Business View Magazine | Volume 8, Issue 7

127 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 8, ISSUE 7 ROSWELL A I R CENTER One of the largest cheese plants in the world, it operates 24/7 and makes only mozzarella cheese, exclusively for the pizza industry. Oil and gas is another major industry in the area. Roswell, as a larger community, has tended to be the base of operations for companies in that sector. Those are the two bedrock industries. Healthcare and education are also good employers; Roswell is home to two hospitals and the New Mexico Military Institute, which is a residential four-year high school and a two-year college. But what really has changed in the last 15 years is the growth of the aviation industry in Roswell. Kintigh recounts, “The beauty is that Walker Air Force Base was handed over to the city in 1968. At that time, the economic impact of closing the base was near catastrophic. Fast forward to today, we’re in a phase where we’re recognized globally and we’re promoting Roswell as a significant place to do all things aviation. We had Boeing here recently doing testing with a 777-900, and a Cessna Sky Carrier was here doing flight tests.” We just had an open house for AEVEX, an aerospace company that acquired an existing company here and they’re expanding that operation for unmanned aerial vehicles. That’s a new part of the spectrum of aviation for us but one that we’re fully prepared to embrace.” The Air Center is aggressively seeking ways to enhance the infrastructure to make sure the facilities are topnotch. Three years ago, they completed a $7.5 million project to rebuild the roof on the hangar that does aircraft painting. They are now looking at a public-private partnership to build a new hangar (300 x 300) large enough to handle a 777 aircraft. Also under consideration is using funding from the federal government to enhance a 77-year-old hangar to make it more usable by modern airlines. Replacement of the water tower has been done, basically tripling the water storage for the south side of Roswell. And the electric company has completely updated the power grid in the last