City ready for winter waterline breaks

By Bill Donovan
Staff writer

GALLUP — Although the city has spent millions of dollars in the last couple of years to improve the water mains throughout Gallup, city officials realize that a long, cold winter will still mean city crews will be spending a lot of time and money repairing broken waterlines again this year.

Lance Allgood, head of the city’s utility department, said that while almost all of the $21 million raised in bonds by the city during the Rosebrough administration has been spent, the city still has a long way to go to repair all of the waterlines that continue to break because of their age.

Not all of that $21 million was spent on waterlines here in Gallup, he said. Part was used to improve the city’s wastewater treatment plant and part of it was also used to provide a dual water pipe from the city to the wells in the Yahtahey area.

That waterline provides about 60 percent of the water used by city residents, and Allgood said if there had been a break when there was only one line feeding that water to Gallup, it would have created a major problem for the city.

“It would have taken us weeks or months to repair that line,” he said.

The bond money did allow the city to address some of the area within the city that continues to break down all of the time, especially on the north side in and around Maloney Avenue.

Gallup Mayor Harry Mendoza said he also sees a need to provide more money to repair some of these old pipelines but right now the city is strapped for cash because its revenues are tied up into paying off that $21 million bond and others that were approved by the Rosebrough administration.

He said one possibility for funding may come from the state legislators and he plans to talk to members of the state Legislature who represent Gallup and ask them to seek funding for this and other projects needed by the city.

“This won’t help us now but I am hoping for funding so we can start making more improvements next spring,” he said, adding that improving the city’s infrastructure is one of his administration’s top priorities.

As for Allgood, he said city crews will be doing their best to keep water flowing to city homes this winter.

“We’re still expecting to see problems all over town this winter,” he said. “It’s not a matter of if we will get water mains breaking this winter; it’s a matter of when.”