Housing head, air, water on schedule

By Kevin Killough
Staff writer

GALLUP — The city is to vote on a motion to reappoint Howard Britt to the Gallup Housing Authority at tomorrow night’s City Council meeting at 7. Last week, Director Douglas Thorton resigned his position after the Department of Housing and Urban Development refused to release funding because of excessive vacancies in the city’s public housing units. Following Thorton’s resignation, the board held an emergency meeting with Mayor Harry Mendoza and appointed Danny Garcia as interim director. The mayor said he is uncertain about the future of the rest of the board.

“We’re going to let their term limits run out, and then we’ll see about reappointment,” Mendoza said.

The city currently has about 104 vacancies, according to the mayor. The city is hoping to get as many of those filled, so that HUD will release funds it is holding. This will pave the way to filling more of the vacancies.

“I talked to the work crews, and they’re ready to get to work on those (empty units),” the mayor said.

The city will also begin discussing its intention to discontinue air service by the current provider Great Lakes Air at the City Council meeting tomorrow night. The airline had relied on a one-time federal subsidy to operate, but it has failed to attract very many customers. Averaging only 70 passengers a month, the future of the airline in Gallup was becoming uncertain. The city will begin the first discussions on ending the service in the work session, which begins at 6 p.m.

The city will also begin another step in the Navajo/Gallup Water Supply Project. The council will vote on authorization of a grant agreement between the New Mexico Water Trust Board, New Mexico Finance Authority, and the city. This will provide funding for Phase IV, which will connect the water well at Twin Lakes with the city’s current collection system for the Yah-Ta-Hey well field. The grant requires no matching funds from the city.