Part 1: FIGHTING FOR INDIGENOUS SAFETY, HEALTH

PART OF 1 OF 3

Larry Casuse spent the last moments of his life fighting for what he believed in: protecting Indigenous people from the alcohol industry and the way it took advantage of them. He specifically wanted a bar, the Navajo Inn, outside of Gallup on Highway 264, on the border of the Navajo Nation, to change its ways.

After going through the normal channels — he filed petitions; went to court to try and shut the bar down; sent appeals to the state liquor board; and had spoken to the mayor and city council multiple times — he decided to tackle issues he had with the city in a more drastic manner.

His fight ended March 1...

Code enforcement officers tasked with managing homeless encampments

In old western movies, it’s the sheriff that vows to clean up the town. In real life, it usually falls to code enforcement officers. It’s a thankless, and sometimes dangerous, job.

“It’s a difficult job to be a code enforcement officer because you are enforcing codes that nobody likes and that a lot of people feel aren’t important, but they are,” Planning Manager Nikki Lee, who oversees property cleanups, said.

Since July 1, the Planning and Development department has cleaned up nine private properties and cleared 20 homeless encampments. That blew through the department’s $150,000 budget for this...

A shiny new swing set, fencing for a natural grass ball field and shade for spectators are on tap for a few of the community’s parks, thanks to a $100,000 contribution from McKinley County to the City of Gallup.

It started with Mentmore resident Lucy Saucedo, who’s lived across the street from Hadden Park for 23 years. Most of the swings there were removed around 1990 for safety reasons and never replaced, Parks and Recreation Director Vince Alonzo said.

Saucedo’s seen her own grandchildren, who live two blocks away, and other neighborhood kids playing on “the one little [swing] set” there. She raised the issue with Alonzo and  District 3 Commissioner Robert Baca,  who...

An abandoned building recently caught fire. The Gallup Fire Department is still looking into what caused it.

GFD responded to a report of a structure fire at 3191 Industry Dr. on March 13 around 7:45 pm. When they arrived, fire crews found a large single story vacant warehouse building that had heavy smoke and flames coming out of it.

Fire  Crews made an exterior attack to extinguish the main body of the fire and spent most of  the night extinguishing small concealed fires and hotspots. The vacant building  sustained heavy fire damage, which caused the roof to collapse.

A general alarm  was dispatched for off-duty members to report to the location. A  total of 23 firefighters...