Goshorn appointed to Bosque Farms Council

BOSQUE FARMS—Serving the public and his community are the top priorities for the newly sworn-in Bosque Farms council member.

While Rick Goshorn was unsuccessful in his bid for village council last month, coming in third in a field of three for two seats, newly-elected Mayor Russell Walkup selected him to fill the vacancy.

Walkup was midway through his third council term when he won the mayoral race, so someone needed to be appointed to fill the remainder of the term.

Goshorn was sworn into office last week at the Thursday, April 16, council meeting and will serve until the 2022 municipal election. He will have to run for office again to retain a seat on the council.

Goshorn sees his work as a councilor as an extension of what he already does in his professional life. He joined the University of New Mexico in 2002, working at the Los Alamos campus. Then he moved to UNM’s main campus in Albuquerque in 2008, where he was part of the distance education program.

In 2013, he moved to the Gallup campus as their director of business operations before coming to UNM-Valencia campus in 2016 as the business director.

“When the position opened up at the Valencia campus, it kind of brought everything together,” Goshorn said.

Born in Nebraska, Goshorn and his family moved to Albuquerque when he was 10 years old, and his parents relocated to Bosque Farms in the early 1990s.

“I was around Bosque Farms a lot and I moved down here for the same reason they did — to get back to the rural kind of life,” he said.

Using his experience and education, a bachelor of business administration, Goshorn hopes to help the village through what he termed the “financial reckoning I think we have coming,” in reference to what will most likely be a sharp decline in gross receipts tax revenues for the village during the COVID-19 shutdown of many local businesses.

“My main priority is to keep our youth involved in both recreation and academic development,” he said. “I’d like to advocate for more youth programs, especially over the summer; programs that are rural based like horse camps.”

Goshorn said he would also like to be involved in economic development in the village to bring in more retail opportunities such as a grocery store.

“We’re taking our tax dollars over to Los Lunas,” he said.

In other action, the council:

• Approved Walkup’s appointment of Councilor Bill Kennedy as mayor pro tem. The mayor pro tem assumes the duties of the mayor when he or she is unable to perform them.

Other appointees included Gayle Jones, clerk/administrator; Paul Linson, police chief; and Yvonne Maez, treasurer.

• Approved it Open Meetings Act Resolution, which stipulates regular council meetings will be held at 6 p.m. on the third Thursday of every month at village hall, 1455 W. Bosque Loop.

Agendas will be posted at Southwest Grill, Benny’s Restaurant, the Peralta Post Office, Village Veterinary Hospital, Tractor Supply and the clerk/administrator’s office, as well as on the village’s website, bosquefarmsnm.gov.

The posted agendas will now include a QR code that can be scanned by a smartphone which will take residents to the village’s webpage where agenda informational items will be posted.