Governor cuts funds for Gallup’s crossings

Copyright © 2008
Gallup Independent
By Bill Donovan
Staff writer

GALLUP — What the state gives, it seems the governor can take away.

It turns out that Navajo chapters aren’t the only ones facing problems in the efforts by New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson to save some $300 million and return it to state coffers.

Several projects by the city and county are also facing the loss of their funding. This includes the overpass at Allison Crossing, the downtown underpass, improvements on the north side of Gallup and county’s efforts to build a place for people to stay while they are receiving cancer treatments locally.

Navajo chapters in this area facing losing millions of dollars for chapter house improvements as well as projects to bring water and electrical lines to Navajo families. But the county and city governments are facing elimination of some of their projects as well, according to county and city officials.

Richardson is targeting projects that were funded a year or more ago but have not begun construction as yet.

County Manager Tom Trujillo said the only project within the county government that meets this criteria is the project to build a type of Ronald McDonald home near the hospital for families to stay in while they get treatment at the Gallup Cancer Center.

The county has been talking about this idea for years and received a $400,000 grant from the state a couple of years ago to make it a reality. A site has been chosen — the former home of the Mother Goose day care service near the hospitals — but the project has been stalled while county officials await work from management that runs the cancer center on what they want done, Trujillo said.

Trujillo said the county hasn’t also made a decision yet, as to whether to try and renovate the present building or tear it down and build four apartments that would share things like a kitchen. County officials think that it may be too expensive to renovate so what it looks like is that the county will go with a new building.

The threat from the governor to take the funding has apparently spurred the county to move the project along faster than expected and Trujillo said the county is now looking at letting out contracts on the project to prevent the governor from taking the funds back.

On the city’s side, Mayor Harry Mendoza said he is waiting for a list of projects to determine which ones may face defunding.

He knows, however, that three major projects — the Allison overpass, the downtown underpass and sidewalk improvements in the Sky City area — are facing problems, he said, and the city is asking state Rep. Patty Lundstrom to step in to see if she can do anything to preserve the hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding the city has received for these projects.

He said the projects have been stalled for months because of a dispute going on between the city and the state over who should oversee these projects.

“The state wants the city to take the lead on these projects but since the funding comes from the state, we figure that the state should be in the lead,” he said.