Mentmore developer ordered to negotiate
Bill Donovan
Staff Writer
GALLUP — After listening to more than three hours of debate Tuesday,
members of the Gallup City Council made yet another decision regarding
the mobile home subdivision in Mentmore being proposed by Gallup Realtor
Les Hadden.
The city voted to require Hadden to deal with objections to the project
posed by the city's planning staff since 1997. It's yet another decision
in this long-standing dispute that didn't appease either side.
The 40 or so residents of Mentmore who attended the meeting didn't
like the decision because they wanted the city to tell Hadden he couldn't
build a mobile home park near their homes.
Hadden and his attorney, Bob Ionta, didn't like the
decision either. He said after the hearing that the matter will once
again wind up in court.
In some ways, it's a simple dispute.
Residents of Mentmore, located on the west side of Gallup,
are fighting to preserve their quality of life, which they see seriously
threatened by Hadden's plans to sell 135 lots to people who will live
in manufactured mobile homes.
Part of the problem is the term "mobile homes,"
which many residents take to mean trailers owned by low-income families
whose presence would increase crime in the area and ruin the values
of their permanent homes.
"We fear that the crime rate will escalate as it
has happened in other low-income communities," said Jeannine
Russell, vice president of the Mentmore Meadows Residents Association.
Many of the complaints centered around residents' fears
of finding themselves waking up one morning next door to a trailer
park.
But Ionta said those fears were groundless because Hadden is planning
on building anything but a trailer park.
The new subdivision will consist of manufactured mobile homes that
will be placed on site and become permanent homes. They won't be trailers
with the wheels and axles removed, waiting for the day the owners
decide to move to some other location, he said.
"Once (the homes) are put in place, they will be
permanent," he said. "They will not be movable."
He also stressed that these will be nice homes, in the $80,000 to
$100,000 range homes that will be worth more than some of the permanent
homes that now exist in the Mentmore area.
But even if that is true, one Mentmore resident said,
the mobile homes will depreciate while the value of the permanent
homes will increase.
Much of the debate also centered on the traffic problems caused by
135 more families living in the area and 200 to 300 more cars driving
over the two roads that currently provide access to the community.
"My concern is safety," said Dave Caspar, a Mentmore resident
who enjoys walking and bicycling in the area.
Some points in the road are so narrow that when two cars try to pass
each other, one has to go off the road.
What's going to happen to people when a tow truck carrying a mobile
home tries to travel on one of those roads? Caspar asked. "If
I'm walking, I'm going to be in the gutter, and there are a lot of
rattlesnakes along the road," he said.
Other Mentmore residents commented on the area's serenity.
They fear the two roads will be continually clogged with cars and
towing trucks, making life unsafe for children and unbearable for
adults.
Neither Ionta nor Hadden had a solution for the traffic
problem apparently it costs too much to put another road or two into
the area but they questioned whether current residents would notice
the increased traffic.
They also pointed out that Mentmore residents were pressing to have
Hadden change his plans and build permanent homes in that subdivision.
If that occurred, the traffic problem would be just as great as under
its current plan. Residents and staff for the city planning office
also expressed concern about more technical issues, such as drainage,
the height of the curbs and the driveways and whether the existing
roads, already in poor shape with the current traffic, would be able
to withstand extra traffic and the weight of the mobile homes.
But the bottom line, City Councilor Pat Butler said,
is that Hadden's property is zoned for a mobile home subdivision,
and the city doesn't have the authority to change that unless Hadden
requests it.
The only authority the city has, he said, is over how Hadden develops
that subdivision.
Lisa Baca Diaz, the city's planner, said her staff has
a number of problems with the current proposal and wants Hadden to
meet certain criteria, including bringing in the utilities in the
front of the buildings instead of the back. Hadden opposes this because
it will him cost more money, but it will also cost the city more if
it has to make repairs.
These are basically the same things city planners have been saying
since 1997. Diaz said Hadden has refused to meet with them and address
these concerns
That's not, however, how Ionta views it.
"Stanley Henderson (another city planner) has refused to talk
with us," he said.
But under the motion approved by the city, Hadden has to sit down
with the city's planning staff to get approval for his construction
plans before he can go ahead.
Both the city and Hadden agree on one thing: This is a dispute that
is going to go on for a long time.
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Police arrest thief
Zarana Sanghani
Staff Writer
GALLUP — Some shoplifters steal for material gain, some for the
thrill and still others to show off. A shoplifter caught outside Grants
said his crimes in California, Arizona and New Mexico helped relieve
stress, according to New Mexico State Police Officer Kevin Bruno.
Bruno arrested Sean Brinton at 6 p.m. Tuesday after an employee at
the Petro truck stop in Grants called police with a description of
Brinton and his car seen on the store's video camera display.
When Bruno caught Brinton, the officer suspected a string of thefts
when he found a VCR whose box had a mailing address to Kingman, Ariz.
Brinton later told police he shoplifted from several stores during
his trip from California through Arizona.
The shoplifter told police he steals to see if he can get away with
it. Doing so helps him vent stress, Bruno said.
"I'm hoping he (gets therapy)," Bruno said. "He needs
it and he knows he needs it. That's what's funny about this he knows
he has a problem."
The video caught Brinton entering Petro with old shoes, walking out
with new shoes, returning with socks and exiting with not only new
shoes but with a television.
Police recovered several items from his car including a CD player,
laser pointers and video cassettes.
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Local developer, plan are both controversial
Bill Donovan
Staff Writer
GALLUP — Les Hadden's plans to build a mobile home
subdivision in Mentmore are about as controversial as the man himself.
Some of those who attended Tuesday night's Gallup City
Council meeting viewed Hadden as a man who wanted to make a lot of
money off the suffering of people to whom he once sold homes. Hadden
was one of several people who developed the Mentmore subdivision.
But others argued that Hadden was looking out for what was best for
Gallup and young people who are having problems coming up with the
money to buy their first home.
Yvonne Unale, a Mentmore resident, said she asked Hadden
when she purchased her home whether mobile homes were going to be
moved into Mentmore.
"He told me that the only thing going in was an elementary school,"
she said. If she had known a mobile home subdivision was being planned,
she said, she would never have bought her house.
She said she also had problems in getting Hadden to
repair the home she bought.
"He fixes things in a way that appear to be fixed,
but when the warranty expires, you realize that there are still problems,"
she said.
Others in the audience also said they asked Hadden about
his future development plans in the area and were not told of the
mobile home subdivision proposal that was in the works.
At the end of the meeting, City Councilor Pat Butler
said he did not want residents of Gallup to get the wrong idea about
Hadden.
"Hadden has done a lot for the city," he said.
The man who says he has built more homes in Gallup than anyone else
this century doesn't need the money he will make from the project.
Hadden says his primary motive is not money but to provide homes that
will be affordable to young people who are buying their first home.
Most permanent homes cost more than $100,000 and are
out of the price range of young adults looking for a starter home.
But the manufactured mobile homes he is planning for the subdivision
will fall within their range.
He said the fight to get city approval of the subdivision
has so far cost him more than $60,000, and there is no end in sight.
He said he doesn't plan to back down in his fight to bring affordable
homes to the people of Gallup.
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Navajo fire staff strikes
Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — After being told that Fire Chief Dicky Bain would
not be kicked out of the department, volunteers and most of the staff
of the Navajo Nation Fire and Rescue Department walked off the job
Tuesday afternoon.
Those who left their jobs did not say how long they would not answer
pages to respond to fires and rescue incidents.
Herb Clah, director of the Division of Public Safety,
which includes the Fire and Rescue Department, told representatives
of the Window Rock Fire Station that the Navajo Nation administration
decided to ask Bain to step down to the rank of captain...
Navajo Police briefs
Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau
Kayenta man drowns
WINDOW ROCK — A 61-year-old shepherd in Kayenta apparently drowned
Dec. 7 or 8 when he fell into a stock pond while trying to rescue
one of his flock.
He was found about 2 p.m. Thursday frozen about eight feet down in
the pond, while the dead sheep was sticking above the surface of the
ice.
Dale Yazzie, who lived about one-half mile south of Mile Post 391
on U.S. 160, was found by Ray Clitso who spotted Yazzie's horse, still
saddled, tied to a tree by the pond, then saw the sheep in the pond.
Suzie Clitso arrived at the Kayenta Police District station about
2:45 p.m. to report Yazzie's family had been searching for him for
two days, according to police...
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A whole new world!
Vera McNamee
Independent columnist
GALLUP — My family has developed several new glitches, hitches
and new ways of looking at things.
One of the new ways of looking at the world has to do with teen-agers.
Now, I am sure you already realize that teen-agers have a new and
different perspective of the world at least from their viewpoint.
All of us old foggies ain't never been there or done that!
How many times have you been confronted with a teen-ager mumbling,
screaming or telling you straight to your face that you can't possibly
have any idea what they are going through? Your world as an old person
doesn't have anything to do with them as a young person. The world
has changed...
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