SALT LAKE CITY — Navajo Nation leaders said Thursday was a sad day for their tribe on Utah's Capitol Hill after they learned the trip will not receive $2 million they requested from the legislature to connect a mountain road to their San Juan County community.
“This really does impact public health, public trip, public, safety and, just in general, with just the atmosphere of bettering the livelihoods of our people,” said Crystalyne Curley with the Navajo National Council.
Curley added that the 500 members of the Navajo Mountain Chapter of the tribe must drive 120 miles to the city’s center, which is only 45 miles away.
“In order for me to haul wood for my grandparents, it takes about two hours for me to go from Kansas to Navajo Mountain," explained Shaandiin Parrish, Chair of the Navajo Nation Budget and Finance Committee.
Tribe leaders believe time could be cut down tremendously by connecting the mountain road.
“If this road is built between Ojo or Goldings area in the state of Utah to Navajo Mountain, it would only be a 30-minute commute for me to go to my grandparents' house,” said Parrish.
The new commute isn’t looking possible any time soon as after 15 years of pushing for funding, the leaders were told their appropriation request to help with the road did not move forward in the Executive Appropriations Committee during the current legislative session.
Senate Executive Appropriations Chair Jerry Stevenson (R-Layton) says there wasn't enough money to fund the request this year.
“This became a priority on this request on the request list, and I think it was prioritized No. 21," he said. "We did not get very far down that list.”
Stevenson added that the legislature is not just thinking down the road about what else may be requested after the $2 million dollars to kick start an environmental impact study on the road.
“When you go out and take on projects that may have a tail, you do $4 million this year or $2 million this year and then you got to, you tie a tail to it. It's maybe $125 or $50 million next year," said Stevenson. "We have to be really careful about how we do those things.”
Curley doesn’t buy the fact that the legislature can’t come up with $2 million to start the project.
“It also brings another ... shining a light on what is the state legislature's priorities in regards to tribal communities in the state of Utah.”
