RUIDOSO, N.M. (KRQE) – Getting a clearer picture of the damage caused by historic wildfires near Ruidoso this summer, local business and government leaders gave lawmakers an earful on Wednesday. “Getting tourists back will ensure our local economy is sustainable for the near future and beyond,” said Rick Baugh, General Manager for the Ruidoso Downs. Sharing […]
RUIDOSO, N.M. (KRQE) – Getting a clearer picture of the damage caused by historic wildfires near Ruidoso this summer, local business and government leaders gave lawmakers an earful on Wednesday. “Getting tourists back will ensure our local economy is sustainable for the near future and beyond,” said Rick Baugh, General Manager for the Ruidoso Downs.
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Sharing their hardships, the Ruidoso Downs Race Track gave lawmakers a first hand explanation of how the Salt and South Fork fires and related flash floods have caused millions in damage and weeks of closures. “One of the hardest things I had ever done was pull the plug, but it was due to life safety and making sure that our horses and our employees on the backside were not in danger, which they were,” said Baugh.
The racetrack was joined by leaders from the Mescalero Apache Tribe and Lincoln County in a legislative meeting on Wednesday highlighting the multi-million-dollar damage to the local economy and to more than 938 homes around Ruidoso.
“We’re still counting, 366-450 homes. Every time it rains, we have to face another flash flood…I never thought I’d live in New Mexico and be scared of the rain but that’s my new normal,” said Randall Camp, Lincoln County Manager.
Lincoln County Commissioner Mark Fischer blamed poor forest management and said the wildfires were fueled by a lack of logging. “This disaster which affects even the Hondo Valley and the acequias down there because that sediment that mud goes down there and ruins fields that are productive but be for a while, was all man-made, you hear me, it’s all man-made,” said Mark G. Fischer, Commissioner for Lincoln County.
Out of Wednesday’s meeting, Lincoln County leaders suggested finding ways to force the federal and state governments to allow for more logging in the area and creating a fund for small businesses that have lost revenue due to the fires and floods.