During the City Council meeting, held June 23 in Gallup, Mayor Jackie McKinney and Councilors made short work of their agenda.

Budget: Chief Financial Officer, Patty Holland presented the budget for fiscal year 2016. City Manager Maryann Ustick said the budget is balanced. She explained they were able to balance the budget by making across the board cuts in overtime of 5.6 percent.

In order to pay for an increase in Community Service Aid salaries, police overtime was cut. Councilors approved the budget without discussion, and forecast nearly $87 million in expected revenue for fiscal year 2016.

Electric: Richard Matzke Director of Gallup Electric Department asked for final...

SANTA FE–The New Mexico Department of Health (NMDOH) and the Children’s Youth and Families Department (CYFD) urge New Mexico parents and caregivers to never leave a child alone in a car.

Nine children have died in New Mexico from heatstroke after being left in hot cars since 1998. Safe Kids Worldwide reports an average of 37 children have died in hot cars each year in the U.S. in that same time period. Of those lives lost, 53 percent resulted from adults intentionally or unintentionally leaving children unattended in automobiles. An additional 47 percent resulted from children gaining access to unlocked vehicles without supervision.

“We don’t want to see this tragedy happen...

Gallup Police Department officers were dispatched to the 300 block of West Princeton June 21 to check on a blue van which had a flat tire. The license plate of the vehicle belonged revealed that it belonged to Lisamarie Manygoats, 36, of Brimhall, NM. Metro Dispatch had given out an attempt to locate on Manygoats earlier in the day in reference to her being under the influence of drugs or alcohol with her 9-year-old daughter in tow, according to the report filed by Officer Valerie Wilson.

Wilson found the van around 1 pm abandoned in front of a residence on Princeton.

“The van was parked about two and [a] half feet from the curb,” Wilson said in her report.

The right front tire...

LAS CRUCES – It was less than two weeks ago that state lawmakers met for one day to iron out their differences and present a capital outlay package to Gov. Susana Martinez. On June 17 she announced her approval of a lion’s share of the statewide capital outlay requests during a press conference in Las Cruces.

In Senate Bill 1, all but three of McKinley County’s 39 infrastructure projects were approved. Martinez vetoed $1.1 million in line items statewide, which is less than 1 percent of the total requests of $ 293.8 million.

“Far too many of our roads are dangerous, and they are in dire need of repair,” Martinez stated, in a press release. “By signing this legislation, we...