Rehoboth McKinley Christian Hospital to receive $750,000

The Rehoboth McKinley Christian Health Center is going to receive upgrades thanks to a grant from McKinley County and the State of New Mexico. The combined funds total $750,000.

The McKinley County commissioners unanimously approved the agreement that the county’s special project manager Domnick Riffle presented to them for hospital upgrades during their June 15 meeting.

In an interview with the Sun before the meeting, Riffle and County Attorney Doug Decker said the funds will be used for repairs to the hospital building, specifically the women’s center on the second floor.

Riffle said the renovation project would include...

The White Cliffs Mutual Domestic Water Users Association was represented along with several local people in asking the McKinley County Commission for roadway improvements at their June 15 meeting.

There has been a long-term plan to extend White Cliffs Road from Gallup to Church Rock and the City of Gallup several years ago acquired a 120 foot wide right-of-way for the entire project. But the project has not advanced. A three lane road, with one lane in each direction and a center turn lane was suggested.

White Cliffs advocates, noting that the state of New Mexico just acquired what amounts to more than two times the state’s annual budget from the federal government for economic...

Motorists should expect delays

McKinley County — Traffic that was down to one lane from Mile Marker 23, 24, near Bread Springs while the contractor Uretek performed roadwork for the New Mexico Department of Transportation District Six on N.M. 602, about eight miles south of Gallup, is projected for completion June 18.

Other road construction underway includes:

Installation of a new metal guardrail, concrete wall barrier by J-H Supply west of Gallup to To’hajiilee.

Installation of a new metal guardrail in late June by J-H Supply east of Ciniza Refinery to east of Cubero.

Speed will be reduced to 55 mph through the work zone at I-40 west of Gallup to east of Ciniza Refinery where...

Follow up to the story ‘A century of federal indifference left generations of Navajo homes without running water’



 

For a while, Chee Smith Jr. thought he was going to have to send his father to die among strangers. His family lives at Whitehorse Lake, a Navajo chapter where, until a few years ago, roughly 550 of 700 residents had no running water in their homes, including Smith’s. As Smith’s father aged and his health worsened, it became harder and harder for him to live at home.

“We had to haul water from the chapterhouse or the watering points every day for just basic things — for cooking, for laundry, for stuff like that, and also for our livestock,” Smith...