Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
Sorted by date Results 1383 - 1407 of 1717
Quay County entities were awarded Thursday with a total of $3.67 million in state grants for three projects, including for a new bridge on Old Route 66 between San Jon and Endee. The county received $3,081,465 from the Local Government Transportation Project Fund for the bridge that required only a 5% match, or $162,182.37. The city of Tucumcari received $475,000, requiring a $25,000 match, for its Second Street rebuilding project in downtown. The village of San Jon received $118,750, requiring...
Jamal Jones’ attorney holds out slim hope his client can receive a conditional discharge from sentencing for his role in a violent home invasion so he can join the military. What’s more likely is Jones, 19, will spend 16 1/2 years behind bars, based on a plea deal accepted Aug. 13 in Tucumcari district court. Formal sentencing will be scheduled at a later date. Jones, listed in court records as residing in Eagle Nest, New Mexico, but his attorney says lives in Albuquerque, agreed to plead guilty aggravated burglary with a deadly weapon, agg...
If history is any judge, those who attend Tucumcari's season-opener at 7 p.m. Friday at Rattler Field against Escalante shouldn't leave early. The Lobos are a perennial postseason power in Class 2A and have won the last five matchups against the Rattlers. However, several of those matchups weren't decided until the final quarter, including a 28-26 decision last year. Tucumcari coach Wayne Ferguson remains well aware of longtime Escalante coach Dusty Giles' penchant for unusual formations to...
Last season, Tucumcari's volleyball team came within an eyelash of winning the district title and forced a tiebreaking match to decide the crown. This year, coach Dana Benavidez thinks her Lady Rattlers can win the Class 3A-4 crown outright against Dexter, a young team that struggled last season, and Tularosa, which lost its best hitter to graduation. "If we hit like we know how and like we're practicing, we'll be the dominant team in our district. I really believe that," she said. Tucumcari...
“I think we will be a decent ballclub if we can stay healthy.” Tucumcari head coach Wayne Ferguson’s thumbnail assessment of his team matches others in the region. Simply put, coaches in Quay County and beyond are struggling to get enough athletes out for football. Ferguson has 31 players on his varsity roster, but he’s seen fewer than 20 show up for practices so far. Because of his lack of skilled players, he felt forced to cancel a scrimmage last week against the Clovis junior varsity because...
Quay County Sheriff Russell Shafer on a Facebook post last week levied pointed criticism against 10th Judicial District Attorney Timothy Rose for his office’s handling of a Tucumcari sex offender who was given furlough and fled to another state more than 1,200 miles away. Rose, while acknowledging a strategic mistake by an aide in the case, responded by criticizing the sheriff’s “sudden and erratic decision to vent on social media” and that the post was “not completely accurate and very misleading.” By mutual agreement after they met at the...
Rain washed out the hay wagon tour Thursday evening during the annual Field Day program at the New Mexico State University Agricultural Science Center in Tucumcari, but not before the unveiling of a new sign that reflects the center's new name. Cynthia Kirksey, widow of the center's longtime superintendent, unveiled the sign that reads Rex E. Kirksey Agriculture Science Center. She was accompanied at the unveiling by her three children and numerous grandchildren. Cynthia Kirksey, in...
"Honoring Military History" at the Tucumcari Historical Museum was billed as a look back at Quay County and New Mexico's role in the U.S. military, but nearby Cannon Air Force Base loomed large during Saturday's activities. An honor guard from the base near Clovis began the day by presenting the United States and New Mexico flags. Immediately afterward, Mayor Ruth Ann Litchfield read a City of Tucumcari proclamation that praised Cannon personnel for their efforts last month to repaint the F-100...
The executive director of the regional chamber of commerce on Wednesday told the Tucumcari Lodgers Tax Advisory Board about her forming a new organization to draw film and television productions to Tucumcari and the area. Carmen Runyan of the Tucumcari/Quay County Chamber of Commerce explained her role at Film Tucumcari as a liaison for the New Mexico Film Office, and she attended the New Mexico Film Conference in Albuquerque over the weekend. Runyan said she would take a tri-fold brochure of potential Tucumcari and Quay County filming...
The Quay County Commission heard no objections during a brief public hearing Monday about its county infrastructure and capital improvement plan for fiscal years 2021 to 2025. The plan essentially serves as a wish list for when the New Mexico Legislature awards money for capital-outlay projects. Though the county can list items for the next five fiscal years, the summary details projects only for 2021 and 2022. Each item also is ranked by priority. The proposed projects would cost nearly $15 million in total. For 2021, the items listed on the...
No action was taken, but future minimum-wage increases mandated by the state loomed large during discussions about pay for dispatchers during the Tucumcari/Quay Regional Emergency Communications Board meeting Wednesday. Emergency dispatchers are paid $10.70 an hour, with more for those who no longer are probationary employees. New Mexico’s legislature enacted a law this summer that will increase the minimum wage from $7.50 an hour to $9 by 2020, to $10.50 by 2021, $11.50 by 2022 and $12 by 2023. Jamie Luaders, director of the Tucumcari/Quay R...
Two dogs in a Tucumcari north-side neighborhood attacked and injured a boy last week, requiring hospitalization. A woman who was running to aid the boy fell and broke her wrist. According to reports by Tucumcari police officer Reyes Gonzales and animal-control officer Mike Martinez, the attack occurred near North Side Park in Tucumcari the morning of Aug. 6. Both reports identified the dogs as pit bulls. Gonzales went to Trigg Memorial Hospital, where the boy was being treated for his injuries, after hearing about the dog attack from Martinez....
About 183,000 patients and health-plan members for Albuquerque-based Presbyterian Healthcare Services may have been affected by database breach in early May that came to light Thursday. Presbyterian Healthcare operates nine hospitals, including Trigg Memorial Hospital in Tucumcari and Plains Regional Medical Center in Clovis, plus a statewide health plan and a medical group. According to a news release Friday from Presbyterian, “unauthorized access was gained through a deceptive email to some of Presbyterian’s workforce members sometime aro...
The New Mexico Racing Commission issued a big “no” on awarding a sixth racing license — not just to Tucumcari, but to everyone else who’d applied for one. A principal member of an investment group that wants to build a “racino” in Tucumcari said he’d appeal to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to intervene to have the commission reconsider. The commission announced during its first regular meeting in more than two months Thursday it would not approve a sixth license. Applicants from Tucumcari, Clovis and Lordsburg had been jockeying for one for m...
The annual Rattler Reunion over the weekend saw a healthy increase in alumni attendance over the previous year, undoubtedly to the appreciation of the Tucumcari restaurants and motels that hosted those attendees. Kathy Segura, a member of the Tucumcari Alumni Association's board of directors, didn't have a final count of people who attended the banquet Saturday night at the Tucumcari Convention Center because a few walk-ins still were arriving. But she said she was pleased with attendance, regar...
The past year revealed what it's like to land a dream job in the worst way possible. Before I moved to Tucumcari, I'd subscribed to the Quay County Sun. I dreamed what it would be like to work at the newspaper at a town I'd grown to love. But I'd grown cynical about journalism, where I'd spent much of my adult life. I dabbled in other areas, such as Internet marketing. I hadn't done regular reporting in decades and doubted whether I still could. Once I'd moved to Tucumcari in January 2018, I...
Don't worry - the "Old Downtown" arrow that's stood at Tucumcari Boulevard and Second Street for decades hasn't disappeared for good. It's getting a new paint job, plus additional signs underneath to point out other attractions. The sign was taken down Thursday morning so local rancher Jerry Koile and other volunteers and artists can refurbish it on behalf of the Tucumcari MainStreet program. With luck, the big arrow - along with new and smaller ones attached to the pole underneath - will be...
A second man implicated in a home invasion in October in rural Tucumcari where an elderly man was beaten was sentenced to at least 15 years in prison in Tucumcari district court. Setheria Kolyer, 19, of Tucumcari pleaded no contest to aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit aggravated burglary with a deadly weapon, false imprisonment, felony larceny, tampering with evidence and distribution of marijuana. Charges of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, unlawful taking of a motor vehicle, conspiracy to commit larceny,...
Police jailed a New York woman on multiple felony counts after she was accused of threatening and holding a Tucumcari hotel employee against his will at knifepoint. Kelsey J. Killian, 26, of Buffalo, New York, was booked July 28 into the Quay County Detention Center on complaints off second-degree kidnapping, false imprisonment, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and misdemeanor larceny. Second-degree kidnapping is second-degree felony that can lead up to nine years in prison and a $10,000 fine. The imprisonment and assault counts are...
The New Mexico Racing Commission — minus one commissioner fired last week — will reconvene Thursday to hold its first regular meeting in more than two months, including discussing the possibility of awarding a sixth license. The commission emailed a lengthy meeting agenda Monday morning that included a closed session to discuss a sixth license and nearly a dozen other items, plus an item about a sixth license among 23 others in new business. The meeting will begin with a closed session at 8:30 a.m. Thursday and an open session at 10:30 a.m...
A few new wrinkles, including a change in the parade route, were added to the 48th edition of the Rattler Reunion set for Thursday through Saturday. Kathy Segura, director of the Tucumcari Alumni Association that organizes the annual event, said last week about 200 people had registered to attend, with more expected to register this week. “We’re expecting more than 300, and hoping for 400,” she said. On-site registration begins from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday at the Tucumcari Convention Center along with a meet-and-greet there during that time....
Brenda Bishop, who's retiring this week after 32 years with the Quay County Cooperative Extension Service, said an assignment by a professor long ago when she was studying for a master's degree probably led her to her long and influential career here. Her New Mexico State University professor assigned her to perform a community needs assessment for the Tucumcari region. "I'm a little bit shy by nature, and it was a little hard for me to step out," Bishop recalled last week in her office at the...
The Logan and San Jon school districts showed higher proficiency rates in mathematics and reading compared to state averages according to spring data released Friday by the New Mexico Department of Public Education. The Tucumcari and House districts in Quay County hovered near the state averages. According to the education agency, 32.7% of New Mexico pupils were deemed “proficient” in English skills. Those students had shown a steady increase in proficiency in each of the last three years, from a 27.6% rate in 2016. This spring, 20.3% of New...
Some rural Quay County customers were forced to find other water sources for almost 36 hours after a burglary last week rendered inoperable a bulk-water dispenser owned by the city of Tucumcari. City manager Britt Lusk said service was restored to the dispenser about 3 p.m. July 23 after the break-in was discovered the previous morning. Lusk credited facility maintenance director Chris Gries for his repair work at the facility at Main and Third streets. "He did an amazing job," Lusk said. "We...
A Tucumcari woman faces three felony charges after being accused of possessing methamphetamine and powerful painkiller with a child next to the narcotics in the front seat of her car. Monica Marie Bradley, 38, was jailed on two felony counts of possession of a controlled substance, felony abuse of a child (first offense; placed in a dangerous situation), possession of drug paraphernalia, no driver’s license and lack of proof of insurance. The child-abuse count is a third-degree felony that can lead to three years in prison and a fine of up t...