City supports upgrading White Sands to a national park

ALAMOGORDO – The Alamogordo City Commission approved a statement Tuesday that shows their support for a proposed bill that would upgrade White Sands National Monument to a national park.

The proposed bill was introduced to the City Commission during their April 10 meeting by Dara Parker, a field representative for U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich. Parker explained that the bill, which has not been introduced in the Senate yet, would not only turn the monument into a national park, but it also accomplishes a land swap with White Sands Missile Range.

Parker said that in terms of management, there's not a great deal of difference between a monument and a national park but that national parks do tend have a higher profile than monuments, which could boost tourism.

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The bill was created in coordination with White Sands National Monument, the National Park Service, White Sands Missile Range, the Army and Holloman Air Force Base. During her presentation, Parker explained that while the agency isn't allowed to take a public stance on the issue, an informal review by a Department of Defense indicated support for the bill.

The item was brought back to the City Commission on Tuesday evening for a decision in terms of support.

Commissioner Susan Payne, who was absent from Tuesday's meeting, chimed in via phone conference to state her opinion on the matter.

"I got a lot of phone calls about it and me personally, I do not think we need to be writing a letter of support for this item," Payne said. "I think this went before the County (Commission) and I know the county objects to it and this is really a county issue. I think the best thing we can do is nothing at all. I don't support this, my constituents don't support this and I'm not comfortable with this."

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Commissioner Nadia Sikes did not agree with Payne. Sikes said she believes it's a city issue.

"We're looking at economic development, we're looking at changing the status of White Sands National Monument to a park," she said. "All research has shown that anytime a designation changes from a national monument to a national park, the average number of people that visit the newly designated location is usually upwards of 13,000. We're looking at increasing economic development in Alamogordo, Otero County and the entire state so I think it's really important we do everything we can to accommodate that increase."

Sikes went onto say that contrary to the phone calls Payne has received, residents have been contacting Sikes with nothing but support for the re-designation.

"I want people to know we're doing this for the right reasons," Sikes said. "We're not buying into any conspiracy theories, we're not looking at making this a possible UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) location, even though when Carlsbad Caverns became a UNESCO location several years ago, all it did was increase economic development for the town Carlsbad Caverns is in."

On the controversial topic of the possibility of White Sands National Monument someday being added to the World Heritage List, Mayor Richard Boss asked Parker to clarify the process for that.

"The bill does state that there is a requirement by law that if this passes that Otero and Doña Ana counties, which are the two counties in which the monument is located, would have to concur in a (World Heritage List) nomination," Parker said. "Before, the Secretary of Interior who's in charge of nominations for the United States, could propose a nomination to the UN for inclusion of White Sands National Monument on the World Heritage List. Currently, that's basically the practice. Because it's so competitive and many communities would like to see a (World Heritage) designation because of the tourism it brings, there basically needs to be unanimous support within the community but that is not at all a requirement by law at this time. That would be new in this bill."

Mayor Pro-Tem Jason Baldwin also gave his opinion on the matter.

"I was Chamber (of Commerce) Director for Cloudcroft from 2002 to 2010 and I think White Sands took one of the biggest hits visitor-wise in a considerable amount of time," Baldwin said. "At the time, they were only getting about 310,000 to 320,000 people going out there a year. Right now, they see about half a million people or more a year. The big change was federal funding and promotion of the park. From 2002 to 2010 we were in one of the worst recessions, we were in the start of two separate wars and the money just wasn't there to promote the park internationally and within the states."

Baldwin said while he understood the concern of a political agenda and worry of big government coming in and doing something to the park at a later date, his opinion is to support the effort because of the economic development at stake.

"We go from being one of 140 (national monuments) to this classification where we'd be only 1 of 60 (national parks), which is better odds as far as at getting people to come here, especially internationally," Baldwin said. "That's my experience with promotion, White Sands and it's designation is important to our area. My only major concern was with the airspace and that was addressed at the last presentation. As long as that's the case, I just don't see why we wouldn't support something that goes inline with what our goals, our Comprehensive Plan and our mission statement as the city of Alamogordo."

Following the lengthy discussion, Baldwin made a motion to approve the statement of support, Commissioner Al Hernandez seconded the motion and it was approved 5-2 with Payne and Commissioner Josh Rardin voting against.