 |
 | |
Autumn 1998 Newsletter page 3 |
  | |
| New Mexico Route 66 Association 1998-1999 Directors, Officers & Advisors Directors Incumbents reelected Susie McComb (3-year term) Dorothy Skousen Black (3-year term) New Directors Tim Dodge (2-year term) Tim is the recent past president of the Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce. He continues with the Chamber as their Grant Writer and Admin-istrator. Tim has served on the New Mexico Route 66 Association Board of Advisors, helping to shape policy and plan for the future of our historic preservation efforts. He owns his own insurance agency. He is the coordinator of a Kellogg Grant for the Guadalupe Health Council. Brandon Lipman (1-year term) Brandon was born and raised in Chicago, just a short distance from the beginning of Route 66. He is an architect with Dekker/Perich and Associates of Albuquerque, involved in institutional, commercial and residential architecture. He has been involved in a variety of historic design and planning projects. He helped develop the East Central (Albuq.) Route 66 Design Plan, including Route 66 graphic design and iconography to be included in street amenities and infrastructure. Brandon, his wife Nancy and two toddlers are Route 66 enthusiasts. Tom Willis (2-year term) Tom is the owner/operator of the 66 Diner in Albuquerque. Tom is a founding member of the Association. He is a past Vice President of the Association returning to the Board of Directors after five years. Tom has been involved in New Mexico's restaurant industry for many years with a number of ventures. His 66 Diner is a showcase of Route 66 and 50s/60s memorabilia. |
Darryl Willison (3-year term) Darryl is a Route 66 enthusiast with his wife Christi. They have been faithfully attending meetings of the Association since moving from Texas to New Mexico several years ago. Darryl is known as "America's Drawing Cowboy" and is a fine art illustrator of cowboys from the Gene Autry/Roy Rogers period. He owns STG Designs, which creates illustrated T-shirts and marketing materials. Officers (1-year terms) Sue Bohannan Mann - President (incumbent) Rich "Blue" Williams - Vice President (incumbent) Susie McComb - Secretary (incumbent) Sherri Brueggemann - Treasurer (incumbent) In addition, the Directors appointed five new members to the Board of Advisors: Keith Arnold and Mary Kay Cline from the Albuquerque Convention and Visitors Bureau, Linda Waterman from the Tourism Association of New Mexico, John Grasham, the Associate Director of the Albuquerque Museum, and Dennis Mochino of the New Mexico Indian Tourism Association. Special thanks to David Bahm, who stepped down from the Directors to move to Denver and marry. He still edits our newsletter. Susan Simons has stepped down from the Directors to be the Association's Grant Coordinator. Both of these folks have done a tremendous job and we are happy they remain active in the Association. |
| Old Jones Motor Company to become Route 66
Community Cultural Center by Sherri Brueggemann On September 1, 1998, the Bernalillo County Commission took a major step forward in saving the historic Jones Motor Company Building, located on Central Avenue at Wellesley SE in the Nob Hill area. The Commission voted to include General Obligation Funds in the 1998 program for the purchase and renovation of the building into a Route 66 Community Cultural Center. The original Jones Building was built in 1939 through the collaborative efforts of Ralph Jones, a Ford dealership owner, Tom Danahy, an architect, and Alan Stamm, the contractor, with financing through a Simms family partnership and the Albuquerque National Bank. The design was an exaggerated version of the streamline modern super auto centers of the period. In 1949, a parts room was built onto the west side in addition to the mechanics garages to the south. The building remained under the Jones' ownership until 1957 when the family-owned business moved to the new automobile row, Lomas Boulevard. During the next forty years, the building housed several other business ranging from J.J. Moped to the Army Navy Surplus Store. For the past four years the building has been vacant. |
Area residents have been working for a little over a year to see the
building saved and turned into a cultural facility. The proposed facility
would resemble in nature the city-owned South Broadway Cultural Center,
except that the programming would be managed by the community through a
non-profit community-based organization, the Nob Hill Highland Renaissance
Corporation. This type of multi-use facility would provide yet another venue
for a multitude of arts and cultural-related programs. Exhibition spaces,
workshop spaces, intimate performance spaces, historic building design center...
these are just a few of the uses for the Route 66 Cultural Center. Thanks to the great leadership of District 3 County Commissioner Tom Rutherford, the project is underway. Now all we need is your help. At the General Election on November 3, all Bernalillo County citizens will have the opportunity to vote for County General Obligation Bonds that fund such projects. The Route 66 Community Cultural Center project is part of the Parks and Recreational Facilities Bond issue. Your favorable vote will ensure saving the Jones Building and provide Bernalillo County citizens with a unique facility within the city limits. For more information on the Jones/Route 66 Cultural Center Project, contact Sherri Brueggemann at (505) 255-3519 or by e-mail at sbrueggemann@cabq.gov. |
