Parish joins mayoral race
Believes 19 years of experience with city give him an advantage

By Zsombor Peter
Staff Writer

Jim Parish

GALLUP — Jim Parish may not have much experience as an elected official. He has none, actually. But the mayoral candidate knows plenty about some of the most important things that keep Gallup up and running.

During his 19 years with the city, he's done everything from repair its water lines to pave its roads. By the time he retired two years ago, Parish was superintendent of the city's streets department with a crew of 30 under his supervision. In the mid-1970s he did the same for the county for five years. In between, he spent a decade with Carbon Coal.

So it's little wonder that when Parish starts talking about his platform, streets are among the first things he mentions.

If elected mayor, Parish said he'd put more resources into repairing Gallup's streets. Mostly for budgetary reasons, he said, the city typically waits until fall to start most of its road repairs. He'd like to find a way to get started in the spring.

He'd also like to bring back the city's curb and sidewalk program, which had city crews fix the curb and sidewalk in front of any residence if the owner was willing to cover 40 percent of the cost.

On a related note, Parish believes the city isn't doing enough to keep its streets and sidewalks groomed. City property and, hence, its responsibilities typically extends eight feet in from the curb. But driving around town, Parish sees too many weeds cropping up and considers them a significant blight that could hurt the city's efforts to attract visitors.

But Parish is also interested in attracting business to Gallup, and he's not afraid of courting the so-called big box stores like Target or Home Depot to do it.

Big box stores have a bad reputation among those who blame them for driving locally owned "mom and pop" competitors out of business with their often lower prices. But Parish believes there's plenty of business to go around for everyone.

"Because right now," he said, anyone in the market for something in particular, "you have one place to go and that's it. You don't have a variety."

Besides more choices for shoppers, he said, the stores would create more jobs for workers.

But if people need jobs, they also need a place to live. Parish said he would like to help create more affordable housing in Gallup.

"We need more affordable housing for the younger generation so it will be a little cheaper than what they're seeing now," he said.

City officials have acknowledged the unmet demand for affordable housing in Gallup and called it one of the main obstacles to the city's economic development. Both public and private projects are already underway to create more.

Parish says he's also troubled by the number of high school graduates who head out of town to attend college.

"They're going every place else but Gallup," he said.

Though the city has no direct control over education, or responsibility for it, Parish wants to meet with officials from the universities that have branch campuses here to discuss ways to keep more college-bound locals in Gallup.

Finally, Parish says he's fully behind the city's efforts to revive commercial air service for Gallup and wants to help work out the final security issues.

The city has already signed an $891,000 deal with Wyoming-based Great Lakes Airlines for daily flights to and from Phoenix, but personnel licensed to screen passengers and luggage ultimately the federal government's responsibility have proven hard to come by.

Whatever challenges the mayor's job throws at him, Parish said he'd have plenty of time to take them on.

"I'm retired and I got down to having nothing to do," he said, "so I can put in full time or part time or however they want it."

Parish's competitors for the job are Mary Ann Armijo, Harry Mendoza, Ralph Rains, Ralph Richards, Anna Rondon and Larry Winn. Incumbent Bob Rosebrough announced his intentions not to run for a second term in August.

The election is scheduled for March 6.