County, city receive funds for road improvements

By Bill Donovan
Staff Writer

GALLUP — Residents of McKinley and Cibola County will be receiving more than $1.5 million from the New Mexico State Transportation Commission for improvements to city and county roads over the year.

The city of Gallup alone will be receiving $155,000 from the $23.5 million approved by the state on Thursday from the Local Government Road Fund.

Stan Henderson, acting Gallup city manager, said the city has not yet been notified by the state as to which of the various road projects submitted by the city have been approved for funding.

"I can tell you that this is far short of what the city needs," Henderson said.

Most of the $1.5 million that has been allocated to the two counties has been earmarked for improving roads that are used by local schools to transport students.

The government agencies which received the grants are obligated to pay a 25 percent matching fee so the total amount that will be available for these projects will exceed $2 million.

Johnny Cope, the chairman of the state transportation commission, said one of the criteria that was used in deciding what projects to fund were which roads needed the improvements to make "our children's trip to school safer."

Cibola and McKinley County will be receiving $173,531 each for maintenance of various county roads under the county cooperative agreement.

Besides the city of Gallup, Milan will be receiving $70,000 and Grants will be receiving $55,386 under the municipal cooperative agreements.

The various school districts in this area will be also receiving funds under this agreement.

The Zuni School District will be getting $10,000, the Gallup-McKinley County district $30,000, the Grants-Cibola district $20,000 and the Independent School District #2 $9,036.

In other agreements with the state, the Navajo Nation will be getting $33,330 for improvements of chapter roads in McKinley and San Juan counties, the Pueblo of Acoma will be getting $71,662 and the UNM-Gallup campus will be getting $14,000 for improvements to roads within the campus complex.

In moneys just earmarked for school bus route improvements, Cibola County and McKinley County will be getting $188,877 each,

McKinley County officials said these funds are part of a federal grant the state gets and the state passes the funds on to the counties.