Burlington Northern Railroad roadmaster Larry Reyes watches Thursday as the tracks flex under the weight of a passing train at the Second Street crossing in Gallup. Reyes, who took over as roadmaster a month ago, says the entire crossing needs to be ripped out and replaced, but he is not sure who will pay for the repairs. The City of Gallup has offered to pay $40,000, which Reyes says is not nearly enough to cover the project.

Photo by Jeff Jones

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City wants RR crossings fixed

Tanya Brazil
Staff Writer

GALLUP — City and railroad officials finally began negotiations Thursday morning about curing an incessant headache for Gallup motorists — the Second Street railroad crossing.

But Harry Lara, a field engineer with Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, said repairing the crossing will depend on whether the railroad can acquire the funding

While the city has agreed to contribute $40,000 for the needed repairs, the railroad estimates they will cost about $200,000. The city is requesting the railroad make up the difference.

Both sides attempted to work out the details of the project, such as who will pay for the asphalt and concrete materials needed to reconstruct the 50-foot crossing.

Stanley Henderson, the public works director, said the $40,000 is the city's contribution for materials. The city also agreed to handle all traffic control during construction.

He said the city is prepared to cut the railroad a check by the end of the week, that it would like to see the problem fixed as soon as possible.

If all goes well, Lara said, it will take the railroad about six weeks to draw up an agreement. He said the railroad will complete repairs on the crossing as soon as it gets the materials.

However, he said, whenever repairs are needed on a public crossing, the railroad usually expects the city to tote the bill.

If the railroad approaches a municipality about repairs, Lara said, it generally pays for the reconstruction. But if a city asks the railroad to make repairs, he said, the city is expected to cover all expenses.

Normally, he said, the city is responsible for repavement of the asphalt approaches, as well as the roadway between the tracks and the approaches. He said the railroad only fixes approaches up to the end of the ties — the crossbeams used to support and fasten the rails.

Henderson said the city could not repair the approaches — they are spread thin and do not have the resources.

About mid meeting, Henderson asked whether repairing the Third Street crossing would be part of the agreement. The reply was no.

Lara said the railroad's budget is tight, so he will only pursue funding to repair Second Street.

Henderson insisted the public is not going to be happy unless both crossings were repaired. He referred back to the city's Feb. 11 proposal, which consents to a contribution of $20,000 per crossing.

Adam Richardson, a roadmaster based in Grants, said the northside approach to Third Street is a little rough, but overall the crossing is in good shape.

Henderson tried to pin down the railroad on a date the city can expect the Second Street crossing to be repaired.

Lara said the date of completion will depend on when and if the railroad can get the funding and when it can get the crews out to work on the crossing.

At the prompting of Henderson, Lara said he will not promise, but June or July looks like a possibility for having the crossing repaired.

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Non-Indians may be ousted after helping Navajos

Nancy Watson
Diné Bureau

GALLUP — The Hopi Tribe held a hearing this week to banish a second nontribal member — Marcia Monestersky — from its lands. The tribe is expected to rule by April 28 on whether she will be allowed to remain on Hopi land.

Monestersky, who has assisted Navajos living on Hopi Partitioned Lands, was issued a notice of proposed exclusion from the Hopi Reservation by Hopi Chairman Wayne Taylor last June.

According to the order, Monestersky was on the reservation without authorization from the Hopi Tribe and, while on the reservation, engaged in fraudulent behavior.

Monestersky's hearing took place less than a month after a similar hearing for Arleen Hamilton, a San Francisco woman who had also assisted Navajos on the HPL. Hamilton had been accused of breaking Hopi tribal ordinances, but the hearing officer has not yet issued a recommendation in that case.

The hearings are part of a Hopi tribal effort to resolve lingering problems within the HPL — 900,000 acres of land given to the Hopis as part of a court settlement of the century-old land dispute between the Hopi and Navajo tribes. Navajo families are still the primarily residents of the HPL, and while most have signed a 75-year accommodation agreement with the Hopis, several Navajo families, comprising some 100 people, have not.

Over the past several years, dozens of non-Indians have traveled to the HPL to help resisters and, in the eyes of Hopi officials, to create problems for the Hopi government.

In the Monestersky matter, Betty Tso — a Navajo Nation employee who works with families, helping them negotiate their home site leases and grazing rites on the HPL — said some Navajo families requested she urge the Hopi Tribe to oust Monestersky from the Hopi Reservation.

At the hearing, Tso represented the families of Diné Dayikah Ada Yalti, an organization of 300 Navajo families, who have signed accommodation agreements that allow them to remain on the HPL.

Non-Indian activists often create hardships for the Navajo families living on HPL land when they contribute to difficult situations and then go away, leaving the Navajo families to deal with the situation, Tso said Thursday...

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Isolated Haystack students try to arrange trip to the zoo

Tom Purdom
Staff Writer

HAYSTACK — Imagine being a 5 year old who has never seen a live elephant or zebra. Imagine being a young boy or girl who has never experienced a night away from home. Now imagine a community that wants its Head Start students to do these things but has no extra money.

The picture that should come to mind while imagining all this is Haystack, a tiny community of Navajos about 20 miles west of Grants

Now imagine a community that refuses to give up. This is what prompted Haystack to schedule a team calf-roping contest to raise money for children who have never seen elephants, tigers, lions and zebras in the flesh.

Melton Martinez and his wife Theresa are helping to coordinate the effort, which will occur Saturday. The calf-roping contest will begin at 11 a.m. and end at 5 p.m. Teams will jump back into the competition circle at the Haystack Rancho Arena again on Sunday, starting at 11 a.m. and ending at 5 p.m....

About 20 children attend the preschool in Haystack.

The school has no funding for something like this, Theresa Martinez said. The parents with kids in the Haystack school don't have money to take their children on a trip like this...

Melton Martinez said cakewalks have been held in the past to raise money for the school, but cakewalks dont seem to draw in the kind of money it will take to fund the trip, estimated to be about $1,300 for everything, including transportation, food, hotel rooms and entry fees for the educational sites the preschoolers will visit.

Melton Martinez said the roping contest will be a timed event.

Teams wanting additional information or wanting to enter can call Melton or Theresa Martinez at (505) 287-3848.

There's not a lot of time before the event, so make those calls now, Melton Martinez said.

In addition, Melton and Theresa Martinez said donations from individuals and organizations will be accepted.

This isn't for us, Melton Martinez said. It's for the children. If you want to donate, please call the same telephone number, and we'll make arrangements.

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Navajos to vote on council size

Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — In less than five weeks, members of the Navajo Nation will have a chance to vote on what size they think is proper for the Navajo Nation Council.

This will mark the first time since the lowering of the voting age to 18 in the 1970s that the Navajo people have been allowed an opportunity to vote on the structure of the tribal government.

This makes Edison Wauneka, former director of the tribes election board who is now on the council, ecstatic.

" I'm very happy we are giving the government back to the people," he said.

But he admits that there is some confusion by many Navajo voters about the significance of the seven different council sizes — 110, 88, 72, 48, 44, 32 or 24 — that will be on the May 2 ballot.

Some tribal members have argued that it would be better for the average voter if the choice were simpler — make the council larger (110 members), the same size (88) or smaller (24). But seven choices?

Wauneka said most of the seven numbers are derived from a series of public hearings the election board conducted in the mid-1980s.

The 500 or so people who attended the hearings were asked to select the size of council they would like to see, and the most popular was 110, which coincided with the number of chapters.

The idea behind this, he has said, is that many voters, especially the older ones, would like to see each council delegate represent only one chapter.

Many chapters over the years have expressed displeasure at the current situation, where many delegates represent two or more chapters. Chapter members tend to feel that when this happens, the council delegate many times represents the interest of his own chapter and the other chapters feel ignored.

But Wauneka said that having 110 delegates doesn't mean each chapter would have its own delegate, since the council districts will have to be roughly the same size. It wouldnt be fair to have LeChee, with a few hundred members, have the same representation in the council as Shiprock or Tuba City, with 10 times that number.

Chief Legislative Counsel Steve Boos said that because of the variation in the population of the chapters, it would take about 160 delegates to give each chapter at least one delegate and still maintain the one-man, one-vote rule.

The 88 option is meant for those who like the council the way it is.

For those who feel the council membership needs to be pared but want to follow tradition, 72 may be their choice. That was the size of the council until the 1950s.

Except for the 110 figure, all other options available to the voter are multiples of four, which is in line with statements made by traditionalists in the past that membership should reflect the special role that number places in Navajo tradition — the four sacred mountains and the four directions, for example.

The possibility of a 48-member council is reflective of that belief as is 44.

But the 44 figure, said Wauneka, would also appeal to a segment of the Navajo population interested in a smaller council and who feel that the perfect solution would be just cut the council in half.

The next lower figure, said Wauneka, came about because of a plan to realign the district grazing committees.

The final choice, 24, comes from doubling the old leadership of six war chiefs and six peace makers who governed the tribe before the Long Walk to Fort Sumner, the delegate said.

Navajo law requires a majority of registered voters, approximately 87,000 men and women, to approve any change in the size of the council.

Originally, the plans called for the top two vote getters in the primary to have a run-off in the general election, but only the top vote getter will now be on the general election ballot.

Even if one size is placed on the August general election ballot, Wauneka said, voters would still get two choices, since a majority voting no to that number would mean the council size would remain at the present size of 88.

The decision was made that two choices for voters in the general election wouldn't work because the tribal code requires half of the voters — 43,501 — to give their approval before the change can become law.

Wauneka urged voters to discuss the matter at chapter meetings, so they can learn the reasons behind the various options.

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Pedestrians walking along I-40 killed near Thoreau

THOREAU, NM — Two pedestrians walking down the center of Interstate 40 were killed Thursday when they were hit by a semi-tractor trailer, state police said.

The two unidentified men died at the scene around 2:30 a.m., said state police Captain Glenn Thomas. Their bodies have been sent to the Office of the Medical Investigator in Albuquerque for an autopsy.

Thomas said the trucker, Billie Dean, 41, saw the two men walking down his traffic lane on westbound I-40 and tried to swerve to avoid hitting them, but was unsuccessful...

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