In the News

Ask just about anyone locally which village employee always sports a smile and would wear well over time, and no contest, the answer would be Rafael “Rifle” Salas.
The soft-spoken director of Ruidoso Parks and Recreation juggles the normal duties of the department and anything extra the village council decides to place on his shoulders, such creating a new cemetery on Ski Run Road.
Whatever councilors ask of him, Salas smiles and tells them he’ll find a way to do it.
On his personal hours, he also found time to run for the Ruidoso School Board in February 2005 and plans to seek a second term in the non-paying position.
After 25 years with the department, Salas retires Jan. 1, but retirement in his eyes is just the first step to pursuing two new careers – the ministry and becoming an electrician.
Salas was born in Ruidoso, but grew up in Alamogordo. After a short run with the U.S. Navy, he was introduced by his oldest sister in 1983. to the village’s first parks and recreation director, Pamela Graves.
“My initial career out of high school was as an electrician like my father,” Salas said. But the idea of working outside in a mountain community was too appealing and he was hired as a parks maintenance worker, a position he held for three years before becoming a crew leader for another three years, and then a foreman.
Before the department was created, the municipal pool was run by the water department and the parks by the street department.
In 1993, Salas was named parks maintenance supervisor and in January 1997, was promoted to department director.
Graves laid out a plan for the village and Salas said he continued to try to fulfill those goals and other preferences indicated by residents in a village-wide survey conducted in 1993.
Some of the programs initially offered were adult basketball and volleyball leagues, youth gymnastics, which became autonomous in 1992, and water aerobics.
“Events were the annual Easter egg hunt, Christmas tree lighting and the Spring Fling Wing Thing, a Midtown event with musical acts and other performances,” Salas wrote in a department mission statement. The department’s early responsibilities also included two parks with eight restrooms, Alto Reservoir, Forest Lawn Cemetery, municipal building grounds and some public rights of way. The staff consisted of the director, one full time laborer and 11 seasonal employees.
Added to the list of responsibilities over the years were School House Park with playground, restroom, tennis courts and sledding hill, the 21 acre Eagle Creek Sports Complex, a 6 acre North Park sports area, 21 acre White Mountain Recreation Complex, 3.6 mile Sierra Blanca Walking Trail, landscape and restrooms on Sudderth Drive, Upper Canyon Park at the Grindstone Lake water intake diversion, Grindstone Park and Reservoir, the Billy the Kid Interpretive Center in Ruidoso Downs and the most recent addition, 9 acre Wingfield Park one block off Sudderth on Center Street, envisioned for special events.
An active beautification program, youth summer day camp, sports tournaments and fishing days also are scheduled as money allows.
“Our mission statement is petty simple,” Salas said. “Recreation for a healthy community,”
Over the years, many of the sports leagues formed eventually progressed on their own and became autonomous, but still use village facilities.
“All of our youth sports leagues are autonomous, but we work closely with them. Adult softball became autonomous in 2006,” he said. “This last year was hard on the department with cutbacks, so we didn’t hold adult basketball and volleyball leagues. The high school gym was flooded and youth sports are given priority.
“We hope to reinstate them next year. We need a community center to continue adult programs, but voters rejected a center in 2000.”
One of his most successful projects turned out to be the creation last year of a 9-hole disc golf course at Grindstone, which this year was increased to 18 holes and sees heavy annual use.
Once hired, staff tends to stay with the department even when directors change, Salas said. Helping him fulfill the department’s mission is recreation supervisor Ellen “Buzz” Bizzell-Blaney, park supervisor Rodney Griego, five park maintenance people, one building maintenance person, a senior center supervisor with two employees handling the Retired Senior Volunteer Program and a transportation van. During the summer, as many as 14 seasonal employees work at the municipal swimming pool.
Keeping the aging pool operational is quite a feat on its own and Salas credits Bizzell-Blaney with ensuring a structure built in 1964 continues to meet new standards set by the state.
“I’ve been honored and blessed to have the staff I’ve had and village leadership,” he said.
Salas said he focused much of his time over the last decade on his children. Now single, he has two grown daughters and one son, a 2-year-old grandson and 2-year-old granddaughter all living in the area.
About five years ago, he realized that besides one for the department, individuals also should come up with their own personal mission statements. He decided his number one mission was serving God and serving others, his second. Fulfilling that mission, he ran for the school board, he serves as treasurer of the New Mexico Parks and Recreation Board, recently accepted a seat on the board governing Help End Abuse for Life and the domestic violence shelter it operates, and sits on the Community Youth Warehouse advisory board.
Back to his first mission, on April 20, he was ordained as an associate minister for Grace Harvest Church, a nondenominational faith-based church.
“I always believed that spiritual health was the most important,” he said. “I attended the church when it was called Trinity Mountain Fellowship in 1984, then reverted to my Catholic upbringing, but went back to Grace Harvest in 2005.
“I found an article (from the Ruidoso News) in 2001, about New Year’s resolution and I said first to focus on my kids, who were in school back then, and then to continue in growth to serve the community,” Salas said. “So I guess I’m starting to complete that 2001 resolution.”

by Dianne Stallings
ruidoso news staff writer