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

Gallup is one step closer to getting a new public safety building. The groundbreaking for the new building at 451 Boardman Dr. was held on Nov. 1. City council members, Mayor Louis Bonaguidi, Gallup Police Chief Franklin Boyd, Captains Erin Toadlena-Pablo and Billy Padavich, and other city officials were in attendance, along with their family members.

Councilor Michael Schaaf, Dist. 2, said the event went well, with about 75 to 100 people attending.

He explained that the current building has experienced mold problems due to a leaking roof, and noted that people around the city have been saying Gallup has needed an updated public safety building since 2000. Now, 20 years later, it’s finally coming to fruition.

“They’ve had a lot of problems with the building recently,” Schaaf said. “The building is 50 years old, and it’s had problems for years.”

The new building will be bigger and better, with more advanced technology.

The current building is 39,000 square feet split between the police department (29,056 square feet) and the municipal court (7,718 square feet) and a separate, 2,000 square foot training facility. The new one  will be located directly behind the current building.

It will be 41,213 square feet over two stories with 65 public parking spaces, compared to the 44 there now.

Plans originally called for 46,159 square feet and two elevators, but about 5,000 square feet and one elevator were “value engineered” out of the plans because of cost increases since the facility was originally planned. The city also opted for a few less expensive finish materials and different construction for the new impound lot when it goes in.

The new building will be two stories, and the McKinley County Municipal Court will have a new home on the top floor. The new courtroom will be roomier, and the judges and their staff will obtain more secure parking and entry.

Once the new facility is ready, the police department and municipal court will move in and the existing facility will be bulldozed. The space will be used for more parking, the new impound lot, and a K-9 space.

In a previous interview with the Sun, Boyd said he is looking forward to improving the work environment for his officers.

“When you have adequate and useful workspaces, it really helps our officers and detectives,” Boyd said. “We’re literally moving into a brand-new building instead of a dilapidated facility. That’s what we’re looking forward to, improving the overall work environment for our office. It’ll be great for morale. They won’t have to use space heaters anymore and they won’t have to worry about rain.”

The project does not have a set completion date.

By Molly Ann Howell
Sun Correspondent

Rez puppies, one dog head to Aspen

It was a chilly Tuesday morning when Josh and Katja Rapaport, the founders of Telluride Animal Foundation, touched down at the Gallup Airport with the mission of saving a few lives.

Eleven young rescued canines, including Sophie and her three puppies – Stieg, Saul and Sally were among the lucky selected to fly up to Aspen, Colorado. And Jade, the cream colored lab mix puppy got the trip of a lifetime – she sat on Co-Pilot Katja’s lap for the entire 1.5 hour flight, occasionally looking down at the plains and mountains from as high as 10,000 feet.

Jade is one of Gallup-McKinley Humane Society’s five puppies that boarded the Cessna 210. They were rescued from the Pinehill area and will now find their forever homes thanks to GMHS Transfer Coordinator Kristine Gruda.

All of the dogs were taken to the Aspen Animal Shelter.

Gruda said out of GMHS’s 3,984 intakes in 2016, they tranferred out 3,010 animals, and had local adoptions of 407. The rest were owner retrievals and euthanasias. “We really only euthanize feral/aggressive animals or animals that have severe health issues,” she said.

“I definitely thank the Telluride Animal Foundation for their donations to our cause, and for helping to support our spay and neuter clinic,” she said.

Also on the transport were three-month-old puppies Lilo and Stitch. Sophie was rescued from the streets and later gave birth to her three puppies. This group was fostered by David Tom and Babette Herrmann of Rez Dawg Rescue. Tom and Herrmann also run the fledging non-profit, Four Corners Pet Alliance, which raises funds to help supplement the care of their many fosters.

Katja Rapaport said Telluride Animal Foundation was founded in 2011, and funds the spay and neuter clinics for Soul Dog Rescue and other groups. When the couple landed in Aspen, she said, they received a heartwarming reception.

“We got treated like royalty,” she said, adding that volunteers were holding the puppies, and a Aspen Daily News photographer was on the tarmac snapping photos. A photo of Pilot Josh Rapaport and Sophie made the front page of the newspaper.

The couple has flown about a dozen rescue trips over the past several years, moving dogs and some cats on to better lives. The transport prior to the Gallup run involved flying a dog to the east coast.

“I am a bleeding heart dog lover,” Katja Rapaport said.

“All of the flying we do is pro bono,” she added.

Angela Cerci, executive director of Rez Dawg Rescue, worked behind the scenes to organize this transport.

Disclosure: Babette Herrmann is the publisher and editor of the Gallup Sun. All locally rescued animals are transferred to no kill shelters and rescues.

Rating: «« out of 4 stars

Running Time: 134 min.

Horror films involving ghosts are a tricky proposition. So often, these types of film can’t do much more than rattle dishes for an hour or so before eventually exorcising the spirits to the beyond. This week sees the release of a sequel to a movie that managed to succeed, despite genre conventions, and create some unsettling moments. The Conjuring 2 does possess a couple of chills and will provide a decent enough night of jolts for horror fans, yet by comparison it’s a hit-and-miss affair. Honestly, the movie never quite matches the eerie mood and tone that the original effortlessly generated.

The movie spends a significant amount of time reintroducing paranormal investigators Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga) and her husband, Ed Warren (Patrick Wilson). The two are asked by the Catholic Church to investigate claims made by a terrified and frustrated family in London. Peggy Hodgson (Francis O’Connor), the matriarch of the tormented clan, is particularly concerned about her daughter Janet (Madison Wolfe), who seems to be specifically targeted by a poltergeist. The Warrens arrive to investigate their row-housing unit (one that would fail any safety inspection, even back in the ’70s) for the ghost.

The cast is above average, despite having very silly material to work with. While they are forced to deliver a couple of groaners relating to doe-eyed declarations of love, they sell it as well as can be expected. And in spite of the familiarity of the set up, director James Wan (Saw, Insidious, the first Conjuring) knows his way around a fright film. There are some effective jump scares. In particular, those involving figures slowly appearing from the shadows. He’s also got a scary supporting spirit in the white-faced Demonic Nun, a creation that looks disturbing every time it appears out of the blue.

There are also some nice camera moves, including impressive long takes in which the camera floats around the house through windows and doors, as well as following the characters into various dangerous environments. But while it’s scary, the movie also possesses a stronger sense of humor than expected. This results in a couple of amusing moments of levity. One tense scene in the darkness climaxes with the audience staring at a photo of David Soul; another reference to the relative ease of early video-camera use earns a good laugh.

Still, the follow-up is not without several problems. Pacing is a big issue this time around. Despite being a very simple ghost story, the running time is so long that it trumps films like The Exorcist. The movie is too slow-moving and doesn’t set up the initial threat quickly enough. In fact, it’s an exceptional amount of time before the Warrens are even sent to London. Frankly, 15 minutes of minor, repetitive scares in the first and middle acts should have been done away with.

Additionally, the initial spirit is seen very early in the film and it doesn’t have a threatening presence (unless you find geriatrics who like to watch Queen Elizabeth parade around on TV terrifying). This significantly diminishes the tension. And while camerawork is impressive, it carries a glossy slickness and polish that also takes some of the edge off.

Finally, one can’t be too hard on what is essentially a goofy supernatural flick, but there are some nonsensical elements. The row-housing location of the haunting also mutes the fear factor. It appears especially strange that despite all of the loud events occurring, most of the neighbors seem completely uninterested or unbothered by what’s going on.

As mentioned, The Conjuring 2 certainly provides the odd jolt here and there and is a passable, if unexceptional follow-up. However, plumbing issues aside, the big frights found in this house never quite chill to the bone.

By Glenn Kay

For the Sun