Bank: Days Inn battle may harm future loans

Date set for jail decision

Street work gets 1 bid

Couple criticizes pool in Milan

Speeder with cocaine nabbed

Bomb ruled out in Baca blast

By Sekai K. Mutunhu
Staff Writer GALLUP — A crumbling wall and piles of debris were all that remained of the Baca Chapter House Wednesday afternoon, when federal officers and local police swarmed the area to investigate the cause of the explosion that destroyed the 19-year-old building.
State Police Capt. Glenn Thomas said early speculation involving a bomb detonation had been ruled out late Wednesday afternoon, and investigators are now blaming a leak in the propane gas line that the Navajo Nation had been installing in the building Tuesday.
"Everything at this point seems to be pointing to a gas leak," said George Dahl, Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms resident-agent-in-charge who was called in from Albuquerque to investigate the explosion. "It doesn't look like any explosives were used."
No one is believed to have been injured in the explosion that rocked the chapter house early Wednesday morning, but dogs are scheduled to be brought in today to check for any possible fatalities that may have been overlooked.
The ATF is also bringing in a certified fire expert to further investigate the scene, Dahl said.
New Mexico State Police, investigators from the Navajo Nation Police Department and officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the ATF, along with several emergency vehicles, were at the site of the former chapter house.
Area residents were jolted from their beds around 5 a.m. Wednesday by a thunderous sound that was accompanied by shaking. Officials said the force of the explosion threw debris as far as 300 feet, shattered windows and shook the foundations of nearby homes.
Judy Bennett, who lives several feet away from the chapter house, was sleeping with her children when the family was abruptly woken by what she initially thought was some kind of natural disaster.
"I just felt the whole house shaking like there was an earthquake," she said. "The kids jumped out of bed and started screaming and pictures fell off the wall."
Bennett added, "It was scary, I thought it was the end of the world."
Bennett and her family ventured outside and were greeted by clouds of smoke and a big ball of fire. They soon realized that the chapter house was on fire, she said.
Carlene Lee, another area resident, described a similar experience.
Lee had been trying to comfort her sick grandson. With that accomplished, she turned down the heat in the house and was getting ready to return to bed when the explosion hit.
"It was hard. I thought it was an earthquake or something," she said. "There was a lot of confusion and people guessing what it might be."
Everyone in the household ran outside where the street was filled with neighbors gathering to watch what Lee described as a "big ball of smoke and flames."
Lee said the chapter house frequently used for meetings, gatherings, birthday parties and a host of other activities would be sorely missed.
"The only good thing about it is that nobody was hurt and that it wasn't during business hours, we have to thank the Lord for that," she said.
Until other plans can be made, chapter house officials said a temporary structure would be erected to replace the destroyed building. .

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Bank: Days Inn battle may harm future loans

By Bill Donovan
DinÚ Bureau

WINDOW ROCK „ The battle over the Navajoland Days Inn may have a major effect on future economic development on the Navajo Reservation.
That was the opinion of an attorney representing Community First National Bank who argued in a hearing Wednesday in Window Rock District Court that an adverse decision against the bank could make it a lot harder for Navajos in the future to get bank loans.
The dispute stems from the $3.2 million loan the bank gave last year to Romero Brown to pay for the construction of his hotel in St. Mi chaels. Brown has refused to make any payments on the loan, saying that the bank allowed the con structor to do shoddy work.
At the center of the legal dispute is a provision in the contract be tween Brown and the bank over where disputes would be heard. The bank's attorney, Franklin Hoover of Flagstaff, told District Court Judge Allan Sloan that the clause gives the bank the right to have any dispute heard in state court instead of tribal court. The hearing Wednesday was on a motion by the bank to get Sloan to declare that tribal court has no ju risdiction which would send the case to state court.
"If Brown is allowed to prevail," Hoover said, the court should take into consideration what "effect that would have on tribal members in the future who want to get a bank loan."
This is an argument that economic development officials for the tribe have been airing privately for the past few months because of fears that the dispute over Navajoland Days Inn may make off-reservation banks even more reluctant to loan any large sums to Navajos if they are forced to adjudicate any dis putes in tribal court.
The question is not whether tribal courts would favor the Navajo side, but how off-reservation financial in terests would view that possibility if they had to go before a tribal judge, according to one tribal economic de velopment official.
While not putting it that bluntly, Hoover urged Sloan to consider the ramifications of his decision if he rules against the bank.
Robert Greer, Brown's attorney, argued, however, that Hoover was trying to use scare tactics to win the case by saying an adverse court de cision would "so frighten banks that they would never lend money to Navajos."
Greer's position is that the provi sion in Brown's contract regarding what forum would hear disputes was flawed and was too ambiguous, thereby making in invalid. What an adverse decision will do then, he said, is make banks in the future in clude specific forum provisions that don't have flaws such as those in Brown's contract.
He also argued that hearing the case in tribal court makes sense be cause of additional lawsuits filed this week by Brown against several other companies that had a role in building the hotel, including a Na vajo construction company that could only be sued in tribal court.
"Each of these other plaintiffs had a role in the shoddy construction be cause they were given the bank's blessing," Greer said, adding that the "only place to get full relief is here."
The two attorneys spent almost an hour Wednesday arguing a vari ety of reasons why the case should be heard in state court or tribal court.
Hoover pointed out that since the case actually involves non-Indian owned fee land, and since the title to the land the hotel is on belongs to the bank, the proper forum would be state court since the Navajo courts do not adjudicate title under state law.
"It's immaterial that a tribal mem ber is involved," he said.
He pointed out that this specific forum issue works both ways.
When he was an attorney for the Hopi Tribe, he said he signed a clause requiring that any disputes about the contract be heard in Hopi Tribal Court.
Greer's main argument, which he developed in the hours before the hearing was held, was that if the clause in question was ambiguous, it is "not enforceable."
And if it is not enforceable, Brown has the right to have the case heard in tribal court. Sloan requested at the end of the hearing for the two attorneys to present more briefs on the subject of whether the provision in question was flawed. Because of this, the earliest that he would be able to render a decision is late De cember.

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Date set for jail decision

By Jim Maniaci
DinÚ Bureau

WINDOW ROCK „ Whether a private company will build a mega-jail on the Navajo Reservation might be decided Nov. 29 during a special meeting of the Public Safety Committee of the Tribal Council. Committee members targeted that date to make a decision date about the five-year-old problem of the critical shortage of beds for both pre- and post-sentenced inmates of the Navajo judicial system...

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Street work gets 1 bid

By Tom Purdom
Staff Writer

MILAN „ A bid for street patching and resurfacing caused a bit of a flap at a board of trustees meeting Tuesday because only one bid was received for the work. The contract, however, was ultimately awarded to that lone bidder, J.R. Contractors Inc. of Milan. J.R. Contractors is owned by Joe Chavez...

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Couple criticizes pool in Milan

By Tom Purdom
Staff Writer

MILAN „ A Bluewater man and his handicapped wife who both use the Milan Municipal Swimming Pool for relaxation and therapy have told village trustees the pool does not meet Americans with Disabilities Act specifications. Lawrence Young, whose wife walks with the aid of crutches, told trustees that ADA standards require the distance from the parking lot to the swimming pool to be no more than 80 feet...

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Speeder with cocaine nabbed

By Sekai K. Mutunhu
Staff Writer

GALLUP „ A routine traffic stop turned into a big-time drug bust Wednesday when New Mexico State Police officers pulled over a speeding car and found 20 pounds of cocaine with an estimated street value of $320,000. Francisco Castro, 40, was heading east on Interstate 40 when officers Kevin Bruno and Jason Foster stopped the 1984 Ford Tempo around 4 a.m. Castro was reportedly traveling 77 mph in a 65 mph zone...

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Mexican Springs must pay back money

By Jim Maniaci
DinÚ Bureau

WINDOW ROCK „ Take some training and pay back the money. This was the decision Wednesday of the Ethics and Rules Committee of the Navajo Nation Council in the case involving the three top elected officials of the Mexican Springs Chapter in the Fort Defiance Agency...

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