Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
Sorted by date Results 1208 - 1232 of 1717
Citing budget concerns in the wake of plunging oil prices, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham last week vetoed a $50 million transportation-projects bill that earmarked $215,000 for a roadway maintenance vehicle for Tucumcari. The governor in the same week also line-item vetoed about $110 million worth of capital-outlay projects throughout the state for the same reasons, though $2.06 million in Quay County projects emerged unscathed from those cuts. Quay County manager Richard Primrose said Thursday morning he printed out and...
The mandatory three-week break from classes at New Mexico public schools because of the coronavirus pandemic also means no games and no practice sessions until at least April 6. Tucumcari High School athletic director and track coach Wayne Ferguson said the meets and games affected by the break won't be made up. That trims at least seven games off the Rattlers' baseball schedule, including the previously scheduled home opener against Santa Rosa on March 24. Tucumcari's boys and girls track...
Depleted by injuries, the ninth-seeded Tucumcari girls basketball team reached the end of the line of the Class 3A quarterfinals during a 67-55 loss March 10 to top-seeded and eventual state champion Navajo Prep, despite senior Ashley Shipley’s heroic 38 points for the Lady Rattlers. Tucumcari, which ended its season with a 19-11 record, fell behind 13-0 and 20-2 in the first half during the game at the Santa Ana Star Center in Rio Rancho, two days before the New Mexico Activities Association banned all fans and media from state-tournament g...
The fourth quarter of Saturday's Class A championship game gave an empty feeling to the Logan girls basketball team, and it wasn't just because it was playing in a virtually vacant arena. The top-seeded Lady Longhorns (26-5) failed to score in the last 3 minutes, 45 seconds during a 47-39 loss to second-seeded and district rival Melrose (26-4), which finally earned a crown after losing its previous three state-title games. Though Logan won three of five games against Melrose this season, it...
Two sitting Tucumcari city commissioners will face each other in the Republican primary for Quay County Commissioner District 2 on June 2. District 5 city commissioner Todd Duplantis and District 4 city commissioner Chris Arias each filed for the county's District 2 during the final hour of filing for primary elections March 10 at the Quay County Clerk's Office. They also will face a third primary challenger for the seat, Jerri Rush of Forrest. Current Quay County District 2 commissioner Mike...
During a Quay County Commission meeting so crowded with spectators it was moved from its usual chambers to a district courtroom upstairs, commissioners on Monday unanimously approved the sheriff's request for a resolution that declares the county's opposition to the New Mexico's newly enacted red-flag gun law. Sheriff Russell Shafer requested the resolution, which declared the county's opposition to the state's Extreme Risk Protection Order Act that takes effect in mid-May. The law allows...
Two sitting Tucumcari city commissioners will face each other in the Republican primary for Quay County Commissioner District 2 on June 2. District 5 city commissioner Todd Duplantis and District 4 city commissioner Chris Arias each filed for the county's District 2 during the final hour of filing for primary elections Tuesday at the Quay County Clerk's Office. They also will face a third primary challenger for the seat, Jerri Rush of Forrest. Current Quay County District 2 commissioner Mike Cherry is term-limited after this year, as is...
The Quay County Commission's chairman on Monday asked road superintendent Larry Moore to draft a resolution requesting safety improvements at U.S. 54 and Airport Road. Problems at U.S. 54 and Quay Road Ai (aka Airport Road) have been discussed at previous commission meetings. Truckers and other travelers, relying on online navigation systems, often use the road as a shortcut to Interstate 40. Commissioner Sue Dowell said any sort of left turn from U.S. 54 onto that road often proves hazardous...
The loss of higher-education foundry programs is the gain of Mesalands Community College's annual Iron Pour, now in its 22nd year this week. Joel Kiser, a longtime member of the college's arts faculty, said many colleges and universities have shuttered their foundries because of their cost, a lack of space and its intensive maintenance. As a result, Mesalands' Iron Pour continues to attract instructors and students from across a wide area, in addition to artists who lack facilities in their area...
The Tucumcari Lodgers Tax Board on Wednesday unanimously approved its chairman’s plan to form a local tourism committee in place of an Albuquerque marketing firm, but not before an argument between him and outgoing city manager Britt Lusk prompted Lusk to walk out of the meeting. All board members and several audience members who spoke up voiced support for Chairman Larry Smith’s four-page plan, which will be presented to the Tucumcari City Commission during its regular meeting Thursday for final approval. The board approved the document wit...
LOGAN - The top-seeded Logan girls basketball team took care of business quickly during a 63-20 victory in the first round Friday of the Class 1A state tournament against 16th-seeded and proverbial sacrificial lamb Dora. The Lady Longhorns (23-4) took a double-digit lead midway through the first quarter, led by 20 midway through the second and prompted the start of the running-clock "mercy rule" when their advantage reached 35 points in the third. Karli Webb and Kyndall Ragland led Logan's...
GRADY - The Grady/San Jon boys basketball team lamented a top scorer's foul trouble, allowing nine 3-point shots and a brief but critical scoring drought in the third quarter during a 55-51 season-ending loss Saturday to Quemado in the first round of the Class 1A state tournament. Most of all, the Bronchos lamented the absence of senior power forward Chisum Rush. Rush, who averaged a team-leading 17 points and nearly 10 rebounds per game this season, suffered what initially was thought to have...
Donald Schutte, a longtime lawyer and a former assistant district attorney and district court judge in Quay County, died Feb. 25. He was 72. Attorney Roger Bargas, with whom Schutte shared a law office in Tucumcari, said he suddenly took ill at his home near Las Vegas, New Mexico, and was rushed to the hospital. Bargas said it’s believed Schutte died from a blood clot or massive heart attack. “It came out of the blue. It was a real shock for everybody. He was one of the healthiest people I’ve ever met,” Bargas said during a telephone intervi...
Hot shooting in the first quarter catapulted the Tucumcari girls basketball team to the district tournament title in a 53-44 win Friday at Tularosa. The Lady Rattlers (18-10) shocked the Wildcats (21-5) with a 27-6 first quarter, then held on the rest of the way. "The first quarter, we could not miss," Tucumcari coach Gary Hittson said. "We hit five threes in the first. "This was a great team effort," he added. "The girls were having fun out on the floor." Hittson praised his team's resiliency i...
The Tucumcari boys basketball team ended its season in the semifinals Thursday of the District 4-3A tournament with a 63-54 loss at New Mexico Military Institute. The Rattlers (9-16) gave up 10 unanswered points early in the first quarter and struggled to overcome that deficit the rest of the game, coach John Span said. "I thought we played well enough to win," he said. "We had the shots; we just couldn't put them in." Tucumcari also was hampered by 22 turnovers, compared to NMMI's 15, Span...
LOGAN - The Melrose girls basketball team turned a 10-point second-half deficit into a 45-37 victory and a Class 1A-6 district tournament title Friday by scoring 22 unanswered points against No. 1-ranked Logan on its home floor. Melrose (23-4), ranked No. 2 in Class 1A, earned its first victory over its district rival this season after losing its previous three matchups by a total of 16 points. The two might meet each other again in the state tournament. Shannon May scored eight of her...
The Quay County Commission on Monday approved its final audit for the fiscal year ending June 30 that flagged five findings — with four that were minor. A.J. Bowers of the Carr, Riggs & Ingram accounting firm told the commission his report found “no material weaknesses” and a “consistent” standing with its general funds and net position in recent years. The report found a “significant deficiency” in the county’s reporting of a $168,610 capital lease not identified in its capital assets. The auditor recommended the county review its list of lea...
Voters in the Tucumcari school district on Feb. 18 approved by more than a 2-to-1 margin a $3 million bond issue that will be used for a proposed redevelopment of its baseball and softball diamonds. A total of 815 people cast a "yes" vote, or more than 68%, while 371 voted against it during the special mail-in election. Turnout was 27%, which was 2 percentage points lower than the first-ever mail-in election a year ago for renewal of the school district's two-mill capital-improvement property...
The New Mexico Legislature awarded Quay County more than $2.5 million in capital-outlay projects before its session adjourned last week. The City of Tucumcari, villages of Logan and San Jon, Mesalands Community College, Quay County and Arch Hurley Conservancy District received allotments from three separate pieces of legislation. The main capital-outlay bill and a Department of Transportation appropriations bill for streets and roads are subject to final approval by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who can use a line-item veto to nix individual...
The Mesalands Community College board of trustees on Feb. 18 heard a preliminary report on a strategic plan that lays out the college’s goals for the next five years and authorized a purchase order with an Amarillo firm to draft an overdue update of its master plan. The board approved a proposal to empower Mesalands President John Groesbeck to approve a purchase order with Parkhill, Smith & Cooper of Amarillo to draft the master plan. The firm’s fee for basic planning services is $86,550, plus additional services of $4,250. With about another $...
Tucumcari school board members listened during a work session Feb. 17 as Mesalands Community College’s president gave more details about a plan to build a 150-bed dormitory on a district-owned vacant lot near the college. Mesalands President John Groesbeck said he wants to boost enrollment by adding intercollegiate sports and a residential component. He asked district officials to deed a parcel off South 11th Street, now used as a bonfire site for the high school’s football Homecoming, to build the dorms near a former armory being con...
RIO RANCHO - Colt Garcia finished third in the Class 3A 182-pound weight class Saturday, the only Tucumcari wrestler to earn a medal of 11 Rattlers who qualified for the weekend's New Mexico state championships. Garcia's pin on West Las Vegas' Eric Gallegos - his second victory over him during the tournament - during the third-place match kept Tucumcari from returning home Saturday night with no one on the medal stand. Garcia (28-12) lost in the semifinals to Robertson's Mackenzie Ebell but...
The Tucumcari girls basketball team avenged a previous loss and downed Tularosa 56-46 Friday at the Snake Pit to force a tie-breaking game to decide the top seed in this week’s district tournament. The Lady Rattlers, however, lost the subsequent tiebreaker game Monday against the Wildcats. The Lady Rattlers, powered by Ashley Shipley’s 27 points on Friday, improved to 3-1 in Class 3A’s District 4. Tularosa, which defeated Tucumcari 46-45 on Feb. 8, fell to 3-1. On Monday night, Tularosa defea...
The Tucumcari boys basketball team closed its regular season last week with two straight losses to district foes, including a 63-50 defeat Saturday at Tularosa, which captured the top seed of this week's district tournament. A slow start doomed the Rattlers (8-15) against the Wildcats (18-7). Tularosa took a 24-13 lead after one quarter, and Tucumcari closed the gap to less than double digits just one time - 59-50 late in the fourth period. The Wildcats also converted nine 3-point shots. Tucumca...
Voters in the Tucumcari school district on Tuesday approved by more than a 2-to-1 margin a $3 million bond issue that will be used for a proposed redevelopment of baseball and softball diamonds. A total of 815 people cast a “yes” vote on the bond issue, or more than 68%, while 371 voted against it during the special mail-in election. Turnout was 27%, which was 2 percentage points lower than the first-ever mail-in election a year ago for renewal of the two-mill capital-improvement property tax. Tucumcari Public Schools superintendent Aaron McK...