English Bulldog Puppies for Sale in Rio Rancho, NM

Tamara Lopez | KOB

RIO RANCHO, N.M. – On Monday, Rio Rancho elementary had to dismiss early because of a water line break. Folks living nearby also had to leave their homes because of a gas line rupture.

Usually, it’s old infrastructure that causes these issues, but that’s not the case recently.

“I was really shocked. My daughter called me and I had my alarm set, obviously, you know, to come get them at the right time. But she called me from work and told me that the kids were getting out early. And I was like, ‘Whoa, what’s going on?'” said Maddy Brady.

A water line break in the neighborhood meant no water for the school and some nearby homes. At the same time, crews were also repairing a broken gas line.

“We got a doorbell and knock on our door, and we had a gentleman come and tell us that we needed to evacuate. They hit a gas line, and I noticed that our water was a little low before that,” said Many Reilly who had to evacuate.

Reilly says they weren’t allowed back in their home while crews worked on the breaks.

Rio Rancho city officials say these recent breaks and others are caused by contractors installing fiber optic cable.

A spokesperson with New Mexico Gas Company says, so far this year, the company has responded to 52 reports of gas leaks or blowing lines, compared to just 13 in the same time last year.

“Of the 52, 34 of them are attributable to the work that’s being performed by the fiber optic companies. Now, in about 10 of those cases, we determined that New Mexico Gas Company personnel had made a mistake with the markings. So we take ownership of that when it happens,” said Tim Korte, a New Mexico Gas Company communications manager.

Brady says a crew hit another utility line in her area recently.

“Xfinity was working in my neighborhood, which is over there, off of Southern and Unser, and they ended up breaking an electric line. So then the electricity was out. So we had a whole day of no electricity,” said Brady.

A spokesperson for the Rio Rancho mayor says they’re aware of the line breaks, and has already shared concerns to Comcast. They also said the city expects Comcast to improve its processes and limit negative impacts on the community.

The city is exploring all of its options if the issues continue.

“It is concerning that there’s so many of these types of incidents, because any of these events could have potentially become a public safety hazard,” said Korte.

For neighbors, they’re waiting for it to be over.

The City of Rio Rancho also sent KOB 4 a statement on the utility line breaks:

“The City is aware of water and gas line breaks caused by contractors working for Xfinity/Comcast as they expand into Rio Rancho. City officials have previously expressed concerns to Xfinity/Comcast representatives and their contractors about these issues. The City expects Xfinity/Comcast to improve its processes and limit negative impacts on the community and public infrastructure. The City is exploring all of its options if these issues continue to occur, including, but not limited to, monetary penalties and issuing stop work orders.”

Reilly says a city worker came by their house Monday evening with a case of water and told them the water could be out for up to a day.

Meanwhile, New Mexico Gas reps say anyone planning construction is supposed to call 811 three days before digging, so utility lines can be marked ahead of time.

They claim lines have been marked for Comcast contractors.

Julianne Phares, the director of external affairs for Comcast, issued this statement to KOB 4:

“Comcast is aware of the water main and gas related incident in Rio Rancho and we are working with the local entities to resolve this as safely and swiftly as possible. We apologize for the inconvenience.”

RIO RANCHO, N.M. – Construction workers were busy Monday morning in Rio Rancho after a water main broke overnight on High Resort Boulevard near Highway 528.

“I was completely unaware. I woke up to this, and now we have this situation,” said Jan Ciesko, who lives by the water main break.

Ciesko and his neighbors woke to low water pressure at home Monday morning.

“I was not sure if this is a problem on my end if I should call the plumber or if it’s a problem with the infrastructure,” said Ciesko. “I’m happy it’s not a problem on my side, but something else is going on we have to fix.”

Traffic was closed on the side with the main break and crews were working on replacing the burst pipe.

KOB 4 asked neighbors in the area if they saw or heard the water main break.

“It was late in the evening and I just heard a big ‘Boom’ which freaked me out because it didn’t sound like a backfire or any shots, but it was a real loud boom,” said a nearby neighbor.

The city crew says the water main line was an older pipe and that’s most likely what caused the break.

“I don’t know any way you can see what’s occurring underground, so I know it’s going to happen, especially with the sandy soil,” said Bob Causer, who lives by the water break.

Residents would be without full water for most of the day.

“If worse comes to worst, go buy gallons of water, that’s it. Be like the old days, go wash up little things of water,” said a neighbor.

The Rio Rancho Sports Complex didn’t have water either, but people there didn’t seem to mind. Neighbors were glad they at least had some water.

“I hope it will be fixed soon,” said Ciesko.

High Resort has been blocked if you’re turning onto it from Highway 528 all day. The city crew expects water to be restored hopefully by the end of the day.

RIO RANCHO, N.M. — Rio Rancho Public Schools is looking into the possibility of expanding its preschool services but leaders first want to hear from parents.

District leaders want to better understand what they need to do to expand Pre-K before they get a new grant to pay for it.

The main question is, do parents want a full day of pre-K, or a half a day? The district include it in the survey they sent to parents Monday evening.

“We sent the survey to parents to see how many parents would like to have full day pre-K versus half day pre-K? Would they need transportation? And so we wanted to get community information to figure out how many families will be interested in that expansion opportunity,” Chenault said.

This all started back in February. The New Mexico Early Childhood Development and Care Department announced they were going to continue their investment in early childhood care and education.

Questions, like half-day vs. full-day, may seem like a small decision but it’s a big one. It will affect the number of pre-K students the district will be able to serve.

“And that will help us decide on location and also how many additional classrooms we’re going to need, how many additional teachers we’re going to need. And that will help us make a decision, as a committee, our first step in that expansion process for the next grant,” Chenault said.

They also want to know what areas these students are coming from. RRPS currently serves 460 half-day students. Parents have the option to sign their kids up for an AM and PM session.

That could change.

“We may need to move to a full day. That would reduce the number of students we could serve, if that happens to be the case. So we really need to think about how we’re going to continue to serve the 460 we have and additional students,” Chenault said.

The grant will provide $25,000 for each classroom the renovate. It will also provide $10,000 for things like furniture and other needs for each new classroom the district adds.

Parents have until Friday at 5 p.m. to take the survey. Click here to access it.

RIO RANCHO, N.M. – Intel announced its plan to cut costs by $10 billion next year, which reportedly includes letting go of 15,000 people.

Sources close to Intel tell KOB 4 they don’t expect that to impact the company’s planned investments in the U.S. They also said Intel is committed to its existing U.S. projects, which they say are on-track. KOB 4 hasn’t seen a WARN notice filed by Intel with the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions, which would indicate any mass layoffs in our state.

According to a note sent out to employees Thursday, the majority of the layoffs will happen by the end of this year.

Intel’s latest financial report shows it’s down 1% in its year-to-year earnings. CEO Pat Gelsinger said revenues haven’t grown as expected, making costs high and margins low. He also said that they have yet to benefit from trends like artifical intelligence.

“We must align our cost structure with our new operating model and fundamentally change the way we operate,” Gelsinger said.

The news certainly caught the attention of people in Sandoval County, the home of an Intel facility employing around 3,000 people.

While those employees directly tied to Intel, UNM Associate Professor of Finance Reilly White says there are thousands of other New Mexicans who are indirectly tied to the company.

“Intel is a huge part of the New Mexico economic landscape. It employs directly more than 2,600 workers. Indirectly, another 6,000 New Mexicans have their jobs tied to this,” White said. “Collectively, that’s 1% of our total labor force is either directly or indirectly tied to Intel. In addition, they built that $3.5 billion manufacturing plant earlier this year.”

Layoffs or not, Thursday’s news is already impacting New Mexicans, as Intel’s stock took a nosedive.

“Stocks down over 26%. So, it’s a really big deal. That’s retirement savings for people,” White said. “That’s a lot of money that goes in there too. So there’s other effects of news like this, that even go beyond the question of jobs.”

Sandoval County Manager Wayne Johnson believes the facility will be spared because of its uniqueness. It assembles Intel’s chips and packages them, creating the end product rather than creating individual parts.

Johnson also believes it’s a positive sign that Intel has invested so much in New Mexico. From 2021 to now, about 1,200 jobs were added at the facility.

“The other part of the equation is that this is a unique facility for Intel. Now, not only is it unique for them, but it’s the largest advanced packaging plant in the world. And so it does things that the foundry divisions at Intel, don’t do. And it also works with a larger client base. In other words, it’s not just Intel that they work with. So there are some opportunities with this plant, that don’t necessarily exist with their other business units,” Johnson said.

KOB 4 also spoke to Rio Rancho Mayor Gregg Hull. He said they won’t know how this will impact the city just yet, but because of the demand here, he’s not sure how it’ll impact the state, if at all.

RIO RANCHO, N.M. – The City of Vision has their sights on improving a major traffic headache in Rio Rancho.

The city wants to double the amount of lanes from Cherry Road to Paseo del Volcan. Planning is still in the early phases, but they are looking at securing federal dollars.

Mayor Gregg Hull says part of securing federal dollars is having public meetings to get community feedback. They’ve already hosted one meeting and residents KOB 4 spoke to says this road work is much needed.

“It’s very congested and the more houses they build out this way, the more businesses. They need to do something,” said Carol Jones, a Rio Rancho resident.

It doesn’t take much for the two lane road to get backed up, and nearby residents notice it too.

“I think Rio Rancho needs to do something to improve the roads around here. There is a lot of congestion, especially down if you go past Southern on Unser it is ridiculous. I’m 10 minutes from the hospital, and it takes me 20 minutes to get there,” said Jones.

“I think there is enough traffic on Unser these days, I have been here 10 years, and it needs to be expanded. There is a back-up every now and again, it does happen,” said Bill Nyger, another Rio Rancho resident.

The city is now in the design phase of expanding Unser to four-lanes with the plans of also adding bike paths, pedestrian crosses and sidewalks.

“Over the years we have put bandages on it like the patches that you see right here. This stretch has a pretty large patch in it, but now it is time to really address the road in and of itself,” said Rio Rancho Gregg Hull.

According to the city, the road sees around 15,000 vehicles on an average weekday, some traffic relief is much needed.

“As we’ve been standing here, a lot of cars going by here on a daily basis, so this is the next priority to get this expanded and get a continuous flow for this area,” said Hull.

Residents we spoke to say they’re glad the city is getting the ball rolling on improvements as the population continues to grow.

“It is insane how much subdivisions are popping up. Just up the hill within the span of a couple of months the whole area just exploded, and the houses are ready to live in, it’s crazy. With the expansion, I think it’s necessary,” said Jacob Nieto, a Rio Rancho resident.

Their target date to begin construction is the spring of 2025. There is also still time to give the city feedback on the area, they plan to have another public meeting in the near future.