Business View Civil and Municipal | September 2022

102 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 3, ISSUE 9 planes and add a hangar or two. There are currently a few facade projects on the go in the Deming downtown core, as well, to help spur new business. They’ve received a portion of the funds for phase one of the Gold Street beautification project, which Jackson says, “will definitely change the downtown look.” He also hopes to work on securing streetlights. Deming recently purchased the former K-Mart building and plans to move city hall’s operations to a portion of that site and rent the rest to businesses. The police station will be moved into the current city hall. The municipality is also working to bring solar power to the region with many sites identified, but they are having issues developing clear pathways to lines from preferable solar sites. Jackson says, “I’m pretty optimistic about a project that has done their homework, and we hope to see great benefit from the project.” The City of Deming’s next major project is to help encourage small business in its west end through a business incubator. The incubator is being created with a vision to help new businesses grow and then move on to bigger locations in the community once they have established themselves. Arias-Ward shares, “The future looks bright. I think that we’re most excited about capitalising and maximising our impact and engagement and efforts with the profitability of doing business in Deming, and pairing that with the people we have here. We do have the people, particularly within the region. It’s just engaging them appropriately and telling our story well, so we’re really focusing on that.” PREFERRED VENDORS/PARTNERS n Sun Country Realtors www.suncountryrealtors.com n Deming Luna County MainStreet Program www.demingmainstreet.org