2025 Recap - Mornings on MainStreet

Charles and Arcenio discuss the notable things that happened in the Taos Plaza reflecting back on 2025.

Mornings on MainStreet airs every third Thursday of the month on KNCE 93.5 True Taos Radio. This episode originally aired on January 27th, 2026.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

You could just see that we were almost at a boiling point in stall.

SPEAKER_02 0:02

What the heck is going on? What have we done to our town?

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Yeah, exactly. And so it's nice to look back in hindsight.

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Really, the overall goal of the show is to help build the movement to really revitalize our downtown. Main Street Radio here on Tree Towns Radio. So the Main Street program was developed to start to interest and really uh revitalize these historic downtowns and historic neighborhoods throughout the country.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

It is important to show folks that the historic downtown of the country district is very possible and people enjoy the amenities that exist.

SPEAKER_02 1:07

I think is what we're leaning towards. Today, of course, is Tuesday. But um as we kind of uh dial in what mornings with Main Street is all about, we'll we'll we'll get the time locked in and uh hopefully get regular listeners once a month here on the more on uh True Towns Radio. So Charles, um uh welcome back, Arsenio. It's good to see you. Happy New Year. I guess I haven't seen you guys since uh since the new year, since the holidays, is that right?

SPEAKER_00 1:33

Uh yeah, that's right. That's right. And we had an interesting discussion too around when when does it become too late to say happy new year?

SPEAKER_02 1:40

Yeah, I know Larry David has some opinions on it very much. Very strong opinion on the right. Yeah, three or four days, I think, is what he said, or something like that. But um, you know, I haven't seen you since before the holidays, so yeah, I think it's okay. Happy New Year.

SPEAKER_00 1:51

I think it's okay too. And you know, one of the reasons we we kind of wanted to do a show like we're going to do today is because the years seemed to fly by pretty quickly. Um, I don't know if that's that's just me personally or the age I am with with kids, but uh 25 2025 felt like a real blur. And we as we started looking back, it was like there was there's some really notable things that happened in Taos in 2025, things that are very relevant to our community as a whole and things that are really relevant to our our downtown. So we really wanted to kind of take a take a little bit uh of a look back at 2025 and acknowledge some of the things that that happened.

SPEAKER_02 2:30

I think that's a great idea. Um, of course, before we get into any of that, I would love for you to kind of introduce what the radio program is all about, mornings with Main Street, mornings on Main Street. I guess we're gonna have to dial in on the name as well. But it's morning. We're talking about Main Street. Um, so perhaps just a little background on um the Main Street organization and how this radio program came to be.

SPEAKER_00 2:54

Sure. Thanks, Howie. So uh Taos Main Street uh is a local independent nonprofit organization. Um we are a program of the uh New Mexico Economic, uh the state of New Mexico Economic Development Department. And uh we exist in a partnership with the state, uh the town of Taos and Taos County. So uh we we kind of have a unique position. Um we always say that you know our real focus is economic and community development. Um we do traditionally focus on the downtown area just because that's the theory of Main Street is always, you know, you start, you start in the downtown, you start at the heart of the community and you start your revitalization work there. And from there it kind of grows and spreads out further. So um, you know, we we we approach our work um through an asset-based approach, which means, you know, we're not you know, we're we're not employing a heavy top-down approach to economic and community development. You know, we're not necessarily looking to go recruit huge companies that are gonna come build data centers or anything like that. Our approach is really like we have all of these assets that exist in our community and we want to find ways to strengthen those assets. Um, we believe that community and economic development go hand in hand. Those two things shouldn't necessarily be separated, and things that are good for the community are oftentimes very good for the local economy as well.

SPEAKER_02 4:18

Awesome. Well, obviously I mean, that's such important stuff, and it's no wonder that we can get on the radio here to talk about um how people can get involved. And um, like you said, we're gonna recap all the stuff that's gone on in the past year, and that'll of course inform how we look at this coming year.

SPEAKER_00 4:38

Yeah, absolutely. So part of the the reason we wanted to to start the show, and I think we're we're officially saying now we're we're in season two of Mornings on Main Street. Excellent. We had season one, which was really a pilot season, helping us kind of get our feet under us, get our bearings straight, kind of figure out what we want to do, what we want to talk about. And and the idea here is really just to talk about not only Main Street as an organization, but things that are happening in our downtown, in our community, um, the people, the businesses, the stories that really kind of make um our downtown, our plaza, and our community a special place. So we want to we want to highlight those things. We want to bring in interesting guests that can really speak to very specific things with certain levels of expertise, um, and just make it, you know, an informative and kind of fun, fun listen in the morning.

SPEAKER_02 5:27

Excellent. You're here with Arsenio. You want to introduce Arsenio?

SPEAKER_01 5:32

Yeah, good morning, guys. Um, Arsenio J. True. I'm the community engagement coordinator for Taos Main Street, and yeah, I've always aspired to work in a downtown area. I mean, I thought I was gonna work in downtown Denver or Phoenix or something like that. So that was my uh my lifelong goal. But I I I I uh I scored big by uh being able to score um to work downtown to us.

SPEAKER_02 5:54

And you um grew up here in northern New Mexico.

SPEAKER_01 5:57

I did, yeah. And uh uh as Charles said, uh you know it's exciting to to talk to our um our our businesses and and see people. And I I I I spend a lot of time just walking around and and and checking out the different parts of the downtown area and uh I I can't get enough.

SPEAKER_02 6:13

Awesome, Charles. You you grew up in Taos as well, right? That's correct.

SPEAKER_00 6:16

Born and born and raised in Taos. My parents still live in the same house up in Taos Canyon that I was that I was born in in the mental in the middle of a snowstorm. No joke, that's a real story. Um and so yeah, uh, I I left for a while, but returned with my family in about 2018. And uh I love being back in Taos. I love the people. I feel I feel that I'm incredibly lucky to be able to to to do this this type of work and and play a small and humble role in making our community a better place. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:49

Well, all right, well, where do we start? Let's um kind of kick off season two, episode one, mornings on Main Street here on True Tause Radio. It's uh 10 minutes past nine o'clock and Tuesday, January 27th. We'll just remind folks who are, you know, starting starting their day here, get them on track.

SPEAKER_00 7:08

Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, 2025 was um was an interesting year, as we said previously. Like there was a lot of things that happened in 2025, and we did want to take a look back at some of those things. Um, you know, so far we've we've uh 2025 was marked by you know unusual unusually warm weather patterns. I believe I saw something from the National Weather Service that indicated once again 2025 was the warmest year on record for the United States. Second was 2024. So I think you know the signs are pretty clear that like we continue to warm. Um, thankfully, we had an amazing uh couple of snowstorms so far. We're we're hoping and and praying for more. Um I did want to talk talk a little bit about some stuff that Main Street um, you know, in in starting to rewind and go backwards a little bit. Um, a few things that Main Street has done and done recently, and one thing that I think we're really excited about was uh we just uh completed the first round of of of our cultural events fund program. So uh we had we had an app an open application and we really encourage community members, uh community, you know, organizations, individuals, informal organizations, businesses, anybody who is doing work in the cultural event space, um, we really wanted to be able to highlight and support some of their work. So part of this came out of the destination stewardship efforts that Taos Main Street is is acting as a host and administrator for currently. And one of the things that was identified in this destination stewardship uh planning process, you know, that took several years and had a lot of great input from community was that, you know, we have all of these resources coming into our community through the tourism economy. Why is it so hard to find support for like these cultural events that really really are one of the things that make Taos a special place? And, you know, there are some programs out there where you can find money. Um the county has a great program through their lodgers tax fund, um, where they can they support events, but because that's it's lodgers tax, that money is restricted and it's largely restricted to the the marketing and promotion of events. So something, a real gap that was identified was like, okay, there are monies out there available for marketing and promotion of events, but what if event organizers actually need some of those unrestricted funds? What if they need money to, you know, for for basic operations to help them rent a venue, to help them hire talent, to help them pay experts, you know, that may be doing, you know, performing something or teaching a skill. Um, you know, all of those sort of operational or hard event costs can be really challenging to find resources for. So the Cultural Events Fund was really born out of that. Like now there's some money that can be a little bit more unrestricted in terms of putting on an event. You could there's a there's a lot of ways that you can use it. Um, you can use it for pretty much any operational cost of actually putting on an event. And so we had an open application. Um, I believe we had 16 or 19 applications. Um that's correct. Yeah, it was 19 applications. So we had 19 total applications, which I think is great, especially for the first sort of the first round, the first pilot. Um and we we had a we had a committee that we put together and and some folks who have a really diver set of perspectives on what a cultural event I think could be, and also some folks that are actually really familiar with putting on events too. So they really helped us kind of look at these applications and and sort of say, okay, who which of these look like they're really ready to go? And um which one of these do we think actually really fits the criteria the best? So we want to just kind of announce um we we were able to fund uh eight cultural events in the first round. I think we were able to fully fund five uh five requests um made in that process and and then partially fund another three as well. So that is awesome. Yeah, yeah. Arsenio, why don't you tell us why don't you kind of give us a a peek there at at the type, the events, and the organizations that we funded in the first round?

SPEAKER_01 11:40

Yeah, absolutely. And um, one of the things that um I wanted to um kind of uh um tell uh folks is that uh this is uh countywide, so this is not just a downtown thing. So there are organizations from the House County that are that are doing some great things, and so we're we're uh happy to support them. Uh our first uh awardee was uh celebration of Adobe, that is uh the Taos Historic Museums. They're gonna be um uh putting on an event that uh that highlights you know uh the uh impact of Adobe in our communities. We've got Stories from the Land. Uh that's the name of their event. That's Friends of the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument. Uh Santos Nuevos y Viejos, that's the Friends of the Taos Public Library. They are also awarded a full gr a full amount. Um baking and traditional feast day foods. That's Henrietta Gomez, uh, who uh who um is gonna be um uh highlighting and showcasing some of the things that she does um in her kitchen. It honors uh luncheon for the Taos County Historical Society, which is coming up here in um in February. Uh I I believe that's in February, I'm not sure, but um um that's gonna be coming up real soon. Uh the Tausena Awards, Taos News puts on the uh the Women of Impact in the Tausena Awards, and uh they're gonna have um 75 youth come and attend, and so we are able to support that uh that effort of theirs. Uh we got Taos Rocks, that's Pamela Vanderway, that's gonna be um putting on that event, and then uh last but not least, the Black History Month Gala that's gonna be uh put on by the Taos Coalition of Color. And those are our eight uh first cohort of awardees.

SPEAKER_02 13:23

That's awesome. And and so these events will be like kind of one-off events that might evolve into annual events, or are they uh existing events, all of these things?

SPEAKER_00 13:32

So there's there's a combination of both of those things. Yeah. So some of some of I think all of these listed here are well, they're they're maybe not all. Some of them are single one-off events, some of them are going to be workshops, you know. For example, the Orno Baking and traditional feast day uh event is going to be a workshop that's going to take place, I think, three or at three or four different locations throughout the community. Um what the way we funded in this first round was was essentially on a timeline. If your event is taking place between January and the end of May, then we encourage folks to go ahead and apply in this round. Yeah. And then the next round, which we will we will start in May, will cover events that are that are happening between May and December of the following year. Um some really really cool stuff. I mean, there were there was a lot of really, really strong applications. And I think there was some the committee had had a had a challenge in a few places, really kind of making making some tough decisions. We really took the approach that we wanted to, you know, provide as much funding as we could to a concentration of of events rather than providing much smaller amounts to everybody. Because I think, you know, at the end of the day, a couple hundred bucks were we weren't really we weren't really sure that that actually helps.

SPEAKER_02 14:51

Right. Right. I'm seeing I don't think we mentioned though, it looks like um anywhere from eleven hundred to five thousand dollars, which is uh pretty significant funding for for these events.

SPEAKER_00 15:00

Yeah, absolutely. And the and the intention here is, you know, this is uh for this to be a bit of an an event incubator too. Like we want to see these cultural events, you know, get off, get off on a good start and on some good footing and and maybe continue in the future.

SPEAKER_02 15:15

Yeah, so that would encourage, I imagine, other local businesses to sponsor and raise even more money and make the event bigger and better and bolder and all of the things.

SPEAKER_00 15:24

Yeah, absolutely. And and so yeah, just some just some really, really cool stuff in here. I think stuff that's really connected to northern New Mexico, um, that that just highlights cultural events in in some really fun and interesting ways. I did want to mention at the at the honors luncheon, uh, I believe the Taos County Historical Society this year is is honoring Larry Torres, who um was one of my favorite teachers. Um I think he was a lot of people's teacher. I would agree. And I think anybody that went to school and had Mr. Torres as a teacher at the Taos High School um actually probably got a taste of some some cultural events as well. I remember uh I think in his class we we danced the the Matacinas at at the Taos uh at the Martinez Hacienda as as part of as part of uh his class one year. So honoring, you know, uh one of our most brilliant sort of storytellers and a real cultural uh leader in that space. Icon even. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Um and yeah, you know, part of part of the support that went to the the Taos News and they're uh celebrating the their Tausena awards, as Arsenio mentioned. Um, this year they wanted to make a really conscious effort of getting um getting young women, you know, from from the high school and maybe maybe some of the other schools as well, like to that event to see, you know, the the women that that are that are making things happen that are that are leading our community in so many ways. And the committee really thought that that was that was a really cool thing to to really kind of fold in some of our young people and get them to to be able to kind of experience an event like that and really see you know the Tausinias that are leading the community. So so a really cool, cool thing there as well.

SPEAKER_02 17:09

Yeah, very inspiring. Um, mornings on Main Street. We're uh up to uh 20 minutes past nine o'clock here. It's Tuesday, January 27th. We've got a quick commercial break, and we come back with more mornings on Main Street. We'll be right back.

SPEAKER_00 17:25

Welcome back, everybody. Uh, you are tuned in to KNCE, TAUS 93.5 FN, TrueTaus Radio. Uh, we'd like to invite everybody to to join us on on the DJ chat um and and be part of the conversation.

SPEAKER_02 17:39

Uh trueTausRadio.com. TrueTausRadio.com. A few folks in there right now. We should give a shout out to Ben Taos and Wooderson. Ray Ray is there, and Mandy and Mojo. Um, yeah, you can log in and uh kind of interact here. We might have an opportunity for folks to share some uh some of their experiences from from last year from 2025, uh, in case we didn't cover it all here.

SPEAKER_00 18:02

Yeah, absolutely. So so we're 921 uh 921 a.m. We wanted to kind of lead off this next segment and really talk about a few things that uh a few things that happened in in the business and construction sector in 2025. Um wanted to start by just briefly you know remembering that the the US 6864 construction project.

SPEAKER_02 18:28

Well, how could we forget?

SPEAKER_00 18:29

Yeah, how could we forget? It was a tough one, no doubt. It took quite quite a long time. Um, we know that originally they I think they were supposed to be done towards the end of 2022, I believe. And I would, you know, remind all of us that we we had a global pandemic that hit the world during that time and it caused a lot of supply chain issues. Um, they had to completely uh stop construction for one full year, and they had another full year immediately following that, where it was really hard for the contractors to get their necessary supplies um and materials in to actually move forward on that project. But um, they were actually able to complete that project in 2025. I know when they announced that they were planning on being done in you know, roughly mid mid-summer of 2025, everybody kind of rolled their eyes and thought, oh gosh, I'll believe it when they see it. Um, but they actually made that part happen. And if you haven't spent any time walking um in our downtown, I would really encourage you to do so because like we have we have these nice new sidewalks on the main road. They're they're really safe. Um, they're not buckled, they're not, you know, a foot or a foot and a half wide in some points. Um, they're nice, like fully uh full full width sidewalks. Um, so it's a really, really nice to kind of get down, walk around, see some of the you know, the new road, the new sidewalks. Um, and yeah, anything to add to that, Arsenio? I mean, we we were happy to see that construction project come come to a completion. Um, what else did you hear?

SPEAKER_01 20:05

Well, uh just coincidentally, last night I was online and I was looking at all the the frustration that was going on right around 2022 when when people thought that it was going to be coming to an end, and then they got word that it was gonna extend.

SPEAKER_03 20:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:19

And then there was also stuff going on inside the middle of the plaza. There was some excavation that was going on, and you could just see that we were almost at a boiling point.

SPEAKER_02 20:26

Yeah, so what the heck is going on? What have we done to our town?

SPEAKER_01 20:30

Yeah, exactly. And so it's nice to look back, you know, hindsight uh can be kind of um it can be kind of pleasant or it could kind of be uh a little bitter. So uh it was neat to see uh some of those articles from 2022, just wondering when is this gonna be done.

SPEAKER_02 20:45

Yeah, and of course, now it feels really good down downtown. I know there's still some extraneous projects here and there, but um, you mentioned the sidewalks, and because I live downtown, I can uh attest to the wider sidewalks making a huge difference. I I wouldn't have thought that it would make such a huge difference, but um I feel like more people are are on the sidewalks, like and out and about because it's feeling safer and it's just more welcoming.

SPEAKER_00 21:09

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you know, that's sometimes simple infrastructure like that can make a huge difference. I mean, it it it is a bit of the, you know, if you if you build it, they will come type of type of theory, right? Um, if you build nice new sidewalks, people actually will walk on it. Um there was another another project that we were really, really happy to see kind of uh take off and really make some some significant progress on. Um in I think in 2020, well, let's let's say 2023, uh Taos Main Street was able to secure a big uh capital outlay grant from the state of New Mexico uh for a million dollars for some plot sort some improvements on the plaza. Um I think there was some there was some uh real issues underneath the plaza that the town of Taos was was um you know was willing to take up. I mean there was some real challenges with some drainage um and with with the ground that was underneath the plaza. That's why if if folks can remember back a little, now it's it's nice and new and and looks really, really great. So sometimes it can be easy to forget what it what it was not that long ago. But um the bricks in the plaza, the what they were, they were buckled. Um there were just huge tripping hazards all over the place due to the buckling of those bricks, the uneven surface there. Uh the gazebo itself was having some real issues with leaks in the roof, dry rot, um, which was creating challenges for performances. You know, if there was rain during a performance, you know, musicians were having their equipment get soaked under the gazebo because of those leaks. Um, so we we secured that that funding to really support kind of uh you know re-re-renovating those things and making some some key updates in the plaza area. So Arsenio has been uh attended the the construction meetings throughout throughout the whole summer and fall season. Um and and they they were able to really stick to a tight timeline. Arsenio, talk to us a little bit about just like that process, um, who the who the county brought on as the contractor and and where the state of the project currently is.

SPEAKER_01 23:19

Yeah, absolutely. I I um I was intently uh looking at everything that was going on, and they they worked at lightning speed. Um you know, um I uh spoke uh directly to um uh V Hills Ironworks, who did almost all of the uh the iron work completely from scratch, and they they they spared no expense and um they did a wonderful job and and they were quick. It started around August, mid-August, I believe August 12th. Well, I know for sure it was August 12th because I was there when they started demolishing the old gazebo. And my heart kind of sank because I was not expecting it, and it's just it's just hard to see that kind of history just kind of start getting taken apart. And uh, I can honestly say that uh I think the end was on uh November 17th because uh they installed new lampposts, and the lampposts, the the new ones turned on exactly at 5.05 p.m. on November 17th. So I was sitting there waiting for those lampposts to turn on because everybody was crossing their fingers that everything was going to work because there was a lot of infrastructure under the plaza as well.

SPEAKER_02 24:28

I knew they had made a milestone too for um Halloween. They wanted to have it like usable, and they achieved that. They got it ready for the big event that happens every Halloween. Uh the plaza was looking good, and then it sounds like they put the finishing touches in the few weeks after that.

SPEAKER_01 24:42

Yeah, they sure did. And and uh you could see for the uh Christmas event that they had, the tree lighting event that they had downtown uh on in on the plaza in early December was it was phenomenal. People loved that space, and they they were taking pictures in the new gazebo and just just kind of taking it all in. It was nice.

SPEAKER_02 24:59

Awesome. Yeah, another great example of some awesome improvements. And like you were saying, Charles, it's it's kind of easy to forget um what it was looking like just a few years prior.

SPEAKER_00 25:10

Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, the gazebo, you know, full full refurbishment, um, new roof. Uh, they they addressed it all any of the dry rot issues that were happening. Um, they overhauled the electrical system, so now the gazebo actually is is much better geared for uh performances and musical performances to happen in the plaza, which we think is really, really exciting. That's something that we hope to see more and more of. Um they they made the the the gazebo ADA compliant. Uh they redid all of the hardscape surrounding the gazebo. If if anybody can remember, um there were several walls that were just kind of crumbling there. Um, so all of that is cleaned up. The hardscape is fixed, it's level, it's full, you know, for anybody that has mobility challenges now, they can access the gazebo as well. Um, and they they also put in a big uh along with it, some of the new lighting, um they they they put in a new uh Christmas tree stand. So now every year there's there's a really safe and secure um way for the town to bring in or the county to bring in a large a large tree so we can kind of celebrate the holiday season um in the plaza as well. Now there is another phase to this project. Um so Arsenio, do you can you tell us anything about about the next phase of the project when when they're looking to start the next phase, what it might, what it might look like?

SPEAKER_01 26:39

Yeah, uh once again, if you go to the plaza, don't be too surprised if they start demolishing some of the stuff that's existing. So they're they're trying to take advantage of of the fair weather that we've had, but they're gonna start taking down some of the walls that surround the uh the veterans uh memorial there, and they're going to uh they're going to work on that as well to make it more accessible as well. Um those steps are are kind of uh a hindrance to to folks to get up close to that that that veterans memorial. So the county is already uh thinking that uh if they get a nice window, they're gonna go in and they're gonna do some some demolition on those walls. And then uh early April, they're gonna start uh phase three, which is gonna include all the fine touches that uh you know that we need for to make the uh the center of the plaza a great venue. Yeah. Some some shade structures perhaps, and then um some more uh you know that'd be cool. Ugrades on on lighting and and uh and more of a park kind of feel to it. That's gonna be what uh what we're gonna do.

SPEAKER_02 27:38

Yeah, you mentioned the county. Um I kind of forgot that the county took over the management after realizing that it was their property indeed. And so uh it's great to see that they're active with uh all this work.

SPEAKER_01 27:50

Yeah, and they've been great partners. They they they want to see that they're they're kind of on the same wavelength as us. They want to see more people gathering at the plaza and they want it to be safe and they want they want to see that space be used uh uh again in big ways.

SPEAKER_02 28:05

Yeah, another great example of some great improvements we've been seeing here in towns.

SPEAKER_00 28:10

Yeah, and you know, a way that I I do want to highlight, I think it's important to kind of understand that you know that we haven't seen any real capital investment in the plaza since 1975. That was the last time there was a significant overhaul to the plaza. I think there's been some some minor work, minor changes made in between then, but you know, before I was born was the last time the plaza saw some real investment and some real love. And it really takes partnership to do some of these things. I mean, the town of Taos was was willing to take on a really difficult part of that project. And like we have to rip up part of the plaza and we have to fix the underlying infrastructure. That's sometimes not the most visible uh and and fun part of a project, but they were willing to take that on and and they invested some a significant amount of money to make that happen. We were able to come in after that with securing the capital outlay money through the state. So really we see kind of a cool partnership unfold, you know, we uh the town, uh, money from the state, the county, Main Street, all working together to to actually make the plaza um a more visible, a more uh friendly place for for the community and hopefully lots of cultural events, lots of music, lots of lots of fun stuff in the future. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:32

Um let's talk about some of the businesses that uh came you know new or upgraded uh in 2025.

SPEAKER_00 29:41

Yeah, and when we you know when I look at when I looked at this list again, I was I looked back through and had had already forgotten some of these things just because once they open and things take off, it's just like they just become part of could the community, part of you know, day-to-day or weekly life for everybody. And and it's easy to kind of forget, oh, this that actually just happened not that long ago. So uh I Arsenio put this list together for us. I want I want to uh get him to kind of come in and say, like, what were some of the new sort of notable businesses that we are notable things in the business community that that came up in 2025?

SPEAKER_01 30:22

Yeah, and um uh just off the uh edge of uh the the historic house district, the Hotel Willa opened up in uh in May, May, May 2017.

SPEAKER_02 30:30

Yeah, another project that kind of got sidelined through the pandemic and supply chain issues.

SPEAKER_01 30:36

Yeah, and yeah, and that looked like it it took a long time for them to get that uh up and running again. But now, like Charles says, it seems like it's been there for a long, long time. And it's it's this is part of our our uh our commute every day.

SPEAKER_00 30:49

I wanted to jump in real quick too, and just remind remind everyone. Do we remember what the Indian Hills was like for for a deck for decades at that point? And now it's like we have the there's this beautiful property. Um they're really they're really friendly and really trying to do things for for the locals as well. So I would encourage people to like stop stop by Hotel Willis, stop by Juliette the restaurant in there, have a have a drink. Look at the gallery space, yeah. Yeah, look at the gallery space. Like, I mean, it's it's it's a real example of what what some some some vision and some capital investment can take, you know, a property that is an eyesore and and just just a blight on on our community and and turn it into something beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 31:35

I just want to interrupt for a second. T P Rox has checked in at the DJ chat. Uh he he's tuned in and uh commenting that he helped clean up the easement encampment on Albright and the Pastayo. Uh he says he's got your back, boys. All right. And uh we encourage folks to check in at the DJ chat at TruetausRadio.com if you want to chime in on this conversation or if you have any ideas of some other uh things we've seen some in in 2025. But Arsenio, we got a pretty big list here of some of these new businesses and upgraded businesses.

SPEAKER_01 32:06

Yeah, speaking of upgraded, uh Montez restaurant, they uh they did a huge upgrade. And uh once again, they they spared no expense. And so it's it's kind of an honor that they they kind of did that perhaps on behalf on behalf of their customers, but uh a really nice uh interior, exterior, they got good parking, they got a drive-thru, everything's great. And the Trujillo is good as ever. That's right. Yeah, that that Trujillo, too. Yeah, that's due me for a loop there, but anyways, uh uh let's not forget that Walmart did a great, you know, uh they they did huge efforts to really beautify their area as well, and uh and that took a long time. It was almost uh all summer long, but uh that was completed in October, and that that included inside and outside kind of uh upgrades. Uh the pink wall at the Limeberry property was demolished also in May, and that was something that we had seen all of our lives, and we didn't know Taos without that wall getting.

SPEAKER_02 33:03

I know, and when it went down, I was like, wow, that's a beautiful building, and and look it opened up the vista uh uh to you know to the horizon almost. And yeah, really beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 33:11

And Taos Bebo is gonna be doing some great things with that property uh now in 2026. Of course, we got the Starbucks, the standalone with the drive-thru that also opened up in May. A lot of stuff happened in May, you know, a lot of coinciding with the finish of the uh uh of the road. Um uh Whataburger also opened in May, and uh that was cool. Um, and then the North Central Regional Transit District, the RTB Blue Bus Station also um that opened up in June officially, and then of course our Taus Plaza Gazebo. I wanted to just really quickly remind folks that we have a Maverick and we have a new all-sups on the south side of uh uh of town too. And I thought those were in 2025, but they've been here slightly longer. Yeah, they were they were uh late 2024.

SPEAKER_02 33:54

Well, that's right, yeah, yeah. And uh haven't spent much time in the Maverick, but yeah, they did a good job. It looks good. I know a lot of people are scratching their head over all the gas stations, but um, it's nice to have it, and people are using them. There's always lines and it's a lunch, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:06

It's uh it's on the lunch round.

SPEAKER_02 34:08

That's right, yeah. Such good stuff. Um you're tuned to KNCE TOUS, 93.5 FM, streaming at true toousradio.com. It's mornings on Main Street. Uh happens once a month here on KNCE. Uh Charles and Arcinio. My name's Howie. Sticking around at some point. Charles, you'll be at the helm. You'll be here in the driver's seat taking the control of the radio program. DJ Sidney Ray chimed in on the DJ chat. That beautiful design for Hotel Willa came from Taos's very own Living Designs Group architects. How about a shout-out for local talent? I couldn't agree more. Living Designs Group um doing a lot of great work uh in and around town Tauske Valley. They've done a lot of work.

SPEAKER_01 34:51

Uh and um I believe I believe they did Montes as well. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:55

Month is they also did the design work for the plaza and then the gazebo, and they also did the design work for the county courthouse on the plaza as well.

SPEAKER_02 35:03

DJ Sydney Ray, he's in the know. DJ Sidney Ray, of course, here on the Blender every Monday from 10 until one. And um it's great to see him chiming in there on the DJ chat at TrueTauseRadio.com. Big thanks to DJ Sidney Ray and TP Rox for uh chiming in. What else we got? I know we have a little commercial break coming up here in a few minutes. Um, but you got something lined up for our final 10 or 15 minutes?

SPEAKER_00 35:29

Yeah, I think I think in the last, the last uh the last little segment here, you know, we I think we wanted to mention a few other notable things in northern New Mexico, just some things having to do with, you know, politics, sports, education. Um, we had there was some notable passings in our community, so we wanted to give a little space and a little time to acknowledge, you know, some of the notable people in our community. It's by no means a comprehensive, but there's a few people we wanted to mention as well. And then, you know, just just a little bit of uh of looking forward, you know, what what we're gonna cover in the show um and in the coming months.

SPEAKER_02 36:03

Excellent. You're tuned to KNCE TOUS 93.5 FM. Streaming at true tausradio.com. Mornings on Main Street is underway, coming up at 10 o'clock. Cat and high frequency radio. Cat will be here from 10 till noon. Lloyd Jukebox here from noon until four. Tonight you'll get Tonal Ranger Radio, some world on tour. Girls just want to have fun. Tuesdays here on KNCE. We'll be right back.

SPEAKER_00 36:28

Welcome back, everybody. You're listening to KNCE TAUS 93.5 FN. KNC TAUS 93.5 FN, True TAUS Radio. Um, please join us on the DJ chat and be a part of the conversation. Um, and we wanted to kind of circle back. One one other thing Arsenio forgot to to mention in that in that business section of some new new changes in the business community in Taos. Uh, what was that? What was that thing, Arsenio?

SPEAKER_01 36:56

Well, it's the town and country, uh uh the big building that's happening on the south.

SPEAKER_02 37:01

Yeah, they're really getting after it. I noticed some significant uh improvements, uh, or you know, uh uh advancement, you know, it's getting really kind of taking shape, really taking shape.

SPEAKER_01 37:11

You know, it reminds me of uh the the Disney uh movie cars. You remember when they put in a new uh pavement in the middle of the road, people go crazy because they think that their places need an upgrade. And so just like Charles said earlier, if you build it, uh you know, public funds, private funds follow.

SPEAKER_00 37:29

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So some great investments, uh, some some public uh investments in in our community in our downtown. And and as Arsenio just said, that's actually a key uh component to to the approach of Main Street is like you you need though that public investment happening to really see the private investment happening in those areas. You know, uh people, uh businesses, entrepreneurs, you know, they they certainly, you know, when they look the they look at an area they want to spend time in, they look at an area where maybe they want to uh consider uh you know opening or starting their own business or event, you know, if if things are things are beat up, you know, they're they're not highly, there's there's not a a lot of motivation there, right? But when when they start to see public investment happen happening, when they see that the town, the county, the state are all investing in in the downtown and are investing in infrastructure, that really gives the private sector a lot of confidence to say, you know what? I think I think I want to try and open up a new business downtown. I think I want to have uh try this new event in our downtown. Um, so we're really excited for for the future of downtown. Sure. Um so jumping jumping into uh this next segment again, we just wanted to talk uh in you know, not real formally, informally, just about some interesting things again that happened in in 2025 on on some other fronts. So um, you know, we've already talked about the the the long highway project that that wrapped up in mid-May. Um another really notable thing that happened very recently, um, the town of Taos officially changed the name of the park in the middle of town to the Red Willow Park. Um I know that there are plenty of community members that that followed that. Um, and I would encourage any community members, you can you can go on the town of Taos's website and and and pull up some of those meetings. Um and you know, I was I was at Arsenio, I was uh absolutely blown away by um the statement from the tribal, the tribal council at the Pueblo. Um they had a member of the Taos uh the tribal council from the Pueblo came and gave a statement um ultimately in support of of changing the name. And um honestly it was one of the more powerful statements I've ever I've ever witnessed and I've ever listened to. And I think um, you know, if if if you have any any inclination or interest in how any of that unfolded, like absolutely go back, take a look at that, listen to the words, the wise words from from the tribal council pueblo. Yep. Uh next up, we obviously we had an election. Uh we had uh uh Dan Baroni win win a third non-consecutive term and Taos Mayor, and we also had uh two council, two new council members elected. We had uh Billy Romero and Tetsuro Namba winning winning council seats, and uh I believe they're they're all already off to the races.

SPEAKER_02 40:36

There's always lots lots of they're gonna have a busy uh session tonight. I know there's a gathering planned for uh outside of the town council chambers.

SPEAKER_00 40:44

Uh absolutely. Uh, we got to learn a really interesting uh thing about New Mexico electoral politics. Uh Richard uh Dicky Chavez retained his municipal judgeship. Um, and apparently after a recount, it was a statistical tie. And when one of those occurs in the state of New Mexico, they actually determine the winner by coin toss.

SPEAKER_02 41:07

I I they actually even broadcast it. I I got to see a video recording of it, and uh sure enough, the judge tossed the coin, it rolled into the corner. Uh, I can't remember who it was who called what they called, but that was it. It was decided, and everyone was like, okay, shaking hands, and that's how it goes.

SPEAKER_00 41:22

Yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, uh an interesting and and and albeit a very humble way to decide uh a tie. And, you know, apparently that that's actually an old law on the books in the state of New Mexico, which I certainly I was never aware of until it happened here in town.

SPEAKER_02 41:38

Yeah, good reminder also about how every vote counts. Absolutely. Absolutely, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:43

Um, and and finally, uh, you know, some uh Taus, uh the town uh let's see, I think we had was this both town and county on the municipal schools was the general obligation.

SPEAKER_01 41:56

Yeah. Oh, right, yeah. We uh it was overwhelmingly uh passed by uh by voters the uh general obligation bond for the schools and then via property taxed with flying colors.

SPEAKER_02 42:09

So yeah, it was great to see a lot of um civic involvement community uh really getting after it.

SPEAKER_00 42:17

Yeah, I think I think it it kind of does does note that when when you put when you put those things to the voters, when you know, uh the idea of supporting uh supporting education and healthcare in our community, I think the the voters overwhelmingly choose to to support those things. Yeah. Um in this next session section, again, not not comprehensive by any means, but we did want to note a few notable passings um that we that that we found um in looking through the Tows News in 2025. Again, we want to you know give condolences to friends and family of of all of these people and just acknowledge some of these folks. I want to speak to the first one, but I want to have Arsenio jump in and kind of go through this list a little bit. Um, we had uh the passing of Ken Blair, um, who was a hotelier, a businessman, um, longtime owner of the Sagebrush, the quality in. He actually built the the convention center and the comfort suites as well during his ownership of those properties. I think almost everybody in Taos at a certain point has either had a friend or a family member um that worked for Kit and Blair and um at a celebration of life, absolutely packed house at the Sagebrush Convention Center. And I think that says a lot about somebody when people show up to celebrate your passing. It's a full house, and you have people from all across the community to come and celebrate, say some kind words and share some stories uh about you. So uh condolences to the Blair family. I've been I've been close with their family since I was a kid.

SPEAKER_02 43:51

Awesome.

SPEAKER_01 43:53

Yeah, um Towski Valley lost a couple of notable uh uh folks this past. Year as well. Elizabeth Ronell, the Thunderbird Lodge owner, she died uh at the beginning of the year on January 1st, 2025. Uh real tragic uh loss of Simon Philo Tate, who was an adaptive ski instructor up at uh Ski Valley. He also um passed away uh in the late ski season last year. Uh Walter Regg, I hope I Rogue, I believe it's pronounced Ruges.

SPEAKER_02 44:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:26

Yeah, he was a ski lift builder and operator. Um and uh yeah, those are the those are the standouts from uh Towski Valley. Uh Deacon Donald Martinez also, uh late in uh the year, December uh 18th was uh the date of uh Deacon Donald Martinez and uh longtime um you know servant of uh the Our Lady of Guadalupe. Uh Fermin Torres, also rancher farmer and community lead uh leader. He uh died early in the year. Um we do want to recognize uh Valdemar as Era, who was a World War II veteran. I believe he was uh on the uh on the long walk or the the death march uh in World War II.

SPEAKER_02 45:11

105 years old.

SPEAKER_01 45:13

105 years old, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:14

What a life.

SPEAKER_01 45:17

Anybody else want to take over?

SPEAKER_00 45:19

Uh we a few other characters. We had Brian uh is that Steiger Steger, um downtown gallery artist, passed away in 2025. Um we had Rev Reverend Edwin Nettleson, uh pastor here in Taos, who passed away in November. Uh we had Michael McCormick. Um, I think I think most of us were were familiar with McCormick's uh gallery there in our downtown uh you know, definitely famous writer, poet gallery. Um I knew I knew Michael I've known Michael McCormick's sons um my whole life. So condolences to to his family as well. Um and then Dwayne Hopper, a Vietnam nom veteran and silversmith, who also passed away uh in 2020.

SPEAKER_01 46:06

Then one other person that uh that popped up also was Tony Benson, a geologist, educator, renter as well. Um he was 85, he passed away uh in the middle of May 2025. Uh, I did want to say Reverend Edwin Nettleton, he married my wife and I. And so it was it was kind of uh it was a little yeah, it was a little sad to see him uh go by the avid uh flyer pilot and uh pastor over at the St. James.

SPEAKER_02 46:33

Great to acknowledge. And um uh so many names uh a lot of folks probably recognize, and um no small contribution from any of them uh to the community, right? I think of the as you mentioned the ski valley. I got to work with Walter Rugue and Elizabeth Brownell, and um yeah, they were really pioneers. It's it's no wonder they call that book the Ski Pioneers, but not just of the ski community, but of of Taos in northern New Mexico.

SPEAKER_00 46:58

Yeah, all of these folks obviously like like you just said, Howie, um, you know, an important part of of the history and the story of Taos and and again all people that contributed in a variety of ways, um, you know, and so we just we wanted to take a little time to just acknowledge those folks, their friends, their family, um, and and just how how they contributed to the rich the rich history and culture um and and everything that makes Taos such a such a unique place.

SPEAKER_02 47:26

Um I'm just looking at our notes here. Yeah, what were you gonna say? No, yeah, and I I noticed that I think we talked about it earlier too, the the weather was a significant story for 2025 as well. And um it was nice to see that we got some winter here just in the last few days, right?

SPEAKER_01 47:45

Yeah, I didn't know that there was such a term, but uh we're in a snow drought here in northern New Mexico, as is another a lot of other places. I heard that uh Colorado has also got uh a shortage of snow that's uh really affecting their ski industry up there as well.

SPEAKER_02 48:00

So lots of things to consider, but uh what a great recap of um all the work Main Street's been doing um for 2025 and looking ahead to um more to come.

SPEAKER_00 48:13

Yeah, looking uh looking ahead, um I think next month in particular, we want to we wanted to take a little time and do a section, do, do a, do a show that's really kind of uh gonna focus in on on the business and the local economy. So we've got uh we've got a potential guest lined up. We we can't announce today because we don't have an official confirmation. So I don't want to tease that out until he officially says yes. But hopefully um we can get him confirmed and he's got he's got a really interesting uh uh position and level of insight to um opportunities that he sees in in the Taos economy, trends that he's seeing, hoping that that can all be very informative. And we also want to start talking about the BRIC a little bit, which is an initiative that Taos Main Street has been working on for some time now, um, but that's really materializing. So the BRIC stands for the Business Resource and Innovation Center. Um, again, this is a project that represents a partnership between various entities in Taos, including Taos Main Street, the town of Taos, Taos County, SBDC, the Chamber of Commerce, UNM Taos Hive. So a lot of the entities that are focusing, you know, around business support, sort of economic development type of work. Um the building uh at 115 Civic Plaza Drive has been dedicated. Uh at least most of the building has been dedicated to the brick. Um so we're really excited to kind of kick off some conversations about the brick. Um the town currently has some contractors working to make some final renovations to the first part of the building. And here in the the the winter to early spring, we're really looking at actually launch officially launching the brick. So coming right up. It'll be phase one. Um, the first the idea behind phase one is is really um to kind of create a one-stop shop type of environment. So if you're looking to connect with local organizations, business support organizations, uh resources, like it's gonna be a one one-stop shop. Um, eventually, you know, not uh five days a week, but probably at least one day a week, we're gonna have some relevant staff members from both the town and the county that are going to be there. So if you need uh a permit, um a business license, um, things like that, there's gonna be a one-stop shop where you can show up. You know, you're not gonna have to go sort of back and forth between the town and county. Um and while they're there, you know, hopefully you'll be able to take advantage of being able to connect with Chamber of Commerce, with the SBDC, um, with Taos Main Street or the UNM TOUS Hive. Um, really, really the the first phase is just to kind of get the door open, um, get people used to the brick as as a concept and uh and as a one-stop shop. And uh we really want to kind of uh help Taos become a more business friendly place. We certainly have heard for years to that where it's at times Taos can feel like an unfriendly place for business. And and the brick is one way we want to start kind of breaking breaking that wall down um and making it a more friendly place, giving some of our our uh aspiring entrepreneurs, you know, access to to resources, insight, coaching, um, to really kind of help their vision of of of of new business and Taos come alive.

SPEAKER_02 51:38

So and uh the the your uh the main street website has some information on the brick and all the stuff we've been talking about.

SPEAKER_00 51:44

Absolutely. Please, please check out taosmainstreet.com. You can find a variety of resources, everything that we've talked about um is there. It's pretty easy to navigate as well. So just uh, you know, take take a take a stroll through through the website and and learn more. Um, obviously, if you want to connect with either myself or Arsenio, uh we encourage that, you know, people who are looking to get involved, who who have great um ideas that they want to get off the ground, we we always are interested in connecting with those folks. So um again, follow us social media. Uh it we're just Taos Taos Main Street, Facebook, Instagram, follow us there. We have a newsletter that you can sign up for on the website that has lots of great information on on a monthly basis, comes out the first week of every month. Um, my email address is as director at tausmain street.org, and our you can find Arsenio at community at tausmain street.org.

SPEAKER_02 52:42

I'm looking at the website and uh I haven't looked at it in a little while, and I see you've uh put a new slideshow here on the homepage. It's really a lot of great photos flashing by as we talk here, tausmainstreet.org looking good. Um guys, we're out of time for uh season two, episode one, mornings on Main Street wrapping up. Um we don't have an exact date yet. It'll probably be the week of February 16th, which is the third week of the month, and that's uh when we're looking for this regular uh program to happen. So we'll we'll get into that and I'll of course uh uh announce here on K and C in the coming weeks when it's uh gonna happen and what folks can expect.

SPEAKER_00 53:22

Yeah, absolutely. We're excited, and uh in the meantime, I'm gonna, you know, have a little coaching from Howie and and you know, he'll slowly start to kind of get you in the driver's seat.

SPEAKER_02 53:32

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 53:33

Step step a little away from the show, and I'll I'll be sitting in the driver's seat and uh hopefully I can fill those big shoes that Howie Oh you got.

SPEAKER_02 53:41

You got this, no problem. Guys, thanks so much uh for taking some time and for all the work you do through Main Street, tossmainstreet.org. And um tune in to Mornings on Main Street once a month here on KNCE. Have a great day, guys. Thanks.