Alamogordo 2

Alamogordo's fiscal year ends on June 30 each year; thus Fiscal Year 2008 runs from July 1, 2007, through June 30, 2008. The FY 2008 budget projects income of $61,454,402 and expenditures of $73,655,777.  Sources of City government income and their percentages of the whole were  gross receipts tax (31%), miscellaneous (23%), grants (22%), user fees (19%), and property tax (5%). 

New Mexico State University at Alamogordo  is a two year community college established in 1958. It currently has approximately 1,800 students. There are two high schools, three middle schools, and 11 elementary schools in the Alamogordo Public School District.  Prior to 2008 there were two private schools in Alamogordo: Legacy Christian Academy and Father James B. Hay Catholic School.  A third private school, Imago Dei Academy, opened in August 2008 and provides a classical Christian education. Kindergarten through eighth grade is taught with plans to gradually expand to the 12th grade. 

The German government operates the Deutsche Schule (German School) for children of Luftwaffe (German Air Force) personnel stationed at the German tactical training center at Holloman Air Force Base. The New Mexico School for the Blind and Visually Impaired is a state school located in Alamogordo. 

Alamogordo Public Library serves Alamogordo and Otero County.  The library at New Mexico State University's Alamogordo campus is also open to the public.  

The main newspaper in Alamogordo is Alamogordo Daily News (ADN), owned by MediaNews Group. ADN is published six days a week; on Monday, when it does not appear, subscribers receive the El Paso Times.  ADN also publishes Hollogram, a free weekly newspaper distributed at the nearby Holloman Air Force Base and covering happenings on base.  There are no alternative newspapers published in Alamogordo but The Ink, a free Las Cruces monthly newspaper devoted to the arts, is distributed in the city.  The city government publishes City Profile, a monthly print newsletter that is mailed to all households in the city and is published electronically on the city web site,  and Communiqué, a blog with city news. 

One television station, KVBA-LP, broadcasts from Alamogordo. It has a religious format, and a weekly local news magazine broadcast Thursday through Saturday.  Several Las Cruces,Albuquerque, and El Paso stations have relay transmitters in Alamogordo.  Cable television service is provided by Baja Broadband. 

There are two commercial radio broadcast companies, WP Broadcasting and Burt Broadcasting; each operates several stations in several formats.  There are two "listener-supported" radio stations that do not carry advertising but depend on sponsorships and donations. KUPR-FM has a gospel music radio format and some live coverage of local events, including many remote broadcastsfrom civic events.  KALH-LP is a low-power FM station that carries a variety radio format, network news on the hour, and local news on some hours.  Neither station is an NPR affiliate. The local NPR outlet is KRWG-FM in Las Cruces, which reaches Alamogordo through a local relay transmitter. 

Several major motion pictures were filmed in or near Alamogordo. The 2007 film Transformers was shot primarily at White Sands Missile Range, with additional filming at Holloman Air Force Base, both in the Alamogordo area.[ Its 2009 sequel Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen also prominently featured these two military bases.  The 2009 film Year One was shot partly at White Sands National Monument, near Alamogordo.  Alamogordo was one of the fourteen cities profiled in the 2005 documentary 14 Days in America. The Otero County Film Office maintains a list  of films shot partly or wholly in Alamogordo and Otero County. 

The major intercity surface routes from Alamogordo are U.S. Highways 54, 70, and 82, all of which are four-lane roads. The major north-south street within the city is White Sands Boulevard. The Charlie T. Lee Memorial Relief Route, which is designated as U.S. Route 54 and 70, is a bypass road constructed to the west of the city in 2001 to relieve congestion on White Sands Boulevard. 

U.S. Route 70 and U.S. Route 54 traverses through the north and south ends of the city.  At the south end of the city, White Sands Boulevard is a the major named street that merge into U.S. Route 54/Charles T. Lee Memorial Relief Route, running south to El Paso, Texas. In the south part of the city, U.S. Route 70 splits from U.S. Route 54 in a southwestern direction to Holloman Air Force Base, White Sands National Monument, and White Sands Missile Range prior to reaching Las Cruces. At the north end of the city, White Sands Boulevard and the Charles T. Lee Memorial Relief Route become a merged U.S. Route 54 and U.S. Route 70 running north to Tularosa. U.S. Route 82 starts at the same point and runs east to Cloudcroft and the mountain communities of Otero County, and then to Artesia. 

Alamogordo-White Sands Regional Airport is the municipal airport located in the Alamogordo area. It is primarily used for general aviation.  There is also scheduled commercial service from New Mexico Airlines, operated under a subsidy from the Essential Air Service program. 

Greyhound Lines offers intercity bus service to Alamogordo.  There is daily shuttle van service between Alamogordo and El Paso International Airport. 

Z-Trans is the mass transit system, providing paratransit and scheduled service within the city center and to White Sands Mall, Holloman Air Force Base and Inn of the Mountain Gods Resort & Casino in Mescalero. Z-Trans is unusual in that it is privately owned (by Zia Therapy Center, a non-profit), although it does get some local and state subsidies. 

The Alamogordo city government is building a network of bike routes and walking routes. More information and maps are in the Alamogordo Comprehensive Plan.  The New Mexico Rails-to-Trails Association operates a Rails to Trails project to convert old railroad beds to walking trails. Its trail system in Otero County, the Cloud Climbing Rail Trail, is planned to eventually surround Alamogordo.  

Electric power is supplied within the city by PNM Resources.  PNM also provides electrical power in the Tularosa Basin, while Otero County Electric Cooperative, a member cooperative of Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association and of Touchstone Energy, serves other areas of the county.  Natural gas is supplied within the city by New Mexico Gas Company, a subsidiary of Continental Energy Systems.  Severn Trent operates both the water and sewage treatment facilities for the City of Alamogordo. Severn Trent maintains all water storage facilities, booster pump stations, city wells and treats the waste water to be re-used by the city to water the parks, Desert Lakes Golf Course and is sold to construction companies for dust control. Rural houses have individual wells. 

Alamogordo has a dark sky ordinance to reduce the amount of light pollution in the night skies.  The ordinance was passed in 1990 to promote the growth and scientific productivity of Apache Point Observatory. City streetlights are high-pressure sodium vapor lamps.  

Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center is a private not-for-profit 99-bed general hospital that serves the Alamogordo area. The hospital is a shared military/civilian facility that is also the hospital for nearby Holloman Air Force Base.

The Otero County Community Health Council prepares a detailed health profile  each year with many facts and figures about health in Otero County. Otero County is ranked in the middle of most health rankings within the state. New Mexico is near the bottom of most national rankings, for example it was 38th in the United Health Foundation 2007 report, but has been slowly improving (it was 40th in 2005). When heath-promoting features are considered, instead of the healthiness of the population, Alamogordo is ranked as one of the 50 healthiest places to live in the United States, among six in New Mexico. Civic boosters such as the Chamber of Commerce publicize this ranking.  

Among scientists, Edward Condon, a physicist and a past director of National Institute of Standards and Technology, was born in Alamogordo.  Alan Hale, an astronomer and co-discoverer of Comet Hale-Bopp, grew up in Alamogordo and lives in nearby Cloudcroft. 

Among politicians, Edwin L. Mechem, a past Governor of New Mexico and past United States Senator from New Mexico, was born in Alamogordo,  as was Cindy Chavez, a past member of the San Jose, California City Council. 

Other, Edward Lee Howard, a formed CIA Case agent who allegedly gave classified material to the Russians who later defected to the Soviet Union.