Could park be ready in 2017?
The Gallup City Council unanimously supported a funding plan to build a public skateboarding park near the Gallup Cultural Center along Historic Highway 66. The matter was an agenda item at the Aug. 23 regular city meeting and was introduced by City Public Works Executive Director Stan Henderson.
“The project is running its course,” Henderson told council members. “Tentatively, we’re looking at construction to start at some point in 2017.”
The council vote was for a resolution connected to a state funding agreement in the amount of $195,000. An associated resolution confirms the city’s acceptance of the agreement and designates a city representative regarding the agreement.
Henderson said the exact location of the park will be by the old abandoned caboose near downtown and along Historic Highway 66.
“The north-east corner of the park is the caboose,” Henderson said. “That’s the plan right now.”
Other locations considered in the past by City Council included a spot east of the Larry Brian Mitchell Recreation Center along East Montoya Boulevard. The city recommended that location because it is set off of a main road and near an interstate exit.
According to Mayor Jackie McKinney, the Southwest Indian Foundation has said it will move the caboose to another spot near downtown. The caboose was once owned by BNSF Railway, but was abandoned years ago. The city kept the area around the caboose clean, going as far as removing graffiti from it.
Henderson said there’s yet to be a name proposal for the park, but that matter could come up at a future council meeting.
At one point, the state gave a $50,000 grant for design, and City Councilor Yogash Kumar has also promised $5,000.
The estimated cost of the skate park is around $442,0000, officials have said.
The Tony Hawks Foundation, which supports recreational programs that create skate parks, has committed $10,000 to the construction of the project.
“You have that accounted for?” Kumar asked of his donation. Henderson said yes.
The rest of the funding stream for the skate-boarding park is based on a $100,000 donation from SWIF and another $10,000 that SWIF raised from a gofundme.com account.
McKinney said skate-park project bids are expected to go out at some point in the fall.
Henderson informed council members that because the $195,000 is a state legislative grant, there’s no matching amount required from the city. The legislative grant revision date is June of 2020. Henderson noted a project shortfall of roughly $143,000.
A next step in the project will be “to secure funding in its entirety,” Henderson said.
Another project discussed during the Aug. 23 meeting was a $4.5-million state grant to replace the bridge at Allison Road. McKinney said that grant will fund the total cost of the bridge replacement.
In the past, city officials have said replacing the outdated bridge is the first step in the possible construction of a bigger $40-million Allison Corridor Project which, among other things, would re-route traffic from U.S. 491.
Also at the meeting, McKinney re-appointed Carol Sarath, Janet Tempest, and Rhonda Gishi-Chicarello to the Octavia Fellin Public Library Board. And Gallup Police Department Chief Phillip Hart announced Franklin Boyd as deputy police chief of the GPD.
By Bernie Dotson
Sun Correspondent
