Blankets are provided by Nuclear Waste Partnership, LLC and are available prior to boarding.
Saturday $20.00 per person. Children (ages 5 -12) Sunday-Thursday $10.00 per person, Friday and Saturday $15.00 per person. Children 4 and under are free but are considered lap children and may not occupy a seat. Special rates for Eddy County residents are offered Sunday-Thursday at $10.00 for adults and $5.00 for children. To purchase tickets at these rates, they must be purchased directly from the Chamber of Commerce or the ticket office. Christmas on the Pecos has been named one of the top 100 “must see” events in North America by the American Bus Association every year since 1996.
Ticket Prices for the 2015 season are as follows: adults (ages 13 and over) SundayThursday $15.00 per person, Friday and
THE SENIOR LIFE ADVENTURE Retirement is the next big adventure in life, and today’s seniors want to have an active retirement life with many fun things to do. The word “senior” refers to a person over a certain age. In many cultures seniors are 65 and over. There are other terms used for persons over 65 such as oldster, baby boomer or golden-ager. Currently seniors make up more than 12.1% of the American population. These seniors are not “porch sitters.” They want to stay involved, stay healthy and stay happy. Carlsbad is fortunate to have numerous parks, disc golf, a municipal golf course with senior play times, bowling leagues, tennis courts and two senior centers.
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North Mesa Senior Center serves approximately 1,000 people a week. The services provided include a library, exercise program, exercise equipment, dances with live music, line dancing, a billiard room, ceramics, bridge and quilting.
crafts, ceramics, quilting, billiards, field trips and exercise programs.
San Jose Senior Center provides recreational and human services for approximately 650. It houses a kitchen facility and serves hot lunches. Recreation services include dancing, arts and
Janell Whitlock Director of Retirement 575-887-6516
FOCUS ON CARLSBAD | WINTER 2015
REMEMBER, YOU DON’T STOP PLAYING WHEN YOU GET OLD. YOU GET OLD BECAUSE YOU STOP PLAYING.
F O C U S on the chamber
YOUR CHAMBER STAFF ROBERT DEFER, Chief Executive Officer director@carlsbadchamber.com
DONNA CASS, Senior Admin. Assistant carlsbadnm@carlsbadchamber.com
BRENDA WHITEAKER, Director of Operations operations@carlsbadchamber.com
DOROTHY RIDGEWAY, Admin. Assistant temp@carlsbadchamber.com
LISA BOEKE, Director of Tourism & Marketing tourism@carlsbadchamber.com
RANDY BAKER, Director of Facility Maintenance facility@carlsbadchamber.com
JANELL WHITLOCK, Director of Retirement retire@carlsbadchamber.com
JESUS TORRES, Facility Maintenance JAVIER LOPEZ, Facility Maintenance
WELCOME NEW CHAMBER MEMBERS! Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce is proud to welcome the following businesses as new members. A & A LOANS OF CARLSBAD, INC. 802 N. Mesquite 575-234-9595 B & B WELDING, INC. 405 W. Greene Street 575-887-0033 CANDLEWOOD SUITES 3711 San Jose Blvd. 575-941-3711 CONCHO RESOURCES, INC.
CRICKET WIRELESS
New to Carlsbad! Cricket Wireless is located at 1724 S. Canal Street, Suite C. Call 915-5985600 for information on services.
IRON MOUNTAIN
Iron Mountain celebrated their grand opening and offered tours of their facility. They’re located at 2101 S. Canal Street, Suite A.
CRICKET WIRELESS 1724 S. Canal, Suite C 915-598-5600 HFK, LLC 2310 W. Church 575-706-2695 KAM SECURITY & SOUND, INC. 905 E. Fiesta Drive 575-885-4025 MATTRESS, INC. 101 N. Canal Street 575-208-7757
TOWNEPLACE SUITES
TownePlace Suites by Marriott celebrated its grand opening with a ribbon cutting and tour. They can be reached at 575-623-8850 or visited at 311 Pompa Street.
MATTRESS, INC.
Mattress, Inc. celebrated their grand opening on September 22. They’re located at 101 N. Canal Street (at the corner of Canal and Mermod). Call 575-208-7757 for additional info.
UPCOMING CHAMBER OF COMMERCE EVENTS Christmas on the Pecos Nov. 27 – Dec. 31, 2015 Pecos River Village
Winter Wine Festival
POMS & ASSOCIATES 575-302-6645 TADDY HEALTHCARE SERVICES, LLC 2409 W. Pierce Street, Suite A 575-887-8925 For more information or to join the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce call 575-887-6516 or visit carlsbadchamber.com.
Dec. 4 - 5, 2015 Pecos River Village Conference Center
Please contact the Chamber of Commerce at 575-887-6516 for more information. WINTER 2015 | A COMMUNITY MAGAZINE
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F O C U S business briefs
New Physicians Join Carlsbad Staff
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Daniel Marancenbaum, M.D. is the newest addition to Women’s Health Services. Dr. Marancenbaum earned his medical degree at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. He has completed post-graduate training at Tufts New England Medical Center in Framingham, Massachusetts, St. John’s Medical Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Pennsylvania. Dr. Marancenbaum is accepting new patients, whether you’re starting a family, preparing for a healthy menopause, or just need an annual check-up.
After the retirement of longtime pediatrician Dr. Sung, Dr. Abubakar Naida has joined Downtown Pediatrics. Dr. Naida earned his medical degree at Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) in Zaria, Nigeria. He completed post-graduate medical training also at ABU as well as in Liverpool, England and Greenville, North Carolina. With over 35 years of experience, Dr. Naida is board certified in Pediatrics and Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine. He is accepting new patients and offers a full range of pediatric health services including sick child visits, well child exams, sports physicals, consultations, and much more.
WOMEN’S HEALTH SERVICES 2420 W. Pierce, Suite 200 575-885-0995
DOWNTOWN PEDIATRICS 2420 W. Pierce, Suite 104 575-885-0805
Judith Birungi, M.D. has recently joined the Surgery Group of Carlsbad. Dr. Birungi earned her medical degree from St. George’s University in St. George’s, Grenada, West Indies, and completed her general surgery residency at SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York. Dr. Birungi provides a wide range of general surgeries, both open and laparoscopic. She is accepting patients by referral or selfreferral for colonoscopies, treatment for hemorrhoids, hernia repair, treatment for acid reflux and more.
From Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center in New York, associated with the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Dr. Lakshmy Vythilingam has joined Dr. Murugan Athigaman at Sandya Surgical Associates. Dr. Vythilingam is a board certified general surgeon with 20 years of experience. She is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and is welcoming patient consultations for a wide variety of general surgery procedures. Dr. Vythilingam also specializes in reconstructive breast surgery.
SURGERY GROUP OF CARLSBAD 2410 W. Pierce 575-885-0766
SANDYA SURGICAL ASSOCIATES 2402 W. Pierce, Suite 5C 575-725-5755
FOCUS ON CARLSBAD | WINTER 2015
F O C U S business directory
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Same-day surgical consults available today in Carlsbad. Call 575-885-0766.
Carlsbad’s newest general surgeon, Dr. Judith Birungi, has joined Dr. Abdul Qureshi at Surgery Group of Carlsbad. With expertise in several areas of general surgery, Dr. Birungi provides open general surgery and minimally invasive laparoscopic procedures at Carlsbad Medical Center. She is available for same-day surgical consults, and self-referrals for issues such as troublesome skin lesions, hernias and chronic indigestion or abdominal pain. Call 575-885-0766 between 8 a.m. and noon, Monday through Friday, for same-day consult.
Judith Birungi, M.D. General Surgeon Member of the Medical Staff of Carlsbad Medical Center
PecosValleyDocs.com