• Jonathan Helf is sanding his way to a more positive future with help from the Recovery Act.
  
  Helf is a small businessman and furniture entrepreneur in the village of Vanderwagen, about 20 miles south of Gallup in the foothills of the Zuni Mountains.
  
  Helf wants to expand the furniture business, High Mountain Furniture, and simply make a living providing people with a high-quality product.
  
  Helf signed up at the local library for a Fast Forward New Mexico class that taught him how to better market his business and target customers via the Internet. Fast Forward New Mexico is funded by the Recovery Act.
  
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• School leaders in Magdalena are using the sun to lower propane use and provide students with a unique educational opportunity.
  
  The Magdalena Municipal School District received a $119,800 Recovery Act grant in December 2009 from the state Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department. This enabled school officials to install eight solar thermal panels to heat water for the cafeteria and gymnasium, which in turn significantly lowers the district's propane consumption.
  
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• EL MORRO, NM – The road to the Old School Gallery is beautiful, and hard – dust storms and winding roads, Ponderosa pines and a steady climb over the snowy Continental Divide.
  
  Out here, Paula Tripodi has created an oasis for arts in rugged Western New Mexico. She acknowledges that the gallery, near El Morro National Monument, is isolated.
  
  “That's why we're important,” she said.
  
  The Recovery Act has helped support her salary since October. It's definitely helped, she said, or her hours would have been cut. She's paid part-time, but puts in more hours than that.
  
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• ACOMA PUEBLO – Pat Patricio and his son looked at the new Acoma Community Center recently. Patricio, a stonemason from Acoma, has been adding sandstone from a local quarry to the new building, one rock at a time.
  
  “That looks nice, Dad,” Patricio's son Spencer said.
  
  Patricio is building something that his son can remember for a long time – a state-of-the-art community center for the Acoma people.
  
  The project is supported by a low-interest, $11.1 million loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The direct loan is funded by the Recovery Act.
  
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• LOS ALAMOS, NM – Pete Stilwell is leading Northern New Mexico to a better economic recovery.
  
  The Northern New Mexico senior manager for ARSEC Environmental, LLC has coordinated the recruiting and hiring of 15 workers to help decontaminate and demolish outdated buildings at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
  
  ARSEC Environmental has been awarded about $3.6 million to clean up and remove buildings at Technical Area 21, where lab scientists performed plutonium and tritium research during World War II and the Cold War.
  
  The Recovery Act is paying for the work, which both creates jobs and cleans up the environment for future generations.
  
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• LOS ALAMOS, NM – Kevin John, a program manager at Los Alamos National Laboratory, is leading an effort to upgrade a crucial national resource at the lab's Isotope Production Facility.
  
  The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is paying for critical equipment and lab upgrades for a facility that produces isotopes used in medical imaging, national defense and other science applications.
  
  The United States currently faces a shortage of some isotopes, John says. But Los Alamos is doing its part, and is moving forward with upgrades thanks to the Recovery Act.
  
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• ALBUQUERQUE, NM – There's a new bridge going up over the Rio Grande, and Jake Ridley is making it happen.
  
  Ridley directs a construction crew from A. S. Horner, Inc. that is working to connect bicycle and pedestrian trails on Albuquerque's east and west sides. The Recovery Act has given the City of Albuquerque a $5.3 million boost so that city officials can finally move on a project that has been a priority for at least 10 years. The portion that A.S. Horner will complete is worth $3.5 million.
  
  Ridley is happy to help. He said the Recovery Act has enabled his company to keep employees busy in a construction industry impacted by the recession.
  
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• For more than a decade, contractor David Bates had more work than he could handle. Then the Great Recession hit. Work slowed down, and he started looking for options other than house building.
  
  Bates lives in Taos County in Northern New Mexico. The construction business has taken a hit, he says, and his company is no exception.
  
  But thanks to the Recovery Act, Bates and his company – Ecosphere, Inc. – have been able to stay afloat with weatherizing homes and making them more energy efficient.
  
  “Basically, it put us all to work,” Bates said of the Recovery Act.
  
  Read more about this and other housing projects in New Mexico »

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