Area leaders back UNM-G bond, levy

By Bill Donovan
Staff Writer

GALLUP — Everyone from Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. to Zuni Gov. Arlen Quetawki Sr. were on hand Tuesday to show their support for the passage for the passage of a bond and tax levy by the University of New Mexico-Gallup.

A number of local officials, including Mayor Bob Rosebrough and new county commissioner Dave Dallago Jr. also showed up to give their support to the school.

UNM-Gallup officials and members of the school's ambassadors held the noon luncheon in an effort to get out the word to county voters that the school needed their support if it wanted to continue its expansion efforts.

The ambassadors, who are members of the local business community who have pledged their support to the effort as well, were asked to take literature explaining what the bond and tax levy was all about and make it available to their customers.

School officials are asking the voters to approve a general obligation bond proposal that would allow UNM-Gallup to borrow up to $16 million during the next several years to build new facilities and renovate some of the old ones.

The top priority, said UNM-Gallup President Beth Miller, is probably the Health Careers Center, which is needed to take care of the expanding nursing program at the school. The school also wants to build a student services center to consolidate all the various student service programs that are now scattered all over the campus.

The school is also asking voters to approve a mil levy that would increase property taxes by about $33 for someone with a house that is valued at $100,000.

Much was said by government officials at the meeting about how much the city and the area depends on UNM-Gallup for economic development.

But it goes further than that, said Rosebrough, who said he has a friend going to the school and he has noticed that person has developed and matured over the time he has attended classes at the facility.

For Shirley, his interest in the school is obvious some 77 percent of the students who attend there are Navajo and for that reason he said he would do everything he could to see that the Navajo voters support the school in the election, which is scheduled to be held on Feb. 1 throughout the county.

Quetawki said he was impressed by the work of teachers at the school's campus within the Zuni Pueblo.

It is because of this campus, he said, that many Zunis who graduate from high school are motivated to continue their education. By going to classes in the pueblo, many also take classes at the branch in Gallup and then go on to graduate from four year institutions.

As a business leader, Dallago said he has seen first-hand the value of UNM-Gallup. "I have seen a lot of the product of UNM-Gallup," he said, adding that he has been supportive of the school efforts ever since the time hew as an instructor on the campus.