Cuts ribbon for new $4 million runway

GRANTS, N.M. – City of Grants officials are requesting your presence.  On Nov. 17, at 2 pm, they will be celebrating 92 Years of Aviation History at the Grants-Milan Municipal Airport with an Open House and Ribbon Cutting Ceremony for the City’s brand new $4 million runway upgrade. The project also includes new state-of-the-art LED lighting.

According to Airport Manager Ray Jenkins, the February 1926 issue of the Aeronautical Bulletin listed an emergency landing field at Grants. The emergency landing field was a 1320’ by 3960’ rectangular field (a dry lake bed) located less than a mile south of the current airport.

“This...

Tax rate lowered for proposed recreational AREA

With one dissenting vote against the proposed recreational development, the McKinley County Board of Commissioners approved a $2.75 million tax break for the Gallup Land Partners to proceed in creating a multi-purpose recreational park on land with numerous closed-down coal mines.

On Oct. 17, Commissioners Carol Bowman-Muskett, chair, and Bill Lee approved the resolution that grants the county to lower the annual tax rate per acre from $405 to $1.  Commissioner Genevieve Jackson cast the dissenting vote.

The vast open land, 6,792 acres, sits just north of the Gallup outdoor market, up to the south end of China Springs, east of U.S...

The final of five candidates for UNM Gallup Campus CEO, Dr. Carols Ayala, spoke in an open forum at the Student Services and Technology Center Oct. 25.

Ayala currently serves as the Dean of Education at the California State University at Sonoma, a position he has held since 2011.

“As dean I focused on our accreditation process,” Ayala said.  “There are 23 campuses at California State University, the largest in the country.  We as a unit have become a political force.”

Sharing his motivation for teaching, Ayala explained during his early years he accepted a teaching position in Calexico, Calif., a town on U.S.-Mexican border, where the temperature easily exceeds 100 degrees...

Visiting the University of New Mexico, Gallup campus last week, Dr. James Malm wants to bring his 25 years of higher learning career to Gallup.

He currently serves as a professor at the Colorado State University in Greenwood Village, Colo., where he teaches both undergraduate and graduate management courses.

“In many universities there are declines in enrollment and revenue,” Malm said before the search committee on Oct. 20.  “We are facing it all over the country in big external forces with no control over them.”

From 2000 to 2015, the growth rate in colleges and universities nationwide was 32 percent, explained Malm, due to a global economic recession.

“So many people...