Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
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An apparent paperwork oversight prevented Tucumcari city commissioners on Thursday from approving a resolution for $319,000 in state capital outlay funds slated for street improvements. The inaction also prevented approval of an agreement for capital appropriations for the same project. Project manager Ralph Lopez said the capital outlay funds, which were awarded during the New Mexico Legislature’s session earlier this year, probably would be used for resurfacing South Third Street from the Quay County Courthouse to Main Street. However, at l...
The board of trustees for Mesalands Community College came to a consensus it was too early to commit to pursuing additional partnerships or a merger with a four-year institution, including possibly Eastern New Mexico University. Mesalands’ interim president Allen Moss asked the trustees during their Aug. 22 meeting for input regarding a response letter he was writing to state Sen. George Munoz (D-Gallup). Munoz, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, in late July wrote letters to Mesalands, ENMU and New Mexico State University, asking t...
Tucumcari Public Schools is seeing a significant rise in enrollment this fall, according to its superintendent and principals. Superintendent Aaron McKinney told the school board during its regular meeting on Aug. 21 that total enrollment in the district is 921, compared to 854 last year. That is nearly 8% higher. Elementary principal Tonya Hodges said her school’s enrollment stood at 461, with six or seven more students pending. She said that compares to 404 students a year ago. Middle school principal Lendall Borden said his enrollment was 2...
LOGAN - The Lady Longhorns took a path to redemption Saturday during their season-opening volleyball tournament. First, they dominated defending champion Tucumcari 25-11, 25-14, 25-10 during the morning semifinals. The Lady Rattlers later wound up in third place after downing Grady in five sets. Then the Lady Longhorns after a slow start downed Springer - the team that bounced Logan out of contention for the tournament title last year - by a score of 22-25, 25-16, 25-12, 25-20 in the finals....
The Tucumcari City Commission during a special meeting last week approved its Infrastructure Capital Improvement Plan for the fiscal years 2025 to 2029, with upgrades to basic services taking up the lion’s share of the lengthy list. The list over five fiscal years comprises 57 projects with a total cost of about $120 million. The prioritized plan serves as a wish list and guidance to the New Mexico Legislature in its annual awarding of capital outlay funds. The No. 1 item on the fiscal-year 2025 list was wastewater system improvements to East R...
A Tucumcari teen's 1990 GMC pickup truck doesn't look look much right now, sitting in a Tucumcari Automotive bay mostly disassembled. But within a couple of months, it will be a show truck that will be entered into the NSRA Southwest Street Rod Nationals in Oklahoma City. Truck owner David Olguin, 16, isn't bankrolling the rebuild through his part-time Pizza Hut job. Instead, Tucumcari Automotive owner Robert Moore has enlisted a growing number of local businesses and people to chip in with...
LOGAN - New Mexico's Secretary of Education paid Logan Municipal Schools a congratulatory visit after the district pulled off a rare trifecta with Spotlight Schools designations in its elementary, middle and high schools. After a three-hour tour of the schools Thursday morning, Education Secretary Arsenio Romero saluted the students, teachers, staff and parents during an assembly in the main gymnasium. "I want to take a piece of that and replicate it across New Mexico," Romero said of Logan's...
The Tucumcari football team and its fans did a lot of celebrating late Friday at Rattler Stadium. Then again, if you'd won your first game in almost two years, you'd do a lot of celebrating, too. The Rattlers, anchored by a stout defense that forced six turnovers, scored five unanswered touchdowns in the second half to roll to a season-opening 32-6 victory over Mescalero Apache. It marked a successful debut for new Tucumcari head coach Tarik Embrack. Tucumcari sophomore back Daymion Urioste...
Tucumcari's volleyball team overcame a 2-0 match deficit and a bad case of jitters by rallying to defeat Fort Sumner 23-25, 18-25, 25-15, 25-21, 15-12 on Saturday in both teams' season-opener. Sisters Caylee and Cambree Benavidez led the Lady Rattlers with nine kills each. Haisley Huffman added six kills. July Lafferty added four blocks, and Kirksey Smith totaled three service aces. Tucumcari coach Dana Benavidez said it was only the second time her team has defeated perennially tough Fort Sumne...
LOGAN - Logan grabbed a two-touchdown lead before Alamo Navajo even touched the ball during a 50-0 Longhorns victory in nine-man football action on Saturday. Here's how it happened: The Longhorns, after securing the opening kickoff, ran nine plays for 58 yards. Quarterback Brock Burns finished the drive by connecting on a 9-yard touchdown pass to Devin Kotara for a 6-0 lead. On the ensuing kickoff, the Cougars' returner let the bouncing ball get behind him, then slipped trying to pick it up near...
A state senator is urging Eastern New Mexico University and financially troubled Mesalands Community College to consider a partnership or make the Tucumcari school a branch campus of ENMU. One area lawmaker said he would oppose such a partnership or merger of Mesalands. The presidents of both educational institutions said they are open-minded to Sen. George Munoz’s proposal. Munoz, D-Gallup, in late July wrote separate letters to the ENMU board of regents and the Mesalands board of trustees. The Quay County Sun obtained the letters and other c...
With no apparent objection from the public, the Tucumcari City Commission on Thursday adopted ordinances that slightly change annual rate increases for water, sewer and garbage collection services. The commission held a public hearing for a second and final reading of ordinance changes that were approved unanimously by Mayor Ralph Moya and commissioners Mike Cherry, Christopher Arias and Paul Villanueva. No one from the gallery rose to speak against or for the alterations. Arias and Villanueva each cast their votes by phone. Moya said Arias...
Avery Cavett of House made her final year in 4-H a memorable one during the Quay County Fair. Cavett, 18, swept the grand champion and reserve champion slots in the steer and heifer shows, plus showed a reserve champion goat during the five-day fair that wrapped Saturday night. 4-H members become no longer eligible after they turn 19 years of age. So this was her last hurrah. "It was a great way to end my show career in Quay County," she said Saturday. "It makes me happy to know I finished so...
SAN JON — The San Jon Municipal Schools board on Wednesday approved a five-year facilities master plan and a resolution for a proposed $250,000 bond issue for the November election with the hope to receive a state grant up to $30 million to build a new school. The plan and the additional debt were required for the district to receive the proposed grant from the New Mexico Public School Facilities Authority. The general obligation bond issue would go to voters for the Nov. 7 election to fund district renovations or new buildings, computer s...
It's been a hot summer, but new Tucumcari football coach Tarik Embrack noted that his still-young team will need to keep its cool to have a better chance to succeed this season. Tucumcari will open the season at 7 p.m. Friday with a home game against Mescalero Apache. The Rattlers traveled to Pojoaque for a scrimmage on Thursday, which was Embrack's first chance to see what his players would do in an 11-against-11 situation. Embrack graded his team a "C" in its performance, with "a lot of positi...
Because she has six seniors and nine returning starters, Tucumcari’s volleyball coach holds high hopes for the upcoming season, starting with a home match starting at 1 p.m. Saturday against Fort Sumner. But coach Dana Benavidez, in her eighth season, acknowledged she’s a bit concerned about filling one position: libero. The Lady Rattlers lost Alexus Lafferty at the position to graduation. Lafferty was a four-year starter and multiyear all-district player. Her jump-serves put defenders on their heels, and her quick reflexes on defense pre...
A state senator is urging Eastern New Mexico University and financially troubled Mesalands Community College to consider a partnership or make the Tucumcari school a branch campus of ENMU. One area lawmaker said he would oppose such a partnership or merger of Mesalands. The presidents of both educational institutions said they are open-minded to Sen. George Munoz’s proposal. Munoz, D-Gallup, in late July wrote separate letters to the ENMU board of regents and the Mesalands board of trustees. The Quay County Sun obtained the letters and other c...
Tucumcari Mayor Ralph Moya wants the New Mexico Legislature to toughen criminal penalties against those who provide illegal drugs to mentally ill patients. If that doesn’t happen, he’ll urge the city to pass stricter ordinances against such dealers, including jail time. The city commission took step in that direction during its regular meeting July 31 by unanimously passing a resolution shepherded by Moya, a longtime mental health counselor. Resolution 2023-27 “promoting awareness and protecting the mentally ill and vulnerable from the dange...
When a $4 million low water bridge east of San Jon will be rebuilt after flash flooding destroyed it in May remains in limbo because the contractor apparently didn't carry builder's risk insurance for the project, alleging the architect didn't require it. The contractor, the architect and Quay County had been scheduled to meet Thursday in the county courthouse in Tucumcari with a mediator in an effort to resolve at least part of the matter. However, that meeting was canceled, and the county...
Quay County on Monday officially hired Hull Consulting Government Relations of Albuquerque as its lobbyist and declined to renew its pact with a Clovis-based firm for the first time since 2017. The county commission’s approval of the contract came with no discussion. The county will pay Hull Consulting $12,000 a year, plus gross receipts taxes, over a one-year period. The county is splitting the cost of Hull’s fee with the Village of Logan. The county once held a lobbying contract with Clinton D. Harden & Associates of Clovis, which rec...
The old adage is everyone talks about the weather, but no one does anything about it. That's not the case with the ZiaMet weather monitoring project, which aims to greatly increase the amount of weather data available in New Mexico, especially in rural areas. State climatologist David Dubois talked about ZiaMet, a service of the New Mexico Climate Center, as a keynote speaker Aug. 1 during the Rex E. Kirksey Agriculture Science Center at Tucumcari's annual field day. About 90 people attended...
The Tucumcari Lodgers Tax Advisory board unanimously recommended the use of more than $16,000 in motel tax funds so Mesalands Community College could erect three billboards to promote its dinosaur museum. The measure goes on to the Tucumcari City Commission, which could accept, reject or modify the recommendation. Josh McVey, the college’s chief communications officer who made the presentation in front of the board Wednesday, said the number of billboards for the museum had been reduced to one. Subsequently, he said, attendance at the museum s...
A board wanting to restore the long-closed Princess Theatre in downtown Tucumcari advocated requesting $1 million in capital outlay funds from state Sen. Pete Campos and the New Mexico Legislature during the 2024 session. Also, city manager Paula Chacon and board member Matt Monahan will negotiate with Stantec Engineering to reduce the cost of the first two phases in assessing the theater and renovation designs so it is “shovel ready” for the construction phase. The City of Tucumcari during the 2023 legislative session received $250,000 in cap...
Jehu "J.D." Knapp was sworn as Tucumcari Public Schools' newest board member at the start of the board's regular meeting last Monday. Tucumcari Magistrate Judge Noreen Hendrickson administered the oath of office to Knapp, who will represent District 5 after predecessor and board Vice President Bo Wallace resigned in early June. District 5 lies in the southeast part of the school district. The board during its July meeting chose Knapp to serve the rest of Wallace's term through December. During...
Ninety years ago, Quay County experienced two disasters in just a few hours that killed at least a dozen people and injured more than 40 more. The cause of both calamities could be traced to one thing - a severe storm system. Early Aug. 29, 1933, a Transcontinental-Western Air plane, with its pilot apparently disoriented by a heavy thunderstorm, slammed into the side of Mesa Redonda south of Tucumcari. That fiery crash killed all five people aboard, including the two pilots. Early the same day,...