Gallup Senior Center plan approved, city clears up funding confusion

Gallup City Council approved the senior center’s five-year capital plan after staff corrected a date mix-up that briefly made some projects look as if they would not begin until July 1, 2028. Senior Center Program Manager Steve Wargo brought Resolution R2026-26 to the council’s June 29 special meeting, part of the state-required infrastructure planning cycle for local governments and for senior center facilities that must file their own plan.

Wargo said the new senior center is expected to finish in October or November, but the building still needs the parts that make it usable day to day: furnishings, equipment, transportation resources, safety infrastructure and a generator. The largest requests in the FY27 list include about $250,000 for furniture and bookshelves in the lobby and reading room, $35,000 for gym equipment, $120,000 for a meal-delivery truck with proper heating and cooling, and $320,000 for the generator that had been cut during earlier value engineering. For FY28, Wargo identified transportation needs and put vehicle replacements at about $150,000.

The current Neighborhood Senior Center at 607 North Fourth Street already helps older adults get to meals, events, shopping and medical appointments, and delivers meals to qualifying residents. The new regional center is a 26,777-square-foot building with a 220-seat dining room, kitchen and administration suite in phase one. Without the truck, vehicles and safety systems, the larger site could open without the services Gallup elders and their families rely on now.

Gallup broke ground on the new regional senior center on Feb. 3, 2025, and city staff said then that construction would take about a year and a half. On March 10, Wargo and Community Development Manager Keegan Mackenzie-Chavez asked council to direct $1.75 million toward upgrades that had been removed through value engineering, and those restored items were on track to be funded before the building opens. State records also show a 2023 appropriation of $7,487,974 to plan, design, construct, equip and furnish the project, along with a 2025 capital appropriation of $1,672,392 for new construction. The separate senior-center ICIP has long been used to help secure points and outside investment.