Centennial plaque to be put up — or will it?

The Centennial Overpass plaque commemorating Gallup's centennial anniversary sits in Gallup city the building shop. While it was supposed to be erected in 1981, city officials hope to have it up soon after approval from the state. — © 2009 Gallup Independent / Brian Leddy

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Bill Donovan
Staff writer

GALLUP — It took 28 years, but the Gallup Centennial Plaque will soon find a home.

The plaque, which was made in 1981 to celebrate both Gallup’s centennial and the naming of the overpass on the east side of town, has been in storage since then, waiting for the day when it could be find a home near the east interchange.

“Most people probably aren’t aware that the east interchange has a name,” local historian Martin Link said.

People are well aware of the Miyamura Overpass and the Muñoz Overpass because these names crop up in the local media all of the time, but the east interchange goes unmentioned.

In fact, if Gallup residents hadn’t decided to hold a centennial celebration in 1981, it may still have no name except the East Interchange.

In 1979, Link and Bill Nechero, who is now a city councilor, started taking about the fact that the city would officially be 100 years old in two years and decided to see if they could get some support for a centennial celebration.

At first, said Nechero, the city government and the Gallup Chamber of Commerce didn’t seem to want to get involved, so Link and Nechero managed to gather a number of organizations and individuals in the community — the city and the chamber eventually got on the bandwagon — and began planning a variety of activities that would continue throughout the year.

One of the things planned, Nechero said, was the official naming of the east interchange as the Centennial Overpass and the group used some of its funds — Nechero thinks it was between $3,000 and $5,000 — to construct the plaque designed to tell people its official name.

The plaque was made, and when it came back for installation at the site, problems arose.

Because of its size and weight, a concrete foundation would have to be built and the state decided this was the city’s responsibility and the city thought it should be funded by the state.

So as Gallup celebrated the city’s 100th birthday with a series of events such as a parade, the debate continued ... and continued ... and continued.

Finally, it was 1982 and everyone was celebrated out, and the plaque was stored away in the deep bowels of a city warehouse, forgotten for years.

The plaque was rediscovered by city officials a little more than a year ago, and Link became involved in a crusade to finally get it put up.

But even this proved to be frustrating, Link said.
He talked to Ben Welch, who was director of the city’s parks department at the time, who said that the plaque would be put up sometime that summer but that didn’t happen.

The delays this time, said City Manager Gerald Herrera, had to do with making a decision on where to place the plaque so it could be seen easily by motorists and passers-by.

At a meeting last week, city officials told Link they preferred to put it facing eastbound traffic and it would be in conjunction with other signs promoting Gallup’s trail systems. Link said the new date is now set for April and the sign itself is under the care of Stan Henderson, director of public works for the city.

“I am not going to place any bets but I think we are getting closer,” he said, pointing out that a decade or so ago, city officials were denying that the plaque even existed.