Sheriff building lacks funding

By Bill Donovan
Staff Writer

GALLUP — County officials Tuesday were still gung-ho on the need for a new building to house the Sheriff's Department.

But city officials said Tuesday they wanted another 90 days to think about it before they committed to a joint public safety building.

The county and the city have been talking for more than two years about building that joint public safety building, and everything seemed to be going well until the two entities met Tuesday afternoon to discuss the proposal.

At that meeting, City Manager Eric Honeyfield said the project is still "doable" but it's going to take a lot of assistance from the state and the federal government.

The city is facing debts of $56 million and isn't in a position, he said, to come up with its share of the $7 million or $8 million it is going to cost to build the facility, much less maintain it.

The city had been hoping to get a sizable donation to the project from the state this past year but only $350,000 came through from State Rep. Patty Lundstrom and State Sen. Lidio Rainaldi.

At that level of funding, it's going to take 15 years or more to get enough funds to make the joint facility a reality.

City officials, he said, are opposed to creating a new tax to pay for the cost of the building given the fact that the sales tax here is already among the highest in the state.

County Commissioner Dave Dallago said that no matter what the city does, the county is planning to go ahead with the building of a new Sheriff's Department, since the new facility is in such a bad shape that the county had to install port-a-johns there for weeks because of problems with the restrooms.

Preliminary drawings of the joint facility give 60 percent of the building to the city - because it has a bigger department - and 40 percent to the county so the city would be expected to pay for about 60 percent of the cost of the building and maintenance.

If that comes to $5 million, Honeyfield said the city would have to come up with $481,000 a year for 15 year to pay back the bond or loan. A $6 million cost would up the city's annual share to $578,000.

Added to this is the expectation that it will cost about $485,000 to maintain the building, with the city share coming to $366,000 a year.

That will bring the total cost to the city to close to $1 million a year, and Honeyfield said that it would still have to maintain the present police buildings because that's where the municipal court and other programs are located. So there would be little savings available that would help bring down that million dollars a year cost.

Mayor Harry Mendoza held out some hope that something could be worked out, pointing out that the city is looking at ways to reduce the amount it pays right now to provide recreational activities to local citizens.

These savings could be used to help pay for the new public safety building.

Honeyfield pointed out that the city has had a hard time in the past carrying out cost reduction programs in this area.

"It wasn't too long ago that that the council was considering closing down a dozen or so parks but wound out only closing three," he said.

Once the city announces where the cuts will be made, Honeyfield said he expected to see people in the front row of future council meetings pleading that the council cut anywhere else but in the programs that they use.

Mendoza asked the county to give the city 90 more days to look at possible budget cuts to see if the city was able to come up with its share of the money and the county officials at the meeting agreed.