Mayor Paul Wymer used his first State of the City address to tell Rio Rancho residents what they already suspected: the roads are bad, and fixing them is the city's top priority. Speaking to the Rio Rancho Governing Body on Thursday, Wymer laid out a mix of road reconstruction projects, public safety investments and growth figures meant to show the fast-expanding city is keeping pace with its own sprawl.
Wymer called roads the issue residents discuss most, according to nm.news, which reported that the address focused on roads, public safety and growth. City crews currently have three major rebuilds underway: Barbara Loop, Springer Drive and Western Hills Drive, the outlet reported. Recent storms left Rio Rancho dirt roads rutted and impassable, adding urgency to a problem Wymer has flagged since taking office.
Three Road Rebuilds on the Clock
The Barbara Loop rebuild is scheduled to wrap in January 2027, with Springer Drive following in February and Western Hills Drive in April, per the same report. Improvements to the Esther Bone Library parking lot are scheduled to finish next month. Separately, in an earlier interview marking his first 100 days in office, Wymer told KRQE News 13 that road repair would remain an ongoing process even after current projects finish, saying, “this will be an ongoing process because as we complete and repair roads throughout the city, those that were repaired years prior to that will start to deteriorate.”
In that same conversation, Wymer said fixing Rio Rancho's streets tops his list of priorities. “They remain first and foremost roads. We've got to continue to work on the repair of roads,” he told KRQE News 13. The mayor's framing suggests road work will remain a recurring theme of his tenure rather than a one-time fix.
New Fire Station and Police Hires
Public safety spending was a centerpiece of the address. The fiscal year 2027 budget puts $14.4 million into Fire Station 8, which is set to open in summer 2027, the station's report states. KRQE has separately described the same project as a $14 million undertaking featuring a 15,000-square-foot building with ten bunk rooms, two officer quarters and four bays for fire engines, noting it marks the first new station Rio Rancho has built in more than a decade as business and residential development expands.
The budget also directs $1.4 million toward two new police officers and two real-time crime center operators, while Rio Rancho Fire Rescue is adding nine positions overall. The city is putting $1.62 million toward fire station improvements and major repairs, along with $1.33 million for a police mobile command parking structure, according to the state of the city report.
Civic Projects Wrapping Up and Breaking Ground
Beyond roads and public safety, the mayor pointed to several civic milestones. The Broadmoor Senior Center expansion is finished, while the Animal Resource Center kennel expansion and the Esther Bone Library renovation are both headed to construction. A Rio Rancho multigenerational center remains in conceptual design. The city also received $1.5 million in grant funding to build College Boulevard Phase B at City Center.
A City Still Growing Fast
The road and safety investments come as Rio Rancho continues adding residents and housing at a rapid clip. The city counted 104,046 residents in the 2020 census, and a 2024 Census population estimate put the figure at 112,524 — roughly the 8% growth shown in Wymer's presentation slides. Homebuilders averaged 877 new units a year from 2021 to 2025, up from 586 annually in the five years before that.
That pace has continued into this year, with 643 new homes built in Rio Rancho from January through August, representing $133.5 million in residential construction value over that same stretch. The growth helps explain why city leaders are racing to add fire stations, police staffing and road capacity rather than simply maintaining what already exists.
The Rio Rancho Governing Body's next meeting is scheduled for Nov. 19 at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 3200 Civic Center Circle NE.
