City council meeting crowded

By Mike Marino
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — The Grants City Council met before a packed house Tuesday evening to discuss water seepage and water pipes.

Representatives from the Mt. Taylor Addition spoke about water seepage in the golf course area near the housing addition. This has been an ongoing problem in the area

"The city has responded and we have a follow up procedure to go through. We are working on a plan on how we would go about looking into seepage there and try to determine what is causing it. There is a possibility of putting in a drain to allow the pounding of water," according to city manager Bob Horacek.

A vocal group of citizens packed the council chamber to discuss the new smoke shop in Grants. In addition to selling a variety of tobacco products the group says the store also sells drug paraphernalia such as water pipes.

"We don't know if there is anything we can really do about it except to make the public aware of what is going on. We want to protect the community and our children from drugs," Gary Gerrard, a spokesperson for the group, said.

Although a number of the citizens in attendance were from the Grants area, there was also a contingent of citizens from Gerrard's church, Compassion Harbor in Gallup, showing up to show their support of the group's efforts to increase the community awareness of this issue.

Now that the Animal Shelter Board is in place, plans are proceeding on the animal shelter and its location.

"It could be located near Candeleria Park, and we plan to have it bid out sometime this summer so we can get the project going," Horacek said.

The Recreation Board is still not in place, but the city does have six citizens who have volunteered to serve on the five-member board. The board members should be chosen at the next council meeting.

Two other boards in the city now have new members that were selected at Tuesday's council meeting. They are Andy Morrow, who will serve on the Grants Housing Authority Board, and Mike Lovato, who was chosen to serve as a member of the Senior Citizens Advisory Board.

Meetings of the Grants City Council take place in the city council chambers, 600 West Santa Fe Avenue.

Members of the public who want to address the council on any agenda item or items not included on the agenda have to sign in before the start of the meeting and state their purpose in order to be recognized. Each citizen will be allowed three minutes to present their topic to the council.