The local probation and parole office at 203 1/2 E. Main St. will be closing.

A lower caseload and fewer offenders over the past five years has prompted the New Mexico Corrections Department to downsize the local probation and parole office, a department spokesperson said.

The state’s director of probation and parole Charlene Knitsing met with Tenth Judicial District Judge Albert J. Mitchell and Tucumcari City Manager Bobbye Rose on Tuesday.

After those meetings, Tia Bland, spokeswoman for the New Mexico Corrections Department, gave the following statement by phone.

“The lower caseload in Tucumcari does not require a fully staffed probation and parole office,” Bland said.

Bland said the department will advertise for one full-time probation and parole officer who will live in Tucumcari and operate out of an office in the Tucumcari Police Department or Quay County District Courthouse.

The current adult probation and parole office at 203 1/2 E. Main St. will be closed. Bland did not have a timetable for the office’s closure.

“Currently there is a secretary (Diana Cassidy) who has worked in the office for several years,” Bland said. “The department is going to assist her in locating and placing her at another state job.”

Bland said the office in Tucumcari serves 80 offenders in Quay County. She said the department would still supervise the offenders if the office is closed.