Rio Communities may soon be a town

BELEN, N.M. (KRQE) - Valencia County will soon have a new town.
    
In a special election, people who live in Rio Communities, just east of Belen, voted Tuesday to incorporate.

Now they have to build a town government from scratch and the votes still need to be canvassed to be official.
    
A big part of what residents here wanted was their own police department to feel safer.
    
Residents here wanted to cut down on response times and more control over code enforcement in this 4600 square acre area.
    
About 5,200 people live here.
    
An effort to incorporate Rio Communities started about a year and a half ago.
    
The plan is to contract officers from the Belen Police Department, before creating their own unit here.

“We finally will allow our people to speak of their concerns, where we felt that no one was ever listening to us,” Mark Gwinn with the Rio Communities Association said.
    
Rio Communities will have its own mayor and town council, which will be unpaid positions.
    
The election for those positions will be held in June or July.
    
Rio Communities also has its own water and sewer already, as well as a fire department.
    
People behind the incorporation effort say there is a long way to go before their vision is complete.
    
But they are a lot further along in their hopes of having control of their own community.
   
Thirty four percent of voters turned out for Tuesday’s special election.
    
The Rio Communities Association says the votes should be canvassed by Friday.