City: Laws unenforcable
Officials say they can’t stop speeders on streets,
people shooting off fireworks

By Kevin Killough
Staff writer

GALLUP — Marcia Heifner took her Kit Carson Drive anti-speeding campaign to City Hall Tuesday. During the public comments portion of the council meeting last night, Heifner urged the mayor and council to do something about all the speeders on the street where she lives. Heifner is the wife of the Independent Managing Editor Barry Heifner.

“Some drivers are going 50,” she said.

In response to a previous petition to do something about the problem, the city put down rumble strips, which have had little effect, Heifner said. She said she is currently in the process of circulating another petition. She also warned the council that the city would face serious liabilities if someone was hurt.

But the Mayor Harry Mendoza said the city’s hands are tied.

“We do not have the money. We do not have the manpower. And Kit Carson is not the only street in Gallup with problems,” he said.

Councilor Allan Lavandazo asked what Heifner would have the city do to resolve the problem if she were given the task of designing a policy. She suggested designing drainage cuts to slow down traffic. But the city had previously done that and it contributed to a fatality in a four-wheeling accident.

As City Attorney Dave Pederson explained, the city would face liabilities if changes made to the street to slow speeding end up causing an accident.

”We get blamed either way,” Pederson said.

The city also discussed what to do about the unenforceable ban on fireworks. Fire Chief Robert Soto said that the city received 180 calls for firework related fires between June 20 and July 27 last year. But the mayor and council agreed that most people ignore the ban, the city doesn’t have the resources to do anything about it, and the ordinance doesn’t carry any real penalties to charge violators with.

The city is considering removing the ban altogether, suggesting that the gross receipts tax raised from fireworks sales is going to benefit the city more than a ban it can’t enforce.