This story in the Quay County Sun about the closure of a Circle K gas station at the corner of First Street and Route 66 in Tucumcari, N.M., seems to be a case of a newspaper and a local official making a Tucumcari Mountain out of a proverbial molehill.
First, an excerpt:
“We have no idea why they would want to close,” said Mark Lake, Tucumcari MainStreet program director.
Lake said the station is located at a strategic point in the heart of Tucumcari. He said having it closed and boarded up may hurt tourism.
“As people enter Tucumcari off I-40 and proceed down First Street, we don’t want the first thing they see to be a series of closed businesses,” Lake said.
Now, a couple of observations:
- If you haven’t been to Tucumcari, it boasted two Circle K stations within four blocks of each other. I always thought it was strange for Circle K to have two stations within walking distance, and wondered whether they cannibalized business off each other. Apparently Circle K saw the light and finally decided to eliminate one of the redundancies.
- Not to belittle the closure of a gas station, but to harp about it hurting tourism seems like hyperbole — especially when one considers that many closed and boarded-up businesses dot Tucumcari’s main drags. One more isn’t going to make much of an impact.
I think with its gas-station beautification program along Route 66, good leadership being seen with its chamber of commerce, and the very real possibility it could land a Route 66 museum, things have been looking up for Tucumcari in recent months. It’s simply going to take a long time to reverse the decline.
HERE, HERE Ron! It didn’t get that way overnight, and it’s not going to get fixed overnight! Some businesses will still fall by the way side, as the improvements continue – there’s definately some politics in play here, but none of us are giving up – in fact, just the opposite, we have more plans in the works to kick things up a whole other notch and will continue to do so! There’s a darker story behind the gas pumps anyway, which we don’t believe were even owned by Circle K, but rather leased from a local land barron family?
Things are going to hurt a little, or be a little painful for some, as change always is, and we continue to move forward without them. People will either learn to get on board with all the POSITIVE change, that could benefit even themselves, or they’re going to start being left behind. You can’t keep the good down forever, sooner or later it overcomes all, and that’s where we’re at right now. The slightly painful change to the positive, no longer self serving, but slowly becoming part of something better for the whole community!
It’s not self rewarding and it doesn’t make the lazy special interests rich overnight, but for those willing to work and contribute positively to the whole community, will reap positive benefits for ALL. A far cry from where we’ve been for years, but now the time has finally come… Tucumcari is now on the mend, more than ever before, and soon we begin to process of growing successfully once again!
One thing the article doesn’t point out – there were far more new or repurposed businesses last year, than those that may have closed or left town, and most were right on Route 66 – and there’s even more on track for 2011! NO – we’re not looking back anymore, pitfalls, pain or not, we’re moving ever forward each and every day, and we’re nowhere near finished yet…
This is the very same newspaper (Quay County Sun), that has themselves been reduced to a once a week paper, delivered by mail and a horrible on-line format unless you pay for an on-line subscription. Has also recently taken control of their propaganda machine ever so more tightly, by now restricting the people’s comments to facebook identities, and no longer allows for anonymous comments! Yet the radio station is now gaining momentum again, as they’ve chosen to be more affordable, accessable to the public and support their community? Yes, plenty should be able to put their names and faces on there, but others have businesses and such, that will be politically persicuted, if you don’t agree with and help to perpetuate their propaganda machine. This paper has not supported it’s community for at least the last 4 years in a row, and it shows as their business has all but closed – even nationwide as Freedom Press – they’re a horrible business model and an even worse public roll model for their own community…