Gallup residents will have a little more time to comment on a pending water rate hike of 22.5 percent this year and again next year.

On a 3-2 vote the City Council delayed approving the hike, which may yet take effect on July water bills, to get more community input. A date for reconsideration has not been set.

The city has kept rate increases more in line with cost of living since a fixed-amount increase approved in 2014, Chief Financial Officer Patty Holland said.

“It’s been, on average, about 4 to 5% per year and that is just not sufficient for the needs we have and current staffing levels that have changed and the needs of the department,” she said.

The city has been...

The bad news is: electricity rates will go up in July. The good news is: just a little bit.

The City Council approved a new rate schedule with a 1.89% bump May 24.

That amounts to about $1.26 a month for a customer using 400 kWh; had the old rate schedule remained in place, that bill would have increased by $6.39.

For those who use more power, a customer using 1140 kWh per month will pay an extra $3.12. For a general service small customer using 7980 kwh per month, the bill will go up $21.59; for a general service medium customer using 81,147 kwh per month, the increase would amount to $206 per month.

City Manager Maryann Ustick commended Electric Director John Wheeler for his...

The Navajo describe the powdery yellow uranium ore present in their water, air, and land as leetso--meaning “yellow dirt.”

In July of 1979, a dam collapse at United Nuclear Corporation’s   Northeast Church Rock Mine caused tons of uranium waste and massive amounts of radioactive water to pour into the Puerco River—creating a major environmental disaster that continues to contaminate the land, air, and water in Navajo communities today.

Additionally, hundreds of closed uranium mines are located throughout the Navajo Nation— negatively impacting the health of Navajo children and adults whenever radioactive dust particles from mine debris is inhaled or blown into drinking...

A man stabbed a minor when he thought the young man was making fun of his taste in music.

On May 13, around 6:52 pm, Gallup Police Officer Cindy Romancito was on duty when she met two men on the side of the road near Chaparral Mobile Home Park, 1501 W. Aztec Ave.

One of the men was holding his stomach. The other man explained that the man had been stabbed.

According to her criminal complaint, the 17-year old victim told Romancito that he got into a fight with another man about music.

That man, Jeremiah Pete, 25, had accused the victim of making fun of his music, and the two men duked it out in the living room of a trailer home.

As the fight went on, Pete allegedly retrieved a knife...