With 2016 a record year for the Gallup Sun, the newspaper’s editorial board took a moment to name the paper’s top stories of 2016:
The shooting death of Alvin R. Sylversmythe near the Arnold Street public housing projects tops the list of the Sun’s top stories for this year.
1. July 24: Gallup police said Sylversmythe, 29, who was hanging out with friends at the time in one of the Arnold housing units, reportedly came at officers armed with two knives. Sylversmythe was shot several times and died after being taken to Gallup Indian Medical Center. The investigation was turned over to the New Mexico State Police and that agency to date has not released a full and complete report on the matter.
2. May 6: The killing of 11-year-old Ashlynne Mike in Shiprock and on the Navajo Nation Indian Reservation. This was a national news story that Shiprock police put to rest with a local arrest. Tom Begaye, Jr., of Waterflow was arrested and charged with kidnapping and murder. Begaye apparently picked up Ashlynne and her brother and then dropped the brother off and took Ashlynne to a remote area where he sexually assaulted and killed her. The case is making its way through the federal courts as it was committed on reservation land.
3. Dec. 23: Frank Chiapetti was dismissed from his job as Superintendent of Gallup-Mckinley County Schools. Chiapetti had been in the job for three years, and an evaluation that was done was never revealed to the public. A local media outlet sued for the details of the evaluation. Chiapetti was placed on administrative leave at a school board meeting that took place in Pueblo Pintado at Tse Yi Gai High School.
4. Sept 9: Vanessa Bowen, formerly the marketing director at the Gallup Business Improvement District, came out with a clothing line and hats that say, “Make America Native Again.” Bowen, like many New Mexicans, was against president-elect Donald trump’s political platform. Bowen is Navajo.
5. March 18: Gallup artist Ric Sarracino donates a painting of Octavia Fellin to the city library that is named after the late Fellin, who was the city librarian from 1947 to 1990. The painting was part of a 25-piece series that Sarracino did in 2009 on famous people in Gallup. Besides the paining, Sarracino painted the sign that adorn the Gallup Coffee Company on Coal Avenue in downtown Gallup.
6. Nov. 25: Joe Menini, a member of the Gallup-McKinley County Board of Education, asked that Gallup Public School Stadium be named after the late local educator Angelo DiPaolo. The matter gets unanimous approval from fellow board members as nearly all knew and respected DiPaolo as a pillar of the community.
In agreeing to the name change, board members equally agreed to adopt a new policy on timelines related to name changes.
A Gallup native, DiPaolo died in 2014 of brain cancer.
7. Aug. 26: Overall school grades at Gallup-McKinley County Schools rose above the “F” level. Superintendent Chiapetti revealed the information at a school board meeting, saying the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers test scores revealed consistent growth in student performance throughout the school district. In spite of the improvement, the board members still got rid of Chiapetti. Indian Hills Elementary went from a F to an A. There were no schools within the district that received an F grade, Chiapetti informed at a board meeting.
8. Nov 4: Gallup hired a new girls basketball coach and fired the previous coach Kamau Turner. Parents spoke out against the firing at a school board meeting and chastised the entire school board for making the unpopular move. Wilbert Nez is the new coach and came from a previous basketball coaching stint at Navajo Pine High School where he literally turned around that program.
At the root of the dismissal was an apparent connection to a booster club, which is not permitted within the Gallup McKinley County Schools protocol. People from the Turner camp threatened lawsuits, but to date no such lawsuit is pending Gallup school officials have said.
9: The Gallup Sun garnered two awards by the New Mexico Press Association for stories written in 2016: One award by Bernie Dotson was for an article entitled “Gallup Trainer getting Boxing Off the Stool.” The story was about local boxing coach and former boxing professional Joe Olivas who trains up and coming boxers at his north side gym.
10: Gallup Sun Publisher and Editor Babette Herrmann won an award for an article entitled “Meet John Doe,” about an unsolved cold case murder investigation.
Both articles, and the awards, cemented the Sun’s relevancy on the local newspaper scene.
By Bernie Dotson
Sun Correspondent