- Navajo leaders and New Mexico Senator Tom Udall are seeking solutions to a funding crisis for the Gallup Detoxification Center.
- The Montezuma County Fair Board would like to put on a concert before this year’s fair to help promote and fund it.
Navajo leaders and New Mexico Senator Tom Udall are seeking solutions to a funding crisis for the Gallup Detoxification Center. In a release, Navajo President Russell Begaye said the nation may partner with the Rehoboth McKinley County Health Services to provide longer-term treatment for alcoholism instead of funding the detox, which only offered protective custody for up to 72 hours. An agreement between the Navajo Nation and the city to manage the detox ended in October 2015. Since then, it has been in limbo because the tribe was its main funding source. In a recent meeting with Begaye, Udall called for all stakeholders to come to the table. In its release, the Navajo Nation says alcohol-related problems are “drowning” Gallup but “the political power of the liquor industry” has hampered efforts to find solutions.
The Montezuma County Fair Board would like to put on a concert before this year’s fair to help promote and fund it. However, the county commissioners on Monday expressed reservations about the estimated $35,000 it would cost to bring a big-name country and western act here. The commissioners told fair-board chair Brandy Simmons and planner LeeAnn Milligan to see if the city and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe might want to be involved.
