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City receives cleaning, beautifying grant

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The City of Gallup was recently awarded a $30,300 grant from the Litter Control and Beautification program under the State of New Mexico Tourism Department.

The funds are intended to be used by the city on litter clean-up supplies, advertising, recycling supplies, community gardening supplies, to empower youth, and increase the Keep America Beautiful program capacity. The grant agreement will last through the 2021 fiscal year and expire on June 30, 2021.

Per the budget attached to the agenda, about $10,200 will be used for littering supplies; $3,500 will go to recycling endeavors; $7,050 will be used for beautification projects; $6,000 will help bolster the local youth programs; and $3,550 will go toward increasing the KAB program capacity.

The Gallup City Council discussed an acceptance and approval of the grant at their July 14 meeting.

“We hire youth groups to perform the cleanups and have done them in Gallup on multiple occasions,” Elizabeth Barriga, environmental program coordinator for the city, said during the meeting. “This gives the youth in the community a chance to earn money for their sports team or school activities, so it’s a wonderful opportunity for these youth to work.”

Barriga said plans are being made to start cleanup on certain areas of Gallup, including downtown when the construction is finished.

“We’re also planning to clean up the different council districts, so everybody gets a chance to share these youth that help to clean up the city. It’s a win-win situation for all of us,” she said.

The council thanked Barriga for her efforts in securing the grant, but she said a lot of credit goes to the community.

“Without the support of our community cleanup groups, we can’t get this done, so we want to thank all of them,” Barriga said.

The grant was accepted and approved with a 5-0 vote.

By Cody Begaye
Sun Correspondent

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