By Cassie McClure and Suzanne Michaels
Published in the Las Cruces Bulletin 8/23/19
“We could just feel the whole building vibrate,” explains Kelly Gonzales, Allstate Insurance agent at 455 North Valley Drive. She’s talking about the vibrations that rattled her office building during the New Mexico Department of Transportation (NMDOT) road reconstruction outside the office door. “Now we’re happy – our end of the street is open to traffic, it looks great, and it’s once again quiet and easy to get in and out of the area.”
The north portion of Valley Drive - near SaveMart and Base Auto Sales - shows residents, customers, and business owners farther south what the completed Valley Drive project will ultimately look like: smooth wide lanes that now includes a bike lane on each side and finished road shoulders.
Gonzales is a native Las Crucen who lives here with her husband and 3 children. For the past 13 years her Allstate office has been at the Valley Drive location; she’s established relationships with plenty of other families in Las Cruces.
“We’ve been lucky that we can do plenty online or over the phone, like doing reviews or giving quotes,” said Gonzales, who explained that it’s been busy as Allstate offers extremely competitive rates. “We don’t depend too much on foot traffic, but I have been sending monthly emails to my clients on what are the best roads to get to the office.”
She admits that the construction has made her more adventurous in finding new routes to her office. “We just get so used to going from point A to point B that we don’t consider a change,” she said.
It might be a change for you to head down Valley Drive and see the almost completed NMDOT project, and maybe get your rates reviewed, or check out other businesses – restaurants, furniture and clothing stores, car dealerships – whose doors are open and ready to welcome you! It’s your “patience during progress” that has made it better for businesses like Gonzales to finally see the good vibrations from customers and residents on the new road.
The NMDOT Valley Drive road reconstruction project is scheduled for completion in early 2020; in the meantime, the City of Las Cruces encourages residents to continue supporting local businesses and stores on Valley Drive. More information on monthly update meetings www.valleydrive.net.
CAPTIONS:
PHOTO 1: Licensed Sales Producer Melissa Morris and Allstate Agent Kelly Gonzales are ready to welcome you on the new portion of Valley Drive. Come out to see that the “patience during progress” has all been worth it and that the future is smooth on roads in Las Cruces.