Scooter kids



Drew Schrimsher and friend Tyler Lopez, 5, take their new Christmas scooters for a spin Friday afternoon.

Photo by Nicole Goodhue

 

---

Gillson sworn in as DA

Tanya Brazil
Staff Writer

GALLUP — The newly sworn-in 11th Judicial District Attorney Karl Gillson told an audience at the McKinley County District Courthouse Friday that he will strive to build a partnership within the District Attorney's Office and among local law enforcement agencies.

After swearing in both Gillson and Deputy District Attorney Joseph Arite, McKinley County District Court Judge Joseph Rich expressed his confidence that the new team will provide excellent service to the law enforcement community.

Gillson said he has had a good working relationship with the other law enforcement agencies during his seven years as Magistrate Court judge and hopes it will continue now that he is on the other side of the bench.

He and Arite both said their doors always will be open to hear citizens' concerns and ideas on how to better implement the laws of New Mexico.

Gillson admitted that he was stunned a few weeks ago when he discovered all of the attorneys were leaving the DA's Office and that only two prosecutors may be left by the time he takes office.

However, he said, Assistant District Attorney James Patterson since has agreed to stay on and he recently has hired a new attorney, Karen Kingen Etcitty, who has been an administrative judge for the Navajo Nation for the past five years.

The two obstacles Gillson said he has encountered in recruiting attorneys are the low salaries in New Mexico for government attorneys and the shortage of middle income housing in Gallup.

He said he needs to evaluate the budget before deciding how many people to hire and what special divisions will be formed but that the office currently has two vacancies for attorneys.

One option Gillson said he is looking into is the possibility of acquiring state funding from the Violence Against Women's Act to hire a domestic violence advocate.

Presenting Gillson with a peace pipe during the ceremony, Magistrate Court Judge John Carey said like now, he had the honor of speaking at Gillson's retirement dinner several months ago and that at that time the former judge was presented with a gag "get out of jail free" card.

Carey said that with all the difficulties they have had with the outgoing District Attorney's Office, he hopes Gillson now will write him a "get out of jail free" card.

Several weeks ago, the DA's Office excused Carey from all of its cases for allegedly striking a deal with a defendant facing worthless check charges without first consulting their office.

Following the ceremony, Gillson said this blanket excusal of the judge will end when he takes over the office on Tuesday but that he will review the writ filed by the former DA's office to assess whether it has any merit.

In regard to recent accusations by New Mexico State Police Capt. Glenn Thomas regarding the excessive dismissal/plead down rate of drunken driving cases, Gillson said his office will consult with and encourage involvement from arresting officers in all cases and particularly during pre-trial conferences.

He said he also plans to meet with the heads of local law enforcement agencies during his first week in office to make sure everyone's concerns are addressed.

Gillson said his philosophy in his upcoming tenure will be proactive; that he plans to address cases in their infancy before they turn into major felonies.

He said he favors having both preliminary hearings and a grand jury, that they both have significance but that some cases are better suited for one system or the other.

| Top |

---

Let's hear it for the New Guy (and Auld Lang Syne)

Walter Howerton Jr.
Managing Editor

The phone on my desk rang a few days before Christmas. When I picked it up, there was an all-too-familiar voice on the other end.

It was a voice unlike any other I know, somehow able simultaneously to be full of eagerness and anxiety, pleasure and despair; familiar and unfamiliar, it is a voice capable of sounding lost and found at the same time, a voice with a pleasant sort of Southern accent yet with a very unpleasant whiny outer edge. (I'm not fond of the red-necky Alabama lilt, but then I come from another part of the South myself and naturally bear one white Southerner's prejudices against another.)

It is a BI-polar kind of voice, the voice of an on-the-scene reporter from the land of the too-far-gone, a voice in which the rest of us nervously recognize a place that is not all that far away.

"Walt," he said, "It's New Guy." (No kidding. He still calls himself that after all these months.) It was back on Oct. 19 that the New Guy (a guy I had hired) decided he had had enough of Gallup and not enough of whatever else he thought he needed (though none of us, including him, ever have been quite sure what that was) and he hit the road.

That day he sent me a memo he entitled "No mas" and declared there was, "No need in dragging this out...For my sanity I need to get on the road. Maybe being in New York for the Subway Series will snap me out of this funk. If not, it's curtains for the kid."

Later that day, he left, all of his belongings heaped into the back of his little pickup truck. The next day he called from a pay phone somewhere around Amarillo wanting to come back. I said no because his misery was no longer particularly interesting and I pushed him on toward New York City. He cried a little. I could hear the traffic roaring by on I-40 behind him.

In Oklahoma, where he should have angled northeast, he didn't. He never made it to New York City. (The Yankees won the Subway Series without him, but I think he was a Mets fan, anyway.)

Given the chance to do what he claimed he always wanted to do, he just couldn't (let those among us without the same sin cast the first aspersion). The closest he ever came to New York City was Roanoke, Va., stopping hundreds of miles short of his dream town and turning back south, back toward the place he started from, the place he really can't seem to leave.

Somewhere along the road, he called me to tell me that he had decided to kill himself. "I called my ex-wife and told her, 'You know,' I said, ' I would love you until the day I died.' Well, today is that day."

Of course, he didn't kill himself. He couldn't, any more than he could go to New York City. Death or New York. Either way, he wouldn't have anything left to talk about, and if there is one thing the New Guy likes, it is talking about it, all of it.

"I've been trying all day to make myself walk out in front of a truck," he said. "I just can't do it." He did make a half-hearted effort with some over-the-counter sleeping pills, but they only made him sick. He knew they would. He had tried that before.

The New Guy drove hundreds of miles after leaving Gallup. Mostly, he looped through the South, taking in parts of Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia. He spent a couple of days in a hospital somewhere along the way.

Another time, state police picked him up while he was speaking slurrily to me from a motel somewhere in north Alabama (he kept getting closer to home) and took him to another hospital. A friend and I spent an hour tracking him down and dispatching the police.

He was hospitalized overnight and called me again the next day and told me about it. I don't think he ever figured out that I put the police onto him and held him on the phone until they arrived. He sounded very tired.

The last I heard from him was weeks ago when he had come up with a plan to go back to his hometown and sit on his first ex-wife's front porch (where his daughters also live) until she had him arrested. He saw going to jail as a way to quit driving around. New Guy logic is nothing if not a wonder to behold.

Then, the phone rang on my desk a few days before Christmas.

So, where does a guy who fails to reach New York City AND fails to kill himself for the lost love on his second wife AND decides to sit on the front porch of his first wife until she had him arrested end up? "I'm living at the Salvation Army," he said, sounding as close to cheerful as I ever have heard him.

It seems that when he showed up back in his Alabama hometown, road weary and ready to be arrested, he dropped by his mother's house to let her know what was up. Of course, it was a little before midnight when she saw her prodigal on the front porch, called his brother, then called the cops.

She wouldn't let him in (though he claims she took time to call him the same old ugly names she has always called him and made sure to tell him that she was suffering from cancer to boot.)

The police wouldn't arrest him because he hadn't done anything but stop by to say hello. His brother told the cops they wanted the New Guy committed because they were afraid he was going to kill himself.

"Are you going to kill yourself?" the cops asked.

"I've thought about it for years, but I don't have any real plans to do it tomorrow or anything," the New Guy said.

And he probably would have been fine, but he then went on to explain his plan to get arrested for sitting on his first ex-wife's front porch. The cops talked him into admitting himself to a local hospital.

He said he stayed there for nine days, taking medication, talking to doctors. Then, he left. The New Guy said he doesn't need
any doctors or medicine. He said he knows he has "to get all of this anger and bitterness out," but he doesn't think a psychiatrist would be much help.

After the hospital, he got as far as the Salvation Army shelter.

He spent the holiday season as a Salvation Army bell ringer, sleeping in one of the 14 bunk beds (lights out at 9 p.m., get up at 5:45 a.m.) He said he had to apply for the job ringing the bell (though the interview was short and to the point. "So, you want to be a bell ringer," someone asked. "Yes." They hired him) and that the pay is $5.65 per hour.

He spent the Christmas season ringing his bell between a giant bookstore and a Toys-R-Us. "Not the best spot," he admitted. "Outside any Wal-Mart is the best spot."

And it has not been an easy job for a lonely guy who failed to die for love. "I have to see hundreds of couples walking hand-in-hand Christmas shopping," he said.

He has made some friends down at the shelter. One was a guy who has been what the New Guy called a "Sally Tramp" for years. A Sally Tramp wanders all over the country from one Salvation Army shelter to another. It is a way of life that sounded
pretty good to the New Guy at first.

He offered to drive the Sally Tramp around in his truck (the New Guy still has his truck and it still is full of the stuff he packed up here in Gallup in October) and write a book about it. But the guy got a government check and a girlfriend and backed out.
"Besides," he told the New Guy, "I usually travel alone." (Actually, I think that is the part of the Sally Tramp business the New Guy doesn't quite understand. But then, he never could understand why Navajos live so far apart either.)

He said he met another guy (called him his "bunkmate") who did more than five years hard time in a maximum security prison in Missouri. The same guy also said he spent time in Gallup. "He said he liked prison better," the New Guy said and laughed.
He got a kick out of that because that was exactly his opinion of Gallup.

But he is not really fond of life at the shelter either, although he described life at the Salvation Army as "the top rung of homelessness" and "as good as it gets" for a homeless person.

The New Guy used to sit around here at the office and spin fanciful tales about going to New York City, being homeless and "selling roasted chestnuts on the street" (chestnuts?). He made it sound like a wonderful life, but that was before he knew anything about it. Other people who worked here knew New York was the kind of place where a man might cut off a homeless New Guy's feet to steal his shoes. Being homeless in Alabama seems to have changed the New Guy's mind.

"I don't want to be homeless for long," he said the other day. "The romance wore off."

But he has another 30 days at the Salvation Army. He wants to try to save a little money, visit with his daughters from time to time (he says they all have agreed to "put the past in the past.") He says that he read a book about suicide called "The Final Exit"
in his spare time and learned there is not much chance of dying from the over-the-counter method. He says he now has
"enough of a grip not to do anything" to himself or anyone else.

He claims he is about ready to go somewhere and get on with his life, maybe even find another newspaper job, but we all have heard that before.

"I'll call you when I get to somewhere else," he said before he hung up. But he always was talking about somewhere else. "For my sanity I need to get on the road," he wrote in that last-day memo in October.

I hope it works out this time.

Meanwhile, Happy New Year. And learn something from the New Guy: Save a little money. Visit your children from time to time. Read a book (even if it is about suicide), you might learn something. Work out some of that anger and bitterness. Get a grip. Get on with it. And be sure to call me when you get there.

| Top |

---

San Rafael man suspect in robberies

Tara Drolma
Staff Writer

MILAN — Milan Police have arrested Charles Hausam, 17, of San Rafael, also known as Monte Cline, for two of the four armed robberies at Milan convenience stores in October and November. Hausam is also facing charges for two armed robberies in Grants.

Milan Police Sgt. Jerry Stephens said he arrested Hausam on Wednesday on two counts of armed robbery for allegedly robbing the Mustang Service Station on Highway 66 on Oct. 30 and the Allsup's store, also on Highway 66, on Thanksgiving.
The person who robbed the Mustang Gas Station used a knife to threaten the clerk; no weapon was used in the Allsup's robbery, but the clerk was threatened.

Stephens said he had interviewed several people and received an anonymous tip in the case against Hausam. In the initial report on the Mustang robbery, clerk Marie King described the thief as wearing light tan gloves that had a glue-like substance on them. Stephens recovered a glove that matched that description from the car that Hausam allegedly stole on Dec. 6. When he showed the glove to King she identified it as the one she saw the robber wearing.

Hausam is now facing charges of four counts of armed robbery, one count of unlawful taking of a motor vehicle (the car used in the Grants' robberies was stolen), and one count of tampering with evidence.

He was arrested by Grants police officers on Dec. 6 after allegedly robbing two Allsup's stores in Grants. In those robberies he is accused of threatening the clerks with a 10-inch knife. The knife and some of the stolen property were retrieved after Hausam and his alleged accomplice, Danielle Tafoya, threw it out of the window of their car when they were being pursued by police.

Hausam was released to the custody of his mother, Penny Cline, placed on house arrest, and ordered to wear an ankle bracelet for those charges.

Hausam was indicted by the grand jury Dec. 20 for the Grants' robberies and he will be tried as an adult for those crimes. When a juvenile is charged with a crime that involves a deadly weapon, the DA's office can file a petition to have the juvenile tried and sentenced as an adult, said Assistant District Attorney Tina Faught-Hollar.

Once that is done, the case is taken to the grand jury to determine probable cause. Hollar, who handles the juvenile cases for the DA's office, said she would file a petition to have Hausam tried as an adult for the Milan robbery cases, too.

Hausam appeared before District Judge Camille Olguin on Friday for a detention hearing in the latest charges and an arraignment for the Grants' case.

Olguin heard the arraignment case first. Hausam, who was represented by John Bezzeg in both matters, pleaded not guilty to the grand jury charges.

Stephens testified at the detention hearing on Friday. Most of the testimony was about the robbery at the Mustang Gas Station.
Stephens said the clerk opened the store about 6:30 a.m. and went into the office in the back. A man wearing a blue jacket with horizontal stripes across the back followed her in to the office and brandished a knife. A large amount of cash, credit card receipts, and personal checks was taken.

Cassandra Molina, a Cibola County Sheriff's dispatcher, was a witness in the case. She was on duty when Hausam was brought to court for the detention hearing for the Grants robberies on Dec. 7. She testified that Hausam was held in the dispatch room where she was working because there were other prisoners in the cell at the time and a juvenile cannot be placed with adult prisoners.

Bezzeg had spoken to Hausam and after he left the room Molina said Hausam began laughing. Bezzeg objected to Molina's testimony, saying that anything Hausam had said violated his right to remain silent. Olguin upheld his objection for this hearing, saying there was not enough foundation to show he waived his right to silence.

The police report said Hausam had confessed to the Allsup's and Mustang robberies and had bragged to Molina about how much cash he had taken. That information was not public and police reasoned only the thief could have known the amount.

After that Bezzeg called John Garcia from Mount Taylor Guidance. Garcia has been monitoring Hausam and he testified Hausam has obeyed the order to remain on house arrest and said he didn't have any reason to expect he would not continue to behave if he was allowed to remain free on bond.

Hollar argued that these were serious charges and Hausam posed a threat to the community and to the witnesses in the cases. She asked for the bond to be set at $25,000.

Olguin set the bond at $10,000 and placed Hausam on house arrest. She ordered him to wear an ankle bracelet and he can leave the house only if he or his mother needs to go to a doctor.

Bezzeg said Hausam has been looking for work and the judge said she would consider letting him work if Bezzeg presented her with papers showing he has a job.

| Top |

---

Turnovers prove costly for Grants

Santiago Ramos
Staff Sports Writer

ST. JOHNS, Ariz. — Grants turned the ball over three times in a row leading to three crucial scores in the final minutes that paved the way for a heartbreaking 45-42 loss to Alchesay Friday night during the semifinals of the St. Johns Holiday Invitational.

Grants will have played Show Low earlier this morning while Red Mesa and Pinon will have played in the consolation bracket. Alchesay will play the winner of the Espanola-Bourgade game in the finals tonight at 7 p.m.

Alchesay 45, Grants 42

"Three turnovers in a row that was the difference," Grants coach Gerald Horacek said of the tough setback. "We hit two three's in a row and then we had the ball and the lead and turn the ball over and they score. And then we have two more turnovers in a row and they score four more points."

Alchesay, now 17-2 overall, had a five-point lead, 39-34, with six minutes left in the game. But the Pirates, now 4-3, surged into the lead on successive three-pointers by guards Joe Ross and Wayne Smith for a 40-39 Pirate lead with 4:50 remaining.

The Pirates ran the time down to just under three minutes but a crucial turnover with the ball going out-of-bounds gave the ball back to the Falcons.

Alchesay, which lost in last year's Class 3A state semifinals to eventual state champion Tuba City, converted on the turnover as Josh Pinal nailed a short turnaround jumper. Two more turnovers in succession with Pinal and then Oranthal Cosay intercepting a pair of Pirate passes led to key back-to-back scores for a 45-40 Falcon lead.

The Pirates, who missed a number of crucial easy layups during the game, had the chance to close the gap but missed on a layup by Smith along with a pair of three-point attempts by Ross and Kyle James.

Grants's Smith scored on a putback with 35 seconds left that closed the gap to 45-42.

The Falcons had the chance to ice the game at the charity stripe but Belden Beatty missed on a 1-and-1 with Roshaun McKinney getting the rebound for the Pirates.

Grants quickly called for a timeout with 10 seconds to set up the final play. Smith in-bounded the ball but neither Ross, McKinney or Smith was able to get free for a three-point shot. With time running out, James got a shot for a trey but the ball hit the rim and missed its mark as Alchesay held on for the win.

"We held the ball a little but we weren't in a delay," Horacek explained. "We wanted to get a good shot but we ended up turning the ball over. On the final play we had four guys that could have shot the three. Joe (Ross), Roshaun (McKinney), and Wayne (Smith) had the chance for the shot. Kyle (James) took it. We got a good look (at the basket) but we didn't make it. But hats off to our kids. Our kids have a lot of heart."

In addition to the three turnovers in the final minutes, a disparity in free throw shooting favored Alchesay. The Falcons sank 6-of-11 free throws while Grants did not attempt a single free throw all night long.

The game was hotly contested with Alchesay clinging to a slim 9-8 lead after the opening period. Grants came back in the second period to take a 23-22 lead at intermission as Ross tallied all nine of his first half points in the second period. The Falcons regained the lead, 33-32, heading into the final period.

Joe Ross led the Pirates with 12 points along with two treys. Wayne Smith, Kyle James and Roshaun McKinney each chipped in eight points.

Alchesay's Belden Beatty had 16 points and Blaine Goklish 12 for the Falcons.

Both teams struggled from the field with Grants hitting on 19-of-56 for 34 percent shooting while Alchesay was 19-of-49 for 39 percent.

From long range, Grants hit on 4-of-10 treys for 40 percent with Alchesay 1-of-10 for 10 percent.

Red Mesa 79, Many Farms 52

Red Mesa bolted out to a commanding 29-7 first period lead thanks to Theus Begay who poured in four treys and 22 of his game-high 35 points to pace the Redskins. He finished with five three-pointers.

Jackson Brossy added 20 for Red Mesa.

Many Farms's top scorer was Edwin Bahe with 24 points in a losing effort.

Orme 70, Pinon 57

Orme grabbed a commanding 23-11 first period and then coasted to a 70-57 win over Pinon.

The Eagles had Robryan Wartz with 12 points, Germaine Begay and Fernando Begay each with 10 and Earlwin Thomas with nine.

Orme was led by Jabari Smith with 18 points and Taos Sagaika with 15.

Pinon 64, Many Farms 46

Pinon downed Many Farms Friday morning in the second round.

The Eagles led 15-8 and pulled away for a 39-21 halftime lead before winning by 18 points, 64-46.

Randy Whitehair led Pinon with 15 points. Many Farms' Edwin Bahe led all scorers with 28 points in a losing effort.

Valley teams top field

Abelita Rose Freeland
Staff Sports Writer

SANDERS, Ariz. — The Valley Pirate boys and girls teams went undefeated to capture the Terantino Begay Christmas Tournament.

The Lady Pirates dominated the Williams Vikings beating them 64-31 and the Pirate boys outplayed the Williams boys, winning 97-51 Friday night.

Anthony Zazueta and Denise Roan were named tournament MVPs.

"It feels good. It was a team efforts. It takes everybody to make an MVP. It's just teamwork and they helped me get the MVP," senior Zazueta said about being named the Most Valuable Player.

"I didn't think I was going to get it (MVP). I thought it would be one of the other players. It's the first time," Roan said on being MVP.

Boys Valley 97, Williams 51

The Pirate boys faced their toughest competition in the three-day tournament, but still walked away with a large margin of victory.

"We were well rested tonight. We were able to rest up and put it all up tonight," coach Mark Forster said of his team's performance. "They (Pirates) are able to play good basketball and keep it light hearted."

"We have matched up with (Williams) for many, many years and it has always been a good game and match-up," Forster added.

Valley started the game with a 5-0 run on a drive to the basket by Chaushie Forster who was fouled on the way. He made the free throw and Adam Mitchell added two more.

The Vikings' Ekenberry ended the run on an offensive rebound for a basket but J.C. Baldwin came back with a jump shot, making the score 7-2.

Williams trailed only 8-6 before Valley pulled away for a 22-9 first quarter advantage highlighted by a three-pointer by Anthony Zazueta at the end of the period.

In the second quarter, Valley maintained their double-digit margin until scores by Shawn Gene and a steal from Mitchell ending with a basket to bring the score up to 35-19. The Vikings ended the quarter on a drive by Ortiz but Williams still trailed 43-25 at the half.

The Pirates continued to pull away in the second half, doubling their score in the third and fourth quarter. Valley outscored Williams 24-9 in the third quarter and 30-17 in the fourth.

Watching his team's performance the past few days, Forster feels that his team is ready to start their conference play.

"I am real proud of my team. This is the second tournament they've won and were looking forward to going to regionals," Forster concluded.

"We did very well. We just need to make improvements on some (areas) like defense," said tournaments MVP Zazueta who led his team with 16 points, four assist and three steals.

Pirate Shawn Gene also had 16 points, eight rebounds and two steals. J.C. Baldwin finished with 13 points and three steals before fouling out. Watchman finished with 12 points, nine rebounds and three steals, and R-Jay Thomas walked away with 10 points and three steals.

The Pirates (15-2) will take on St. Johns at home in their second conference matchup January 5.

Girls Valley 64, Williams 31

The Valley Lady Pirates finished their final day of the tournament victoriously, beating the Williams Lady Vikings 64-31.
"I think we did pretty good. The girls did real well. It's always good to have (the) tournament because it gives them a lot of practice during the break," Valley coach Julia Six said.

The Lady Pirates opened the first quarter taking a 6-0 lead with a jump shot by Terilyn Keedah and offensive rebounds for baskets from Gina Lynch and Marisha Forster.

The Lady Pirates ended the first quarter with an eight point run to take a 17-7 lead. Denise Roan assisted Forster, Keedah assisted Roan and Amber Matt and Lynch scored off offensive rebounds.

Valley outscored Williams 20-4 in the second quarter to take control for good.

The third quarter was the closest quarter of action for both teams with the Pirates being outscored 14-13. But that had no effect on the damage the Lady Pirates had already done.

"We need more work on teamwork as far as passing the ball and looking for one another," Six said is an area she feels her team need to work.

Leading the Lady Pirates was Ashley with 12 points and three steals.

"We worked hard and worked together. We did good and worked hard," said Roan who finished with 10 points, three assists and six steals.

Keedah also had 10 points and four rebounds for Valley.

Coach Six feels that at this point there has been 95 percent improvement by her team since the beginning of the season and that her team (13-2) will be ready to go into conference play against St. Johns on January 5.

| Top |

---

Money scandal forces John to resign

Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — The scandal involving former Navajo Nation Inn General Manager Don Hubbard has brought down a veteran Navajo Nation Council delegate.

David John resigned Friday as part of a deal with the special prosecutor and Office of Ethics and Rules.

John was accused of illegally accepting more than the Navajo Ethics in Government Law limit of $100 a year in gifts from Hubbard, the Navajo Nation Inn and the inn's parent, the Navajo Nation Hospitality Enterprise.

The resigned chairman of the council's Economic Development Committee was accused in a Dec. 19 complaint of accepting an estimated $8,500 of free rooms and meals at five motels and restaurants in Gallup and Window Rock on 275 separate occasions from Nov. 15, 1996, to May 31, 1999...

| Top |

---

Gift grab success means a repeat

Larry Di Giovanni
Staff Writer

ST. MICHAELS, Ariz. — Despite some confusion over how the couches and chairs, washers and dryers, stereos, TVs, refrigerators, bicycles and other items were to be distributed, a gift give-away for adults in Tse Bonito on Dec. 15 was a tremendous success.

It was so much of a success that another fully loaded semi trailer-tractor with more items will return in January, the Rev. John Clark of Chandler said.

"We had a great turnout. It was wonderful," Clark, the organizer, said. He is with the Canyon Ridge Bible Church in Chandler.

Swift Trucking volunteered two semis last time, a value of $4,000 in truck/trailer use alone. For January's trip, Clark is enlisting the aid of the Navajo Nation. Other Phoenix area organizers included Lufthansa Airlines and a Mesa orphanage, Sunshine Acres...

| Top |

---

---

Deaths

Julian Grenko

GALLUP — Private graveside services for Julian Grenko, 88, will be held at Sunset Memorial Park. Father Walter Opalewski will officiate.

Grenko died Dec. 28 in Gallup. He was born Feb. 16, 1912, in Gallup.

Grenko owned and operated Grenko Coal Co. He retired from the city of Gallup as a welder. He was a member of the Catholic Croatian Union, Croatian Fraternal Union, Elks Lodge 1440 and the United Mine Workers of America.

Survivors include his wife, Ljubica Grenko of Gallup; daughter, Marietta Pomeroy of Gallup; and one grandchild.

Grenko was preceded in death by parents, John and Lucia Grenko, and brothers, Marion Grenko and Tony Grenko.

Donations may be made to the Humane Society of Gallup, P.O. Box 550, Gallup, N.M. 87305.

Rollie Mortuary is in charge of arrangements.

Ahesdebah Bia

SPIDER ROCK, Ariz. — Services for Ahesdebah Bia, 94, will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 30, at the Diné Hogan Baptist Church, Spider Rock. Pastor David Brown Sr. will officiate. Burial will follow on family land in Spider Rock.

Bia died Dec. 26 in Spider Rock. She was born July 1, 1906, in Sawmill, Ariz., into the Bigwater People Clan for the Tangle
People Clan.

Bia was a rug weaver and a sheep herder.

Survivors include her sons, Charles Bia of Spider Rock and Donald Bia of Nazlini, Ariz.; daughters, Lucy Brown and Annie Bia, both of Spider Rock, and Lena Romero of Grants; 45 grandchildren; 152 great-grandchildren and 11 great-great-grandchildren.

Bia was preceded in death by husband, Alfred Bia; parents, Cly Bia and Lillie Rose Begay, two sons, three daughters and two grandchildren.

Pallbearers will be Waylon James, Darrell Bia, Johnson Brown, Oscar Bia Sr., Basil Romero and Justin Bia.

The family will receive friends and relatives after the burial services at Diné Hogan Baptist Church, Spider Rock.

Tse Bonito Mortuary is in charge of arrangements.