Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
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PORTALES - A mother-daughter pair of former daycare operators were sentenced March 5 for leaving two young girls suffering hours in a hot car the afternoon of July 25, 2017, in Portales. Mary and Sandi Taylor were given 36 and 30 years in prison, respectively, after an emotional hearing that included impassioned pleas from people at both ends of the full courtroom. On the victim side were calls for accountability and justice; on the defense side for compassion and forgiveness. Judge Donna...
PORTALES — Daycare workers who admitted to leaving two toddlers in a hot car in July 2017 were found guilty Tuesday of charges that could send them to prison for up to 36 years. Mary and Sandi Taylor were immediately remanded into custody following the Roosevelt County jury’s guilty verdict, which came about four hours after it began deliberating. The courtroom filled with tears on both sides when the verdict was announced. “(I’m) very glad to see we’re taking child abuse in this community very seriously, even if it’s reckless rather than...
PORTALES — Dozens of pink and blue balloons took flight Tuesday from outside the Roosevelt County courthouse, one of the first light moments for anyone involved in the emotional trial that had played out in the five days before. It was a moment of relief for many, a feeling that justice had been served on behalf of two young girls left in a hot car for almost three hours the afternoon of July 25, 2017. Yet for the former daycare pair convicted of felony child abuse charges, and for their families, it was a crushing reckoning that means up to 3...
PORTALES — Mary and Sandi Taylor did most everything together while running their daycare. Now they sit together facing trial for the 2017 death of one young girl in their care and the serious injury to another. Since 2013, the duo ran “Taylor’s Tots” daycare from their residence in Portales, earning a good reputation for looking after young children. In February 2017, they passed a semi-annual inspection from the state’s Children, Youth and Families Department, and five months later a surveyor with the agency visited to start the initial p...
For local educators in search of relevant lessons for their students on concepts of engineering and energy careers, it doesn't get much more hands-on than climbing inside of a windmill. Some 30 teachers from districts in Curry and Quay counties had that opportunity Friday, first with a day of workshops at Clovis High School and then with a sunset field trip to the turbines in progress at the Grady Wind Farm and those already completed on the Broadview project. A Science, Technology, Engineering...
PORTALES — A jury is in place, and the trial for two former daycare workers charged more than 18 months ago with the death and serious injury of two young girls in their care begins today. “We’re looking forward to getting the trial moving and getting this tried,” said 9th Judicial District Attorney Andrea Reeb, prosecuting for the state. “It’s been a year and a half now; I think everybody, including defense, victims and defendants are ready to resolve this matter in one way or another.” The mother-daughter duo of Mary and Sandi Taylor are be...
PORTALES - Mary and Sandi Taylor did most everything together while running their daycare. Now they sit together facing trial for the 2017 death of one young girl in their care and the serious injury to another. Since 2013, the duo ran "Taylor's Tots" daycare from their residence in Portales, earning a good reputation for looking after young children. In February 2017, they passed a semi-annual inspection from the state's Children, Youth and Families Department, and five months later a surveyor...
ALBUQUERQUE — Advocates for a horse-racing license during the New Mexico Racing Commission’s first regular meeting of the new year Thursday oscillated from expectation to dismay and back to hopefulness. Racino advocates from Tucumcari, Clovis and Lordsburg anticipated commissioners at last would name an award on the state’s sixth horse-racing and slot-gaming license. That decision was expected last year but delayed by a late-breaking petition from one of the applicant groups, with commissioners stating they wished to resolve the compl...
Warren Frost has long been convinced the race for New Mexico’s sixth racetrack/casino is between Clovis and Tucumcari. He is even more convinced now that the New Mexico Racing Commission has announced only five groups met last week’s deadline to apply for the racino license — three from Clovis, one from Tucumcari and one from Lordsburg. “This is all about Tucumcari and Clovis,” said the Quay County attorney who for more than a decade has been advocating for a racino in Tucumcari. “Lordsburg is much like Raton ... They are on the border of Arizo...
Just as a horse race can change suddenly and rather unexpectedly, so too, apparently, can the contest for the state’s sixth and last available racino license. The New Mexico Racing Commission notified The Eastern New Mexico News, a sister paper of the Quay County Sun, of its “final list” of letters of intent to apply for the license, which included three additional entities not included in the initial list released Monday after the 4:30 p.m. deadline that day. That brings the total tally of interested entities to 11, five of which are eyein...
For Warren Frost, confident in Tucumcari’s qualifications for the state’s next racino, it’s “the more the merrier.” That was his reaction to Monday’s news that eight groups have applied to the New Mexico Racing Commission for a racetrack/casino. Of the entities that submitted “letters of intent,” by the deadline at end of business day Monday, three had eyes for Clovis, two for Raton, and one each for Tucumcari, Las Vegas and Lordsburg. Final applications are due Aug. 17 for the state’s sixth and final racino license, which has gone unused s...
SAN JON - It's been more than 35 years since Jean Simmons Abla's mysterious death. With help from cold-case investigators, Abla's daughter has recently inspired renewed interest in trying to find out what happened to her. Though technically never closed, the case was cleared soon after a convicted serial killer confessed to her slaying in June 1983. Henry Lee Lucas told authorities he picked her up from a San Jon truck stop. He allegedly even told them about a scar Abla had from a Caesarean...
CLOVIS — As the state starts accepting applications for its sixth racino license, eastern New Mexico will have at least two horses in the race. Projects proposed for Tucumcari and Clovis will be among those competing for the state’s last available racino license, with an award selection expected by the end of 2018. The New Mexico Racing Commission on Monday began accepting applications for the state’s sixth and final horse racing and casino license, a process expected to last at least through the summer. Applications are due by July 30, and p...
CLOVIS — The Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority is now accepting bids for construction later this year on the section of its pipeline connecting Cannon Air Force Base with Clovis, as announced in a board meeting Thursday afternoon and in a news release that followed. The advertisement for bids will be distributed locally and in Arizona, Texas, Colorado and New Mexico, Administrator Orlando Ortega said in a presentation to the authority board. Bid applications are due by June 21, with a contract award to be announced July 19 and y...
PORTALES - Orlando Ortega will assume the responsibilities of "administrator of project advancement, planning and communication" for the Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority on April 2. The water authority named the former Portales mayor to the position at its meeting Monday. Ortega received a three-year contract with an annual base salary of $89,000, with benefits. The position was vacated Oct. 1 when Justin Howalt left to become Clovis' new city manager. Ortega was Portales' mayor from...
CLOVIS — Curry County Manager Lance Pyle on Monday issued a news release saying the county is “very concerned” about how a gun was allowed into the county jail last Thursday. “... We are confident that the Clovis Police Department is looking into the matter, addressing the same and taking future steps to make sure that Clovis Police Department arrestees are searched and secured prior to being brought to the Curry County Detention Center,” Pyle wrote. Pyle also on Monday said Clovis Police Officer Sanford Wagner was the officer who brought 2...
CLOVIS — A bid package beginning the Cannon-Clovis section of the Ute Water Pipeline was approved unanimously by board members of the Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority at their regular monthly meeting Thursday afternoon. But it will still be about six months before the spade strikes the earth on construction. More than $12 million of an estimated $24.6 million in construction costs for the pipeline section known as “Finish Water 2” is already secured through local, federal and state funding, including capital outlay and Water Trust...
CLOVIS — Board members of the Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority on Thursday unanimously condemned a section of land southwest of Clovis. The action allows officials to continue on schedule with construction and development of a phase of the Ute Water Project, board members said. The condemnation — an assertion of eminent domain rights — follows two years of attempted negotiations with the property owners of a tract of land on a Curry County subdivision, ENMWUA attorney Dave Richards said. Engineers sought an easement of about four...
CLOVIS — With over 150 pages of material across 27 applications, selecting a new Executive Director for the Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority could very well take into the new year, Chairman David Lansford said Saturday. About one fourth of the applicants are from New Mexico, while others ranged from California and Texas to Massachusetts and Canada. Many of them list experience in engineering, public works or management, but at least one licensed esthetician in Knoxville also put her name in the hat. The applicants will be discussed i...
CLOVIS — A cold-case murder trial is set to begin Nov. 27. William Hadix is accused in the September 2003 shooting death and robbery of Jessie Clyde “J.C.” Tucker in Clovis. In a docket call Monday morning, Judge Fred Van Soelen confirmed the dates of the five-day trial. It’s scheduled to begin with jury selection Nov. 27 and last through Dec. 1. Deputy District Attorney Brian Stover and defense attorney Gary Mitchell both attended the hearing telephonically, with Hadix present in custody. “Barring a difficulty with the weather, I don’t see...
GRADY — The Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority has a busy couple of months ahead, as it seeks both to secure state and federal funds and to select a new executive director from dozens of applicants. The authority is in a “holding pattern” regarding federal funds, consultant John Ryan said in a presentation Thursday afternoon at the ENMWUA regular meeting in Grady. More information on the amount of available funds for fiscal year 2018 and the remainder of FY17 will be available in mid-December, he said, while recommending the autho...
PORTALES - Tyler Lucas intended to bring a single small trailer of supplies for the hurricane-stricken communities on the Texas Gulf Coast. He started that effort Thursday morning, and by Sunday evening he and four others departed for Houston hauling about 40,000 pounds of water and food. "I said if I was going to go down there I might as well take some supplies with me, and it kind of just blew up from there," said Lucas, a Clovis firefighter. "I was definitely surprised by the support we got...
Credentials and experience are a good start, but unceasing vigilance may still be the best guarantee against certain disasters, according to some daycare providers in eastern New Mexico. “We are continually doing a head count,” said Millie Weed, owner and operator of Kid Care, a child care center licensed for the past 13 years in Clovis. “Any time that we move children, we get a count for how many are in the building.” Weed spoke to The News last week in the wake of the tragedy Tuesday afternoon in Portales, when 22-month old Maliyah Jones d...
CLOVIS - "The party's over here!" said Selmus Price, recognizing Mary Carrier for her raffle win at Saturday's 2017 Ethnic Fair in Hillcrest Park. The prize: a 40 pound block of cheese, one of two donated for a fundraiser benefiting the Food Bank of Eastern New Mexico. "My grandchildren and my husband love cheese so it's not going to be wasted," said Carrier. The raffle drawing took place late into a lively day in the park that started with a fun run Saturday morning and ended with a talent...
CLOVIS — A statewide immigrant rights group has spoken out on reports of “horrible tactics” implemented last week by federal agents in Clovis, voicing concern for the “ripple effects” of disrupting the social and economic fabric of communities in eastern New Mexico. “At least eight field agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in four unmarked vehicles arrived at dozens of homes (in Clovis) Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday banging loudly on doors and asking residents about their immigration status. At least eight residents,...