Local couple works with city to turn dream INTO reality

Skateboarding duo Jeremy and Cecely Todacheenie, owners of Enchantment Skate Shop, have known for some time that finding a safe and adequate place in Gallup to skateboard is filled with obstacles.

The skate park off Zuni Road and Eighth Street was described by the pair as being outdated and in a general too run down  for skaters to practice the adrenaline-pumping, and sometimes high-flying tricks that catapult them into the air.

All of that changes this weekend, with the debut of the Gallup Skate Park. It was a project three years in the making, and local civic leaders shared in their vision to create a new park.

Their...

Members of the McKinley County Smart Growth Commission were at the regular McKinley County Board of Commissioners meeting July 24 to recommend that the county approve a $30 million industrial revenue bond as an economic development incentive to Rhino’s Health LLC, a supply company based out of South Korea.

The plan laid out by Sharlene Begay-Platero, an industrial specialist with the Navajo Nation, involves utilizing the empty factory to the east of Fire Rock Casino, 309 E. Highway 66, as a manufacturer of nitrile gloves, which will bring in an anticipated number of 300 to 400 employees. The plant was used to manufacture latex gloves before being closed in the early 2000s.

“There...

Water rebates, road funding also OK’d

The regular meeting of the July 24 Gallup City Council featured 10 agenda items that passed in quick succession. Three of those items were resolutions.

CFO Patty Holland presented Resolution No. 2018-20, fourth quarter budget adjustments for FY 2018, including a report of actuals.

“DFA is getting more meticulous at looking at our budgets, looking at each fund, in particular looking at our cash within each fund,” Holland said.

Holland reviewed project releases, project modifications and compiling at utility-related projects into a separate capital improvement fund.

“We are taking our processes to a whole new level,” she said, adding...

The July 24 special meeting of the Gallup City Council was a work session covered the city drought contingency plan, Cecil Garcia Fitness Center rehabilitation project, and the conceptual design report of the Red Rock Park RV Campground reconstruction project.

The main focus, however, was on the drought.

Evan Williams, deputy director of Northwest New Mexico Council of Governments, said four meetings were conducted before the drought contingency plan was written.

According to the 88-page report, Gallup is dependent upon groundwater, averaging 3.37 million gallons of water per day. Groundwater levels have dropped 200-feet over the past decade and is not expected to meet current...