Fire station to be named after Chavez

By Zsombor Peter
Staff Writer

GALLUP — It was an easy choice picking Louis Chavez as the namesake of the city's new west end fire state, Gallup Fire Chief Robert Garcia told the City Council Tuesday evening. The department knew all along it wanted to name the station after Chavez, who served as the city's fire chief from 2000 to 2004 and passed away March 17, 2006; it was only waiting for the project to get further along.

Is was an easy choice for the City Council as well, which approved the recommendation in the absence of Pat Butler and Frank Gonzales 3-0.

"You guys couldn't have made a better choice," Councilwoman Mary Ann Armijo said.

The hard part will be securing the money the city needs to finish the station. It's already secured land for the 500-square-foot facility just north of Gallup High School. But it's still $1.4 million shy of building it.

"We're going to go to the Legislature this year and hopefully get a big portion of this," Garcia said.

Rep. Patricia Lundstrom and Sen. Lidio Rainaldi have already pledged to seek $200,000 each, added Garcia, who hoped the city's other legislators would follow suit.

In other city business:

• The council awarded DePauli Engineering and Surveying a $579,000 contract to design the second phase of the Gallup-Rural Navajo Regional Water Supply Project, to help seek bids for its construction, and to oversee the construction itself.
  
  Gallup Joint Utilities Director Lance Allgood expects this phase, from design through construction, to cost closer to $2.6 million, all paid for with a state grant. The entire project is intended to improve water delivery to both the city and the Navajo chapters that surround it.
  
  
• The council approved final payment for the $950,000 automation of the city's water meters. City Manager Eric Honeyfield said the new system will allow city crews to read an entire neighborhood's meters in minutes instead of hours. Despite some initial computer glitches, it's also expected to improve accuracy.
  
  "When we got a human hand on a meter reading, we get another chance of a mistake," Honeyfield said.
  
  He expects the city to begin the even more expensive job of automating its electric meters in the spring. Despite the initial costs, he added, it should save the city money in the long run.
  
  
• The council approved City Clerk Patricia Holland's list of workers for Gallup's municipal elections, scheduled for March 6.
  
  The state-mandated vote is intended to make sure that none of the workers are closely related to any of the candidates; however, it didn't stop former City Clerk Ruth Ruiz from embezzling hundreds of dollars over the course of several elections by writing checks to poll workers who did not work the polls and depositing the checks into her personal bank account. Ruiz resigned when officials confronted her with the evidence, and the city eventually recouped the money.