Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
Sorted by date Results 1408 - 1432 of 1717
The mayor of Logan was fined $800, given a suspended 90-day jail sentence and put on unsupervised probation for illegally working and bidding as an electrical contractor without a license during a plea deal Tuesday afternoon in Tucumcari magistrate court. David Babb, 63, pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor violations of the Construction Industries Licensing Act — one for working as a contractor without a license and the other for bidding as a contractor without a license. He was charged in May after the state of New Mexico filed a criminal c...
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 mor...
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...
Quay County teems with dinosaur bones beneath its soil, and it's up to volunteers at Mesalands Community College's Dinosaur Museum to get them out of the ground. Axel Hungerbuehler, curator and the college's natural sciences faculty member, organized the latest five-day "dinosaur dig" last week. About 10 people - ranging from a 16-year-old dinosaur buff to Mesalands students to a veteran schoolteacher - took part in the paleontology fieldwork. The dig site lies in southern Quay County where the...
The Quay County Commission on Monday unanimously approved a final budget that anticipates $13.47 million in spending in fiscal year 2019-2020. That’s more than a 50 percent anticipated increase from the just-completed fiscal year in which county finance director Cheryl Simpson said the county spent $8.87 million. Simpson said after the meeting the spending increase can be attributed to a state-approved remodeling and renovation project for the Quay County Detention Center plus large road-improvement projects also greenlighted by the state ...
Johnnie Meier asked someone to plug in the electrical cord to an old Phillips 66 wall clock, festooned with neon letters, he'd brought with him and laid on a table. Within seconds, a bright red glow erupted from the clock's glass neon tubing, causing a spontaneous "ahh" from about two dozen people watching Meier's neon-lighting workshop Saturday at the Tucumcari Historical Museum's annex. Later that day, Meier acknowledged that reaction to neon lighting was common. "It's got a glow that...
Among the items the Tucumcari school board approved in its consent agenda during its regular meeting July 15 was a first reading of policy advisory on administering medicine to students, including medical marijuana. Board members had little discussion about the policy changes, but the board’s packet of documents contained the full text, including the proposed medical-marijuana rules. One of the changes requires not a physician to give medication and medical marijuana, but an “authorized health care professional.” Written permission from a par...
The closed ALCO building on Tucumcari's west side now will be called the Tucumcari Business Hub, and two prospective companies recently toured the facility with an eye at possibly renting space there, Mesalands Community College's president said during the board of trustees meeting July 16. College President John Groesbeck said two Albuquerque companies recently looked at possibly renting the 40,000-square-foot former retail building. When asked after the meeting to elaborate about the two prosp...
John Groesbeck last Tuesday marked his one-year anniversary as president of Mesalands Community College. He did nothing special to mark the occasion. Groesbeck, interviewed Thursday in a conference room next to his campus office, said he took a mental note of that date, but that's about it. "I thought about it: 'Well, I made it a year; that's great,'" he said. "I think what I actually did was present a thing at a meeting somewhere. I can't remember exactly. It was a fairly routine day." Instead...
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is looking for opinions on what to do with the long-closed Conchas Lodge on the south side of Conchas Lake. Three proposals would renovate and reopen all or part of the facility, and one would bulldoze it. The corps on July 1 invited the public to participate in a public scoping, or submitting feedback, on the possible future of Conchas Lodge. According to the scoping document, Conchas Lodge was built in 1942 by the Civilian Conservation Corps and has been...
The killing of Tejano singer Ernestine Romero in a murder-suicide Thursday in Santa Fe saddened many music fans across New Mexico, including those in Tucumcari anticipating a show at the Knights of Columbus Hall in the fall. The bodies of Romero, 32, and her estranged husband, Jessie Saucedo, were found in a parked SUV near the state Capitol. Police ruled Saucedo shot her twice in the chest with a pistol, then turned the gun on himself. Many people — including Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan — issued condolences to Rom...
Route 66 and its historic neon signs will be the focus of the Tucumcari Historical Museum’s latest special day Saturday to celebrate its 50th anniversary. “Neon and Route 66 Businesses Past and Present” will include guided bus tours and presentations by two Route 66 experts, along with activities for both adults and children. The museum at 416 S. Adams St. will be open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Baldwin Burr, photo archivist for the New Mexico Historical Society, will give his presentation about Route 66 in New Mexico at 10 a.m. Johnnie Meier...
The Tucumcari Lodgers Tax Advisory Board on Wednesday discussed the need to clarify the city’s oversight of an Albuquerque marketing firm recently rehired to boost area tourism. The city in 2018 hired Griffin and Associates, renamed Sunny505 after a merger earlier this year, for $50,000 a year to market Tucumcari-area tourism. The city last month extended the firm’s contract for another year after the tax board, citing communication snags and other problems, reluctantly recommended doing so. City manager Britt Lusk said the city commission wou...
Seven-year-old Dantez Sena of Tucumcari had been thinking for a while about cutting his 30-inch-long hair for the first time because it was getting in the way of his playing sports. But he decided if he was going to lose those long locks, they would benefit a cancer patient who needed it. Last month, it finally happened. Dantez's parents, Paul and Kayla Sena, took him to Lacy Hastie's salon in Tucumcari for his first-ever haircut. Dantez's hair was tied into a braid to make it easier for Hastie...
The growing Tucumcari Farmers Market opens for the season Saturday with at least two new vendors and activities for children and adults. Organizers for the market at Wailes Park will ring the bell at 10 a.m. to signal to vendors they can begin transactions. Customers are allowed to inspect merchandise at 9:30 a.m. and get in line at booths where they want to buy before the starting bell. The market Saturday will stay open until noon, but manager Sandra Groves said potential customers shouldn’t delay in getting there promptly. Based on past e...
A Tucumcari woman was jailed last week following a seven-count complaint, including three felonies, where she was accused of kicking two police officers and an emergency-room technician. Maria Eleana Apodaca, 35, was booked on two counts of battery upon a police officer, battery on a healthcare worker, assault on a healthcare worker, assault upon a peace officer via threat or menacing conduct, resisting, evading or obstructing an officer and disorderly conduct. The counts of battery on a peace officer and battery on a healthcare worker are four...
On the morning of the Fourth of July, American flags were cut apart and burned in Tucumcari. But it wasn't an act of desecration or protest. It was part of a biennial flag-retirement ceremony by the Tucumcari chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Typical protocol of properly disposing a faded or tattered U.S. flag requires it to be folded, laid on a bonfire and burned. The DAR takes it several steps further by cutting apart the flag's stars and stripes before burning them....
A divided Quay County Commission on Monday voted 2-1 to approve a new contract with a Curry County-based lobbyist that would pay the firm $1,000 monthly instead of an annual deal. District I Commissioner Susan Dowell voted against the contract for Clovis-based Clinton D. Harden & Associates in part because she was unsure whether Harden, a former state senator, had spoken in favor of any of three Clovis applicants bidding for a sixth horse-racing license from the New Mexico Racing Commission. Coronado Partners also is seeking such a license for...
Old-time rock 'n' roll music filled the air of Tucumcari over the weekend, and the people who attended the inaugural Rockin' Route 66 festival filled the town's motels and restaurants. Rockin' Route 66, which replaced Rockabilly on the Route after a one-year hiatus, brought in more than 15 musical acts to various venues in Tucumcari, mostly at the convention center, from Thursday through Saturday. Brian Whitcomb, promoter of Rockin' Route 66 and president of Garage 71 Radio and Grease Inc....
Quay County commissioners learned during their meeting Friday from state Department of Health officials that Quay County saw an increase in teen obesity, suicides and adult non-vaccination rates but also experienced a decline in diabetes, teen pregnancy, overdose deaths, alcohol-related deaths, smoking and fall-related deaths to senior citizens. Francisco Porres, epidemiologist for the Department of Health, gave a PowerPoint presentation of health trends in Quay County and how it compared to the U.S., state and the agency’s Southeast region, w...
Quay County residents will have three opportunities this week to observe Independence Day fireworks displays. Tucumcari will host its annual fireworks show the night of July 4, Logan will host a fireworks display at Ute Lake State Park on Saturday night as part of its two-day Street Dance, and San Jon will host its fireworks display Sunday night at its village park. The Elks Lodge on Tucumcari’s south side has hosted the city’s annual fireworks display for many years. The lodge and city split the cost of the annual $6,000 display, City Cle...
A county jail inmate faces additional time behind bars after being accused of bringing a narcotic painkiller into the facility. Jimmy Neal Armstrong, 49, of Tucumcari was charged June 21 in Tucumcari magistrate court of one count of bringing contraband into a jail, a fourth-degree felony that can lead up to 18 months in prison and a $5,000 fine. According to a complaint filed by Quay County sheriff’s deputy Rudy Vallejo, he was called to the Quay County Detention Center in Tucumcari to investigate a report of an inmate bringing contraband into...
Quay County's Little League baseball teams were eliminated from postseason last week after suffering two losses in their respective district tournaments. The Quay County All-Stars Major League team of 10- to 12-year-olds fell 16-5 Thursday night to the Roosevelt County All-Stars at Portales in a do-or-die game that took two days to play because a storm suspended action the previous day. Quay County lost its earlier home game that week to Roosevelt County 10-4. Roosevelt County held a 6-2 lead af...
A Tucumcari native last week earned a national title in his age bracket in the horseshoes competition at the National Senior Games in Albuquerque. Joseph Garcia, also known by his middle name of Rudy, of Portales went undefeated in 13 matches at the Senior Games and came from behind to defeat eventual runner-up Larry Ulibarri by scoring a ringer on his final throw of the championship round. Garcia won the title by two points. Garcia earned the gold medal in the men's singles horseshoes...
After a one-year hiatus, the sounds of old-school rock 'n' roll again will fill the air in Tucumcari this week with a new organizer and a rebranded event, Rockin' Route 66. As with its Rockabilly on the Route predecessor, Rockin' Route 66 from Thursday through Sunday mostly will be based at the Tucumcari Convention Center, including ticketed events for six headlining acts - Phil Rocker of Colombia, "Outlaw Legend" Willie Heath Neal of Atlanta and Danny B Harvey and Annie Marie Lewis (niece of...