Site harbors drunks, sex, violence
Oh, and it's across street from school
Andrea Egger
Staff Writer
GALLUP — Business owners in Cedar Hills Plaza are angry that
intoxicated people leaving The Other Place bar with 40-ounce bottles
of beer, come into the shops and congregate in a nearby field.
The field, owned by District Judge Grant Foutz and local businessman
Mike Costley, is undeveloped land and is located to the west of
The Printing Shop in the plaza and above the Nugget Gallery, 1302
S. Second St. Park Avenue and the dry Rio Puerco River, strewn
with thousands of empty 40-ounce beer bottles, separate Foutz's
land from Gallup Catholic School, 405 Park Ave.
But school staff and children still see the gathering and drinking
going on there, said Don Sparks, principal of the school.
Mostly transient people or those living on the reservation who
come to Gallup for a few days to drink, they have never come onto
the school property, Sparks said. It's like a boundary drinkers
know not to cross.
"We never have had any problem with them. If we see them
loitering there we call the police. It's a walkway of some sort,"
he said.
Not the case at the Fina gas station, located just a few feet
away from The Other Place, 1502 S. Second St. The gas station
is in the middle of the plaza parking lot.
Clerks Carol Paul and Kristy Mendez said Wednesday it gets pretty
scary for the night clerk, who usually works alone.
People come from the bar straight to the gas station. "They
beg for money from our customers," Mendez said "Some
of the customers get mad."
When someone stumbles in drunk, clerks in the tiny store usually
tell them to leave or else they're going to call the police, Paul
said. "Some are stubborn. They won't leave," she said.
Paul said the station has lost former customers because of the
drinkers passing through the parking lot and coming into the gas
station.
Everisto Harrison, co-owner of The Printing Shop, said the relocation
of DCI Biologicals, where people get paid for donating blood plasma,
to 1706 S. Second St., has caused a lot of the problem.
"After they donate ... the first thing they do is come here,
buy their liquor and come here to drink it. They throw the bottles
all over the place. We have to pay someone to clean it up,"
he said.
DCI Biologicals manager Eugene Whiterock, was unavailable for
comment this week.
His brother and co-owner, Doug Harrison, said when they see people
in the field drinking, they tell them to leave or else they will
call the "panel," meaning the Gallup Police Department's
Protective Custody van, which travels Gallup, picking up intoxicated
people and taking them to sober up and stay warm at the Na'Nizhoozhi
Center.
However, the brothers said this problem occurs all over town,
such as near the Uptown California Super Market and on Gallup's
north side near Cowboy's Saloon.
The Harrisons have seen people beaten during a drunken argument
on the land. They call the police.
Nugget Gallery owner Steve Coleman, whose business is located
below a steep hill that leads to Foutz's land, has seen worse.
People pass out from intoxication and are found dead from exposure
to the elements in that land, Coleman said.
"Young girls, naked, run around looking for their clothes
after they've been raped," Coleman said.
Many of these rapes occur in the day time while the girls are
ditching school and come to Foutz's land to get adults to buy
them alcohol. The land, while on a hill, is flat and wide open
but extends far enough away from the Print Shop and Cedar Hills
Plaza that crimes occur beyond the Harrisons' vision.
Coleman said he's spoken to some of the girls, who refuse to report
the rapes because they're ditching school. Couples also have sex
up on the land, Coleman said. The other day he witnessed a drama
as a woman ran through the land, naked from the waist down.
"No, you'll think I'm a slut afterwards! No!" he heard
the woman yell as she raced away from her man. He's not sure if
she got away.
The 40-ounce beer bottles and trash trickle down the hill onto
Coleman's property at an alarming rate. "We get 15 to 20
bags of garbage a week just on our property alone," he said.
"It's disgusting."
He said "it's a joke" when Gallup Police officers are
called because they don't get out of their police cars and walk
on the land to find suspects of crime, Coleman said. They just
drive around the area and leave.
"We don't call to be a pain in the butt, we call so people
won't die of exposure," he said.
Coleman climbed the hill to show the remnants of partying. At
the top of the hill, a full-size bed's rusted box springs lie
on the ground. Next to it, a faded pair of jeans had sunken into
the ground, obviously there a long time.
Not far from the hill, at least 60 bottles of 40-ounce beer littered
an area that had obviously been a drinking place. All over the
land, trash, and beer bottles were scattered.
Finally, at the Rio Puerco, Coleman showed thousands of 40-ounce
beer bottles covering the ditch. The Catholic school right across
the street brought irony to the situation.
"I think everybody's about had it with it," Coleman
said of local business owners, regarding the drinking and littering.
An attraction for tourists with its stained-glass front door,
nice landscaping and a variety of Indian jewelry inside, the Nugget
Gallery's image is shot when tourists come in and see bras and
panties stuck to the hill above the shop, the owner said.
"We can open a lingerie shop with all the panties and bras
found on the hill," Coleman said.
He added the problem has to be from The Other Place's package
liquor store, because Sports Page, a bar located closer to the
trashed land, doesn't sell 40-ounce bottles of beer.
"Not a day goes by that we don't have problems out here,"
Coleman said. "We're going to have a lot of violent deaths
up here."
He added the area used to be beautiful and well-kept.
Coleman's solution to the problem is for the police to shut down
The Other Place.
Foutz said he's "aware of people passing through" his
land, which he owns with Mike Costley, who also rents the land
on which The Other Place is situated to bar owner Mel Johnson.
Foutz wouldn't comment about the problems on his land except to
say that he and Costley are looking into putting storage sheds
on the land, and he believes when they fence off the land, drunk
people won't be able to gather there anymore.
Costley's son, Todd, owns Todd Costley's Photography Studio at
Cedar Hills Plaza. He said he's gotten to know a lot of the patrons
of The Other Place, and that they come into his shop and sit on
his couch near the door. Todd Costley has put some of them to
work, cleaning the shop.
"We get a lot of people when it's cold. They just need somewhere
to warm up," he said.
Todd Costley said he doesn't think closing The Other Place would
do any good, because people who purchase alcohol downtown also
come up to the land to drink.
"They're not a nuisance for me unless they come at the wrong
time, when customers are here. It happens, but not often,"
he said.
Esther Bahe, an employee at Sun Loans, next to Costley's studio,
said she doesn't believe the alcohol situation affects their business,
and the intoxicated people never come in the shop. "They
stumble on by, but that's it," Bahe said.
Fred Diaz, owner of Hair Raizers, on the other side of Costley's
studio in the plaza, said he also knows some of the intoxicated
people personally, and they come into his shop.
"I don't mind, but it's offensive to some of my customers
and employees," Diaz said.
Recently, he said he's seen an increase in the amount of people
walking through the parking lot. Their presence could chase business
away.
But Diaz balked at the thought of closing The Other Place: "To
put people out of work? No."
Gallup Police Department Lt. John Allen said police officers assigned
to the southern Gallup district target this land, and protective
custody officers escort a lot of intoxicated people from that
area. He said Coleman's comment that police don't get out of their
cars is ridiculous.
"What, does he think these guys just open the back door of
the van and climb in by themselves?"Allen said.
While police are aware of the problem there, other places in Gallup
are worse, such as areas around Cal-Mar and the motels on East
Highway 66 near Esquire Lounge, Allen said.
Police records show that in 2001, seven calls regarding intoxicated
people came from The Nugget Gallery. He compared that to dozens
of calls from businesses near Esquire.
New Mexico Department of Public Safety's Special Investigations
Division Agent Julie Trujillo said Wednesday she cited The Other
Place for selling alcohol to a minor during a New Year's Eve sting
operation. A police officer's 19-year-old son went into the bar
and was not asked to present proof of age.
While Foutz's and Costley's land might not be as much of a problem
as other areas in Gallup, the business owners nearby are angered
by law enforcement's casual attitude about their problem. They
just aren't sure what to do about it.
Randy Johnson, who manages The Other Place for his father, had
little to say about the situation except that he didn't know business
owners were complaining. He declined comment.
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Chamber keeps honoree in the dark
Bill Donovan
Staff Writer
GALLUP — The hardest problem for the Chamber of Commerce in choosing
a citizen of the year is getting the recipient to the banquet without
him or her knowing that they have been chosen.
"We have been doing this for a long time," said Barbara
Quinones, president, a few days before this year's banquet. "We
know what to do."
She was right because the person chosen to be Gallup's Citizen of
the Year had no clue when he went to the banquet a few
days ago that his was the name that would be announced.
"I was totally surprised," said Louis Bonaguidi, who was
selected for the honor because, according to one chamber member, of
his role in the turnaround of the Gallup Inter-tribal Indian Ceremonial.
In hindsight, he said, he should have known something was up when
his wife asked him to get a couple of the tickets to the banquet for
his two sons, 29 and 26, who had not been known for getting involved
in their father's political life: neither had evev attended a city
council meeting to see their father in action.
He arrived back in town that day from Santa Fe to find that his wife
had laid out his clothes for the night. "She had never did that
before," he said. Her normal procedure, he said, was to tell
him it was time to get ready.
So why was he so fooled?
Well, for one thing, he was asked by chamber officials to be at the
banquet to give the "Volunteer of the Year" award to Beverly
Hurlbut, who was also being honored for her work in last year's Ceremonial.
Besides, he said, the word around town was that the award this year
was going to Jim Harlin, the executive director of Gallup's Community
Pantry for his successful efforts to get funding to build a new facility
for the food bank.
"But when I got to the banquet and looked around, I noticed that
he wasn't there, so I looked for George Malti and he wasn't there
either," he said.
His attention was then drawn to Angelo DiPaolo, the assistant superintendent
for the county school system. His prediction seemed to be born out
when the presenter said that the award winner was born in 1945, the
year Bonaguidi was born and the year he also thought DiPaolo was born.
"Then I remembered that he was three years younger than me,"
he said. As that thought was going thought his head, he heard the
names of his mother and father and realized that he had been totally
fooled.
Mary Ann Armijo, the president of the chamber board, said that they
had considered several candidates for the honor but the talk seemed
to get back to Bonaguidi, who managed to be a leading force in turning
an organization around that many had thought was on death's door.
When Bonaguidi took over as president of the Ceremonial, the organization
was $70,000 in debt and was being forced to lay off its entire paid
staff. Today, just a little more than a year later, the Ceremonial
has a new life and some $100,000 in the bank.
On Wednesday, Bonaguidi was saying that those who think he turned
the Ceremonial around without any help, just don't realize the long
hours that other board members and volunteers like Hurlbut put into
the event.
But he does admit that there were times that he and Hurlbut were almost
moved to tears in the months just after he became president. In fact,
he said, he heard Hurlbut break into tears when talking to her on
the phone about some of the problems the organization was having.
Over the past 14 months, he has spent countless hours - at least two
a day in the early months and then eight to 10 hours as the August
date got closer and closer.
He never expected he would be putting in these kinds of hours, he
said, since when he took over as president, the organization had a
director and staff.
Hurlbut also found her volunteer work for the Ceremonial take on a
life of its own, to the point where the problems of the event dominated
her thoughts when she was away from the office and even in her dreams.
Many a time, she said, she would wake up from a restless sleep with
some idea that she thought would help the Ceremonial make money.
Without a paid staff, Hurlbut organized a volunteer staff to run the
office and keep it open, putting in long hours because of the role
the Ceremonial had played in her life ever since she was 11 and was
convinced by her family to volunteer to help at the event.
Over the years her love of Indian art would continue to grow and now
she admits that one of the things she most loves about her involvement
with the Ceremonial is the promotion of the artists.
Her volunteer career continues today with work not only on the Ceremonial
but also in other areas. For example, she left Gallup on Thursday
for Salt Lake City where she has volunteered to help man Gallup's
booth at the Winter Olympics.
This whole aspect of volunteerism has played a major role in her life,
she said.
"I had always thought my middle initial, V, stood for Vanderwagon,"
she said. "I now know it stands for Volunteerism."
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Navajo Townsite yields gang arrests
Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — Two Navajo Townsite males, ages 21 and 16, were
arrested by Navajo police late last month after a running fight, believed
to be alcohol and gang-related, moved from a residential area into
the commercial area.
The case is being investigated as part of the Safe Trails Task Force,
and according to the Window Rock Law Enforcement District report,
involvesRyan Brown, 21, of 123 Popular St., whowas arrested on charges
of disorderly conduct and obstructing an officer in the performance
of his duty. The 16-year-old boy of 103 Cypress St. was booked on
disorderly conduct and aggravated battery charges and shipped to the
Tuba City tribal juvenile hall.
Also involved in the nighttime incident on Jan. 29 were Jefferson
Yazzie, 23, who lives more than three miles east of the Round Rock
Chapter House, and a 17-year-old boy of 8 Juniper St. in Navajo Townsite,
the report said.
Initially it was reported as a gang fight on Popular Avenue involving
a knife and an ax, and the running battle had moved to the community's
supermarket. When officers arrived at the shopping center, a vehicle
took off one way and some of the participants, on foot, in another
direction, the report said.
But the vehicle was spotted at a nearby convenience store and pursued
to Brown's home. The driver remained uncooperative and the passenger
was identified as Yazzie, who had blood on him when he got out of
the car. An ambulance took him to the IHS hospital in Fort Defiance,
the report said, for an arm cut by a knife.
Yazzie told officers he and his cousin, the 17-year-old, got into
a fight with the other two that started at home and moved on to the
market. While at the scene, officers were told a second vehicle was
on the way to the same hospital with wounded.
Witnesses told officers everyone had used weapons, which the report
said Yazzie and 16-year-old confirmed.
Oak Springs man arrested
OAK SPRINGS CHAPTER — A 32-year-old Oak Springs Chapter man was
arrested Sunday afternoon on charges of threatening and unlawful carrying
of a deadly weapon after he allegedly got drunk and tried to force
relatives to move out of a home west of BIA Route 12 between Mile
Post 7 and Mile Post 8.
According to the Window Rock Law Enforcement District report, officers
had to draw their guns to subdue Fred Silversmith of Rural Address
763 on the highway when he allegedly yelled profanities at them, then
walked towards them with an ax in the lunchtime incident.
But facing the firearms, he obeyed their orders to drop the weapon
and lay on the ground so he could be handcuffed. Officers took the
single-blade ax as evidence, the report said.
Constences Silversmith, 34, of Rural Address 746 called police about
her uncle causing an unruly disturbance at her place. The
report said that while two officers were on the way, they were waived
down by Alyce Silversmith. She told them Fred had come over to her
place drunk and he wanted Constences and Roland Williams, 32, moved
out.
After Fred retrieved an ax from the woodpile, Alyce said she couldn't
get it away from him as he was too strong.
According to the report, a continuing land dispute caused the incident.
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Area sports
Michael Peretti
Staff Sports Writer
GALLUP — Every year at the end of the January or beginning of
February the Gallup Rotary Club brings a sports figure to Gallup for
one night.
In the past 11 years the Rotary Club has had speakers like Lou Holtz,
Terry Bradshaw, Joe Theisman and Mike Ditka, as well as Tommy Lasorda,
Bart Starr as well as several others that have made an impact on sports.
This year, Daryl "Moose" Johnston will be the speaker, this
Thursday at the Holiday Inn. Johnston, former three time Super Bowl
Champion with the Dallas Cowboys was drafted in 1989 as a fullback
out of Syracuse University in the second round.
Johnston retired after a neck injury ended his season and then a return
attempt was not possible when he re-injured his neck.
Now Johnston is a broadcaster for FOX on the networks number two team.
This past season he announced regularly on FOX with Troy Aikman and
Dick Stockton.
The money raised by the Rotary Club at the dinner goes towards their
scholarship fund, which they award every year to the Senior of the
Year.
The Rotary Club has several fund raisers every year, but this dinner
is now their primary fund-raiser.
Chairman of the Speakers Committee, Bob Fultz said that staying with
sports figures every year has been one of their main plans, because
sports figures do not stand for any organization.
"We wanted sports figures because they are positive influences
and they are non political," he said. "That is what Rotary
is. We are in no way slanted in any way."
Fultz said that the idea to have a sports figure speak all started
as a challenge. The challenge was to John Dowlins, the head of the
rotary Club in 1991 when they said that he would not be able to get
Lou Holtz to come to Gallup and speak.
Sammy Chioda, another Rotarian Club member said that to put on a program
like this every year is very time consuming, but that there is a lot
of support from local businesses.
"There is a great deal of corporate sponsored support,"
he said. "And there is a lot of community support."
Chioda said that the $100 tickets are not just for a speech, but for
everything that night. There is a reception and a photo opportunity
at 5:30. There is also food served at the reception. At 7 p.m. the
dinning room opens and ticket holders are served a dinner provided
by holiday Inn. At about 8:15 the speaker takes the stand and talks
until about 9:30.
Fultz said that the Rotary Club has even gotten some support from
sponsors outside of Gallup.
"People from Gallup don't get to listen to people high caliber
speak very much so we decided to bring someone in that the people
of Gallup can enjoy for one night," said Fultz. "And at
the same time we are generating funds for the schools.
The Rotary Club gives out awards every month to the senior of the
month and then have the Senior of the year.
Students are selected from schools in McKinley County as well as a
few from Arizona including St. Michael and Window Rock. Other area
schools include Gallup High, Gallup Catholic, Zuni, Ramah and Thoreau,
as well as other area schools.
Tickets for the dinner are $100 per person of $1000 for a corporate
table of 10 seats. Larger corporate tables are also available.
Tickets are still available at Millennium Media at 863-6851 or at
Clay Fultz Insurance at 722-4476.
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MacDonald emerges
Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — Former tribal chairman Peter MacDonald plans to
attend rallies in his honor on the Arizona portion of the reservation
on three consecutive weekends.
But the focus of the rallies may be to free two cohorts, Ned McKensley
and Donald Benally, who remain in federal prison in New Mexico.
MacDonald was freed a little over a year ago after seven years in
a federal prison in Texas when Bill Clinton commuted the other seven
years of his sentence only hours before he left office.
The rallies are scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. this Saturday at the
Chinle Chapter House, followed on the 16th at the Teec Nos Pos Chapter
House and the 23rd at Bodaway-The Gap Chapter House...
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Police nab suspected head of Mexico City kidnap
ring
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Police have captured the suspected leader
of a notorious kidnapping ring responsible for dozens of Mexico
City taxicab abductions, authorities said Wednesday night.
Hector Vicenti Rodriguez, who was arrested late Monday, is accused
of running a band of "express-kidnappers" who terrorized
the upscale neighborhoods of Los Lomas, Polanco and Veronica Anzures,
said Rosario Cruz, a spokesman for federal prosecutors.
Rodriguez is charged with masterminding 14 kidnappings that saw
members of his gang hijack people riding in taxis and rob them before
quickly letting them go...
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Senate endorses smoking ban in prisons, schools
SANTA FE (AP) — Smoking would be prohibited in prisons and
schools under a bill the Senate approved on Wednesday.
Sponsored by Albuquerque Republican Sen. Joseph Carraro, the legislation
would outlaw smoking in publicly and privately operated correctional
facilities, in juvenile detention facilities, and on public school
campuses.
Carraro said 30 states have banned smoking in prisons, including
neighboring Texas, Colorado, Arizona and Utah.
He says prisoners who smoke are hurting themselves and nonsmoking
inmates as well, and the state may end up picking up the tab for
their health care...
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Settlement proposal to governor
SANTA FE (AP) — Additional revenues from a nationwide tobacco
settlement could be used to help New Mexico out of a budget squeeze
next year under a measure sent Wednesday to Gov. Gary Johnson.
The legislation could provide lawmakers an extra $19 million for
proposed spending increases in the fiscal year that starts July
1. Lawmakers are looking for other sources of revenues because there's
little general tax money available for growth in government programs
ranging from public education to medical services for the poor.
Currently, the state's allotment of revenues from a settlement with
tobacco companies is split: half goes into a permanent fund that
earns interest and half is available to spend on health and education
programs...
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Code Talkers get donation
Diné Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — On behalf of the Sanostee Chapter, Navajo Nation
President Kelsey Begaye has presented a $605 check to the Navajo
Code Talkers Association.
Chapter Delegate Jerry Bodie said in a memo to Begaye that the association
should use the funds for whatever it needs to. He added "The
community...is very appreciative of all the Navajo veterans of all
wars. They hold the Navajo veterans in high regards for the freedom
we all enjoy so much."
The money came from 19 residents or families, plus the Sanostee
Gym Committee, the memo added.
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Cops gets funds for domestic violence effort
Andrea Egger
Staff Writer
GALLUP — A new grant the Gallup Police Department received
will fund a police sergeant's salary for a year to take part in
a domestic violence effort that will combine several agencies in
the community to better tackle the problem.
Sgt. Marinda Littlefield has been assigned to the Domestic Violence
Enhanced Response Team, which also consists of an investigator from
the District Attorney's Office, and the Victim Advocate from the
District Court clerk's office. Littlefield said Tuesday she anticipates
participation in the team from Social Services, Battered Family
Services, Animal Control and the Adult Probation Department.
It might seem strange to have Animal Control involved in a domestic
violence venture, but not really. Littlefield said domestic violence,
which is often hidden for years, can be discovered when officers
investigate situations of animal abuse...
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Deaths
Della M. Benally
NASCHITTI — Services for Della Benally, 56, will be held at
10 a.m., Friday, Feb. 8 at Rollie Mortuary Palm Chapel. Burial will
follow at Naschitti Community Cemetery.
Benally died Feb. 4 in Naschitti. She was born May 24, 1945 in Fort
Defiance, Ariz. into the Zuni People Clan for the One Who Walks
Around You People Clan.
Survivors include her son, Marvin Benally of Gallup; daughter, Candace
Benally of Naschitti; brother, Ernest Benally of Greasewood Springs,
Ariz.; sisters, Elaine Benally and Joann Benally both of Naschitti;
and three grandchildren.
Benally was preceded in death by her parents, Minnie and Anthony
Benally and brothers, Larry Benally and Raymond Benally.
Pallbearers will be Alfred Edsitty, Gerald Frank, James Hunt Jr.,
Clifford Notah, Jerome Willatto and John Willatto Jr.
Rollie Mortuary is in charge of arrangements.
Glenn Smith Sr.
INSCRIPTION HOUSE, Ariz. — Services for Glenn Smith Sr., 70,
will be held at 10 a.m., Friday, Feb. 8 at the Inscription House
Full Gospel Church. Marc Tallman will officiate. Burial will follow
on family private land, Inscription House.
Smith Sr. died Feb. 2 in Inscription House. He was born March 6,
1931 in Chichiltah into the Red Running Water People for the Blacksheep
People.
Smith Sr. was employed with the Santa Fe Railroad and a pastor at
the Inscription House Full Gospel Church.
Survivors include his wife, Evelyn Smith of Inscription House; sons,
Herman Smith of Breadsprings, Bennie Begay of Page, Ariz., Marvin
Bitter of Navajo, NM, Keith Bitter of Phoenix, Edward Smith, Raymond
Smith and James Toadlena all of Gallup; daughters, Phillis Smith
of Two Wells, JoAnn Yazzie of Gallup, Terri Lynn Adeky of Sunny
Vale, Calif., Charlene Butler of Phoenix Shirley Begay, Matilda
Garcia and Katie B. Lowe all of Salt Lake City, Utah; parents, John
and Zonnie C.
Bee; brothers, Lindy C. Bee of Chichiltah, Andy Bee of Vanderwagon,
Johnny Bee of Ramah and Tony Armigo of Wide Ruins, Ariz.; sisters,
Nellie C. Touchin of Church Rock, Bah C. Antonio, Mava Nez, Rose
C. Bee and Elsie C. Bee all of Chichiltah; 30 grandchildren and
11 great-grandchildren.
Smith was preceded in death by his father, Tom Robert Smith and
son, Aubrey Smith.
Pallbearers will be Andy Bee, Raymond Smith, Herman Smith, Marvin
Bitter, Keith Bitter and Leopaldo Garcia.
The family will receive friends and relatives after the burial services
at Inscription House Full Gospel Church.
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