Domino king



Corey Joe, 6, a first-grader at Washington ELementary School, occupies himself with dominoes while waiting at the Recreation Center in Gallup on Tuesday. More than 130 students from Washington and St. Francis schools were evacuated to the center after an explosive-filled truck slid off Interstate 40. The truck was removed without incident.

Photo by Craig Robinson



"The Posse," an acrylic and oil on linen canvas painting by Armando Alvarez, is one of the paintings that will be on display Saturday at Red Mesa Art Center and Crashing Thunder Studio.

Courtesy Photo

 

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County declares snow emergency

Bill Donovan
Staff Writer

GALLUP — The McKinley County Board of Commissioners has declared a snow emergency in the county.

The declaration now paves the way for county road crews to provide aid to people with medical problems who have problems getting to a hospital because of road conditions.

The same situation also exists in many parts of the Navajo Reservation where tribal officials are taking steps to make sure that people in those areas with medical problems also get treatment.

McKinley County Road Superintendent David Acosta said that while county and BIA roads have been cleared, there are a number of private and secondary roads that are still snowpacked and hard to navigate.

Under the emergency proclamation, people in the county who are unable to get the medical treatment they need be it getting to the hospital for dialysis or to get needed medicine should call 911 or Metro Dispatch.

Metro will then provide their names to the local Civil Preparedness director. Civil Preparedness will then try to reach the person in need using its four-wheel drive vehicles. If they can't, the county road department will be notified and the road in question will be cleared off by county crews.

Acosta stressed that people should not call the county road department because all calls must go through Civil Preparedness first.

County officials also asked that county residents should not ask for assistance in removing snowdrifts from in front of their house or grading their road if there is no snow emergency.

Other agencies are now in the process of clearing off their own roads.

For example, the county school district's lone grader has been going to various schools in the district to help clear off roads to teacherages and other school buildings.

Andrew Showalter, who lives in the teacherage near Twin Lakes Elementary, said the crews can't come soon enough for him.
Showalter and his wife, both of whom worked for the school and both of whom have resigned, have been trying to move out of the teacherage for the past couple of days without much success because of the snowdrifts and snowpacked roads to the
teacherage.

"We had a moving van here Tuesday to move us but he wouldn't come into the teacherage because of the snow," he said.

He was told Wednesday afternoon that the district's grader would be there, but as of 3 p.m., it still had not showed up.

School Superintendent Robert Gomez said Wednesday that a number of schools in the county are asking for help in clearing off roads and school crews are trying to reach everyone as soon as possible.

The situation that now affects many areas of McKinley County is also being felt in various parts of the Navajo Reservation, said the tribe's emergency management director, Eugene Guerito.

The worst areas on the reservation currently appear to be in the western portion near Navajo Mountain and in high altitude areas.
He said that all chapters have been told to help out by preparing lists of names of chapter members who may have medical problems that will be affected by the snow. Once these names have been turned in, Guerito said the tribe will work with the BIA and the counties to make sure that medical assistance is provided.

But while the snow is causing problems, officials in McKinley County and on the Navajo Nation are waiting for the second shoe to fall muddy roads caused by the melting snow.

"We'll have to wait and see what happens," Acosta said. "If the snow melts a little bit at a time, there should be no major problem, but if it melts right away, we'll have problems."

Guerito said his office is also monitoring the situation and is already getting requests from reservation residents for help because the snow is covering up all of the forage, making it hard for reservation livestock to find food.

"Right now, our priority is to take care of people with medical needs," he said. "When that is done, we'll start looking at what we can do to help livestock owners."

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Local artist signed for Los Angeles zoo project

S.J. Ludescher
Staff Writer

GALLUP — Three art galleries in Gallup will host openings on Saturday evening.

The Coffee House in downtown Gallup will feature the art and photographs of local artists Kathe Noe and Jill Farkas. In an unprecedented effort, the other two galleries, Crashing Thunder and Red Mesa Art Center, will exhibit paintings by the same local artist, Armando Alvarez.

A reception is planned for Noe and Farkas at the Coffee House from 7-10 p.m. Saturday. The other reception will be 5-7 p.m. at Red Mesa Art Center followed by a reception at Crashing Thunder from 7-10 p.m. for Alvarez. The public is invited to all three.

Both galleries had asked Alvarez to exhibit his paintings for quite a long time. Aside from the demand for his paintings in Santa Fe galleries, another part of the problem exhibiting in Gallup has always been the large size of each of his canvases only a few at a time can be shown in the small spaces.

Finally, Rosanne Groger, executive director of the Red Mesa Art Center, had the idea to use the wall space in both galleries at the same time. This enables Alvarez to show a larger collection of his paintings.

Alvarez is probably best known locally for his larger-than-life public art installation called "We the People" at the sculpture park bordering Interstate 40 near the Miyamura Bridge.

Since Alvarez's completion of "We the People," he has completed one major public art work each year throughout New Mexico and Colorado. Currently, he is in the final stages of a large project in Longmont, Colo. The project is part of a public art and beautification project along the Interstate 25 corridor.

Also in progress is a commission from the Los Angeles Zoo, due to be dedicated in June. Alvarez won the $250,000 project from a field of more than 100 proposals. The zoo added a $25 million expansion to its children's zoo. The committee decided to spend 1 percent for art funds on a creative and interactive approach to the hand washing stations.

After surviving the initial round of slide reviewing, Alvarez went to Los Angeles to talk with the committee about its ideas and expectations for the project. Then he was asked to submit a model of his concept for the hand washing stations.

Alvarez explained how he came up with the idea for his proposal: "I remembered as a child, how I loved to put my hand in running water. And what music the water trickling through a stream was."

Alvarez submitted an idea of a six-and-a-half foot, four-tiered tiled mound loosely resembling an Aztec pyramid. He titled the piece "Manantial," the Spanish word for "spring." At the bottom of the structure and evenly spaced around the circumference are electronic eyes that trigger a flow of water that trickles down into a trough for the child to use for hand washing. When the child walks away, the water flow ceases.

Alvarez designed a complex, abstract mosaic in colors found in nature to cover the huge steel sculpture. The Byzantine glass mosaic work is being assembled onto paper patterns in small pieces in his Gallup studio. The steel structure is being built at a foundry in Albuquerque. Alvarez spends most of the work week in Albuquerque supervising the construction of the project.

When completed around May, it will be loaded on to an 18-wheel truck and delivered to the zoo, where it will be covered with the tiled art.

To lead children into the zoo, Alvarez has also designed life-size animal and children shapes cut from steel using the same technique he employed in "We the People." The figures will also be decorated with brightly-colored Byzantine glass mosaics.

While all of Alvarez's success in the last six years makes it sound easy to make a living as an artist, it hasn't always been that way. And it still isn't easy. Persistence is one of the cornerstones of his success.

"Every year, I enter a lot of contests," he said. "The hard thing is to be a finalist. I'm a finalist about 50 percent of the time."

For every 10 times he's a finalist, he said, he is awarded about one contract. "It works out that I enter 10 each year. I'm a finalist in two or three and I usually win one."

After his zoo project is finished this summer, however, he has nothing pending as yet.

Alvarez said he likes working on public art projects because they really represent the people, since people from all segments of the community are on the selection committees, and because about half of the pieces being chosen must be functional art.

Through the years, when large commissions weren't as abundant, Alvarez still had a clear vision and faith in his artistic abilities and never gave up even when that meant working a variety of jobs to finance his art.

Through his leaner years, he worked as a bus driver, receiver at a bakery, golf grounds maintenance man, and carpenter, to name a few anything that would still allow him time to paint. "I would suffocate if I didn't have an outlet for my art," he said.

Alvarez said artists have three phases: starving artist, struggling artist and successful artist. "I'm finally in the struggling artist stage," he said. "If I don't keep working, I'll be back as a starving artist again."

Like every artist, Alvarez's goal is to be sought after and successful as a painter. "I love to paint. The day that I am financially able, I will dedicate myself to painting," he said. "I feel guilty every time I don't paint.

"A really successful artist is one who has a lot more collectors than he can produce for. The wild card is the magic of an artist's signature. What makes the signature of some artists so valuable?"

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Cibola panel tables low-income rebate

Tom Purdom
Staff Writer

GRANTS — State legislation passed two years ago could have a positive financial impact for Cibola County's low-income homeowners, but right now the county has no money to fund the program.

Called the low-income property tax rebate program, county commissioners Wednesday tabled the issue and at the same time asked for more information. Almost at the same time County Manager Bob Ortiz said the funds just are not there to pay for the program this year and more than likely, next year as well.

What happens is that the state offers rebates to qualifying low-income property taxpayers in Cibola County and it is later up to the county to pay the state back.

It sounds good in theory, but like many programs passed down from the Roundhouse to the county level, there's a hitch. That hitch is best explained by county attorney Sherry Thompson, who attended the special county commission meeting Tuesday. The hitch is that it would be up to Cibola County to pay for the program.

"The state does not say where the money will come from," Thompson said. "If you implement this the money would more than likely come out of our general fund; however, we do not know at this time how much it would cost the county."

The state allows an out, and that would be for the commission to ask the voters to approve a one mill property tax hike to pay for the low-income rebate.

"How many counties are doing this?" Commissioner James Meisner wanted to know.

"We don't know," Thompson responded.

Meisner also said he feared a possible rejection by voters on the one mil levy hike could affect the momentum of any other tax proposal the county may want to present to the public.

Commissioner Bennie Cohoe asked Ortiz if the county had the money to fund the program.

Ortiz answered "No," and then explained that at some point in the near future the county is more than likely going to be forced to raise taxes just to pay for the existing services. He said throwing the rebate into the hopper will compound the problem.

In order to know how much the program may cost, the number of participants must be known. "We don't have a handle on how many people would apply (for the program)," Thompson told the commission.

Cohoe said it's his opinion the county should comply with the legislation "and help some of our citizens out."

Commission Chairman Issac Padilla said he was concerned about the current financial situation and the possibility of bringing a one mil levy election on the heels of the school bond election. "It would be nice if we could give these people a rebate; unfortunately, we don't have the money right now."

Meisner said the county should wait until 2003 and see if the finances had improved enough to fund the rebate. Padilla agreed with Meisner's desire to put off the issue until later.

Cohoe said he could not bring himself to believe the county finances were in such bad shape and he called for more information on the matter.

Ortiz invited Cohoe to come to his office for a budget review.

Cohoe suggested the commission approve an ordinance calling for the rebate to show residents the commission is at least making an attempt at the issue.

Ortiz said, "If we start drafting an ordinance it might create some unreal expectations."

Cohoe then suggested that the commission table the matter until the next meeting so additional information can be gathered to give a clearer picture if the rebate can be given.

Commissioners Meisner, Cohoe, Padilla and Arturo Candelaria voted to table the matter. Commissioner Fred Scott was not at the meeting.

In another matter the commission voted 4-0 to approve an Enhanced 911 Project Amendment which increases the original state grant by $29,796. The money will be used for equipment maintenance.

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Ganado teams sweep Window Rock

Carrie Loretto
Sports Editor

GALLUP - A scoring flurry by Window Rock wasn't enough to overcome a strong overall effort by the Ganado Hornets as Ganado beat Window Rock 57-56 in 3A Enchantment action Wednesday at the Ft. Defiance Fieldhouse.

In the girls game, Ganado overcame a nine-point fourth quarter deficit to pull off a 50-48 win over the Lady Scouts.

It was the third game of the week for both teams as they scramble to make up games that were cancelled this month because of weather conditions. Ganado will get a night off tonight before travelling to Pinon. They will host Monument Valley Saturday night. The Scouts will host Pinon tonight in another make-up game, will travel to Kayenta to take on the Mustangs Friday then return home again to close out the regular season against conference leading Tuba City.

Ganado improves to 5-5 in conference, 12-13 overall. Window Rock drops to 5-4 in conference with three games left. The Scouts are 16-12 overall.

The Lady Hornets, 2-1 this week, improve to 5-5 in confence, 12-7 overall. The Lady Scouts drop to 4-5 in conference, 12-10 overall.

The teams are battling for seeding for next week's conference tournament which will begin Tuesday. The tournament semifinals and finals have been moved back from Winslow to Tuba City after a push by Monument Valley resulted in a revote Window Rock girls coach and Athletic Director Bo Whitelock said. Tuba City had given up their turn to host the finals, citing inadequate facilities to accomodate the expected turnout.

Boys Ganado 57, Window Rock 56

A sluggish Window Rock team that lost one of its team leaders early in the fourth quarter after he was hit in the face came alive in the game's final minute behind the three-point shooting of Dwayne Morgan.

A putback off the offensive boards by Kasey Bluehouse on a missed free throw had given Ganado a 54-42 lead with just over a minute remaining as the Scout fans began clearing out.

Morgan then hit the first of his three treys with 1:18 left to play. Window Rock began fouling to stop the clock and strategy nearly worked as Ganado missed five on eight free throw attempts to aid the Scout comeback.

Elcaro Lee rebounded a missed one-and-one opportunity and Lawrence Hickson nailed another three to cut the lead to seven.
The Scouts then put Lavon Salabye at the line and he made the first, but missed the second and Asa-Ryan Begay came down with the defensive board.

Window Rock, which had shot just 34 percent (13-of-38) from the field in the first three quarters, missed another three-point attempt, but Lee came up with the offensive board. After a Ganado timeout, Morgan hit his second trey to make it a five-point game with 36 seconds left.

Hornet Ty Lynch regained a 57-51 lead with 1-of-2 free throws. Lee again came up with the rebound and the Scouts had a chance to pull even closer. Window Rock came up empty on its next trip downcourt, but got a break when Ganado turned the ball over.

This time, the Scouts capitalized after another offensive board by Brian Yazzie set Morgan up for another three with eight seconds left. Window Rock didn't have any more timeouts remaining, but got another break when Ganado threw the ball away with three seconds left, then called a timeout.

With Ganado clamping down on Morgan, Morgan was forced to the baseline and he threw up a shot that was good, but still left the Scouts one-point short.

"We made some mistakes at the end there and they cost us, they hit three threes in a row, but the important thing is right now that we get a win,"Ganado coach Dave Freeman said."We're tired. We played at Greyhills Monday, Tuesday at Winslow and tonight here, but they held on strong and we won the game. We're back playing like we can."

Ganado took advantage of the departure of Augustine Anderson, who was taken to the hospital for stitches after getting struck in the face, to go on a 7-0 run turn an 8-4 deficit into an 11-8 lead.

Lynch began the rally with a three-pointer before scoring the go-ahead bucket. Nathan Salabye hit from the top of the key as Window Rock continued to struggle offensively.

Lee finally ended Ganado's run, weaving his way to the basket and drawing the foul. He missed the opportunity to complete the three-point play and the Hornets closed out the quarter with scores from Lynch and Mueller to take a 15-10 advantage.

Lavon Salabye and Lynch got the hot hand from the outside, both sinking a pair of three-pointers that helped Ganado open up a 31-20 half-time lead.

The Hornets went up by as much as 15 points in the third quarter on another shot from the perimeter by Jay Taliman before Window Rock went on an 11-3 run to pull back within nine going into the fourth quarter.

Morgan and Begaye sank threes, Lyle Thompson scored off the offensive boards and Hickson converted a three-point play.

Ganado countered with a bucket from Taliman and 1-of-2 free throws by Lavon Salabye. A turnaround jumper by Nathan Salabye ended Window Rock's run and put Ganado up 43-34 heading into the final period.

Ty Lynch finished with four three-pointers to lead Ganado with 17 points. Lavon Salabye added 15 points and six assists.

Lee led all scorers with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Morgan finished with 16 points, including four treys.

Window Rock made 8-of-16 shots in the fourth quarter to finish with a 38 percent performance from the field (21-of-54).
Ganado, showing no signs of back-to-back road games, shot 62 percent (23-of-37) from the field. However, they were only 4-of-14 from the free throw line. The Scouts, which tallied a pair of bloody players, made 8-of-12 free throws.

Ganado was called for 11 fouls, Window Rock 12 in the physical contest.

"I thought we started out really well, the boys were fired up, but I think after the injury to Augustine, the boys got flat,"Window Rock coach Tim Arviso said."He's the guy that lights the fire under our guys, he was playing well, he was tough on the boards and he was scoring. When he went out it had a negative effect of our team."

Anderson had a steal and just scored before he went down.

The Scout loss was key in the 3A Enchantment race.

"It's a really big loss,"Arviso said."Our goal was to go into the Tuba City playing for the conference championship. If they don't get knocked off before then, we'll probably be playing for second or third place. We just gotta dig down deep and fight and win these last three ballgames. They're going to be tough, but this group can do it."

Girls Ganado 50, Window Rock 48

The Lady Hornets' two-minute rally was more successful as they came back from a seven-point, fourth quarter deficit.

Roberta Haskie's putback off the offensive boards gave Window Rock a 44-37 advantage with six minutes left in the game which proved to be plenty of time for the Lady Hornets to rally.

A blooper replay by Jolene Benally, who threw up the ball after drawing a foul which dropped in for an improbable shot, netted a three-point-play to spark the comeback.

Kendralyn James immediately followed with a steal and made it a one-point game with a three-pointer. Benally then rebounded a Scout miss and Melissa Jones drove to the hoop finishing off with a nice spin move to put Ganado up 45-44 with 4:19 still left in the game.

It became a defensive battle in the next three minutes until Andrian Chee stripped the ball and assisted Leona Birtcher on a basket to regain the lead for Window Rock. Ganado turned the ball over, then gave up the baseline to Krystal Koontz who drove for a bucket and a 48-45 Scout lead.

Jones, who led all scorers with 22 points, calmly stepped up and hit a game-tying three-pointer with 1:19 remaining. James came away with her fifth steal of the game, and was fouled on her way back upcourt. She made the first of two free throws to break the tie with 1:08 still left.

Window Rock still had a couple of opportunites to win the game, but missed on its next possession. The Hornets managed to run the clock down, but Haskie picked off a pass to regain possession for the Scouts. A foul stopped the clock with 18 seconds allowing the Scouts a chance to set up a play. However, an errant pass sailed out of bounds and the Scouts fouled Melissa Peterson to stop the clock.

Peterson made the first of her two free throws to put Ganado up by two.

Window Rock went for the win, throwing up a three-pointer that was rebounded by Candace Kirk as time expired.

"I think we stepped up at the end, we had our little mental lapses, but I think in the end everybody stepped up and everybody wanted to win it and we came through,"Ganado coach Gwynn Grant said.

"We forced some things that shouldn't have taken place and didn't play real smart towards the end, but all in all we held together. We could've given up, but the girls didn't,"Whitelock said, optimistic, despite the loss, about his team's improvement from the beginning of the season.

Window Rock got off to a slow start, falling behind 12-4 after the first quarter as Melissa Peterson knocked down a pair of three-pointers. The Lady Scouts managed to pull within three at half-time, then took a 38-32 lead into the fourth period.

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Views sought on eagle captures

PHOENIX (AP) — A National Park Service proposal to allow the Hopi tribe to collect golden eaglets within an Arizona national monument for religious ceremonies is now up for two months of public comment.

At least one environmental group is predicting a lawsuit, calling the issue a "constitutional H-bomb" that could mushroom over the entire park system.

Frank Buono of the Washington-based Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility said Wednesday that the proposed rule was "ramrodded through as one of the last acts of the Clinton administration" and his group wants Congress to ultimately decide the controversy.

Every spring for centuries, Hopis practicing their tribal religion have gathered fledgling golden eagles from nests perched on the red-hued cliffs of the Wupatki National Monument northeast of Flagstaff and near the tribe's reservation...

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Pinon-area man's body in bloody car
Case handled as murder

Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — Navajo police believe someone murdered a 22-year-old Pinon Chapter man and are working with the FBI Gallup office in the investigation.

Initially the report to the Chinle Police District on Tuesday afternoon came in as a death from exposure to the brutally cold and wet weather that has hammered the Navajo Reservation the past few weeks.

But when the Law Enforcement Department officer arrived he immediately saw a Ford Escort about 300 feet away riddled with bullet holes and dents and a lot of blood with the body of Ambrose Haskan, and called in the detectives.

The scene was about one mile south of the Pinon Trading Post; the dead man lived about seven miles northeast of the central Pinon community, which is about one-third of the way to Forest Lake...

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Deaths

Merle Wayne Jones

ST. MICHAELS, Ariz. — Services for Merle Wayne Jones, 24, will be held at 10 a.m. Friday, Feb. 2, at Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament, Fort Defiance, Ariz. Father Martan Rademaker, will officiate. Burial will follow at the private family cemetery, Deer Springs, Ariz.

Visitation will be at held from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. today, Feb. 1, at Rollie Mortuary-Palm Chapel. A rosary will be recited at 7 tonight at Rollie Mortuary-Palm Chapel.

Jones died Jan. 26 in Navajo, Ariz. He was born March 19, 1976, in Fort Defiance into the Bitter Water People Clan for the Bilagaana.

Jones graduated from Window High School in 1995. He participated in football, wrestling, track and field, and received numerous letters for wrestling. He also attended Crownpoint Institute of Technology, where he received a degree in natural resources and was a certified asbestos abatement worker. He was employed with Horse Environmental, Dilcon, Ariz.

Survivors include his wife, Debbie Lynn Jones of St. Michaels; son, William Wayne Jones of St. Michaels; parents, Harold and Virginia Jones, both of St. Michaels; brother, Eldon Wayne Jones of Fort Defiance, Ariz.; sisters, Loretta Jones of St. Michaels and Mary Riding of Gallup; and grandmother, Mary Robbins of Fort Defiance.

Jones was preceded in death by his brothers, Harold Wayne Jones Jr. and Irvin Wayne Jones; grandparents, Alice Irene and John G. Davidson and Bennie Robbins.

Pallbearers will be Gary Benally, Wendell Birch, Greg Brown, Mike Greene Jr., Brandon Jones and Ray Thomas.

Rollie Mortuary is in charge of arrangements.

Pauline Smith Becenti

COYOTE CANYON — Services for Pauline Becenti, 84, will be held at 10 a.m. Friday, Feb. 2, at Cope Memorial Chapel. Ben Billie will officiate. Burial will follow at Tohatchi Community Cemetery.

Becenti died Jan. 28 in Gallup. She was born Feb. 10, 1914, in Coyote Canyon into the Deeshchil'nil Clan for the Todich'll'nii
Clan.

Becenti was a rug weaver and a rancher and a life-time resident of Coyote Canyon Chapter.

Survivors include her sons, Nelson Becenti and Thomas Becenti, both of Coyote Canyon; daughters, Sarah B. Howe and Lois A. Becenti, both of Coyote Canyon; brother, Hoskie Smith of Coyote Canyon; 11 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.
Becenti was preceded in death by her husband, Tom Becenti, and parents, John and Naigeebah Smith.

Pallbearers will be Jason Howe, Thomas Becenti, Chris Begaye and Gerald Daye.

The family will receive friends and relatives after the burial services at Coyote Canyon Chapter House.

Cope Memorial Chapel is in charge of arrangements.

Anita Martinez

GALLUP — Services for Anita Martinez, 68, will be announced at a later date.

Martinez died Jan. 30 in Gallup. She was born Nov. 6, 1932, in Gallup.

Rollie Mortuary is in charge of arrangements.

LaTanya Jean Billy

CHURCH ROCK — Services for LaTanya Jean Billy, 20, will be announced at a later date.

Billy died Jan. 29 in Tucson, Ariz. She was born Dec. 11, 1980, in Gallup into the Towering House People Clan.

The family will meet at 6:30 tonight at Tohatchi Chapter House.

Rollie Mortuary is in charge of arrangements.

Russell W. Herrick

GALLUP — Services for Russell W. Herrick will be announced at a later date.

Herrick died Jan. 29 in Gallup.

Cope Memorial Chapel is in charge of arrangements.