The New Mexico Tourism Department is requesting $5 million from the state legislature for Route 66’s centennial in 2026, but a 12-member centennial coalition group apparently has no representation from the New Mexico Route 66 Association.
The Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper first reported last month that the state Tourism Department appeared before the Legislative Finance Committee to present its budget requests for the upcoming fiscal year, including $5 million for the Route 66 centennial.
That report was news to New Mexico Route 66 Association President Melissa Lea Beasley-Lee, who stated in a news release days later that “my heart sunk because I knew the State had completely ignored the New Mexico Route 66 Association in preparations for the centennial celebrations.”
More from her news release:
From the onset of discussions, we were to play a role in the state’s celebration, a public/private partnership of individuals and organizations. Alas, as I read the article, nowhere was the Association even mentioned. The State was forging ahead without us.
All along the plan was for the Association to be part of New Mexico’s organizing committee, just like in the other states through which 66 traverses. Bill Thomas, Chair of the Route 66 Road Ahead Partnership, has done a wonderful job organizing and preparing all of us on the board for this prestigious point in history for Route 66. Now that it is time for me to assist our State, the Association is being cut off, and I would like to know why. […]
It is beyond reproach that we are being pushed out. It is disheartening to have to fight the Tourism Department and the Governor to represent our Association, of which I have served as President for eight years, to prepare for the centennial. We have been ignored repeatedly by the State, and now the Governor has assembled this group without informing the public of it, as well as us.
The State has a growing history of such actions and omissions. I have reached out to the tourism department various times as President to discuss ways to promote Route 66. They weren’t interested. They pulled our funding to help produce our quarterly publication, New Mexico Route 66 Magazine, and refuse to let us receive our portion of the Route 66 license plate sales. Even after providing documentation showing this money does not go against their state anti-donation clause because the money is coming from the individual purchasing the plate, who are entrusting the state to pass on their donation to us – not the state, we were denied.
The frustration we have felt — and kept from the public — has been building over the years, and it continues to get worse. The New Mexico Department of Tourism has been completely out of touch with Route 66 tourism. I have attempted to work with them toward promoting Route 66 for years and received no cooperation. Their marketing materials throughout the years have little, if any mention of Route 66.
A follow-up story last week by the Santa Fe New Mexican teased out more details about the centennial committee. It was established in an executive order by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham in September.
Maddy Hayden, a spokeswoman for the governor, said in a statement the parameters for appointments to the Route 66 Coordination Group are set out in the executive order.
“It’s important to note that apart and aside from the coordination group, there are many additional opportunities for the Association’s participation in the coordination group’s work, including stakeholder meetings, as we approach the centennial,” Hayden said.
The tourism agency provided a list of people on the committee after prodding by the newspaper:
The Tourism Department last week declined to disclose who had been appointed to serve on the coordination group after interim Secretary Lancing Adams told lawmakers they had been selected.
Tourism spokesman Cody Johnson said at the time the participation of a couple of appointees had not been confirmed, and he declined to provide a partial list of members.
He provided a complete list of the 12 members Thursday.
“Although membership in the actual coordination group has a limit, members of the public and community groups are invited to participate in any and all stakeholder and public meetings when those begin,” Johnson wrote in an email.
Virtually all the appointees are politicians or government officials whose connections to Route 66 are not apparent.
One possible exception is Johnny Peña, a board member of the West Central Community Development Group that shepherded the Route 66 Visitors Center in Albuquerque into existence.
One could argue if the association had a seat at the centennial coalition table, one of the key issues — which alignment of Route 66 will be spotlighted — brought up in the original New Mexican article likely would have been better addressed.
State Sen. George Muñoz of Gallup, a member of the Legislative Finance Committee, asked the tourism department which alignment of Route 66 would be commemorated during the centennial in 2026.
At issue is the so-called Santa Fe Loop, which runs north from just west of Santa Rosa and ends up in downtown Santa Fe before heading south to Albuquerque. It also continued south to Las Lunas before heading west again. That is the 1926-1937 alignment.
After 1937, Route 66 bypassed Santa Fe and other communities to the north and went due west from Santa Rosa. That shaved off almost 100 miles from the highway.
Tourism officials didn’t have a clear answer for Munoz’s question, punting it to the coalition.
An obvious answer would be to put the spotlight on both alignments, and there’s precedent for this. The State of Illinois isn’t bashful about promoting its 1926-1932 alignment in the central part of the state. Tulsa officials tout both the 11th Street and Admiral Place alignments in town.
In another section of her press release, Beasley-Lee said “because it is the Mother Road we are celebrating, all of it, every inch of it, whether it was there in 1926, or down to the bitter end in 1985.”
She added in a separate email to Route 66 News:
In 1989 when the NM Route 66 Association was formed, we also went through the proper channels to have New Mexico Route 66 designated a scenic byway. We were the first Route 66 State to earn this designation. It includes both alignments and totaled 604 miles – the most miles out of all of the eight Rt66 states.
To leave out any portion of our Route would make no sense. That’s leaving out parts of our history, and leaving out the historic communities that are the heartbeat of New Mexico’s Mother Road. “
(Image of a New Mexico Route 66 shield by Thomas Hawk via Flickr)
Go MELISSA!
THE SANTA FE GANG SEEMS TO BE “ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL”!
Politics at its worst. What’s the back story on this? I’m betting it has absolutely nothing to do with Route 66 and is just an opportunity to slap somebody’s face in a very public way.
It certainly doesn’t pass the “smell test” to have 11 out of 12 appointees with no obvious ties or experience with Route 66, it’s history and issues.