Gallup gets money for projects

By Zsombor Peter
Staff Writer

GALLUP — After a disappointing 2006, Gallup can expect a windfall of state appropriations for construction projects this year.

Even more impressive than the more than $6.2 million the New Mexico Legislature approved for projects in and in Red Rock Park's case, just outside of Gallup city limits is the fact that Gov. Bill Richardson vetoed none of it. According to a spokesman, the governor vetoed not one of the Legislature's capital outlay appropriations this year.

City Manager Eric Honeyfield called it unprecedented.

"I think it's indicative of an immense amount of cooperation between the governor and Legislature," he said.

By the time Richardson was done vetoing the Legislature's capital outlay appropriations last year, Gallup ended up with only $3.2 million not much more than half of what it finished with this time.

Among the projects that caught the governor's axe were public bathrooms for the new courthouse square and seed money for the city's new business incubator.

Honeyfield wouldn't speculate as to whether Richardson's presidential ambitions had anything to do with this year's generosity.

"Our position is to take advantage of any opportunity we can," he said.

In any case, he suspected that the state's lucrative oil and gas concessions at least made the governor's magnanimity possible.

For all the good news, the City Council's top three priorities fared only modestly.

Its request for state funds to fix curbs and gutters across Gallup's north side and Chihuahuita neighborhoods didn't even manage to find a legislative sponsor, let alone secure a state appropriation. But curbs and gutters don't grab many headlines; so Honeyfield wasn't surprised.

Red Rock Park managed to attract $750,000 for renovations. It's a far cry from the $5 million the city asked for, but Honeyfield didn't think it could spend that much money on the park in one year anyway.

"Even $750,000 is an unprecedented amount of money (for the park) in the four years that I've been here," he said.

The state has already pledged to spend $10 million on the place over the next few years, the city's reward for agreeing to hand over the deed this coming July. And even though that pledge falls short of a legally binding guarantee, Honeyfield is confident the money will come. And when it does, he said, the design work the $750,000 will pay for will make the renovations go that much faster.

The council's third priority, a new building to house both the Gallup Police Department and McKinley County Sheriff's Office, finished with $450,000. The city and county bought a site for the building along Nizhoni Boulevard with money from last year's state appropriations. This year's will allow them to continue work on the project, which will eventually cost millions.

Other big winners were Rehoboth McKinley Christian Hospital, which took in more than $1.6 million for the construction of a new dialysis unit in Gallup. U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici had all but secured a $1 million appropriation for the $3 million project from Congress when the Democrats took over and changed a few rules. They were supposed to help curb pork-barrel spending, but they also cost the hospital its $1 million. It turned to the state to make up the loss and then some.

The city won another $800,000 to start planning a new overpass above the railroad tracks that cut across Allison Road. With train traffic through Gallup expected to keep growing, city planners say the current crossings including the one on Allison will be more like dead ends in as little as five years. To keep the north and south sides of town connected, they're asking the state for another overpass. The $800,000 will let them kick planning into high gear. The entire project, including a fulldiamond interchange between Allison and Interstate 40, could cost as much as $30 million.

The overpass may not have been at the top of the council's list when the legislative session got started, but neither was the meat processing plant the Ramah Chapter of the Navajo Nation hopes to get started in Gallup with the help of a private plant operator out of Moriarty. And it's now getting $470,000 from the state. The council has already agreed to let Western Way Custom Meat, the operator Ramah is collaborating with, move into an old slaughterhouse on the west end of town.