What is in a Name?


I live in an unincorporated area of Colfax County. Black Lake is a recognized area of that county and the farthest from the county seat of Raton. In fact I am closer to Taos and Mora. I routinely get summoned for jury duty in Mora and have to deline. I do my grocery shopping in Taos. I have been assigned the Angel Fire Zip Code. And get my mail on my rural route through Ocate which is in Mora.

My legal address is Black Lake, NM 87710 and because of that Angel Fire Zip code designation everyone from my short term rental agency to UPS and Google tags me with Angel Fire. That actually works in my favor when it comes to short term rental occupancy because nobody books vacations in Raton. Since the coal mines closed they have been slowly dying. The current population of Raton is now 5734, down from 9000 and still declining. Its current source of income is county offices. We drive two hours to respond to jury duty of apply for licenses. Which is what they want me to do.

The whole county of Colfax only has a population of 12,369. For the four decades I have lived in northern New Mexico there has always been a campaign too divide the county between the flats or high plains of the eastern half and the mountains of the western half. We are constantly counting voting populations. Both halves have their disadvantages. Most of the voters in the east half are ranchers. Most of the homeowners in the eastern half are residents of another state entirely and refuse to register to vote.

But there is no avoiding the conclusion we are unhappy with this state of affairs. Voters or not, their property taxes in a rising market provide all the money for those living in an area of declining property values. Raton wants us to be the replacement for the income from their dead coal mines. We would like their half of the county to go away so we can use our monies for our part of the county. And not have to drive four hours round trip for every little thing.

I have no doubt my vacation rental gets occupants because of the mountains and the ski area and the name Angel Fire attached to it. And the advertising the town and resort do. So why am I paying even more taxes to Raton. And maybe it is time for Black Lake to loosely incorporate? We live here and register to vote. We could swing the balance on a vote to divide the county.

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