The bond election for a variety of road rehabilitation,major road construction, and new construction projects throughout the city will be held on March 10,2009.

2009 Bond election- $25 million
Unser Blvd. widening project phase A ---$6.1 million
Paseo del Volcan project ---$10 million
Northern Blvd. widening project phase A ---$1.6 million
30th Street paving (design) ---$300,00
Western Hills Drive ---$2.58 million
Nicklaus Drive from Broadmore Drive to Southern Blvd. ---$2.1 million
Paving Preservation ( preventative maintenance) ---$2.32 million

Polling locations will be open on March 10th from 7:00a.m. to 7:00p.m. Absentee and early voting will be from Feb 11, thru March 6 2009. Contact the City Clerks office, 3200 Civic Center Circle, NE for more information.

The local housing market ended 2008 much like the rest of the economy--down, with no sign of recovery in the short-term. Almost every indicator, from sales prices to the number of closed sales and new listings continued to be headed in the wrong direction except in one area: Sales of townhomes and condos have generally been stable or on the rise, depending on the month. The median price in December on townhomes/condos was $164,000, an increase of 13% over the same month in 2007, according to the statistics from the Greater Albuquerque Association of Realtors. However, existing detached homes saw the median price fall 10% last month, to $179,000, compared with $200,000 in December of 2007. The median price has not seen the $170's since Feb. of 2006.

The average time a home sat on the market in December was 76 days, down from 80 the month before, but up from 60 a year ago.

Each year the Rio Rancho Dept. of Parks and Rec. and Community Services publishes three brochures (Spring, Summer, and Fall) which give complete listings of community special events and activities for children, teens, and adults. Brochures provide registration deadlines, activity dates, and prices.
While supplies last, brochures will be available at the following locations:

City Hall Parks and Rec. office

Sabana Grande Recration Center

Star Heights Recreation Center

Meadowlark Senior Center

Loma Colorado Main Library

The Rio Rancho Police Department Has teamed up with CrimeReports.com to provide maps that show where incidents in the city have occured. Using this system is free and includes the option of signing up for automated alerts when crime occurs near your home,office,school, or other areas of the city. In addition, users can view an interactive map of the city that includes specific information (date,general location, and a brief description). Crime information is automatically downloaded to the system nightly from Police department computer-aided dispatch systems.

New Mexico is getting into a new industry as the ReelzChannel television network moves its company headquarters to Albuquerque. The national cable and satelite TV network specializes in TV shows about movies. The network owned by the Hubbard Media Group is planning to set up in Albuquerque by May 1. The company is expecting to need 100 new employees, from production staff to accountants and writers and will be holding a job fair from 10 a.m.-- 8p.m. at the Embassy Suites Hotel. Visit www.reelzchannel.com/careers for more information.

The company's headquarters now are in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Mn., with production offices in Los Angeles. Though some employees will stay in L.A., the company is expecting to need about 100 new employees here to run the day-to-day operations of the network.

The 24-hour channel shows movies and TV shows about movies, such as "Secret's Out with Leonard Maltin", a show that champions films that may have flown under the radar, "Movie Mob", a show of user-generated content blogs, and "The Critic", an animated show starring Jon Lovitz as a down-and-out movie critic.