Replacing Harrison put on hold

By Bill Donovan
Staff Writer

GALLUP — The door is still open for anyone who wants a chance at being the next state representative for District 5.

The current state representative, Irvin Harrison, has announced that he will step down on Saturday to take a job with the Public Regulatory Commission and it was expected that the McKinley County Commission would make a recommendation Tuesday on who they would like to see replace him.

That didn't happen as Chairman Billy Moore said the county is waiting for a letter from Gov. Bill Richardson formally announcing the vacancy. Until that comes, the commission cannot make a recommendation.

In the meantime, he said the commission will continue to accept applications and letters of support from people who either want to fill that position or know of someone they want to fill it.

County Manager Tom Trujillo said so far that five people have expressed an interest in filling the position.

Two of these came from the Church Rock Chapter which asked the commission to consider recommending either Ernest Yazzie, the council delegate for that area, or Perry Anderson, who is an administrative assistant for the Navajo Nation Washington Office.

Others who have expressed a desire for the position are former Gallup City Councilman Louis Bonaguidi, Kevin Mitchell and George Munoz. Mitchell and Bonaguidi also received letters of support that were forwarded to the county commission.

The names were briefly discussed at Tuesday's commission meeting but a decision was to table the matter until Richardson sends the county a letter.

The rest of the meeting was fairly uneventful.

A decision was made to table a request from the Tseyatoh Chapter which wanted the commission's approval for a right-of-way to install a new bridge a couple of miles from Tse Bonito.

The bridge would replace one that was washed away in the rainstorms of a year ago but Commissioner Ernest Becenti Jr. asked chapter officials to meet with him and residents of Tse Bonito, who are also working on their own bridge project, to see if the projects can be combined in some way.

The commission also approved a request from Bennett's Amusement to operate a carnival in the county from May 3-12.

County officials said the company would be charged $200 a day for a total of $2,000 for the permit.

Commissioner Dave Dallego asked County Attorney Doug Decker what would happen if the county refused to give approval and Decker indicated that this would put the county in jeopardy of being sued unless the commission had a valid reason to reject it.

But county officials said all of the requested documentation had been provided.