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September 2016

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Breast Cancer Awareness MonthScheduled Events for Octobermammograms made easy!Assured Imaging Women’s Wellness is bringing you the latest in digital mammography, making this life-saving test easy and convenlent

Thursday, Oct. 6th, 9 - 4 p.m. @ City Hall 200 Lincoln Ave. Santa Fe, NM 87504

Friday Oct. 7th, 9 - 4 p.m. @ Genoveva Chavez3221 Rodeo Road, Santa Fe, NM 87507Call today to schedule an appointment 888-233-6121

Making Strides of Santa Fe @ Villa Linda Park Oct. 8th

Making Strides of Albuquerque @ Cottonwood Mall Oct. 22nd

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Santa Teresa Port of Entry

The increase in trade be-tween the United States and Mexico has created a posi-tive effect on the economic growth for both nations as

well as for the state of New Mexico. With this growth in trade the need for border crossing infrastructure to keep up with the growth has become a pri-ority for many public agencies. How-ever, as many federal and state agencies continue to face the burden of resource constraints the ability to meet the de-mand has become a mounting chal-lenge.

In an effort to meet these challenges, Congress has authorized the U.S. Cus-toms and Border Protection (CBP), in collaboration with the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), to conduct a five-year pilot program per-mitting CBP to enter into partnerships with the private sector and government entities at ports of entry for certain ser-vices and to accept certain donations under Section 559 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, also known as the Donation Acceptance Program (DAP).

According to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Donations Ac-

ceptance Program authorizes CBP and GSA to accept donations of real property, personal property (includ-ing monetary donations), and non-personal services from private sector and government entities for port of entry construction, alterations, opera-tions and maintenance purposes. Also, these activities may include, but are not limited to land acquisition, design, and the deployment of equipment and technologies.

The DAP has allowed border stake-holders the ability to provide monetary donations that provide CBP the oppor-

Cross Border Talk: Border Trade Growth Driving Federal Donation ProgramStory by Homer Bernal

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It’s easy to take freight for granted—stores are generally well-stocked and next-day delivery options are common. But this level of dependability requires a lot of planning and a reli-able transportation network. Freight logistics is a complicated topic with many different players in the supply chain, includ-ing State Departments of Transportation in that they maintain a significant portion of the multimodal freight network. Let’s look at what is in place today and what is happening currently to ensure the network continues to work well into the future.

First, what is freight? Generally speaking, it is the movement of goods, anything from bike messengers delivering packages in big cities to pipelines moving oil and gas across the country. The big five modes are roads, rails, water, pipelines and air, with the majority of goods moving in trucks on the road, both in terms of total weight and value. In 2013, trucks carried al-most 70% of all goods, approximately 13.96 billion tons, with a value of approximately $13 trillion USD. And the weight of goods moved by truck is expected to increase by almost 35% nationwide by 2040, while the value is expected to increase by almost 88%.

Trucks also provide the first- and last-mile connection for most goods movements, so even if something isn’t traveling on a truck for the entire trip, it’ll most likely be on a truck to get from the factory or other point of origin to be loaded on a train, boat, or airplane, and then get off-loaded back onto a truck to reach its final destination. This isn’t to discount other modes, which all serve different and valuable roles in goods movement, but look more at planning practices related to trucks in this article.

In most of the country, the majority of the truck traffic is on the interstate system. New Mexico is no different. Here, trucks primarily travel east-west on I-40 and I-10, much of those loads traveling through the state on their way to other locations. But, as previously noted, all goods end up at their destination because of freight movement, and the current transportation funding and authorization bill—the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act—places an in-creased focus on freight.

The FAST Act was signed into law on December 4, 2015 and goes beyond the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21), the prior bill. The FAST Act adds re-quirements for freight where before there were suggestions, and creates specific funding and grants for freight. The focus is on the most active corridors, which have been preliminar-ily identified as the three interstates in New Mexico as well as New Mexico 136, which connects the Santa Teresa Port of Entry to Interstate 10.

With the FAST Act’s new requirements and emphasis on performance measures come new opportunities. Adopted by Secretary Tom Church in September 2015, the New Mexico Freight Plan set the stage for discussions to come. A freight working group will soon come together to identify key cor-ridors, develop freight performance measures, and update the State Freight Plan. These statewide, multimodal efforts will ensure that goods and people continue to move efficiently and safely within and throughout New Mexico.

Roadway Reliability: Planning for FreightStory by Paul Sittig

tunity to meet the demands of trade growth through increased inspection hours and/or inspection lanes for both commercial and privately owned ve-hicles. An increase in inspection per-sonnel and inspection lanes offers the opportunity to reduce border crossing time thus providing the ability for fast-er movement of people and freight to and from Mexico.

A couple of examples of how the DAP is being utilized in New Mexico can be found at both the Columbus and Santa Teresa International Land Ports of En-try (LPOE). Through the DAP the New Mexico Department of Transportation (NMDOT) donated roadway right of way for the segments of road within the port of entry inspection facilities at both the Santa Teresa and Columbus LPOEs. These donated NMDOT road-way segments, NM 136 at Santa Teresa

and NM 11 at Columbus, now provide CBP the ability to further increase se-curity and inspection systems within these sections. The second example is found at the Santa Teresa LPOE where Dell Inc. and CBP have partnered to-gether to provide longer inspection hours for southbound commercial vehicles in order to increase supplies for the manufacture of Dell products in the Foxconn manufacturing facility in San Jeronimo, Mexico. Through the DAP, Dell was able to provide mone-tary donation to allow for maintaining longer inspection hours for the export lane. The DAP provided the opportu-nity for a public agency to meet the de-mands of a private sector client which in this case was through ability to in-spect commercial vehicles beyond the set port hours.

The steady increase in border cross-

ings at the Santa Teresa and Colum-bus ports of entry also illustrate the impact our roadways are experienc-ing from the increase in border trade. As an agency we are constantly faced with growing demands for improved and new infrastructure that allows for faster movement of people and freight. The idea of a Public Private Partnership is not new, however, the Federal Dona-tion Program is an example of the pro-gressive steps government agencies are implementing to meet the demand of the growing international trade, which the state of New Mexico and NMDOT continue to face as well.

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Each year the Highway Employees Association (H.E.A.) holds a fundraiser with the annual Chili Pepper Golf Tournament to raise funds for scholarships. Each and every year as the golf tournament grows so does the number of scholarships awarded. This year we had 12 applicants and were able to award 8 of them with a $200 scholarship. Depending on grades they could receive another $200 for the spring semester. Congratulations to all of our winners

H.E.A. Scholarship WinnersStory by Ami Evans

A survey was conducted in June 2016 regarding NMDOT Park and Ride intercity bus service. With 115 bus departures daily on eight fixed routes and three shuttle routes, NMDOT Park and Ride is the State’s fifth largest bus transit system. NMDOT Park and Ride provides service to the communities of Santa Fe, Las Vegas, Española, Los Alamos, Albuquerque, Moriarty, Las Cruces,

White Sands Missile Range, and El Paso. For more specific schedule in-formation, please go to www.nmpar-kandride.com.

The survey received 132 total re-sponses, which is about 25% of the average daily customers on NMDOT Park and Ride. Of those, 98% rated the overall quality and experience of the service as good or excellent (60% excellent, 38% good).

Other highlights of the survey in-clude:

• 58% take the bus every day, 23% sev-eral times per week, 7% every day except Friday

• 8% said they wouldn’t travel other-wise

• 99% rate the driver’s safe operation of the bus as good or excellent (30% good)

98% Satisfaction Rate for NMDOT Park and Ride ServiceStory by Marsha Eppler

Erika Lopez Jacob Alvarado Jazlyn Garcia Kody Polanco Marina Rivera Raymond Gomez Uzueta

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• 99% rate the driver’s courtesy as good or excellent (22% good)

• 97% rate the cleanliness of the buses as good or excellent (43% good)

• 97% rate the on-time performance of the buses as good or excellent (40% good)

• 98% rate the affordability of the ser-vice as good or excellent (43% good)

• 52% of riders would pay an increase to maintain current service levels

While the vast majority of riders are very pleased with the NMDOT Park and Ride service, some areas of improvements were identified. Those areas included concerns with improvements at some transit stop facilities, and increased transit ser-vice and connectivity with other transit agencies.

Other areas for improvement in-clude increased marketing of the P&Real-Time bus locator applica-tion, Google Transit Trip Planning, and the Customer Service phone

numbers. The online survey was open to

NMDOT Park and Ride riders for two weeks. The riders were informed of the survey by: two e-mail blasts to Rider Alert subscribers; paper Rider Alerts about the survey posted on buses; and by a Rider Alert/ URL link to the survey posted on the NMDOT Park and Ride website.

NMDOT Park and Ride service facts (2015):

• 4,329 bus route miles daily and serves 23 Park and Ride lot bus stops and 36 regular bus stops in the sys-tem.

• Park and Ride Shuttles provide con-nections with the Rail Runner Ex-press at the South Capitol Station and the NM 599 Station.

• Affordable passenger fares average $0.07 per mile; or $0.05 per mile with an NMDOT Park and Ride monthly pass.

• All buses are accessible for individu-

als with disabilities. • All 57-passenger buses have storage

for bicycles and luggage. • Reduced traffic congestion by re-

moving 9.2 million vehicle miles of travel from our busiest highways during the busiest commute hours

• Reduced carbon dioxide emissions (a Greenhouse Gas) by 4,464 tons

• Reduced gasoline consumption by 460,262 gallons (assumes 20 mpg average)

• Served an Average Daily Ridership of 1,162.9 passengers

• Saves the average Park and Ride monthly pass holder $635 per month as opposed to driving a per-sonal vehicle

For more information on NMDOT Park and Ride Service please contact Brett Clavio at 505-827-6814.

The last thing that Kevin Baca, Courtesy Pa-trol driver for District Three, would ask for is publicity. That is exactly why he deserves this rec-ognition. Baca has been se-

lected as a Highway Hero for display-ing selfless actions while patrolling Interstate I-25 on September 1, 2016. When Baca was called to an incident on the south corridor of I-25 in the busy area of Avenida Cesar Chavez he thought he was going to be offer-ing gas to a stranded motorist. When Baca arrived, he asked the driver of the vehicle to open his trunk so he could access the gas tank which was jammed. The motorist instead handed him his driver’s license. Baca assured him that he did not need his license but that he could give it to the Albuquerque

Police Officer who was also on scene. When the man, obviously nervous, turned toward the officer he began to hand him his license then fled on foot jumping over the concrete barrier wall into the live lanes of traffic and was im-mediately struck by a female motor-ist driving in the adjacent lane. Baca remembers vividly the man’s body somersaulting in the air, with his feet going over multiple times. Despite be-ing struck, he managed to pick himself up and again began running towards the 3 other lanes of live interstate traf-fic. The APD officer tackled the man and prevented him from being possi-bly struck again but the man persisted attempting to drag the police officer towards the oncoming traffic. At that point Baca grabbed both of them and pushed them to the ground and as they lay there, Baca held down the motorist from trying to escape yet again while the officer restrained the perpetra-tor. Afterwards, the police officer told Kevin that his actions prevented both

the officer and the motorist from be-ing struck by oncoming traffic, saving their lives.

As Baca says, “Just when you think you’ve seen it all, we are faced with new situations that you couldn’t imag-ine that you’d find yourself in.” Baca has been a patrol driver for more than 8 years and perhaps it’s his easy going nature that has allowed him to success-fully handle the high-stress situations like this on a regular basis.

On behalf of the entire District Three staff, we are proud to call Baca and all the Courtesy Patrol Drivers our col-leagues. Congratulations to Baca for his heroic efforts and for being selected as a Highway Hero!

D3 Highway Hero Kevin BacaStory by Bernadette Bell

Kevin Baca

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August 12th was a day myself or the Hatch Patrol will not likely forget soon. It was a Friday afternoon, I had just gotten home to my family when I was called by the Hatch Patrol to shut the road down. An officer was shot outside the Patrol and they needed to land life flight and set up for a police investiga-tion.

Not many of you know that I am married to a New Mexico State Police officer, so it hit just a little closer to home. I re-member looking at my husband explaining why I was called and seeing his face go white. He didn’t know Officer Chavez but it was another “Brother in Blue”. Not until later that night did we discover he had succumbed to his injuries. This would be another black stash across his badge.

Later that week, the NMDOT was asked by the New Mexico State Police in Las Cruces to assist with the funeral proces-sion from Hatch to Las Cruces. Without a second thought, the NMDOT was happy to assist. As we received the number of vehicles that would be attending in Hatch and making the hour drive to Las Cruces, we again gave our support and of-fered our patrol parking area to those officers in attendance.

The patrols also pitched in with message boards on I-25 from Socorro to Las Cruces, setting up a lane drop on the in-terstate at the Hatch exit to ease the traffic merger, and giving

continued support to the traveling public. As we all said good bye to Officer Chavez, it is great to

see the support that was given by all agencies especially my NMDOT family! Many thanks to the Hatch Patrol, Las Cruces Patrol, Williamsburg Patrol and Socorro Patrol.

Honoring the HeroStory By Ami Evans

This has been another successful start of the Chip Sealing year. The crew was located in Anthony for the summer and tasked with completing 217 mile lanes of highway this includes 17 roadways. Due to the number of roadways, driveways and cross streets the assistance of our Heavy Maintenance crew was merged with the Chip Sealing crew to get the task done. This took the crew from sixteen employees to a total of twenty five. Some roadways also required some additional assistance from the Anthony Patrol crew.

Last winter the District was blessed with the Budget Ad-justment Request (BAR) program and allowed the state to purchase 2 additional 3,500 gallon water trucks from Sum-

mit Truck and the tank from Construction Truck Equipment, along with 2 new Distributor Trucks (one a 2,000 gallon and one a 3,500 gallon) from Summit Truck with the tanks from Golden Equipment and Etnyre. The BAR program is recom-mended by Executive Staff and approved by the NMDOT Commission.

“We are very appreciative for the new equipment; it will im-prove production and cut the costs of down time due to equip-ment repairs”- Chip Seal.

2016 Chip SealStory by Ami Evans

NMDOT assisting State Police in funeral procession.

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NMDOT Attends Job Fair in AlbuquerqueWritu Tandon, HR Training and Labor Specialist and Alejandro Francisco,

Human Resources Manager from District Three and Shanelle Montoya and An-gela Maestas from the GO represented NMDOT at the Sarah Maestas-Barnes Job fair on August 31. They spoke to approximately 100 attendees. Most were unaware of all that the DOT does. They were glad to see us there and answer their questions. As a result, District Three has received calls interested in apply-ing for positions.

Recently the Solano yard concrete storage shed started to look a little dilapidated. The roof suffered from hail damage and the paint was falling and chipping off from age. Luckily in-surance covered the cost to replace the roof and a decision was made to make it better and give it a face lift. The construction team quickly came to the rescue, replacing the main doors as they were barely hanging from the hinges. With a little imagi-nation from Manny Ibarra, one of our Construction techs, a plan was put in place to not only make it better but to make it look better as well.

As time allowed, the entire building was painted and aes-thetically redesigned, now carrying the NMDOT logo, a yuc-ca plant painting, a burned in carving of a roadrunner, and a burned in carving of a rattle snake. Next time you are in the Tres Cruces Complex (Solano Yard) area, take a minute to check out the newly remodeled storage building. Special thanks to everyone that took the extra time to beautify the Complex.

A Shed is A ShedStory by Ami Evans

An engineering study on future roadway alternatives on the South I-25 corridor from the N.M. 47/Broadway interchange to the I-40/I-25 (Big I) interchange was shared with the public at a meeting in late August. The design team made up of Cen-tral Region Design engineers and Parsons Brinckerhoff were on hand to answer questions from the public and share their findings following a detailed study started in 2014.

The objective of the study is to identify transportation needs in the corridor and to develop a priority plan that will enable the NMDOT to program funds for both near and long-term projects. Some of the highlights of the study include improv-ing accessibility to the mainline freeway, ramps and frontage roads. The study takes into account regional growth of the area and also provides alternatives for every mode of transporta-tion including bicyclists and pedestrians.

One of the first projects that will begin as part of the cor-ridor study is the Rio Bravo Interchange on I-25. The project is now in its final stages of design with construction projected

to begin in 2017. The corridor study is a long-term plan, and once it’s complete the district will prioritze projects in phases and as funding allows.

To view the corridor study, visit the NMDOT web site and go to D3 Projects.

I-25 South Corridor Study Considers AlternativesStory by Bernadette Bell

Solano yard reconstruction project.

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Newborns

Natalie Marie Lara, was born on Aug. 2, and weighs 7 lbs. even and is 22” long. Father is David Lara, District Lab technician

Shayne Elizabeth was born on July 21, at 8:18 p.m. and weighed 7 lbs. 13 oz. and was 19.5 inches long. Kim Gallegos, Maintenance Management Analyst and Dominic Gallegos, North Urban Patrol Supervisor welcomed their third child.

Maevyn Lorenza was born at 8:05 a.m. on July 22. Maevyn weighed 7 lbs. 6oz. and mea-sured 20.5” long. Congratula-tions to Margaret Haynes, Assistant Traffic Manager and her husband Aaron.

Ava Rose McMahon at 5:40 a.m. The independence day newborn weighed 7 pounds 6 ounces and measured 24.2 inches long. On July 4, Roger McDonald, Buildings and Grounds, and wife, Catherine became proud grandparents

Recently our Las Cruces Construction Crew finished the re-construction of the Missouri Street Bridge. The contractor FNF Construction started this project in October 2014 taking a little over a year to complete this project was closed out in 2016. The original bridge in place was built in 1968 and was in need of re-pairs, correction of embankments and esthetics.

The bridges were widened just a bit and as you can see included a better embankment and very colorful artwork. This artwork is a tribute to the Organ Mountains, Desert Peaks National Monu-ment and the restoration of habitats for endangered species such as the American Jaguar. The artwork was commissioned by the New Mexico Department of Transportation using themes pro-

posed by the local community with the assistance of NM Arts Division and funding by the Federal Highway Administration. Artist designated with this task was Meg Hachmann.

This bridge is very unique for the area. Most bridges in the Las Cruces area carry more of a SW style artwork. Next time you’re in the Las Cruces area make sure to check out this one of a kind bridge. Hopefully it will inspire you to look into the restoration of habitats and endangered species and the American Jaguar.

Missouri Avenue Bridge RedesignStory By Ami Evans

Pre-Construction 2014 Finished 2016

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Employee Recognition

1. Employee Arnold Carrillo, District One, Survey Crew

Carrillo was nominated for his constant achievement throughout the workday on the Survey Crew. He is a very positive person and constantly improves the morale of the crew in the best and worst of times; overall he is just a great employee.

He is an invaluable member of this team and takes initiative to complete all work in a timely manner keeping our team up to date and on schedule. Furthermore, he takes pride in his note taking; always does an outstanding job at keeping all of our project folders and deliverables organized, scanning and recording field notes, photographing and maintaining records of survey project. As a result we have been on/ahead of schedule for all of our projects this month. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2. Supervisor Terry Lopez, District One

Lopez was nominated for always being willing to go above and beyond to assist her fellow co-workers. She is very knowledgeable in all our departments. She is the type of person who you can go to with anything and always does her best to assist in any issue there may be. If the Department is shorthanded, she always steps in to help resolve the issue. Anything and everything that might be needed she always gets the job done. If you do not know the answer, guaranteed she will research and get the best answer. She provides leadership and support for each of the sections that she oversees—working alongside us is what she does best. She also helps year-end inventory run smoothly and accurately (zero variance). Her positive attitude makes District One a great place to work. Lopez, thank you for being an awesome boss!-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3. Employee Andrew Herrera, District Two, Auto Service Technician Specialist

Herrera has been with the District Two since February 2015. As an Auto Service Technician Specialist he performs repairs to vehicles and identifies problems with them. In addition, he provides a full service center by: fueling, washing, checking fluids, and tires on the vehicles. Herrera often changes tires before the need arises and goes out of his way to make sure the vehicles are in good working order for his team-members at District Two. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------4. Supervisor Cliff Lucas, District Two, District Lab Supervisor

Lucas has been with the District Two since April 1991. As the Lab Supervisor, he supervises 5-6 full time employees and assists civil engineers plan and oversee the construction of highways. Lucas is always willing to assist anyone who comes to the lab with questions regarding a construction process. He prides himself in the professionalism, knowledge, and customer service his team members provide. Lucas sets the standard for dedication, loyalty, and work ethic making him a valuable team member of District Two.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------5. Employee Jeremias Silva, District Three, Construction Inspector

Silva, Construction Inspector for crew 43-19 has done a great job adjusting to his crew, he is willing to share his traffic control knowledge with everyone on the crew, including the contractor. When Silva is in charge of traffic control on assigned projects, he takes the time and pride to work with the contractor to ensure the safety of the traveling public. Silva recently went for his aggregate certification which he scored a 94% on his test. He has proven to be the type of employee who does his best to excel in anything he does. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------6. Employee Abe Flores, District Three, Engineering Coordinator

Flores, Engineering Coordinator is always willing to assist the district staff, contractors and public when he is asked. Because of his willingness to go above and beyond, Flores has been selected as the District Three August Employee of the Month. Flores really showed his commitment to the design team and district by working extra hours in order to meet this short project deadline. The design team was given a concrete pavement repair project that needed to be complete within a month (which seemed impossible). This required the team to learn a new program called “Roadview” in order to analyze & de-termine the type of concrete repairs necessary. Flores took the initiative to fully understand the program & completed the majority of the analysis within a short amount of time!

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7. Employee Lyndone Crane, District Four

Crane’s diagnostic abilities are exceptional. He is always willing to help and he works to find solutions to problems with our vehicles. Recently we had him checkout a piece of equipment that had been idle because no one could diagnose the problem. Crane not only identified the problem he fixed it and it is now operating. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------8. Supervisor Matthew Ulibarri, District Four, Heavy Maintenance and Chip Seal Crews

Ulibarri, oversees the southern patrols that encompass I-40 and Heavy Maintenance and Chip Seal Crews. In unison with his supervisors he is an effective supervisor. The Raton Crew is the August Crew of the month. They are responsible for some of the most treacherous roadways. They routinely face the hazardous duty of clearing slippery, snow and ice covered roads. They make snow removal top priority to ensure the safety of the traveling public. NMDOT can count on the Raton Patrol to provide plowing services 24 hours a day until all roadways are salted and sanded and passable. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------9. Employee Roland Padilla, District Five, Building & Grounds Maintenance & Repair

Padilla provides good customer service to the outside public, coworkers, and contractors on a daily basis. When an emergency issue occurs, whether if it is inside or outside of the building, Padilla does not hesitate to take care of the emergency. He will get in touch with the correct vendor/contractor to place the part order that is required for the job at hand, so that, he can make the necessary repairs.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------10. Supervisor Raymundo Garcia, District Five, Tres Piedras Patrol Supervisor

Garcia has been with District Five for over thirteen years. He provides excellent customer service by communicating with the general public, crew members, co-workers, and his supervisor on a daily basis. He is professional and gets along well with his crew. Garcia takes pride in his job and you can tell he loves what he does.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------11. Employee Teri Gallegos-Hoover, General Office, Survey Bureau and North Region Bureau

Gallegos-Hoover supports NMDOT staff in the Survey Bureau and North Region Bureau. In the re-cent job change of another Administrator, Teri supported extra staff in the Bridge, Traffic, Drainage, and PSE bureaus. In addition to supporting and helping the extra staff, Gallegos-Hoover also took on extra contracts and contractor communications for payment processing. Teri is going beyond her workday expectations by doing contract payments for six Bureaus, HR transactions for an extra five Bureaus, and is supporting extra staff from four Bureaus. She assists her co-workers if they have an overwhelming workload and is confident in her knowledge of state government processes. She is a confident employee and her generosity and kind heartedness are appreciated by her co-workers.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------12. Supervisor Phil Montoya, General Office, Maintenance Management Project

As the Project Manager for the AgileAssets Maintenance Management Project, Montoya took the initiative to learn all of the requirements for IT Project Certification and prepared all of the documents in order to complete all of the required steps for obtaining approval by the DOIT Project Certification Committee. He also presented the project to the Policy and Procedure Committee (PCC) at the various stages; including obtaining approval of the PCC for closure of the project. Montoya completed all of the IT Project documents for PCC meetings ahead of the deadlines, in order to provide time for review prior to submitting to DOIT. The documents required little to no editing. Montoya makes sure that he clari-fies the request and does the necessary research in order to provide the response. He is quick to identify required information and prepare the information, in order to address the request. Montoya has a high standard for presenting quality data and reviews the data for consistency and accuracy.

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1. Crew of the Month, District One, Sign Shop

D-1 sign shop was nominated for taking care of all District and patrol signage needs. The sign shop is responsible for all emergency signage that comes up at a moment’s notice, whether it be unforeseen ramp closures or unforeseen congested area warning signs as well as needed patrol signage for mowing ahead or whatever the request might be. The sign shop has produced all signage requests on time or ahead of schedule. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------2. Crew of the Month, District Two, Maintenance Management, includes; Rita Espinosa and Emily Arias

Espinoza and Arias provide support to the maintenance patrols, Area Maintenance Supervisor’s, Maintenance Engineer, State Maintenance Bu-reau, Asset Management and the public. These ladies are willing to help anyone with maintenance questions or concerns. They are proficient in maintenance management data. They are helpful, curious, and kind to their district team-members weather in the patrol or at the district. Be-cause of the care they take in their work it makes for less stressful work environment. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------3. Crew of the Month, District Three, Una Gutierres and Andrea Henderson

Gutierres, Quality manager, and Henderson, Safety and Risk Manager, were selected as the D3 August Crew of the Month for their collaborated efforts as the Quality New Mexico (QNM) Writing team. They worked together to complete the QNM Road Runner application for the District. This required them to get department information organized and de-signed for the guidelines of submission. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------4. Crew of the Month, District Four, Raton Crew

The Raton Crew is the August Crew of the month. They are respon-sible for some of the most treacherous roadways. The routinely face the hazardous duty of clearing slippery, snow and ice covered roads. They make snow removal top priority to ensure the safety of the traveling pub-lic. NMDOT can count on the Raton Patrol to provide plowing services 24 hours a day until all roadways are salted and sanded and passable. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------5. Crew of the Month, District Five, Service Center

The two service center employees are John Ortiz and Tim Lerma. They go the extra mile every time someone needs assistance. They always make sure they find the best prices with the vendors when it comes to getting parts to fix repairs on all of the vehicles. They both try to make the cus-tomer happy by trying to make sure the vehicle they need is available, well maintained, filled up with gas, and ready to go in a moments notice. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------6. Crew of the Month, General Office, Ricky Mok & Anna Silva

Mok and Silva have spent an enormous amount of extra hours worked in order to get out the MIP project CN-2101771. This MIP project is a $56,000 project that is a priority for the state of NM. Mok and Silva worked evenings and weekends in order to review and approve 114 ap-praisal reports. They began working with the consultant appraiser prior to the design/maps being finalized in order to ensure compliance and direc-tion, as to the scope of work. They will deliver the last 9 appraisal reports to the NMDOT acquisition unit on August 31, 2016. They completed this

Crew Recognition

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D4 South InterchangeThe Raton Project Office is overseeing every step of the work on the South Interchange. They inspect for quality, conformity to project requirements and environmental protection. Delays are one of the biggest problems often experienced on a construction project. Delays can range from changes in the drawings to bad weather. Weather continues to be ever present on the project. On September 14 Raton received 2 ½” of rainfall in 2 hours. The crew continues to keep their focus on completing the project. The project has a lot of activity from curb and gutter and sidewalk to paving operations.

Pedestrian Bridge at I-40/Coors Boulevard

This is how District Three environmental management crew with the assistance of Courtesy Patrol Drivers on traffic control, and North Urban Patrol spent their Saturday morning on Sept. 17 painting over graffiti on the pedestrian bridge on I 40 at Coors Bou-levard.

Ean Garcia, twelve-year old son of Denise Lucero, District Five HR, was one of two Stu-dent Art Contest Winners, ages 5-18, chosen from over 600 entries, as the Zozobra Kid’s Poster and Zozobra Kid’s T-shirt Artists sponsored by Kiwanis Club of Santa Fe.

The winning poster and T-shirt were revealed at the Girls Inc. of Santa Fe Arts and Crafts Festival at the Santa Fe Plaza on Saturday, August 6, 2016. Ean Garcia, winning artist of the Zozobra Kid’s Poster, signed his posters at the ZoZoFest on Saturday, August 27, 2016.

Ean Garcia 2016 Winner of Kid’s Zozobra Poster Contest

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The 2016 Winner of Best Patrol for District One

The Anthony Patrol competed against the Animas and Williamsburg Patrols for this award.Scoring includes Patrol Office, Patrol Yard Operations, Shop Operations and a 5 mile section of roadway. District Six results. (1) Datil Patrol, (2) Mesita Patrol and (3) Fence Lake Patrol

Valley Boyz Softball

This summer our Anthony Patrol along with a few employees from some other patrols decided to form their own softball team, prac-ticing as time allows after work and on weekends and slowly working their way into shape. This month they started participating in the men’s fall softball tournament in the Las Cruces area competing against 30 other teams. What a great way to improve moral and teamwork with our employees. Tournaments are held from September to the end of October at the Hardy field complex off Hadley Street.

Congratulations to Matt Denis, son of District Three’s Mark De-nis, Occ. Health/Safety Specialist. Matt is in his senior year and is a starting quarterback for the El Dorado Eagles. Matt substituted for an injured teammate during playoffs last year and that per-formance has landed him as starter. Proud dad, Mark, has every clipping from the newspaper hanging in his office. Go Matt!

Playoffs...Playoffs?!

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Please send articles to Emilee CantrellNext Que Pasa deadline will be Friday, October 21Emilee Cantrell, Managing EditorMatthew Hunt, Graphic Designer

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“It is a rare and difficult attainment to grow old gracefully and happily.”—Arnold PalmerFarewell Arnold, an American icon 1929-2016