World Changers may not return to Gallup

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Bill Donovan
Staff writer

GALLUP — Many people want the World Changers to come back to Gallup this summer ... but there may be a problem that would prevent the city of Gallup from getting involved.

The Rev. Jay McCollum, of the First Baptist Church, met last week with members of the Gallup City Council to see if the city will once again help in bringing World Changers to Gallup to help make life better for the poor and the elderly in Gallup.

World Changers is a program that goes to cities throughout the United States providing volunteers to repair the homes of elderly, low income and the handicapped.

The volunteers themselves pay for their way here. Local organizations such as the school district provide housing, and the city each year has helped pay for the materials that the volunteers use.

In 2006, the first year the group was here, about 290 volunteers — mostly teenagers — improved 18 homes in Gallup. In 2007, they came again and improved 14 homes, and in 2008, another nine homes were fixed up. Among the things the volunteers have done is replaced roofs or siding, installed gutters, constructed fences, cleaned up yards, removed trees, provided landscaping, replaced doors and windows, installed wheel chair ramps and poured cement for walkways.

Other groups have also worked on homes on the Navajo Reservation, but these received no city funding.

The program, McCollum said, is asking the city this year for $32,000, or about $2,000 for each of the 16 homes that have been selected for repair.

Gallup Mayor Harry Mendoza said he would like to see World Changers come back but, there is a problem.

In the past, the city has used money from a federal grant to provide funding for the program. That grant is almost depleted and does not have enough in it to fund the program.

Gallup would have to come up with some other source of revenue, and that may be a problem, City Attorney R. David Pederson said, because of the state’s anti-donation clause which does not allow the city to contribute city funds to projects outside governmental agencies. He also pointed out that the state is becoming very strict about this and the city stands to be in violation of state laws if it uses regular city funds.

He stressed that the city wants to be a part of the program but we “intend to make sure we do it in the right way.”

City Councilor Bill Nechero said he is hoping that the city is able to find a way to fund the program since he admires it and what it has done to improve the quality of life for so many Gallup residents in the past, many of whom are residents of his Northside District.

“Working with the young people who have paid to come here has been fabulous,” he said.

McCollum said that if the funding is not found, the program would have to bypass Gallup this year, but he pointed out that it took local groups two years to get the program started here in 2006.

“Once you skip a year, it’s tough to get back in,” he said.

Mendoza directed city officials to find a way that would allow the city to get involved with the program this year.

“Once we find a way to do that, we’ll find the money to fund it,” he said.