5-28-2024 1:20am

Community Power New Mexico Volunteers Stepped Up Memorial Day to Help with Fallen Tree

Chris Edwards Editor

Over the Memorial Day weekend a tree fell due to high winds in the older residential neighborhood area of New York Avenue. A renter lives on the property and posted a plea explaining the predicament on social media on a post on the Next Door Ap showing a photo of the collapsed tree

The poster explained, that the city said the renter and ultimately the homeowner is responsible. The city fails to take responsibility for sidewalks or trees that block the sidewalk. The city management interprets city ordinances claiming the sidewalks are public areas, but private property owners are liable for them in front of their homes, and ensuring they are accessible and maintained. This rule and interpretation places the responsibility on home owners and can become a huge fiscal liability.

A nonprofit, under the leadership of Evan Lambert stepped in with volunteers on Memorial Day, equipped with chainsaws solved the issue. The organization called
Community Power New Mexico is a 501c3 Not-For-Profit organization which exists to help address the unmet material needs of the people of greater New Mexico. They strongly believe in the power of community, and will work to build solidarity among all working class people while distributing labor & resources to those in need. It is their core conviction that if they have the ability to help, they believe they are responsible for taking action.

The situation that happened with the fallen elm tree is not unique. Like many families in Alamogordo, and throughout New Mexico, the expense of a fallen tree could potentially have been an added stress on family finances that most families in Alamogordo, are not financially equipped to handle.

Alamogordo currently has 22% of its population being folks with a disability, per the US Census. The US poverty rate is 12.6% but Alamogordo has a significantly higher poverty rate and a median income per capita being $30,028 meaning 50% of our population has less income than the median rate. An incident like the fallen tree could be catastrophic for many of Alamogordo’s households.

Thus, over half the households in Alamogordo are living paycheck to paycheck, and below the median income; a catastrophe such as a fallen tree, broken water or sewer line, cracked sidewalks resulting in an injury, could be just an event to send a household into economic distress or turmoil.

In response to the New York Avenue tree incident, Community Power New Mexico saw an issue of concern from the post and, responded on NextDoor, and then in person with volunteers in action. Within 24 hours their volunteers showed up with multiple chainsaws donated/lended to them, home depot management even pitched in and sold the organization one at a great discount!

The landlord showed up about midway through and had a heavy duty chainsaw to get through the 3.5ft wide hardwood trunk.

It took about 7 hours total between the Community Power New Mexico volunteers, the landlord, and the resident working together in collaboration to clear the sidewalk and provide accessibility.

The community organization, Community Power New Mexico was also able to let the renter and homeowner pull from their materials bank so they can repair the masonry damage that was caused by the tree.

Parts of the tree is being recycled into mulch for use within the Puerto Rico Avenue community garden which is currently maintained by With Many Hands Alamogordo in collaboration with a partnership with Community Power New Mexico to provide tools and volunteers from their tool bank.

If you’d like to learn more about the mission of Community Power New Mexico, to borrow from its tool bank, to volunteer or donate, check out President Evan Lambert or visit CommunityPowerNM.Org, on Instagram visit: CommunityPowerNM, on Facebook visit Community Power New Mexico or Email: Contact@CommunityPowerNM.org

Community Power New Mexico stepping up to help build a better community is yet another example of the tenets of our #AlamogordoProud campaign which spotlights those individuals and organizations that make a difference to improving the life of our local community.