P&D gets $22K budget adjustment

The Gallup City Council unanimously awarded a funding contract to an Albuquerque firm for the replacement of the roof at Fire station No. 1 – located at 1800 S. Second St. The action took place at the Feb. 28 city council meeting and was not met with opposition.

“This I something that has needed to be done for a while now,” Gallup Deputy Fire Chief Jesus Morales said after the meeting. “The roof is in pretty bad shape.”

The cost of the contract to replace the roof is $131,808.46 and was given to Progressive Roofing. Morales noted that $19,556.63 was earmarked for Wilson Engineering for project management, plus a contingency fee of $20,000 to...

Two-month leave stemmed from an apparent fight

The third deputy at the McKinley County Sheriff’s Office that was recently put on paid administrative leave has been reinstated, officials said.

McKinley County Sherriff Ron Silversmith said this week that Richard Rangel, 20, is now fully back to work as of March 3.

“He’s back on the job as of last week,” Silversmith said in a telephone conversation. “Again, he is back at work. But the investigation that we’re (the county) doing still is not yet final.”

Silversmith said Rangel, a Gallup High School graduate, is not patrolling, but is working “civic” duty. He said there really isn’t a time line as to when Rangel would...

On Feb. 8, Director Alecs Mojica of Uplift Community School recognized 10 students for Perfect Attendance for first semester 2016.

Parents and community members were witness to this wonderful achievement. Front row (from left) Keira Burnham (Kinder); Carla Steinback (1st); and Elijah Archuleta (3rd); 2nd row (from left) Caile Emerson (1st); Acacia Arviso (1st); Minowa Brown (4th) and Logan Chee (3rd); back row (from left), Meghanna Washington (4th); Kylee Donaldson (8th); and Elvyn Emerson (4th).

Esco Chavez, the Gallup native, New Mexico State University graduate and the former executive director at Gallup’s parks and recreation department, sees enormous potential in the Gallup Soccer Complex. It’s the size of four official soccer fields and was once the talk-of-the-town by Gallup youth, but is barely used as of late, he says.

And there is a reason for its lack of use.

“This is a gem no matter how you look at it,” Chavez said March 7, standing in front of the field along Sanostee Drive on the city’s west side. “Look at this. Why isn’t this field in use?”

Chavez recalls a time when players of all ages would practice various sports at the field, mostly soccer...