PEP TALK for Agua Fria Residents:

The AFVA is currently working on ways that we can deliver financial or social benefits to all Traditional Historic Community (THC) residents, on a local scale, so that there is genuine value in being in the THC. Financial benefits include really thinking outside of the box and having things that save or make us money for being in the THC. What about developing a small electric cooperative that reduces our energy costs? Social benefits include: reducing crime, improving education, increasing health care coverage, having a senior citizen’s center, etc. This list is really only limited by our imaginations.

The big point is to have an answer to the question: What's in it for Me? to be a part of the THC as opposed to being outside the boundary. At the December AFVA meeting, we were looking at negotiating with various waste management companies to get a “district rate” rather than a higher individual rate that people have now.

I was talking to Marta at Chicoma Vista subdivision, and she says they have a loosely organized group, mainly to help maintain the Chicoma Vista road. She asks: Are there any others in the THC that have dirt roads that the County won't maintain? It might be possible to pool resources to obtain better rates on base course and/or maintaining equipment. So this is the kind of thinking we can all be a part of and share.

To build more community events, beyond just those done by the San Isidro Church and the Agua Fria Elementary, which people begin to see themselves as a sense of community. To create an identity so that people can proudly say: “I am from Agua Fria.” That having a home in Agua Fria becomes fun and very desirable.

The Community Update for the last several months has featured talk of “buying local” and creating a “business directory” to aid us in this. We have talked about building and maintaining infrastructure within the THC and in influencing the Santa Fe County’s planning on Capitol Improvement Projects. Additionally, we have talked about our distinct “history” dating back to 1693 and even earlier with the two abandoned pueblos. The archaeological dig here this summer on Agua Fria Street by San Isidro Crossing uncovered the oldest-largest-settlement in North America dating back to 3-4,000 B.C. This is when primitive man first was able to sustain a colony bigger than a 100 person clan of relatives on the North American continent. It happened HERE in Agua Fria---not in Clovis, Folsom, Bandelier, Gila, Mesa Verde, etc.; all this other sites that have a lot of notoriety.

So we have something special here that we need to preserve, improve and share. Share especially, with those people that live here and don’t know all these good things they are missing. So in 2010 let’s figure out how we can make this a better place.