Independent Opinion

The off-the-wall ramblings from Gallup City Hall once again show that city officials have no understanding of their responsibility to promote economic development. Instead, the city continues to think of ways to stifle economic development at every turn.

The most recent case stems from discussions in the past few days with Independent reporters in which officials said the city may have to look at closing down Second and Third Street where it crosses the tracks because of the increased rail traffic through Gallup.

They say that the rail guards are now down about half the time and expectations are that because of increased imports from China and Asia, the rail traffic in the next five years will only increase until it's possible that the bars will be down three-fourths of the time.

City officials are taking steps to thwart economic development. Burlington Northern Santa Fe is looking at going from 100 to 160 trains through Gallup on a daily basis, and this seems to scare city officials.

If city officials would just say they would do anything to bring more prosperity to Gallup, we would have no problem. But city officials have tried time after time to make life difficult or impossible for area businesses. Why does the city council tell us it knows best how to run our business?

Instead of looking for a solution to the train problem, they downgrade BNSF's prosperity. Are we getting to a situation where the city will take a look at Wal-Mart and the traffic problems it is causing and decide that it should shut that down as well?

The reality of the situation is this: Gallup needs the Second and Third Street crossings. This should be obvious from the problems that have been created with the alleged improvements being made to the Munoz Overpass area and how its periodic closings have affected the traffic patterns in this area. We don't think enough bridge is being built. But this is a different story than what we have to say now.

If the city were left to only two ways to get between the north and south sides Munoz and Miyamura overpasses traffic would bog down continuously and Gallup would suffer. Our council needs to think in terms of how to help merchants instead of how to manage their business.

Instead of looking at closing the streets, the city should take the initiative and come up with a solution that would provide area residents more options rather than fewer. And this means that the city will have to take a look at building underpasses on Second and Third Streets so people can go back and forth without worrying about the train schedules.

An underpass will cost nearly $20 million, and if the city tries, much of this can come from state and federal grants.

City officials have rejected this idea because of the cost, even though this current administration has wasted millions and millions of dollars on pet projects that no one really cares about. We need infrastructure, not dessert. Gallup needs to grow, not stagnate. Businesses need help in bringing more people to Gallup.

The current mayor and his staff have spent the past three and a half years stifling economic development instead of embracing it. The only good thing we see for the future is a new administration that hopefully will come in with a more positive growth attitude for Gallup.

We need an administration that is on track for economic growth and will put the city's needs before its own pet projects. We need an administration that will look upon the problems caused by the increased rail business as a way to provide better services to the people. We need an administration that cares.