Vado residents take over community meeting

In Vado, New Mexico, roads appeared to be badly damaged during heavy rains in 2013.

In 2014 after another downpour the roads were affected again. Many residents told ABC-7 the roads were unfit for driving.

Thursday evening residents trickled into the Del Cerro community center
and filled the seats to meet with Dona Ana County Commissioner Billy Garrett to talk about roads in the area. But as quickly as Garrett began to talk, one man supported by the community took the microphone and told the commissioner and his staff
they were going to set the agenda and the county leaders were going to sit and listen.

One by one residents stepped up to speak.

“They took really long to get to my house because of the roads and they couldn’t find us,” said one young girl.

She told the commissioner her father had a heart attack and if ambulances could have gotten to her home sooner he might be alive today.

Another woman said her sister was gravely ill at home and they to drive to meet the ambulance because the first responders couldn’t handle the roads.

One young man told the county leaders he feared for his life when he had an asthma attack at church and had to drive home at a snail’s pace because the dirt roads are so bad.

“We don’t need another person to die before these roads get paved,” said Sarah Silva, director of Communities in Action and Faith.

The group organized the meet between the dozens of concerned residents and county leaders.

“During the monsoon season in the summer there’s no way to get ambulances buses through those roads sometimes children miss school,” Silva said.

There’s one problem.

“Almost all the roads we’re talking about are private roads,” Garrett said.

The District One commissioner said they can’t use county money to fund private roads.

Organizers aren’t asking the county to pave the roads tomorrow.

“All we’re asking is that community be listened to today and they hear their concerns and worries but also have a plan in place,” Silva said.

Commissioner Garrett agrees.

“It may be a matter of trying to find other sources of money other than governmental money to work on these roads so we are really going to have to start thinking outside the box,” Garrett said.