Shiprock a step closer to new justice center
Navajo Times illustration Shiprock Chapter location.
WINDOW ROCK
Shiprock Chapter President Duane “Chili” Yazzie said his community has been trying to get a new and improved judicial and public safety facility for the past 10 years.
Navajo Times illustration
Shiprock Chapter location.
Just recently the chapter’s condemned Boys & Girls Club was set ablaze for reasons that are being investigated. This wasn’t too much of a loss because plans to demolish this building have been in the works in hopes a new facility would be built in its place.
“It’s in deplorable conditions,” said Yazzie about the current Shiprock Police Department. “It’s very dilapidated to the point of being a danger to staff and others that have to spend time there.”
A bill allocating $3.1 million from the judicial/public safety facilities fund to demolish the old Boys & Girls club was approved by the Navajo Nation Council’s Law and Order Committee during its Monday special meeting. The committee is the final authority for the bill. This is the beginning of what the community hopes will be the construction of a new judicial/safety facility.
“Shiprock Planning Commission and Shiprock Chapter has been planning this for at least 10 years,” said Yazzie. “We would hope there would be a stronger, safety program that goes along with detention services. The key is funding.”
Delores Greyeyes, director for the Navajo Nation Department of Corrections, said final designs for the new facility can be made by March 2018 and construction can begin by 2019.
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Highway 264,
I-40, WB @ Winslow