Herculean task
Is red the color of money and can it make Gallup better?
Malls across the country have experienced economic difficulties during the recession. Gallup's Rio West Mall was the topic of discussion during an economic summit here. — © 2009 Gallup Independent / Brian Leddy

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Gaye Brown de Alvarez
Staff writer

GALLUP — It was a Herculean task, but about 40 Gallup businesspeople, politicians, city department heads, movers and shakers got together for about five hours to discuss what is wrong with Gallup and what needs to be done.

People came with their own ideas and their own agenda. Ron Polinder, executive director of Rehoboth schools, said “the city should have a symbol or a phrase that unites who we are. People don’t know what Gallup really is. It’s the jewelry, the red rocks, the railroad.”

Mary Ann Armijo, manager of Clear Channel and former city counselor, agreed, but said she believed the red rocks were the best image and would draw the most tourists. Also, she said “we need proper signage for tourists on one-way streets, second and third streets.”

Mary Jane Christiansen, owner of Elite Laundry, asked if there was any way the traffic could be slowed down through on Route 66 through downtown Gallup. “We’ve got a lot of grant writers here in Gallup,” she said.

“There are safety issues getting people across 66,” Gallup CPA Brett Newberry said. “There are also parking problems downtown. Fort Collins has flashing lights for their downtown walkways. That’s an example. But, an overhead walkway is very expensive.”

Mike Enfield, new city counselor for Gallup, said of the Inter-Tribal Ceremonial “we have not taken advantage of it, because it is national, and instead of going up, it is going down.”

Everyone in the Economic Development group said they thought Red Rock Park had a beautiful museum with artifacts, but the exhibits were never changed and the park was not being taken advantage of.

Bob Weekes, director of golf operations for the city, told the group his plan was to make the golf course self-sufficient. He said he was “surprised” that when he got here it was not. “I use effluent water” he said and tries to make it run on green technology.

Former teacher and longtime community activist Karl Lohman said “the city needs real art.”

“We need to expand that sewage treatment plant,” local businessman Phil Garcia said. “Without the plant, you can’t have economic development. What happens when a business wants sewage treatment?”

“We have to tell them ‘we’ll see about that,’” City Manager Gerry Herrera said. “But if we’re not 20 feet away from the Rio Grande, we get nothing.

“In today’s economic atmosphere, business needs to move fast,” Enfield said.

City Planner C.B. Strain said to the transportation group, “if we produced a transportation committee, they can look at the roads where money was needed. But, he added, “there is very little transportation money coming to communities.”

Bernice Aldridge, from the Retired Senior Volunteer Program said she was there to address the senior transportation issue. She said she no longer drives and relies on the senior program and Gallup Transit. “Sometimes I have to wait two hours for a Gallup bus, and there is no place to sit except for a bench on the corner of 2nd Street and Aztec. The Safe Ride is for the residents of the reservation and the RSVP only takes seniors to medical appointments and things like that. They can’t run to someone’s house if they need to go to the store or need something.”

Tim Kelley of CARE 66 told the Housing committee that more housing is needed in Gallup. “265 more new units won’t do it,” he added.

Lisa Baca Diaz, a former planner and now a consultant for the city told the crowd it was good that so many people were there, willing to spend their time to make Gallup a better place. “We don’t want an outsider to come in and tell us what to do with our community,” she said.

Bob Kuipers of Rehoboth said “the purpose of the plan is to provide a guiding set of policies so the community can understand what’s happening.”

The city of Gallup invited the public to come to two meetings Thursday and Friday to the Gallup Community Service Center to review the draft of the Growth Management Master Plan update. Assisting the effort was Steve Burstein, project manager, and Ingrid Biel, principal planner with Architectural Research Consultants Inc., of Albuquerque.

On Thursday, the group was split up into three task forces; Economic Development and Trails and Open Space, Housing and Land Use, Urban Design and Transportation and each group came up with a list of things that were needed in Gallup. Then during the next day’s meeting the items were put on a priority list. The items deemed most important were:

Economic Development

Encourage economic expansion; training programs, infrastructure for business development, sites for special target areas. Enfield reminded his group that new business’s “need to move now so we want to be ready to go.” The group felt economic development needed a separate, non-political group, funded by the city.

Housing andLand Use

Encourage construction of affordable housing and promote housing renovation.

Promote the good appearance of the community. Burstein told the crowd to start thinking about what to do with the land if the Rio West Mall should go under, or follow nationwide trends to go out of business.

Urban Design

Promote historic preservation and the revitalization of downtown and promote development of U.S. 491 business district.

Transportation

Maintain and improve highways and arterial streets in Gallup and enhance pedestrian safety in Gallup.

Jeff Kiely, deputy directory of the Northwest Council of Governments spoke at the end of the meeting about water issues.

“The Omnibus Land Act went to the president,” Kiely said to the crowd. “The Navajo settlement was in there. But it’s a long-term project. There’s a limit to what Congress can do after 10 years and this project was first mentioned in congressional writings in 1957.”

A variety of other things were discussed during the two-day workshop including the current economic crisis and the amount of money available for grants and community development. A large wish list was made. The list is extensive, but a revision of the draft will be put together by Architectural Research Consultants.

Information: (505)-863-1240.