Realizing DREAMS
Farmington aims to transform economy to focus on outdoor recreation
That future new gadget that backpackers can’t do without or the latest thing in lightweight outdoor lighting or even the must-have bicycle accessory just might get its start in New Mexico.
With the expected closure of the San Juan Generating Station by 2022, officials in the Four Corners area have been scrambling for ways to keep the local economy afloat, because hundreds of jobs will disappear.
Farmington has created the Outdoor Recreation Industry Initiative, aimed at promoting the many opportunities that abound in and around the area, as well as encouraging businesses that cater to outdoor adventurers.
San Juan College recently established MakerSpace, a workshop designed to aid prospective outdoor inventors and entrepreneurs in the area and draw others to the area.
The 3,000-square-foot space includes such high-tech equipment as 3-D printers, computer-aided plasma cutters and computer numerical control processes that feature such equipment as embroidery machines, wood routers, turret punchers, wirebending machines, foam cutters and cylindrical grinders, said Dr. Lorenzo Reyes, dean of the college’s workforce development and director of the Heads Up Enterprise Center.
“It has all kinds of equipment that someone can (use to) take a product from concept to implementation,” Reyes said. “Maybe someone has an idea for a product for outdoor recreation — a new skateboard or a new gadget other recreationists would enjoy having — but they don’t have the money to buy equipment.”
And that’s what makes the center so useful, he said.
“You can come to our center and you can use the equipment we have to build the prototype,” Reyes said. “And you can test it and see if it works, or make adjustments, keep experimenting until you’re ready to move to the next level, which is support. And then we can help you move it to market.”
The space is a perfect setup for someone with little startup capital, because the initial investment is minimal, Reyes said.
“It’s unbelievable,” he said. “If I have an idea and I want to build a new product and I don’t know if it’s going to work, I don’t have to invest a lot.”
The college’s addition of the space “is proof positive that the community’s leaders are bought into the vision of (the) outdoor recreation industry being a key part of Farmington’s future,” Farmington Mayor Nate Duckett said. “We are excited to join the college in their efforts to grow outdoor businesses and help our innovative entrepreneurs realize their dreams.”
The effort by San Juan College is part of an overall regional approach to evolution of the local economy into one that not only is outdoorfriendly, but also outdoor-centric.
“The city of Farmington has dedicated funds toward community transformation and economic development,” Duckett said. “With these funds, the Outdoor Recreation Industry Initiative was established. San Juan College is one of several ORII partners dedicated to helping entrepreneurs and businesses succeed.”
Once a product is created and developed through the space, the goal is that the entrepreneurs take advantage of additional resources at the college to take the product to market.
“We’d like them to work with local producers (to) take the product from farm to market, so to speak,” Reyes said. “We can work with them to develop the product,, write business plans, find investors, take the product to market and help them sell it.”
The endgame, he said, is to develop a sustainable economy.
“With Farmington’s focus on outdoor recreation, we’re going to leverage their ideas and assistance in order to move and advance this forward,” Reyes said. “The end result is a successful diversity of the economy, investing in small businesses and new ideas, new products and new services.”