WESTERN SKIES - March 26, 2005

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STEPHEN RAHER: For Western Skies, I'm Stephen Raher.

The Department of Defense announced on Wednesday that it will release construction funds for the long-awaited chemical weapons demilitarization plant at the Pueblo Chemical Depot.

Colorado's Congressional delegation was surprised to learn in January that the Pentagon was considering abandoning the plans to destroy the weapons on site, in favor of transporting them to another location for destruction. Pueblo lawmakers and citizens have long favored on-site destruction via a chemical neutralization process.

Colorado's U.S. Senators Wayne Allard and Ken Salazar sponsored legislation to prevent the Army from studying the feasibility of moving the weapons to another site. Salazar said he was "cautiously optimistic" about this week's developments, and Allard said it was the "first positive sign we've seen in a long time," adding that Puebloans had been very patient during the process.

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RAHER: Also making headlines in Pueblo this week, Wal-Mart officials announced plans to build an eight hundred thousand square foot distribution center west of Cheyenne, Wyoming. The announcement comes just weeks after Wal-Mart officials dropped plans to build a center in Pueblo West. Western Skies' contributor Anita Miller, has our report.

ANITA MILLER: Wal-Mart's announcement that the company is no longer interested in building a distribution center in Pueblo West, follows lengthy negotiations in which Pueblo County commissioners refused to grant Wal-Mart tax breaks the company had requested.

Margaret Eichman, chairman of the Pueblo West District Board of Directors, which supported the distribution center, says poor negotiations killed the deal.

MARGARET EICHMAN: Well, yes. I do think the county commissioners did drop the ball and I'm very disappointed in our county commissioners here and their handling of this negotiating issue.

MILLER: Commissioners initially refused to offer Wal-Mart tax breaks the company requested. However, the commissioners have since reconsidered, and voted two-to-one earlier this month to offer a partial tax break. The offer appears to be too little too late, as it looks like the distribution center in Cheyenne will replace the one offered to Pueblo West.

According to Eichman, leaders from the Pueblo community have approached Wal-Mart officials about re-opening negotiations, but so far, with no success. For Western Skies, I'm Anita Miller.

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RAHER: Fourteen Boys and Girls Clubs on the Navajo Nation have been closed since tribal leaders cut off funding for the group. This has left thousands of children without after school programming. But that's changing soon, as KSUT's Joan Zwisler reports.

JOAN ZWISLER: The Boys and Girls Club of Navajo, Incorporated, based in Shiprock, New Mexico, is a non-profit organization that enjoyed success for a while. It expanded clubs to fourteen locations on the Navajo Nation, and served an estimated five thousand members. But last December, it closed following controversial accusations of mismanagement of funds and loss of financial support from the Tribe. The non-profit is set to lose its charter in April.

But according to the director of the Boys and Girls Club Expansion Office, Spencer Willie, the Navajo Nation now has it's own charter, and will begin operating new Boys and Girls Clubs on the largest reservation in the United States, through the Navajo Nation's Department of Youth.

SPENCER WILLIE: We are announcing the grand opening of the Lachee Boys and Girls Club on April fourth or fifth, and we're going to be working on having the other four additional sites up and running hopefully by the end of the month of April. You know, we're moving forward in a direction that we think is in the best interest of the long-term plans for sustaining the boys and girls club activities.

ZWISLER: More sites are planned, if local communities show support. Willie says the clubs will have expanded programming by collaborating with the Navajo Nation's youth, social services and other departments.

The Boys and Girls Clubs of America is the oldest organization offering after school programming, serving over three million children in the U.S. Advocates say the clubs help children escape negative alternatives such as dropping out of school, attempting suicide or succumbing to pressures to use drugs and alcohol.

On the Navajo Nation, Willie estimates the new clubs may grow to serve as many as ten thousand children. I'm Joan Zwisler.