SWIF, chamber consider new digs

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Bill Donovan
Staff writer

GALLUP — The decision by the city government to file a lawsuit against the Southwest Indian Foundation does not mean they want to evict the organization from the Gallup Cultural Center.

That was made clear Tuesday by City Attorney R. David Pederson who said that the main reason for filing the lawsuit was because after two years of talks between officials for the SWIF and the city, there has been no progress.

The result of the lawsuit, he said, may be that that a new agreement would be reached.

He also pointed out that one of the problems the city faced is that the current lease was vague. The courts then would have to decide what the lease means.

One of the disagreements that will have to be resolved in the lawsuit is whether the lease has expired.

The city position is that the lease expired at the end of the last extension in 2008. The SWIF position is that the lease allows for automatic extensions on the part of SWIF and that SWIF has complied with the requirement of notifying the city that they wanted another extension.

Bill Lee, director of the Gallup Chamber of Commerce, told the Independent recently the chamber did not want to move into the cultural center.

City officials at one time had explored the possibility of moving the chamber operations into the building if SWIF vacated the building or having the chamber and SWIF occupy the building together.

A joint occupation would not work, said Lee, because there was not enough unused space in the building to meet the chamber’s needs.

Besides, the chamber has been working with city officials to construct a new building next to the present chamber building to house not only the chamber but a number of other city and area programs such as Small Business Development, the city’s visitor’s and convention bureau and the city’s economic development department.

It would be a type of “one-stop shopping” for people who want information about tourism or small business development.

The chamber and the city have been talking about this for years and the chamber has received $580,000 in state grants toward the total cost of $2 million for the building.

It’s important, Lee said, that the chamber start using these funds by the end of this year or it would face the possibility of the state taking back the funds.

He said city officials have promised to use part of the new one-quarter cent gross receipts infrastructure tax to help pay for the rest of the cost of the building.

The plans are to tear down the former Trailways Bus depot, which is owned by the chamber, to make room for more parking. The new economic resource center would be built just to the east and would be constructed in such a way that it would compliment the architecture of the cultural center to the east.

James Rich, chairman of the chamber board of directors, said others sites were considered but each time board members felt it was important that the chamber have a presence on Historic Route 66 and stay in the downtown area.

“This will not be our building,” Lee said. “It will be the city’s building and we will be one of several programs that will be included within it.”

Lee said he would like to see the building be state of the art.
For example, he would like to see a phone system placed in it that would give each of the agencies that deal with tourism and economic development in town have their own phone number.

When someone calls in on one of these numbers, a chamber staffer would be able to refer these calls to the cell phone of someone who would b able to answer the person’s question.

Another feature he would like to see be made available in the building is a list of jobs that are available in the area as well as a list of people who are looking for jobs.