It's always interesting to ask people why they decided to move to Grant County. The answers vary and are almost as numerous as the bright stars of our brilliant night skies. But let me share with you why I came to Silver City.

Frankly, it didn't have anything to do with the food. Some people may visit here for that reason, but not me. Although during the holidays I did find a local downtown restaurant that serves fried okra. Since they are not a member of the chamber of commerce, I can't say tell you their name. But I did enjoy the fried okra.

Was it the scenery and the beauty of the area? Not really, we got here at night and it rained just about every day we were here for our visit. However, now that we are here, the beauty of the area is definitely a great reason to stay in Grant County.

Then it must have been the wonderful weather. No... as I stated before it rained pretty much the whole time we were here. And I will admit it right here in this article, it wasn't due to the law enforcement in Grant County. We couldn't believe how many sirens we heard while trying to sleep at night at the Holiday Inn.

It wasn't because of the great location of the Chamber of Commerce office at that time. Shoot, the office was on a street with no name. We couldn't find the office by using Google. The folks at the Holiday Inn couldn't tell us where the Chamber of Commerce office was located. The funny thing was... you could see the office from the front door of the hotel.

So why did Kathy and I move to Silver City? My salary and benefits weren't going to be as good as my last job. Kathy couldn't find a job in Grant County with comparable pay. The cost of living here is much higher than north Louisiana. The cost of gas and services is much higher. The population of Silver City wasn't on a growth track, and where we moved from was growing by leaps and bounds. I'm pretty conservative when it comes to my political views, and where we were at in Louisiana was extremely conservative. Yet, Silver City couldn't really be described as the bastion of conservative views in New Mexico. So again, why would I make the decision to move to Grant County?

There were two reasons.
Number 1: The Silver City Grant County Chamber of Commerce was hurting. It needed help and I liked the challenge it presented to revive the Chamber of Commerce.
Number Two: Tony Trujillo.

You have to understand, that without Tony Trujillo pushing some buttons, cranking out some commitments... basically putting together the effort to get me to come to Silver City/Grant County - I would either still be in Louisiana or at another Chamber of Commerce in Wyoming that I passed up when I committed to come to Silver City. Tony has been instrumental in providing leadership to many committees and boards in Grant County. He was instrumental in getting a commitment from me to come to Silver City. From the stories, it sounds like he played a major role in getting Dr. Joe Shepard to come to Western New Mexico University. There's no doubt that Tony Trujillo has a huge love for his community. He has a passion to see Grant County be successful not only now... but definitely in the future. Tony is one of those guys that every community needs at least one of. A mover, a shaker, Tony is a guy that is committed to walk the talk to make his community a better place to live, work, and play.

As of this Friday, Tony will be retiring from Freeport-McMoRan... and it will be his final day serving on the Board of Directors of the Silver City Grant County Chamber of Commerce. So I want to use this article as a way to say Thank You to Tony Trujillo for bringing me to Grant County, New Mexico. You have served as a tremendous leader of our Chamber of Commerce, and I know you have plans to remain very active in the community and region as you move on to the next phase of your life.

For those of you who don't care for my politics or my lack of political correctness... well, you can blame Tony Trujillo for introducing me to Grant County.