These stories are not in a particular order, but were chosen based on their impact on Gallup and McKinley County as a whole.
RMCHCS STILL FACING PROBLEMS
Going into 2022, doctors and nurses were leaving Rehoboth McKinley Christian Health Care Services, and community members voiced major concerns about the administration and the hospital’s financial condition.
On April 15, the hospital hired new CEO Robert Whitaker to replace interim CEO Don Smithburg as a way to meet one of the county commissioners’ concerns.
During an Aug. 5 interview with the Sun, Whitaker discussed some of the problems the hospital had when he took over and continues to struggle with.
“We want to provide exceptional services to our community, and we want to do so in a way that’s safe and has a good quality performance with our patients and our providers,” Whitaker said. “We struggled with having physician coverage, and with nursing and staffing coverage.”
Another problem arose when the hospital closed its Labor and Delivery Unit on Aug. 3.
Whitaker said that closing the Labor and Delivery Unit was a difficult decision, but at the end of the day, options were scarce.
“We had quite a few discussions leading up to the temporary closure with our women’s health physicians and with other medical staff members to try and work through this, to try and understand if this was the right thing to do, and when we would do it,” he said. “We all kind of came to the conclusion that we needed to do this, and so we kind of set out a plan on how to safely and effectively temporarily close the unit and transfer care to other providers in other facilities.”
Currently, there is no timeline for when the unit will reopen, but Whitaker did say that hospital management are in the process of interviewing potential candidates.
All these issues came to a head when the Community Health Action Group brought their concerns about the hospital to the New Mexico Legislative Committee on Health and Human Services Sept. 15 and asked the committee, composed of about 30 state lawmakers, to turn hospital operations over to the N.M. Dept. of Health.
Dr. Kathy Mezoff, a pediatrician who worked for four decades at RMCHCS, told the committee that the hospital currently loses $800,000 to $1 million a month, and has a projected loss of $24 million for 2022.
At the Aug. 31 RMCHCS Board of Trustees meeting, Whitaker reported that the hospital had lost about $2.2 million during June and July. He said that the hospital made just over $6 million in net revenue in June while it spent over $7.5 million, which means it lost almost $1.5 million that month.
The situation at RMCHCS is something the Sun will continue to cover in 2023, including a recent lawsuit in which three New Jersey companies are accusing RMCHCS of fraud and misrepresentation, conversion, unjust enrichment, and breach of contract, among other things, according to a KOB 4 report published on Nov. 22.
THE EFFECTS OF MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION
Marijuana has been legal in New Mexico for over a year now, but McKinley County and Gallup officials are still trying to figure out how to manage the situation and keep citizens safe.
In January, the Sun spoke to Gallup Police Patrol Captain Erin Toadlena-Pablo and Anthony Morales, an agent for the GPD’s Narcotics Division, about how the police department’s job changed after the legalization.
“I think when something is new it’s going to take time to get used to, but we have to do it right here and right now,” Pablo said.
Another group that is still figuring out where the laws lie when it comes to marijuana is Gallup’s Planning and Zoning Committee.
In August 2021 the committee drafted a zoning ordinance which outlined the areas in the city where cannabis can be sold or consumed. One of the rules they decided on says that cannabis retailers must be at least 300 feet away from “residential uses.”
Things became complicated when two cannabis retailers who had already established their businesses under different regulations came forward.
The two would-be cannabis retailers appealed their permit denials to the Planning Commission, asking for a firmer definition of “residential use” and how that affects the 300-foot rule. Their public hearings were held Oct. 12.
Joseph Hyde, of Hyderoponics Indoor Garden Center, wanted a conditional use permit to allow his garden supply business at 300 W. Hill Ave. to sell hemp seeds; and Rodney Curnutt wants to open his dispensary at 202 S. Third St. Both entrepreneurs were challenging the same rule, but for very different reasons.
The city council has yet to make a decision concerning Hyde and Curnutt’s appeals. More discussions on the topic will be held in the beginning of 2023.
MIXED-USE ZONING
A new infill housing development plan raised eyebrows in August and September when the property owner Eiad Sulieman sought Mixed Use Neighborhood zoning for his 20-acre property.
The zone, added to the city’s Land Development Standards in 2018, allows businesses under 3,000 square feet in primarily residential areas and is intended to create walkable neighborhoods. Project arichtect Ryyan Stearns explained to the Sun on Sept. 14 that current plans call for nine or 10 homes across from Philipina Avenue, but with driveways on a new street to the south. Single family homes are also planned for the south side of that street, with 18 to 20 duplexes or townhomes going in on the next block to the south.
Opponents fear the designation, which the developer won after appeals to the Planning Commission and City Council, will allow businesses to spring up willy-nilly among homes, or that the developer will sell the zoned land without making further improvements. So far, neither outcome has happened and the property has not been subdivided.
SENIOR PRANK GONE WRONG
Before the end of their senior year, on the night of March 31, 25 Gallup High students snuck into their high school and decorated the school’s commons and the principal’s office with streamers, balloons, signs, and glitter, among other decorative things.
Gallup High Principal Tammy Hall called the police, and the 25 students were suspended over the prank.
This action angered many parents, and when the Sun spoke to them, they said that the school wasn’t setting disciplinary hearing dates. According to the Gallup-McKinley County Schools handbook, a student’s first offense of criminal damage should result in parental notification and a mandatory conference with the parent(s) and the principal; school counseling is mandated, and mediation is required. If the principal identifies the offense as one of high severity, they then have the option of referring the student to the hearing authority.
“They’re taking it way further than it should be [taken], because it was just supposed to be a fun prank, a senior prank; it’s tradition for everyone,” Alyssa Gonzales, the captain of the Gallup High dance team at the time, said when interviewed by the Sun. “And now they’re denying us the right of education. We’re being treated as criminals; a lot of people can’t even go into the school because they have a list saying certain people can’t be there.”
Parents claimed that the school was not following protocol by not allowing the students’ disciplinary hearing. Instead, the students faced long-term suspension and the threat of not being allowed to attend the graduation ceremony.
According to a criminal complaint filed by the Gallup Police Department on May 1, the total costs to fix all of the damage done on March 31 would cost the school district over $282,000.
The police report states that the school’s floor was damaged when students moved a soda machine. The cost to fix the floors is estimated under $10,000.
The students sprayed shaving cream and spray paint on the walls and made “a general mess of the school,” according to the police report. The cost of labor and supplies to clean the school totaled over $15,000.
The hefty price tag comes from the need to rekey the entire facility. Students used keys to get into the school after hours, and one of those keys couldn’t be found, which meant the district had to redo the locks and get new master keys for the school. The price for all of that was just over $257,000.
Some of the parents of the suspended students accused the district of not handling the situation correctly, and decided to take legal action. The parents who filed the lawsuit against the school district said the district wasn’t communicating with them about their students’ disciplinary hearings.
The judge sided with the parents and students, and also noted that if the district had been following its own rules, the suspended students would have returned to school no later than April 15.
The judge also declared that the disciplinary hearings were not held in a timely manner. He ordered the district to comply with the rules the GMCS student handbook lays out.
WATER RAKE HIKE
In April the city Finance Department asked the city council for a whopping 22.5% increase in water rates to take effect July 1, for not only 2022 but also 2023. Even though the city is delivering water at a loss, councilors were loath to impose such a big hike.
Over the summer and fall, Finance Director Patty Holland returned to state the case and bring options for smaller increases and restructuring of rates. She explained how dire the city’s water situation became during the pandemic during an Oct. 11 meeting.
“The water system definitely needs more attention than it’s been given,” Holland said. “We recognized coming into the pandemic that we needed to do a bit of a rate jump to try and get caught up and stay up with all the needs we had, but we held off because of everything that was going on, the uncertainties and the problems that occurred. We went two full years without taking the time to address this to get the rates increased. It is a little bit more drastic than would be ideal.”
Despite Holland’s explanation of the situation, the council closed out the year without a decision. The issue won’t go away, though, because that leaves the city unable to bond for water projects, and still charging less for water than it costs to deliver.
These are just a sample of the major stories that happened in Gallup in 2022. The Sun looks to continue covering major issues in the next year and beyond.
By Molly Ann Howell
Contributing Editor
