Money available for Thoreau road improvement

A truck travels down County Road 27 north of Coolidge on Saturday afternoon. Edmund Yazzie, a council delegate from Thoreau, says the road needs to be paved. — © 2008 Gallup Independent / Brian Leddy

Copyright © 2008
Gallup Independent
By Karen Francis
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — The Thoreau Chapter will receive a grant for $400,612 from New Mexico ’s Tribal Infrastructure Fund to improve County Road 27 that serves members of the chapter.

“Our chapter was thrilled when we were informed that we had been approved for our funding request,” Edmund Yazzie, Navajo Nation Council delegate representing Thoreau, said. “The safety of our roads is a concern often raised by our community members and this funding will help to address some of their concerns.”

The funding will pay to chip seal the unpaved portion of the road, which is about 5 miles. However, the rights of way for the road must still be obtained before the improvements can begin.

“The money is sitting there right now. The only thing we are working on is the right of way,” Yazzie said. Getting the rights of way should take a month or two, he added.

Yazzie said he is hoping for the improvements to begin in the early spring.

In the meantime, with the winter weather, the community members must continue to plow through the unimproved road. When the snow melts, it will result in mud and when that dries, the road will have ruts that can cause wear-and-tear on vehicles traveling on it.

“Right now it just gets pretty bad. I know we have to have a lot of patience but it’s kind of odd that the money is there now but we have to work on this right of way,” Yazzie said.

While 26 infrastructure proposals totaling $9.7 million were requested by the state’s tribes this year for the Tribal Infrastructure Fund, the Legislature had allocated $5 million for the projects making the funding highly competitive. Only 10 were awarded funds.

The Thoreau chapter has been advocating for funding for the road for some time now.

“With the help of the county commissioner and his staff, and our chapter, we all pulled together to advocate for funding from Santa Fe ,” Yazzie said.

After testifying, the chapter received a letter that the funding had been awarded to complete the improvements.

In accordance with the grant agreement, a scope of work was drafted to define the performance measures and outline the time period for the project to be completed, which is expected to be 18 months or less, the Council’s Office of the Speaker said.