Lotrich reacquainting himself with Socorro

“So as Gene Hackman said in the movie Hoosiers…the team and I have been getting to know each other the last month and a half. And thus far, it’s been really good,” said Socorro County’s new Manager and former Socorroan Andrew Lotrich.

During his manager’s report last week, Lotrich told Socorro County Commissioners he’s been getting out and about and being able to do some different things as well as making face-to-face connections not just in Socorro but throughout the county. Most recently he was at a meeting at the Chapter House in Alamo. He’s made it to the Village of Magdalena and City of Socorro meetings as well as school board meetings in those respected communities.

While he’ll admit his travels have taken him throughout the county…even to some places he’s never traveled to before, Lotrich told commissioners its all about making relationships.

Some other things Lotrich has accomplished are department head evaluations. “I just want to let them know how I operate and what I’m expecting from them and their employees. I was able to do that right away so we can begin that training program. Getting everybody used to having evaluations is necessary so we have a sound structure in place as far as we’re going to be able to move forward.”

Moving forward is always difficult for rural counties, but Lotrich has plans.

Lotrich pointed to a recent article in the Albuquerque Journal about the number of New Mexicans still residing in the counties they were born and raised. Socorro County ranks third in the state still living in the county where they raised as compared to Valencia and Torrence counties which ranked near the bottom of the rankings.

His recommendation to the county board was “we have to grow our own employees if we’re not able to go out and bring in individuals from outside the county. The data shows people are not moving into Socorro at this time.”

“We have put our resources into our youth, or the county isn’t going to have anything to show in the future. That’s why I’m reaching out to get support form the schools to start doing more training programs,” Lotrich said.

Employing youth in the summer programs help, but more recently individuals from the local RISE program will have the opportunity to learn welding and mechanics.

“So the question,” Lotrich said, “is how do we overcome our obstacles and start moving forward? We’re going to have to build our pipeline for recruiting here…even though some of these individuals may have made bad choices as kids.”

For Lotrich … it’s about building the recruitment pipeline here in Socorro County.

Other items Lotrich has been working on have been include: Revaluating the 4 day, 10-hour, workdays; and restructuring a Road Department on-call/call back policy.