Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
Sorted by date Results 1633 - 1657 of 1729
Six Tucumcari residents landed in the county jail on felony complaints after their alleged roles in a fight that included assaults with a baseball bat that hospitalized one person. Tucumcari Police Cpl. Shaun Slate filed five of the complaints Nov. 26, and all five suspects were booked Nov. 28 into the Quay County Detention Center in Tucumcari. A sixth suspect was booked into the county jail Friday. They still were in custody at the jail before press start. The suspects are: • Christopher Bryan Gonzales, 26, of Tucumcari, on complaints of f...
A U.S. senator from New Mexico introduced legislation that would designate Route 66 as a National Historic Trail under the guidance of the National Park Service. Sens. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) last week introduced Senate bill S.3609, known as the Route 66 National Historic Trail Designation Act. The bill is scheduled for a hearing Wednesday by a subcommittee of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Route 66 stretches through eight states, including New Mexico, and more than 2,400 miles from Chicago to Santa...
Tucumcari Mayor Ruth Ann Litchfield on Friday was named to the governor-elect’s transition team on public education issues. Litchfield, a schoolteacher in Tucumcari for 31 years before retiring and entering city politics, was named to the public education department transition team for governor-elect Michelle Lujan Grisham along with nearly 30 other people. “The Transition team will engage with key stakeholders and current government agency personnel and provide detailed strategic recommendations on improvement state government operations to...
The Tucumcari girls basketball team eased away from Laguna Acoma for a 50-29 victory during both teams' season-opener Friday at the Snake Pit, but it could have been even more lopsided for the Lady Rattlers. Tucumcari missed a number of easy layups and often found itself out of position for rebounds. Coach Gary Hittson attributed those shortcomings to one thing. "We were tired." Less than two weeks had passed since the first day of official practice and the first game, and Hittson said it...
Tucumcari could point the blame to several things that led to a 69-63 season-opening loss Friday to Laguna Acoma at the Snake Pit - turnovers, foul trouble, shooting dry spells and a key ball handler who suffered an apparent concussion. But the big one turned out to be free throws - namely, not making them. The visiting Hawks converted 25 of 33 foul shots, or 76 percent. The Rattlers made 20 of 40 foul shots, or just 50 percent. "That's the game right there," Tucumcari coach John Span said. "We...
The Tucumcari wrestling team went 3-2 against much-larger schools Saturday during the season-opening Las Lunas Duals. In the victory ledger, Tucumcari defeated Bernalillo 60-17, topped West Mesa 48-30 and squeaked by Valencia 40-39. The Rattlers fell to La Cueva 52-22 and Kirtland 46-30. The event featured mostly Class 4A and 5A schools; Tucumcari competes at 3A. Rod Dunlap, wrestling at 145 pounds, had the best weekend for the Rattlers, going 5-0. Joe Martinez, at 160 pounds, went 4-1 for Tucumcari, and Colt Garcia (182 pounds) and Caleb...
The Quay County Commission on Monday approved a grant application to buy generators for all the county’s fire stations and substations. Daniel Zamora, the county’s emergency management coordinator, presented the application to the commissioners during its regular meeting. The grant would be used to buy a total of 16 generators at all county fire stations and substations at an estimated cost of $112,000. The application will be submitted to the New Mexico Department of Homeland Security. District 6 of the Federal Emergency Management Agency wil...
The Tucumcari Public Schools board of education received a draft of the district’s five-year master plan and a “wish list” of possible future improvement projects during its regular meeting Nov. 19. Projects on the list for 2019 to 2024 were ranked by priority to expedite its share of possible state funding, including from general-obligation bounds. The school district doesn’t necessarily expect to fulfill all the $20.37 million list of projects, hence its ranking from most to least important. Schools superintendent Aaron McKinney said he expe...
A nationwide recall of romaine lettuce two days before Thanksgiving sent some households, food suppliers and restaurants in Quay County scrambling to throw it out and find a salad substitute. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a food-safety alert about romaine the afternoon of Nov. 20 because of an outbreak of E.coli in 11 states, but not New Mexico. “CDC is advising that U.S. consumers not eat any romaine lettuce, and retailers and restaurants not serve or sell any, until we learn more about the outbreak,” the alert sta...
Every few weeks or so, about a dozen people quietly gather in the back of a Tucumcari restaurant for regular meetings of the local Crime Stoppers chapter. The most recent meeting last week turned out to be a productive one. A Quay County sheriff’s deputy requested a total payout of $1,000 to three confidential informants who provided information that led to the arrests of two men for their alleged role in a violent home invasion. It was the fifth payout this year. A Tucumcari officer told the Crime Stoppers board his drug-sniffing police dog ...
Speed kills. That's what Tucumcari boys basketball coach John Span hopes for this season from his undersized team. "We have no size, but we do have some quickness," he said. "I think we will be able to get up and down the floor. I think a big key for us to be successful is to limit teams to one shot, then we can get down the floor in transition. We like an up-tempo game. We'll do a little bit of pressing. We like to transition back after missed shots and push the ball up and down the court. "I...
Tucumcari will sport familiar faces from last year's state-ranked girls basketball team, but its primary offense will be entirely new. Coach Gary Hittson, in his 17th year of guiding the Lady Rattlers, changed his squad's setup from motion to a read-and-react offense after seeing it demonstrated during a coaches clinic earlier this summer. "You read what the defense gives you, and you go off of that," he explained the concept. "It's like a spread offense in football. It gets everybody involved...
Tucumcari wrestling coach Eddie Encinias is feeling pretty blessed these days. When asked who he expects from his team to advance to the state tournament, he provides an answer many other coaches would envy. "The whole team," he said. "I'm looking for the whole team to go to state," he added. "I really am. They're good enough; they just have to wrestle to their potential. I'm very fortunate." The Rattlers qualified 12 athletes to the state tournament last season. Encinias has just three seniors...
A consultant’s feasibility study for the New Mexico Racing Commission concludes three Clovis applicants for a horse-racing track and casino would generate the most revenue. The study also details downsides for each Clovis bid, and a frontman for a Tucumcari applicant called the study “fatally flawed.” The commission on Thursday posted on its website the 138-page study from Convergence Strategy Group, a gaming consulting firm based in New Orleans. A 46-page PowerPoint presentation Convergence gave to the commission during an executive sessi...
Trying to strike a balance between free speech and order, the Mesalands Community College board of trustees unanimously approved a protests and demonstrations policy for the college during its Nov. 13 meeting. Officials decided to create such a policy after board members’ recent meeting with a consultant from the Association of Community College Trustees, based out of Washington, D.C., college President John Groesbeck said after the meeting. He said the new policy wasn’t pre-emptive, and not a response to anything occurring on campus. “Ma...
About 80 percent of the audience for a historical presentation Friday night at The Gallery Etc. in downtown Tucumcari were women. That seemed appropriate, because the presentation was titled “Route 66 Women: Untold Stories of the Mother Road.” Documentary filmmaker Katrina Parks presided over the event supported by the New Mexico Humanities Council and the Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program. She showed extended excerpts of her “Route 66 Women: Untold Stories of the Mother Road” film she said she expects to finish by fall 2019 as three o...
“None of the above” apparently is no longer an option for the New Mexico Racing Commission on whether to award a sixth horse-racing license. Rosemary Garley of the commission sent an email Friday afternoon, stating the agency’s board adjourned from its meeting in Albuquerque earlier that day “with a vote to move forward on the 6th Racetrack License.” License applicants from Tucumcari, Clovis and Lordsburg will make a final pitch Nov. 28 before the commission. Native American tribes that own casinos in New Mexico also are expected to weigh in on...
A Tucumcari woman was arrested and jailed in a 66-count complaint of identity theft and illegally using a debit or credit card for nearly $3,000 in transactions. Crystal Marie Jones, 34, was booked Nov. 9 into the Quay County Detention Center and released by court order five days later, according to jail records. No attorney for her was listed in court records. Frank Gutierrez, lead investigator for the 10th Judicial District Attorney’s Office in Tucumcari, wrote the criminal complaint and filed it in magistrate court Nov. 8. In the c...
The way Heidi Engman sees it, a soft opening of her Mercantile 29:11 shop on Saturday solved two problems. First, the storefront enabled her to sell merchandise that wasn't a good fit or lacked storage at the Tee Pee Curios shop she co-owns a few blocks away with her husband, Gar. Second, the former real-estate office at 309 E. Route 66 Blvd. offers a public bathroom for tourists. A lack of one had vexed businesses along the city's Route 66 corridor for years. Her store also offers cold drinks...
Tucumcari bore most of the brunt in the region of an early-season winter storm that dumped nearly 6 inches of snow Sunday night into Monday morning. The snowstorm closed all schools in Quay County and classes at Mesalands Community College in Tucumcari on Monday. A Veterans Day ceremony scheduled for Monday morning by VFW Post 2528 was canceled because of the weather. Numerous other offices and businesses already were closed Monday in observance of Veterans Day. The New Mexico Department of...
Quay County’s sheriff easily won re-election, and a renewal of a gross-receipts tax for Tucumcari’s hospital breezed to victory on Election Day. The campaign for sheriff was the only Quay County contested race. According to certified results from the county clerk’s office, incumbent Sheriff Russell Shafer, a Republican, earned 1,955 votes, or nearly 64 percent, compared to the 1,102 votes for Democratic challenger Reyes Gonzales, a Tucumcari police officer. Gonzales eked out a 442-433 edge in voting at the Tucumcari Convention Center but susta...
The New Mexico Supreme Court recently launched a website that allows many couples to file for divorce in less time and often using less money. Marion Payton, court executive officer at the 10th Judicial District Court in Tucumcari, said the website at newmexico.tylerhost.net/srl designed for pro se, or self-represented, divorce litigants launched Oct. 29. Payton compared the website to the popular TurboTax tax-filing program. It guides users through a series of questions so they can automatically create free legal forms, including a custody...
LOGAN - Advancing to the state volleyball tournament wasn't supposed to be this easy. Logan's three previous matches against Melrose, ranked No. 1 in Class 1A in the MaxPreps.com all season, took at least four sets to determine an outcome, and two required five-set marathons. But on Saturday, Logan defeated the Lady Buffaloes in three sets - 25-21, 28-26, 25-10 - to capture the Class 6-1A district title and advance to this week's state tourney in Rio Rancho. Another local team, Grady/San Jon,...
Tucumcari's volleyball season came to an end Saturday in the championship match of the District 4-3A tournament with a 17-25, 18-25, 25-21, 14-25 loss at state-ranked Tularosa. Tucumcari coach Dena Benavidez said the Wildcats, which improved to 19-4 overall and ranked seventh in Class 3A, simply played better. "We had a lot of hustle plays, great blocking and good hitting," she said. "But they just got us. Their passing was really accurate, and they were able to get good hits. But I'm proud of m...
Quay County commissioners spent much of their meeting Friday certifying the results of the Nov. 6 general election, including the tallying of 12 provisional ballots. Commissioners moved their regular meeting from the usual Monday to Friday to comply with state law on submitting election results. County Clerk Ellen White said 15 provisional ballots were submitted on Election Day. Her office rejected three because they were people who hadn’t registered to vote. She said the rest of the provisional ballots were Quay County residents who’d vot...