Wednesday, June 18, 2003

Aerial imaging firm recognized by U.S. Dept. of Agriculture

Jane Moorman News-Bulletin Staff Writer; jmoorman@news-bulletin.com

Belen Blue Skies Consulting, LLC, a company relocating in Valencia County, has been named the U.S. Department of Agriculture's 2003 Woman-Owned Small Business of the Year.

Tami Wiggins, chief executive officer, and Michael Racine, president, traveled to Washington, D.C., to accept the award in a ceremony at the USDA on June 5.

The company was nominated by the USDA's Aerial Photogra-phy Field Office.

Click to enlarge

Blue Skies specializes in aerial photography and remote sensing for mapping and surveying.

"Our expertise includes primary data acquisition, system integration and remote sensing applications," said Wiggins. "Our main client has been agencies of the federal government, such as the Bureau of Land Management and the Parks Service."

Blue Skies has 15 years experience on projects throughout the United States and in Mexico, the Caribbean and South America.

"Our emphasis on quality assurance and client satisfaction has led to exceptional corporate growth; the company has seen a 500 percent increase in sales revenues since we formed the company five years ago," Wiggins said.

Blue Skies has performed numerous projects for the USDA, including acquisition of vertical, high-resolution imagery for the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service National Resources Inventory Project.

Noted was thecompany's imagery of five national parks and monuments in Colorado and Utah, riparian studies in New Mexico and a resource management evaluation in California and Nevada.

Blue Skies is currently a five-person firm located at the Albuquerque International Sun-port. The company will complete construction of a new office and hangar complex at Belen Alexander Airport by the end of the year.

"We have several reasons for relocating in Belen. While our offices are at the Sunport, it's more for commercial jets."

With the closure of Corando Airport north of Albuquerque, Blue Skies decided Belen had the type of space it needed for its new facility.

"With the addition of our second airplane, we need more space than is available at Mid-Valley Airport, where we housed our Cessna 210," Wiggins said.

The main reason Blue Skies selected Belen was because of the help it received from the Belen Airport Commission during the application process for its new facility, according to Wiggins. "(Airport Manager) David Husbands and (Commissioner) Bob Cullins have asked us, 'How can we help you?'"

The company's 10,000-square-foot facility will unify Blue Skies' office space, aircraft storage and maintenance facility.

Improvements being made at the airport also influenced the company's move. "We are encouraged by the improvements the city is planning, including the addition of a cross-wind runway," she said.

E-mail this story Printer-friendly version