On January 24 Navajo voters will get a chance to have their say on a stimulus referendum that would allow road improvements on the reservation.

Under the $216 million stimulus plan each of the 24 delegates would be allowed improve 20 miles of unpaved roads in their respective regions. In addition to roads, the improvements could include bridges or gravel improvements.

Each project would need to be approved by the Navajo Nation Department of Transportation.

The $216 million would come from the principal of the tribe’s Permanent Trust Fund. It would be divided into $36 million from the fund every year for six years to pay for the improvements.

Less than a dozen people attended a public hearing on the referendum, but some raised questions over the language of the referendum – it does not specify that the funds go to “non-paved” roads.

NDOT will work with the Navajo election office to determine the final wording of the referendum, according to Carl Slater, a senior public information officer with the tribe’s department of transportation.

The vote will go on – despite some miscommunication between the legislative and executive branches of government.

Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye had vetoed $296,406 sought by the election office. He said the election office never specified that the money was needed for the January 24 referendum vote.

But Jared Touchin, a PIO for Navajo Speaker LoRenzo Bates disputed that. The council did specify what the money was to be used for, Touchin claimed.

In any case, the vote will take place, Slater said.