Downtown plaza costs top council's agenda

By Zsombor Peter
Staff Writer

GALLUP — If the City Council still wants to build the plaza it originally envisioned for downtown Gallup, it's going to have to find some extra money. Otherwise, the project may end up smaller than planned.

While waiting for Meridian Construction to finish repairing the Little Puerco drainage channel that runs underneath the block between Second and Third Streets the plaza will sit on, the city opened the only bid it received for the project last week.

According to City Manager Eric Honeyfield, the only bid came from Triad, of Albuquerque, which offered to build the plaza, from Hill Street to Aztec Avenue, for just over $2 million.

The problem is, the city only has $1.3 million budgeted for the work.

However the city decides to finish the project, it will likely mean some tough choices.

"The first option is not to re-bid," said Honeyfield.

That leaves the city two choices.

Mayor Bob Rosebrough said he'd like to consider scaling back the current designs and keep open the possibility of finishing any parts left out later.

What seem almost certain to go, Honeyfield said, are the improvements to the walkway between Aztec and Coal avenues, and the adjacent parking lot, in the original designs. Triad has offered to do that work an additional $300,000 above its $2 million offer.

If any more cuts have to come, which seems likely without more money, they will come to the changes planned for the public parking lot on the south side of Aztec Avenue, next to Western Bank. The plans envision turning half the lot into a secondary performance space flanked by shaded vending areas for American Indian arts and crafts.

But Honeyfield and Rosebrough are hoping McKinley County, already paying for more than a third of the $900,000 drainage channel repairs, will be interested in helping finish the plaza as well.

The county originally offered to spend an additional $200,000 on the repairs until separate negotiations with the city over how to split the costs of running the adult detention center left it with more of that bill. The county pulled its $200,000 for the repairs, but Honeyfield hopes the city can persuade it to put that money back into the plaza.

Rosebrough believes the county is taking a "wait and see" approach to any decision about helping with the plaza.

Honeyfield sounds hopeful.

After all, he said, the plaza is "the pinnacle, the finishing touch, on the courthouse project," which the county has already invested millions of dollars in, renovating its old home and building a new one next door. The plaza will sit on the downtown block just north of the two buildings.

The choices, Rosebrough said, are simple.

"It doesn't take a rocket scientist. We either need some help, or we need to cut it back a little bit."

There is a third option: scrap Triad's offer, ask for new bids, and hope for a better price.

Whether the city tries it, Honeyfield said, will depend on the county's generosity and/or Triad's willingness to build a smaller plaza than the one it bid for.

But even that option comes with its own costs. The city would have to pay the architects to redesign the project, Honeyfield said, which cost it $200,000 the first time, while more time lets inflation drive prices ever higher.

The next step, Honeyfield said, is to find out if Triad is willing to scale its work back to the fit the $1.3 million in the city's budget.