Can downtown go from in the red
to back in black?

A man walks by the closed Silver Bear Trading Company store on Historic Route 66 in downtown Gallup. [photo by Brian Leddy / Independent]

By Kevin Killough
Staff writer

GALLUP — The downtown business improvement district plan has hit a couple snags, preventing it from moving forward. The first step in the process was to get 51 percent of the property owners who live within the district to agree to participate in a business improvement district. If enough signatures were collected, all property owners within the district pay an assessment fee based on the value of their property for five years. And that’s where the process has stalled.

“The city clerk discovered approximately 20 owners that weren’t on the list but were inside the district,” City Manager Gerald Herrera said.

According to Gallup BID, Inc., which is heading up the effort, there were also some questions about the validity of some of the signatures that were collected.

“I understand why they raised some questions about those,” said Brett Newberry, president of Gallup BID, Inc.

Newberry said that in some cases relatives with power of attorney or people with management agreements signed on the business improvement district and not the property owners themselves. There were about a dozen signatures that came into question or needed clarification.

“We expect to have that resolved this week,” Newberry said.

As for the 20 owners that the city considers to be in the district, Newberry said that they were not originally considered to be inside the district. In order to get the process going, Gallup BID, Inc. drew up vague boundaries and plans. The planning committee, Newberry said, will make more specific plans and boundaries.

“We needed something for (the property owners) to look at,” Newberry said.

Newberry said that he hopes to get things moving a bit quicker. It was over two months ago that the signatures were presented to the city, and he said he expected the planning committee would have been formed and meeting by this point.

Another problem is how the city will pay its part. The business improvement district will require the city to pay $120,000 over the next five years. Herrera said that the city is considering paying part of that in in-kind services. The city will have to handle assessment collections and other services, and Herrera said it would make sense that those would be factored in as part of what the city pays.

“Those aren’t free,” he said.

Newberry is concerned about the city paying with in-kind services, because he says that the signatures of the property owners were collected on the basis that the city would provide its part in cash.

“That wasn’t the deal,” Newberry said.

He said that Gallup BID’s lawyer and the city’s lawyer would have to discuss that matter.

Gallup BID, Inc. does not get paid for its work on the business improvement district, but Newberry said revitalizing downtown is vital to the city’s tourism and Native American craft industries. He explained that people wouldn’t come to Gallup for Wal-Mart or Home Depot, which can be found in almost any town.

“Every community needs to have a dynamic downtown,” Newberry said.

Once formed, the planning committee will make recommendations to the mayor and council for a final business plan for the improvement district. The mayor and council then have the option of approving or rejecting the plan.