Artist's dream rekindled
Trading post may be revived
Christian Oberholser
Special to the Independent
CUBERO — The fire in a stove built of old oil drums takes the
chill off the studio these early winter mornings as Federico Armijo
draws details into plans for a 5-foot steel crane sculpture.
However, the fire that totaled the old Cubero Trading Post next door
leaves Armijo cold.
The fire destroyed the turn-of-the-century trading post on Nov. 22,
1998, and also destroyed his dream to give back something to the community
of Cubero.
"My dreams and plans to restore the old trading post to its original
condition went up in smoke," Armijo said. His dream was to use
the historical building as a cultural center for young artists in
the Cubero, Acoma, and Laguna area.
Thanks to "Friends of Federico," that dream
is on its way to reality again.
"Abe Pena got some friends together and their d, 2,500-square-foot
building at 107 S. Dean St.
He said if the facility had the room, it could receive and distribute
produce to and from New Mexico and Arizona. "This week alone,
we got in 21 pallets of food and could have had more if we had a place
for it," he said.
Of the grant applications from McKinley County, one for $300,000 to
improve roads near Bluewater Lake was not approved.
However, a $25,000 grant was allotted to conduct an economic feasibility
study regarding Adventure Gallup.
Adventunwhile, drawings of a commissioned 5-foot steel crane sculpture
cover a drawing table. On another table, close by the stove, are plans
for 9-foot carved wooden doors theater entrance doors for the National
Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque.
Since working out of his Cubero studio, Armijo has completed commissioned
projects from across the country. An 18-month project resulted in
wooden carved entrance doors for the Presbyterian Church national
headquarters in Louisville, Ky.
Armijo enjoys working in several mediums. A 35-foot laminated red
oak cross is in production for Gaithersburg (Md.) Baptist Church.
"The simple lines support the illusion of timelessness,"
Armijo said. "Simplicity creates a feeling of forever and can
outlast us all."
When Armijo moved to Cubero eight years ago from Albuquerque's south
valley, he brought with him the desire to create and learn how materials
work together.
"I'm one of those lucky primal guys who just seem to have a need
to create, or maybe it's a curse," he said.
It wasn't long until Armijo realized his move to Cubero created a
dream larger then his sculpting. Restoring the trading post to its
original condition and using it so young people could discover their
talents became part of Armijo's need to create.
Research on the historic building, which sat vacant for years, gave
Armijo information about the trading post's architectural details.
A potbelly stove found in a local bar was moved into the second floor
to help create the atmosphere of those early trading years.
Ironically, it was the stove that brought a quick fiery end to the
trading post building and the dream Armijo attached to the historic
trading post.
This time of year, the oval shaped studio stove, while
heating a cup of soup for lunch, keeps Armijo's fingers warm enough
to take the crane from the drawing board to the center of a water
fountain.
He also feels the warmth that comes from the support people give his
dream of helping young artists share in his satisfaction of creating.
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Tribal cars: $4,000,000
Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — The Navajo Nation is about to get more than 220
new vehicles, including a package of 191 worth $4.7 million. However,
tribal officials say this is the smallest annual vehicle purchase
ever done by the tribe, according to Ray
Barton of the Fleet Management Department.
Four other departments are using federal funds in their individual
budgets to buy vehicles, Barton said.
The Department of Emergency Medical Services is getting a dozen new
ambulances. Six Chevrolet Tahoes will be used by child care services,
with the Department of Workforce Development using 10 Tahoes. President
Kelsey Begaye will get a new Tahoe and Vice President Dr. Taylor McKenzie
soon will be behind the wheel of a mini-van.
"One time we did 600 vehicles," Barton said. But the days
of large vehicle pur chasing may be over, at least temporarily.
"There might not be any next year," Barton said. The department
used to receive an annual appropriation from the tribal council of
$5 million to $6 million to buy the many different types of vehicles
outright, but now buys them on credit as do most people and many other
government agencies.
The package portion is being done through an escrow account at Norwest
Bank in Phoenix to Ford Motor Credit with 87 sedans, Tahoes and Suburbans
going to the Division of Public Safety. Most of the DPS vehicles will
go to Chief Leonard Butler's Department of Law Enforcement, with several
to Chief Dorothy Fulton's Department of Criminal Investigations and
some to Wilbe Antone's Department of Corrections for hauling prisoners
back and forth.
Of the DPS total, 25 will be four-wheel drive Tahoes, 25 will be two-wheel
drive Tahoes and 37 will be Chevrolet Impalas for patrol cruisers.
Three New Mexico dealers will be supplying the 191 vehicles, with
Webb Chevrolet of Farmington providing 148, Rico Motor Company of
Gallup supplying 41 and Tillery Chevrolet of Moriarty supplying two.
Barton said that because the deadline to order 1999 models passed
before police could supply their paperwork, the Navajo Nation renegotiated
prices and types of vehicles to obtain lower prices and as many vehicles
as possible from the order.
Butler said he wants to end up with 92 new vehicles, meaning five
more units possibly could be squeezed out of the available funds.
Once the necessary paperwork and checks have been completed which
is expected to take about two weeks work can begin on the police vehicles
which need their red and blue lights, radios and safety equipment
installed, along with the distinctive green and yellow stripes and
decals.
Barton estimated officers will be in their new vehicles if there are
no more delays around the end of February since it will take 30 to
45 days to complete the work. Fleet Management also will try to refurbish
used police vehicles, "to do what we have to do to keep as many
we can on the road. But the officers wreck so many," Barton said,
"that our body shop is full of police vehicles."
Butler said the outlying districts will receive most of the new vehicles
except if an officer has a history of collisions. Distribution also
will be based on a whole carload of factors, such as the number of
chapters served, their populations, the road miles covered, the number
of available officers and the mileage allowances budgeted by the seven
police districts.
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Chinle crash kills two
Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — Two people died in a traffic accident south of
Chinle last Friday, Navajo police said.
Betty Lou Lee, 43, and Elizabeth Harvey, no age listed, both residents
of the Turkey Ruin area between Spider Rock and Nazlini, died at the
scene of the 9:30 p.m. one-car wreck, according to the report by the
Chinle Police District.
Navajo police labeled the deaths as alcohol-related
because a large number of beer cans, both opened and sealed, were
scattered around the scene about three miles south of the old Mormon
church on Navajo Route 7 that connects Chinle with Nazlini to the
south.
Officers also found Jerry John Lee Sr., 41, of Chinle in the back
seat of the car. When he complained of pain, he was taken to the Indian
Health Service Hospital in Chinle, then transferred to Flagstaff Medical
Center.
When they arrived at the scene, police found Betty Lou Lee partially
ejected from the front passenger seat of the car, and Harvey on the
ground after being fully ejected from the vehicle.
During the first 15 days of the new year, three of the four vehicle
crashes in which people died involved alcohol, according to the Navajo
police reports. The alcohol-related fatalities occurred in the Copper
Mine, Ganado and Chinle chapters.
The lone non-alcohol-related wreck happened in the Window Rock section
of the St. Michaels Chapter.
All four accidents occurred on weekends.
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Road, food projects get green light
Tanya Brazil
Staff Writer
GALLUP — The New Mexico Community Development Council has approved
three of four city and county requests for community development block
grants.
The approved projects are: construction work on Dani Drive, expansion
of the Community Pantry, and a feasibility study for Adventure Gallup.
Not approved was a project to improve roads near Bluewater Lake.
Patricia Lundstrom, executive director of the Northwest New Mexico
Council of Governments, said the grants are part of a Housing and
Urban Development program that provides funding to small cities and
counties for infrastructure and planning...
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Citizen vents concern over museum rent
Tom Purdom
Staff Writer
GRANTS — Dan Stock continued his efforts to get answers from
the Grants City Council about why the local dinosaur museum is allowed
to use a city-owned building rent-free.
Stock wanted to know the status of the city and its negotiations with
officials from Dinamation. He asked that question on Jan. 3 and was
told to return Jan. 17.
When he returned on Monday to get the answers he sought, he was told
that the matter involves potential litigation and cannot be aired
in public. No suit has been filed by any of the parties...
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Flu bug is still kickin'
IHS hospitals in area filled
Bill Donovan
Diné Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — The flu bug is still making a lot of Navajo Reservation
residents sick.
Dr. Doug Peter, medical director for the Navajo Area IHS, said Wednesday
that the flu epidemic that hit the reservation about Thanksgiving
is still around.
All area IHS hospitals are still packed with flu patients but while
the situation in the Navajo Area is bad, the problems being faced
by Phoenix Area IHS facilities are even worse...
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Missile launch on Jan. 26
Staff Report
FORT WINGATE — Preparations are being completed at Fort Wingate
for the next Hera target missile firing from the old depot to White
Sands Missile Range. The launch is tentatively scheduled between 6
a.m. and 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 26, and can be viewed from Red
Rock State Park.
The Hera missile will drop a booster into an evacuated safety zone
during its flight to the missile range. In addition to this safety
drop zone near Datil, there will be some short safety roadblocks and
evacuations around the immediate Fort Wingate area mostly to the south
and east. They will be the same as those used during past Hera Launches.
The roadblocks include the following: New Mexico Route
400 between the Fort Wingate historic monument and McGaffey Lake;
Forest Route 191 between NM 400 and six miles to the west; Forest
Route 547 between Six Mile Spring and McGaffey Lake. In addition,
gates along NM 400 will be closed to passage...
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Ganado OKs backpack rule
New policies hope to deter school crime
Nancy Watson
Staff Writer
GANADO — The only backpacks that high school students in Ganado
are allowed to carry this semester are mesh or see-through.
The new rule is one of several put into place this semester to deter
school violence. Ganado High Principal Donna Muri said that both students
and parents support the change.
Only a few students have brought handguns and knives into the school
in the past and there have been no weapons brought into the school
this school year. But Muri said the preventative measure is still
necessary...
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No thunder in NM's economy, lawmakers
learn
Walter Howerton Jr.
Santa Fe Bureau
SANTA FE — If New Mexico lawmakers thought the economy was going
to boom like thunder and rain money in the next couple of years, they
learned on Wednesday to put away their umbrellas.
New Mexico has been undergoing an economic dry spell while the national
economy and the economies of neighboring states have jumped and jived.
The worst might be over, but an economics expert told worried legislators
the best New Mexico can expect over the next couple of years is "moderate"
growth.
Lee Reynis, director of the Bureau of Business and Economic Research
at the University of New Mexico, told a joint meeting of members of
various House and Senate committees that the state is "coming
out of a very bad period" but that progress will be slow and
will continue to lag behind the rest of the nation, which is within
a month of enjoying the longest period of steady economic growth in
history...
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Electric bill may stall roadwork
Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — Unless a Navajo agency pays for the electricity
for street lights and traffic signals, the Arizona Department of Transportation
won't pay to install any more of them on state highways on the reservation.
This was the word Tuesday from ADOT District Engineer
Jeff Swan of Holbrook to the tribe's Transportation and Community
Development Committee.
Swan's comments came during a far-ranging discussion about a pair
of improvement projects planned for more than 10 miles of Arizona
Route 264 in St. Michaels and Window Rock...
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Controlled fire on Defiance Plateau
Staff report
SAWMILL, Ariz. — Now through March, the Fire Use
Crew of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Navajo Regional Office will
burn piles of slash at various locations on the Defiance Plateau.
The affected areas include: Sawmill along the 9000 forest road; Turkey
Springs North and South, along the 9200 forest road north of the power
lines; and Buell Park, along the 9400 forest road north of the power
lines. The slash piles consist of debris left after old logging, thinning,
brush cutting, wood haulers debris, etc.
The burning will:
Reduce the potential for catastrophic wild fires by eliminating slash
buildup...
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Sears brings back catalog sales in Gallup
Bill Donovan
Staff Writer
GALLUP — Long before there was a Wal-Mart or a Kmart in Gallup,
there was a Sears catalog store.
This is where many in the Gallup area went when they had to buy their
first dishwasher or washing machine and dryer.
And one of the enjoyments of life in Gallup as far back as the 1920s
was heading to the catalog store on a Saturday afternoon and skimming
through the Sears catalog and making plans on what you would buy if
you had the money...
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