Mary Jean Christiansen most likely wasn’t expecting to defend a wine tasting event when she came before the City Council June 9 to discuss the 94th Annual Gallup Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial request of $50,000 in lodgers tax money for use of advertising the four day event.

However, Councilor Allan Landavazo saw it as an opportunity to address the opening night wine tasting event. Landavazo, who manages Castle Furniture in Gallup, said “100 percent of the people I talk to don’t want it.”

He also said that the individuals he spoke to are primarily Native Americans and informed him that alcohol wasn’t a part of their traditional culture.

“Ceremonial is a celebration of...

Both City of Gallup Council and McKinley County Board of Commissioners passed a joint resolution to budget and to closely monitor how they allocate Liquor Excise Tax dollars.

Despite the tax being raised from 5 to 6 percent this past fiscal year, both county and city officials said they expected the projected the tax revenue would bring in $1.1 million, but now expect that amount to be in the ballpark of $900,000 when the remaining receipts for fiscal year 2015 filter in.

This predicted shortfall is based on the nearly $718,000 that filtered into coffers from July 1 - April 30.

“We really are a little perplexed about the the numbers,” City Attorney George Kozeliski said.

The joint...

It didn’t take much discussion for McKinley County Board of Commissioners to vote in a new logo, in essence, a fresh brand for the county at their June 9 meeting.

Gone is the hard to make out graphic of the county building encased in a circle and welcome to a strong, Native American figure holding a torch, inspired by the Manuelito sculpture on the county building’s first floor.

Artist Theo Bremer-Bennett read from a statement on what he feels the new logo symbolizes:

“After studying what other counties in our area are using as logos, we concluded that many try to visually say absolutely everything and end up with an often colorful but undecipherable blob,” he said. “In...

A “proclamation declaring extreme or severe drought conditions within McKinley County” failed to get any recognition from the Board of Commissioners at their June 9 meeting.

County Attorney Doug Decker brought before the commission, as he does annually, for their consideration. It was also a public meeting, and one resident spoke in favor of allowing all legal fireworks be fired off this July 4  holiday.

Gallup resident Sabor Biggs said the lush landscape due to recent rainfalls should be an indicator of why most fireworks should not be banned this year.

Office of Emergency Management Director Anthony Dimas provided a packet to commissioners that cited that the county has seen...