Construction in progress for new SWCD office

San Juan SWCD board members, staff, and recently retired State Representative Paul Bandy officially break ground on the new building site January 6, 2021. From left to right: Board member Leo Pacheco, Paul Bandy, District Manager Melissa May, Board Chair John Arrington, Board Vice Chair DeAnne McKee, Board Treasurer Ralph Fenton, and Watershed Coordinator Alyssa Richmond. Photo taken by Assistant District Manager Andy Bleckinger.

A decade long dream at San Juan SWCD is coming true – we are finally getting our own office building! We kicked off 2021 with a ground breaking ceremony, followed by the excitement of construction officially getting underway. But what is even more exciting is the services and assistance we will be able to provide the local community, as we all work together to protect and preserve our healthy soils and water throughout the district.

Staff and board members have worked hard for years to pave the way for this project. This effort started with our late District Manager and board member, Emma Lee Deyo, who negotiated with the Farmington BLM for nearly five years to secure the donation of a piece of land for our future home. It took another three years after that to secure capital outlay funding in 2019, thanks to the support of our NM state legislators. That left two years of planning and design with the team at Formative Architecture to bring us to the exciting milestone we find ourselves at today.

Our new office will be located at 301 McWilliams Rd, just north of Koogler Middle School in the northern part of Aztec, and we hope you will stop in and say hello when we open this fall. At the moment, our staff is still working remotely due to ongoing COVID-19 restrictions at the USDA office, but we are looking forward to when we can see all our cooperators in person again. In the meantime you can always reach us at 505-234-6040

Winters Construction and their team of subcontractors pouring the foundation Feb 3, 2021. We are proud to be using a construction team that is all local to San Juan County – keeping jobs and tax dollars in our community!