SANTA FE — All schools could be in full reentry by April 5.  All New Mexico school staff members will be offered a COVID-19 vaccine before the end of March as a gateway to further expanding safe in-person learning with a goal of reaching full reentry by April 5, the Public Education Department and Department of Health announced March 8.

The announcement moves New Mexico public schools to the third and final stage of the Public Education Department’s COVID-19 Safe Operating Categories. All schools were in the remote category until Sept. 8; most elementary schools were eligible for the hybrid category in the fall; all schools became eligible for the hybrid category Feb. 8; and all...

Gallup water customers in the area of 108 and 201 E. Coal Ave. and 208 and 218 E. Hwy. 66 and in surrounding areas may experience low water pressure or a water outage, due to an unscheduled water outage, announced by the Water Department, which will be making repairs to a broken water line in the area from 7 am until 1 pm.

They will turn off the water in order to work safely.

Any questions can be directed to Utility Dispatch at (505) 863-1200 OR TO Nicole Hawthorne with the water Department at (505) 879-5722.

When Gallup-McKinley Chamber of Commerce CEO Bill Lee was asked how businesses have fared over the last year because of the coronavirus pandemic, he paused.

“It’s been pretty tough,” Lee said.

But the Chamber has been on the frontlines of economic recovery, he said, providing information on best practices for staying open; writing grant applications to Gallup and McKinley County for relief; and advocating on behalf of businesses to state lawmakers for programs that will help them.

“We continue to see every business as important in our community,” Lee said, noting the Chamber’s Board of Directors made a decision to help any business in the area during the...

Gallup City Council took a crack at spending it

The City Council meeting Feb. 23 on the city’s Facebook page took on the challenge of where to put the Community Development Block Grant funds which total a million dollars.

The city will be expected to provide a 10 percent match. The match would be covered by a budget transfer from the leftover fund balance from the whole block neighborhood reconstruction project.

Gallup Planning Director C. B. Strain told the council one of the plans for the money would be to fund a city street, pedestrian walk, and the utility infrastructure project on West Logan Avenue from Seventh Street to Ninth  Street. The project will replace...