ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - City council members in New Mexico have named a fire station after late councilor Ken Sanchez.
The Albuquerque City Council met Wednesday for the first time since Sanchez’s death and voted unanimously to name a fire station in western Albuquerque after him.
The resolution was sponsored by council members Cynthia Borrego, Diane Gibson and Klarissa Pena who said in their bill that Sanchez was “instrumental in securing funding for the land acquisition and construction of” the station, which opened in 2012.
Renaming the station is the “perfect way to memorialize a really good man and wonderful public servant … truly because of his commitment to public safety and the people who worked so hard to keep us safe,” Gibson said.
“First responders were so important to him,” Sanchez’s daughter Jaclyn Sanchez-Zamora said. “There’s not a better way to honor him.”
Sanchez was elected in 2005 and represented a west side district that included west of the Rio Grande between Central and Montano.
He was in the middle of his fourth term when he died Jan. 1 from an undisclosed medical emergency, the Albuquerque Journal reported.
Mayor Tim Keller is expected to name a temporary replacement next month, KOAT-TV reported.
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