Bernalillo County, N.M. – Bernalillo County, along with its partners New Mexico MainStreet and South Valley MainStreet, celebrated the holiday season with the South Valley community at the newly renovated Dolores Huerta Park. The celebration marked the culmination of a nearly five-year-long process to plan, design, and construct enhancements to Dolores Huerta Park, which aimed to fulfill the community’s vision to see it become the host of the La Familia Grower’s Market, which is backed by New Mexico MainStreet and local South Valley farmers.
Guests of tonight’s event enjoyed music, dancing, and the lighting of luminarias in celebration of the holidays. Santa Claus was also on site to take requests from local children, and a food truck on hand to show off the new upgrades.
“These changes are what the people of the South Valley asked for, and I’m happy to see them completed,” says District 2 Commissioner Steven Michael Quezada. “The La Familia Farmer’s Market is a big deal to the people in this neighborhood, and these changes are going to make sure that both guests and vendors can come, stay comfortable, and enjoy this park. All of that makes this an important community resource which provides the neighborhood with greater access to organic, local food.”
The project at Dolores Huerta Park is the product of a broader collaboration between Bernalillo County, New Mexico Main Street and South Valley Main Street and an extensive community engagement process in the South Valley. The improvements, which include ADA access, food truck hook-ups, outdoor performance spaces, and festive lighting and shade structures, aim to support local businesses and enhance the park’s role as a venue for community events starting with the farmers’ market. The new infrastructure will help make the park more functional for a broader set of community uses, particularly during the summer months, with added shade, seating, lighting and landscaping. For the county, the market and the improvements to support it are an important part of a community-based initiative to support local food and its producers, as outlined in the recently adopted “Cultivating Bernalillo County Resolution.”
“The New Mexico Economic Development Department and the New Mexico MainStreet program is proud to have contributed to South Valley’s Dolores Huerta Gateway Park’s renovations with capital outlay funding and professional technical assistance. The South Valley community and local businesses will benefit greatly from this investment as it has created an accessible multiuse space for La Familia Growers Market and other community events,” says New Mexico MainStreet Director Daniel J. Gutierrez.
Photos of the event can be found by clicking here.
# # #
About Bernalillo County
Bernalillo County is 1,160 square miles and is New Mexico’s most populous county with more than 676,000 residents. Bernalillo County government provides a wide range of public services to residents who live in Albuquerque, Los Ranchos and Tijeras with approximately 106,000 residents living in unincorporated areas of the county. Bernalillo County employs approximately 2,500 people and has an annual operating budget, capital investments and other funds of more than $1 billion. Elected officials include five county commissioners, assessor, clerk, probate judge, sheriff and treasurer.
Contact: J. Austin Munn
(505) 414-0485
jmunn@bernco.gov
Download PDF