Mission and school in Thoreau may survive diocese bankruptcy

By Olivier Uyttebrouck
Albuquerque Journal
May 14, 2016

http://www.abqjournal.com/774435/thoreau-mission-school-may-survive-church-bankruptcy.html

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — For more than two years, St. Bonaventure Indian Mission and School in Thoreau has faced the possibility that its properties would be sold to help pay for a costly Chapter 11 bankruptcy brought about by sexual abuse claims against the Diocese of Gallup.

A pending settlement in the 30-month-old case has provided some certainty of short-term survival for the nonprofit, and should allow it to begin drilling a new well this year expected to provide drinking water for up to 5,000 people in the southeast corner of the Navajo Nation.

“This has been a part of my life the last couple of years, and bringing it to a resolution is very important to all of us,” said Chris Halter, executive director of St. Bonaventure Indian Mission and School.

But the fate of St. Bonaventure School, which enrolls about 215 students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade in one of the state’s poorest communities, remains only partially resolved.

The proposed settlement calls for Halter and Gallup Bishop James Wall to meet later this year “to negotiate for (St. Bonaventure’s) permanent use and ownership” of the school property.

“We don’t know all the details about how we’re going to work that out,” Halter said of the planned negotiations. “We do get a two-year lease with the ability to extend that or purchase it. We just don’t know what is beyond those two years.”

St. Bonaventure has the option to buy the school property anytime in the next two years by negotiating a sale price with the Diocese of Gallup, the diocese said last week in a written statement.

“In regards to the school, the mission, and the well, the absolute main goal is continuing to help the people who receive water and other services from the mission,” diocese spokeswoman Suzanne Hammons said in the statement.

The bankruptcy case has allowed the diocese and the mission to resolve long-standing property disputes, Hammons said.

“By settling these property disputes, we’ll be able to refocus our efforts on the people,” she said.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David T. Thuma of Albuquerque earlier this month approved a disclosure statement that sets out the terms of the diocese’s proposed reorganization plan.

Claimants will now cast ballots to approve or reject the plan. Thuma could approve the final settlement as early as June.

The proposed settlement calls for St. Bonaventure to pay $550,000 to help pay claims filed in the diocese’s bankruptcy. In return, the nonprofit would receive clear title to some of the lands that were the focus of a years-old property dispute between St. Bonaventure and the Diocese of Gallup.

Those properties include two Thoreau mobile home parks for low-income residents, a thrift store and a fitness center.

St. Bonaventure would also receive title to a two-acre property at Smith Lake, about 10 miles north of Thoreau, where the nonprofit plans to drill an 1,800-foot well. Dig Deep, a California nonprofit, would finance the $500,000 project.

“We definitely intend to have it drilled this year,” Halter said. “That’s why we pushed so hard to obtain that property clear and free of any encumbrances with the diocese.”

The well would allow St. Bonaventure to expand its water distribution program, which provides free drinking water by truck to hundreds of households that lack access to safe water.