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RIO RANCHO, N.M. — There are many reasons people choose to move to the metro area. For Lani Nash, it was personal.

“I moved out here when Holly Dunn got sick,” the singer/songwriter explained to KOB 4. “She was a good friend of mine from Nashville.”

Dunn, a popular country singer in the ’80s and ’90s and a good friend of Nash, passed away from ovarian cancer at the end of 2016. Nash said she decided to stick around for love and get married, and New Mexico has been her home ever since.

This weekend, Mariposa reps asked her to perform at the Rio Rancho community’s Sol Fest, celebrating the grand opening of a brand-new housing development and another place for people like Nash to put down roots.

“They don’t just build a development, you know, housing projects, and then leave you to find your way around, but they offer community centers and parks and that kind of thing,” she said. “So it’s really, you know, kid-friendly, family-friendly.”

David Newell — the division president for Richmond American Homes of New Mexico — said the Albuquerque metro, including Rio Rancho, is under-built with housing. But that is something his team hopes to change.

“Seasons at Monarch is the latest community at Mariposa, and it’s made up of 174 home sites,” he said. “We have eight-floor plans, single stories and two stories.”

The homes range from $300,000 to $400,000, but Newell said other developments that Richmond American Homes has in the works, cater to a wider variety of homebuyers: “From first-time homebuyers, to move up buyers, empty nesters, people that want the active lifestyle, big families, retirees, you name it, we have product for it,” he explained.

Regarding the metro’s resale market, Newell said it follows a nationwide trend and is the lowest it’s ever been, with just over a one-month supply of housing on the market. He added that our market would need close to 10,000 more homes to meet the demand. His company’s solution is to keep building until everyone who needs a home has one.

If you want to look at the new homes on the market in Mariposa or listen to Nash sing live along with The DCN Project and Mariachi Tierra Del Sol, Sol Fest starts at 3 p.m. Saturday at East Commons Park. Click here for more information about the event.

Rio Rancho Event Center. Courtesy/EDD

EDD News:

RIO RANCHO — Intel in New Mexico is working with the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions and the New Mexico Economic Development Department to host a MEGA Hiring Event, providing numerous growth opportunities for individuals interested in joining the semiconductor manufacturing sector.

The event will take place 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, July 28 at the Rio Rancho Event Center, at 3001 Civic Center Circle NE.

In 2021, Intel announced a $3.5 billion expansion in New Mexico, enabling the manufacturing of cutting-edge semiconductor packaging technologies at our site. This multiyear investment is expected to create at least 700 high-tech Intel jobs, 1,000 construction jobs and support an additional 3,500 jobs in the state. This hiring initiative supports our ongoing investment efforts.

The MEGA Hiring Event will focus on the role of manufacturing technicians at Intel’s state-of-the-art Rio Rancho manufacturing facility. Manufacturing technicians wear the classic Intel bunny suit and are vital to keeping factories running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

“We are excited to host the MEGA Hiring Event in New Mexico, offering prospective candidates an opportunity to join Intel’s innovative manufacturing team,” Katie Prouty, Vice President Manufacturing, Supply Chain, and Operations, said. “This event highlights our commitment to fostering local talent, creating job opportunities, and contributing to the economic growth of the region.”

Prospective applicants can find detailed job requirements and application information on the official New Mexico Workforce Connection website.

“Our collaboration with Intel is a great way to provide high quality jobs to New Mexicans,” Economic Development Deputy Secretary Jon Clark said, “and this incredible hiring event is an opportunity for our community to show we have the skilled workforce to meet Intel’s needs and recruit more advanced manufacturing jobs to the state.”

To ensure a streamlined hiring process, pre-screening will be conducted through the New Mexico Workforce Connection website from now until one week prior to the event. Interviews will be scheduled based on the pre-screening results and walk-ins are also welcome on the day of the event.

“The MEGA Hiring Event is a great chance to connect New Mexicans with jobs in growing areas like technology and advanced manufacturing. And our Workforce Connection Centers across the state are ready to help anyone get the skills they need to qualify for jobs like this in the future,” Sarita Nair, Department of Workforce Solutions Secretary, said.

This event is an excellent opportunity for individuals looking to develop their careers in the manufacturing industry. Attendees will have a chance to meet with Intel representatives, gain insights into the company’s operations, and showcase their skills and enthusiasm for becoming part of a leading global technology company.

About Intel in New Mexico:

As Intel’s innovation hub, the New Mexico site plays a unique role in Intel’s mission to make technology with the power to improve the life of everyone on the planet. Intel directly employs more than 2,100 people in New Mexico, and the site manufactures technology that is advancing Intel innovation in packaging and interconnect – essential to Intel’s next era of computing.

Courtesy/EDD

RIO RANCHO, N.M. (KRQE) – As Rio Rancho grows, so does its traffic congestion. Thursday night, the city held a meeting, to talk about improving traffic flow along a busy corridor. They discussed how to make it safer for neighbors, bicyclists, and kids walking to school.

“It’s not safe, I mean it’s long overdue,” said Mena, a Rio Rancho resident.

It’s a road many residents say is dangerous for both drivers and pedestrians. Loma Colorado Boulevard runs between Northern Boulevard and Paseo Del Volcan in Rio Rancho. With a middle school nearby, the road has become an area of concern, due to its lack of sidewalks and bike lanes.

“Since my son is only in middle school still and he has to walk every day because we’re so close to the school, that it would be nice to have the sidewalks for him,” said Kacie Lipton, Rio Rancho resident.

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“We’re always driving down there, and you’ve got people running on the side of the road and there’s no place for them to run, bike, and it’s very dangerous,” said Mena.

Thursday, the city of Rio Rancho held a public meeting to present recommended designs that would address some of these concerns. The proposal suggests improvements such as widening parts of the road to four lanes, adding sidewalks, bike lanes, and even trails for pedestrians.

“I’m sure users of the corridor note the congestion from the drop-off and pick-up times, so we really wanted to take a look at this area to have the traffic flow better,” said Ed Potthoff, Project Manager at HDR Engineering.

The city would also add new water infrastructure to create better storm drainage. Other improvements include paving the dirt road from Montezuma Boulevard and creating a connection all the way up to Paseo Del Volcan. Residents say that would create access to Cleveland High School.

“It gets congested going to the high school, so it gives people ways to get there, instead of overcrowding in one place,” said Mena.

The city says they are still waiting on funding before construction can begin. The total cost is estimated to be 22 million dollars.

Dr. Shelly Gruenig, the executive director of R4 Creating, will watch her dream of opening the STEAM Center for Excellence come true on Wednesday.

Gruenig has been working for years to turn R4 Creating into a center for STEAM activities with workshops, competition space, warehouse space, performing space for performing arts and robotics.

That work has paid off with the opening of the STEAM Center of Excellence in Rio Rancho. Gruenig partnered with the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation and the Encantado Foundation to open the center, which will be located at R4 Creating and will include state-of-the-art STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) educational products, technology, furniture and more.

The group will celebrate the opening with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and community celebration from 2-3 p.m. From 3-4 p.m., there will be a STEAM expo with younger students interacting with STEAM products, while older students provide demonstrations with robotics.

Gruenig founded R4, originally known as the Rio Rancho Robo Runners, in 2005 and has been offering championship STEM/STEAM programming in Sandoval County at the career training center at 4311 Sara Road, Suite 107. She is focused on programs to build the young STEM/STEAM workforce, support educators with emerging technologies and to provide thought leadership in order to link industry with their future workforce. Now, she wants to expand to reach and teach even more children with a center in Rio Rancho that holds more students and technology.

R4 Creating, which has won multiple championships and awards, works to connect STEAM educators with the necessary resources to prepare students ages 6-18 to enter the STEAM Workforce Pipeline. R4 promotes the growth of STEAM education and enrichment through its robotics teams and a Robotics Leadership Academy. Classes cost $175 per semester, but Gruenig said no child has ever been turned away from the program. She works tirelessly to raise money to make sure any student who wants it has access to the lessons learned at R4.

“I say it’s like at the intersection of where fun and learning collide. Because it is that right?” Gruenig said. “It also it just takes more resources. We’ve been really fortunate to have a lot of really great volunteers over the years. Because it takes a whole staff of volunteers to supervise, make sure everybody’s safe, especially around the machines, and not only just say fingers and toes, but also save hearts and minds and just helping them, but there’s so much reward from it.”

The ribbon-cutting event will celebrate the new center and will include speakers as well as students exploring the educational products and curriculum.

The Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation helps to strengthen America’s most underserved and distressed communities by supporting and advocating for children, building Youth Development Parks and STEM Centers, partnering with law enforcement and youth-service agencies, and addressing community needs through its national program initiatives. By 2024, the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation will have installed 134 STEM Centers in elementary schools across 22 counties in Texas and New Mexico.

R4Creating’s mission is to provide support for those organizations making valuable contributions to increase the number of STEM/STEAM opportunities for students. While its nonprofit status was only established in 2016, organization volunteers have been supporting STEM in thecommunity and across the country since 2005. At that time, R4Robotics, a community-based robotics team of approximately 40 students ages 10-18, was founded. Since that day, R4 has engaged youth in building their STEM knowledge through competitions, leadership opportunities and entrepreneurial endeavors.

The Encantado Foundation was formed to provide comprehensive enterprise and mission-embedded IT support for Sandia National Laboratories personnel and the lab’s infrastructure at multiple locations across the United States.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – A more than $3 billion expansion is creating hundreds of new jobs. Intel hopes to fill as many positions as possible this week at the Rio Rancho Events Center.

“If we hire over 100 people, I will be very happy,” said Lanette Jaramillo, an Intel New Mexico Engineering Department manager.

With support from the New Mexico Economic Development Department and Workforce Solutions, Intel could bring on a lot more than that during its first-ever mega hiring event this week.

“We are already in the neighborhood of 260 pre-registrations, and we hope to double that in time for the event on Friday,” said Mark Roper, division director of the New Mexico Economic Development Department.

Starting at 9 a.m. at the Rio Rancho events center Friday, Intel will look to fill close to 700 technician positions.

“They come to work, they get dressed in the cool bunny suit,” said Jaramillo. “They are first-line problem solvers. They partner with engineering, they solve problems every day, it’s very challenging. It’s very rewarding.”

The goal is to get as many techs trained as soon as possible to further the company’s advanced semiconductor packaging technology.

“We’re looking for people that- a diverse workforce, for sure. And then, also people that have that mechanical inclination, that experience,” Jaramillo said. “There’s military experience, that, you know, mechanical hands on there.”

Intel recruiters could not give a ballpark amount for starting pay, but say technician salaries will vary based on experience level, and pay is competitive.

“We made it super easy for people to register for this event. So they can scan a QR code, answer a couple of questions, and that will get them on the list of pre-registering,” said Lilliana V. a New Mexico Workforce Connection area supervisor.

The mega-hiring event will be held at the Rio Rancho Events Center on Friday, July 28 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Folks can apply online, and check out upcoming job events here. For resume help, you can call (505)-843-1900 or email [email protected].