Don’t let the pandemic make the decisions

The future of the Coal Avenue Commons Construction Project was the subject of a special meeting for the Gallup City Council May 18.

The city reopened bids for the construction project award on May 12. The apparent low bid was just over $4,475,539, which includes the bid on a downtown walkway while a bid that does not include a downtown walkway was made for $3,393,618. The bidder in both cases was the Gallup-based firm Murphy Builders.

The project covers the reconstruction of Coal Avenue through downtown Gallup from Fourth Street to Second Street.

Public Works Director Stan Henderson presented three decisions to the city council. The first...

Rehoboth Christian Hospital’s urgent request for clinical staff has resulted in additional healthcare professionals bringing much needed relief to nurses and patient care technicians who are providing care for patients battling COVID-19.  On May 11, four nurses and five medical technicians from the N.M. Medical Reserve Corps began working at RMCH. Another group of eight volunteer healthcare professionals arrived May 14 and began caring for patients one day later.

The volunteer medical workers are from COVID Care Force, a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization out of Olathe, Kans. Dr. Gary Morsch, an emergency medicine physician, saw the need for emergency medical workers within a few...

The Navajo Nation faces the predicted peak of COVID-19

Social distancing measures are working on the Navajo Nation, Dr. Loretta Christensen, the chief medical officer for the Navajo Area Indian Health Service, believes.

In a conference call with reporters that included Rear Adm. Michael Toedt, M.D.; the chief medical officer with IHS, Christensen praised  Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez on the efforts to curb COVID-19 cases from climbing on the reservation.

“I do believe [safety measures] are working. I think we would have had a lot more volume, and positive patients if we hadn’t done the social distancing,” Christensen said.

“I think the continued message is to still...

$600 million to benefit the Navajo People

WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. - The 24th Navajo Nation Council voted to approve the Navajo Nation CARES Fund Act on May 15 by a vote of 19 in favor, 4 opposed with the council speaker not voting.

The Act is a monumental shift in the Navajo Nation’s budgeting and procurement policies that lay the groundwork for allocating the more than $600 million in federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Stimulus Act funding received by the Nation the week of May 4.

The resolution of the Council will now be presented to the Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez for his signature to make the Act law.

“The action taken by the Navajo Nation Council to pass the...