The largest employer is the Roswell Independent School District with 1,127. When the base closed in 1967, ENMU-R acquired 234.5 acres including 27 major brick structures. Students began using the facilities shortly thereafter. One of the newer games in town is aircraft refurbishing with Great Southwest Aviation and Renown Aviation taking the lead. The potential there, said Cox, is unlimited.
Pilots here can test the planes year-around without the burden of heavy air traffic.
The center also has runways of up to 13,000 feet long. As important, Cox points out, is access to commercial airways. As any small city can attest, offering commercial flights locally increases the potential for growth. The city's fourth-largest employer, Nova BUS Inc. took over the volatile TMC bus company in 1994 and returned confidence to the bus manufacturing industry. The Montreal-based company employs 600 people here who build four transit buses a day that end up in cities all across the nation.