E FRE
VOL 6 | ISSUE 263 | APRIL 17, 2020
Slowing the surge of community spread Councilors, commissioners talk solutions By Beth Blakeman Associate Editor
A
nswers to the problem of community spread of COVID-19 through McKinley County and Gallup have been hard to defi ne and even more difficult to realize. An April 14 emergency meeting of the Gallup City Council a nd Ga llup Mayor Jackie McKinney was held online to determine how to address the threat of community spread
from people panhandling to buy alcohol at area convenience stores. “We don’t want to do anything that penalizes law abiding citizens,” McKinney said. But finding answers to how to flatten the curve in Gallup is a challenge. The mayor and city councilors listened to more than 12 people giving two minutes of public comment each on subjects including curfews and alcohol restrictions and the differences were stark.
One person warned against overreach disguised as public safety. Another said putting a curfew in place would restrict all citizens, when only some members of the population were behaving in a dangerous manner, suggesting that the city needs to contain the homeless population, so the general public does not have its constitutional rights restricted. One of the calls was in opposition to rest r icti ng the sale of alcohol, because
transients who depend on being able to buy it, could become agitated and aggressive if they couldn’t get it. Another said there will always be people selling alcohol off the back of pickup trucks and out of hotel rooms, so such a move would not be a threat to life or safety. In that same vein, one caller suggested that sending transients to grocery stores to buy liquor would spread the virus among shoppers who are practicing social distancing, and
only venturing out to purchase necessities. Councilors considered several options. District 3 Councilor Yogash Kumar mentioned the issue of cross contamination at convenience stores with gas pumps as he’s seen throngs of people flock to local gas stations to buy booze, with some folks ignoring social distancing protocols to panhandle to get a drink.
COVID SPREAD | SEE PAGE 16