County Road 429 North Road Project

The pre-construction start date for the C-429 North road project was May, 8 – June 7, 2017. During pre-construction Apache County District 2 prepared for the project by stockpiling limestone from St. Johns at the Ganado yard, servicing and collecting units for the project, setting up a command station at a residence and conducted proper planning on schedules and money management.

The construction start date was June 28, 2017. Graders, frontend loaders, dump trucks, backhoes, water trucks and scrappers were used on C-429 North to repair the road all utilizing an estimated 5,616 tons of limestone. After weeks of repairing and preparing the 24ft wide 3 mile road, the Durablend application began on June 29 and continued on June 30, 2017. This Durablend is better known as magnesium chloride which helps with dust control, road stabilization and soil stabilization for an overall improved road quality.

On July 1, 2017, the County Road 429 North road project was completed. Before the Shepherd administration came into Apache County office, the C-429 North road had 2 miles of improved road, now under the Shepherd administration, Steamboat’s C-429 North road has a completed 3 miles of improved road.

National County Government Week 2017

Apache County District 2 celebrated its 3rd Annual National County Government Week from April 24-27, 2017, at the Ganado and Fort Defiance Road Yards. The purpose of National County Government Week is to promote past, current, and future projects within District 2. Events were hosted for the community throughout the week. Events during the week included; Volleyball tournament, 3 on 3 Basketball tournament, Fun Walk/Run, Community Trash Pick Up, and an Elder Day. At the Elder Day informational booths to promote services and benefits for the community were set up. There were many guest speakers and entertainment provided, which included: Talibah Begay and Shar Redhorse, Navajo Recording Artist’s; Jerrylin John, Miss Central Navajo; Ronda Joe, Miss Navajo Nation; Joe Tohonnie, Jr., Apache Recording Artist with the White Mountain Apache Crown Dancers; and Arnold Malone, Song and Dance Group. The constituents were very appreciative and thankful to attend the events. We look forward to seeing you at next year’s National County Government Week! 

New Motor Graders

It is Supervisor Shepherd’s objective to implement a quality road maintenance program and provide safe school bus routes. After Supervisor Shepherd instructed District personnel to get our heavy equipment fleet back up and operational, it was identified that our equipment are well over their hours of operations which means they have about 300,000-500,000 operational hours on them.

Apache County's Newsletter and Website

Apache County District 2 began their 1st newsletter under the Shepherd Administration after a few employees attended their 1st Adobe InDesign training April 11-14th, 2017. With the leadership of Supervisor Alton Joe Shepherd, Apache County District 2 employees partnered with ​Crystalyne Curley, Lumenbrite trainer - Anthony Bueno, photographer Shaun Price and Navajo Times’ CEO/Publisher - Tom Arviso, Production Manager - Bobby Martin, and Assistant Production Manager - Olson Patterson from Navajo Times to complete the newsletter June 1, 2017.

The Apache County District 2 website began in March 2017, Supervisor Alton Joe Shepherd and Administrative Coordinator – Julius Elwood expressed their website wants and needs with Real Time Solutions from Albuquerque, NM. With the help of District 2 staff, Terri Sanchez, Luke Burnham, and Jeanie Eyer from Real Time Solutions created the new and improved Apache County District 2 website. The intent of the new website was to be more interactive with the public and have more information to offer. The website was completed and went live July 25, 2017.