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VOL 6 | ISSUE 266 | MAY 8, 2020
THIRD LOCKDOWN By Beth Blakeman Associate Editor
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allup’s third lockdown will include s ever a l ch a n ge s . One will be a need for face masks. City Manager Mar yann Ustick told the Gallup Sun May 7 that all Gallup residents will be required to wear a cloth
face covering when they are inside a business, non-profit or government building. That new requirement was just a suggestion by Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham in her most recent public health order. Now it is mandatory in Gallup. The mask for customers was requested by Mayor Louis Bonaguidi and announced by the governor. The ordinance
will be coming up on the city council agenda May 12. The curfew will include a lock down of roads for non-residents until May 8 at 8 pm. That means Gallup roads will be locked down until the curfew on the Navajo Nation starts. “We really wanted to try to fi nd a way to transition this,” Ustick said. She said the checkpoints on
roads will stay in place until Sunday at noon to enforce the requirement of a maximum number of two people per vehicle. No papers will be needed. The reason behind keeping the checkpoints in place is to avoid a massive influx of people into Gallup. The business curfew for Gallup remains in place each day from 8 pm until 5 am
through May 10, when the order is set to expire at noon, unless it is extended. Gallup is the county seat of McKinley County, which has just 3.5 percent of the state’s population, but about 30 percent of the state’s COVID19 cases. McKinley County reported 1,337 positive cases of COVID-19 as of May 6, and 29 COVID-related deaths.
The inconvenience of a lockdown By Beth Blakeman Associate Editor
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lockdown has some particularly difficult aspects beyond the expected everyday
boredom. One of those can be taking care of vital needs, such as refilling medications, lab drop offs and laundr y. In White Cliffs resident Karen Nieto’s case, she and one of her
daughters are essential workers. Nieto works at U. S. Renal and her older daughter works at Red Rocks Care Center. She says she has been in numerous arguments with state police and Gallup police
because she needs to get her scrubs washed. New Mexico State Police Officer Dusty Francisco looked into Nieto’s complaint May 4 and said essential workers can go in and out of Gallup with
a letter from their essential workplace and documents to verify their residence. “For people who have
LOCKDOWN | SEE PAGE 22