Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
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Coaches, family members and a classmate bared emotions, told stories and even shared a few laughs about a Tucumcari teenager during his funeral Saturday morning at Rattler Gymnasium. Jayden Gloms, 15, died in a one-vehicle accident on Jan. 24 on a shooting range at Five Mile Park on Tucumcari's west side. The Tucumcari Police Department, which is investigating, apparently had not finished its report on the accident. The Quay County Sun filed an open-records request for the report last week. A TP...
Matt Bednorz, who the Tucumcari City Commission appointed to fill the term of recently retired District 3 Commissioner Ruth Ann Litchfield, said Friday he would step down after District 4 Commissioner Chris Arias filed a lawsuit to block the appointment because Bednorz doesn't live in the district. Reached Friday afternoon by phone after the Quay County Sun received a copy of Arias' lawsuit, Bednorz said he would resign his appointment from the commission. "I'm done, I'm done," he said. "I'm not...
The co-owner of the Odeon Theater on Thursday told a gathering of people interested in renovating and reopening the Princess Theatre she wanted the City of Tucumcari to buy her venue, operate it and use the proceeds to revive the long-closed Princess. Christy Dominguez, co-owner of the Odeon with her husband Robert Lopez since 2013, said the Odeon is profitable enough with its food license that "it does pay for itself" and that the city could use the Odeon's revenue for the Princess. "There's a...
The Tucumcari Lodgers Tax Advisory Board approved a suggestion of several changes to its application form for requesting funds, including requiring a final report within 90 days after a tax-supported event ends. If an organizer does not give a final report in front of the board within the 90 days of the event’s completion, it may result in the board denying the reimbursement of funds. Board Chairman Matt Bednorz initially suggested an organizer give a final report to the board within 30 days. Tucumcari MainStreet director Connie Loveland s...
SAN JON - Fifty years ago this month, San Jon High School won the first New Mexico Activities Association championship in girls basketball, despite being one of the smallest school districts. The Lady Coyotes' state title in 1973 came before the tournament was divided into enrollment classes, so the team typically faced bigger schools. San Jon beat them all en route to a 17-0 season and became trailblazers in the Title IX era that prohibited sex discrimination and opened more opportunities for g...
A Tucumcari High School freshman died in a one-vehicle accident last week, touching off spasms of grief from the student body and gestures of support from the community. Jayden Gloms, who had marked his 15th birthday two weeks before, died when the vehicle he was riding in overturned at the firing range site of Five Mile Park on the city's west side. Records by New Mexico State Police stated the accident was reported shortly before 5 p.m. Jan. 24. According to a first-responder radio...
The Tucumcari City Commission on Thursday voted 3-1 to appoint Matt Bednorz to fill in as District 3 commissioner for the rest of the year, though he lives outside the district. Bednorz's case appears to occupy a legal loophole. Though he admitted in an interview with the Quay County Sun he has lived for at least two years south of Interstate 40 outside of District 3, he owns a home on South Sixth Street in the district. His voter registration also lists the same South Sixth Street home's...
The Tucumcari City Commission on Thursday voted 3-1 to approve a change order for construction of a new cell at the landfill, but not without grumbling from the dissenting commissioner. The cost to the city is not to exceed $32,560, though project manager Ralph Lopez said that sum would be negotiated downward. The change-order document states an engineer’s error in a liner location at the landfill led to the excavation of an additional 2,400 cubic yards of material. The order replaces that material and requires a survey to ensure the project i...
The Quay County Commission on Monday approved a rental agreement with Rawhide Days LLC to use the county fairgrounds on June 16-18 — about five weeks later than its usual schedule in early May. Rawhide Days LLC will pay the county $1,000 before the event to use the fairgrounds, plus damage deposit fees. The festival also must provide proof of $1 million in liability insurance. Alan Daugherty, representative of the Tucumcari Historical Museum that is organizing the festival this year, said the event will include a junior ranch rodeo p...
LOGAN - Logan freshman guard Desta Rose sank a long 3-point shot with about 42 seconds left to help lift her team to a 43-40 victory Saturday in a key district battle against Fort Sumner. Rose totaled a game-high 22 points as the Lady Longhorns, ranked ninth in Class 1A by MaxPreps.com, improved to 14-8 overall and 2-1 in district play. Hailee Robertson added 12 points, all on 3-pointers. No. 1-ranked Melrose (18-1) continues to be the favorite in District 6. But Logan coach Dustin Robertson sai...
LOGAN - A highly touted Fort Sumner-House boys basketball team didn't have its best shooting night. But a scoring run in the third quarter was all it needed to secure a 70-56 district victory Saturday over Logan. The No. 2-ranked Foxes led 36-31 at halftime and embarked on a 16-7 run in the third quarter. That gave Fort Sumner a 52-38 lead, and it maintained a double-digit advantage the rest of the game. Clay Norman led the Foxes with 18 points, and 6-foot-7 center Cash Burney added 16. Fort...
Quay County’s deaths by suicide decreased to a more normal level in 2021 after the county experienced a big increase during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The New Mexico Department of Health, recently completing its 2021 data on deaths by suicide, reported that two such deaths occurred that year in the county. That was a big drop compared to the county’s seven deaths by suicide recorded in 2020 — the highest in recent memory. Only one death by suicide was reported in 2019. The number in the county totaled five in 2018, three...
An Albuquerque woman recovered her dog Saturday after it went missing almost two years ago, thanks to a microchip implanted in the animal and a Quay County sheriff's deputy who picked it up west of Tucumcari. Felicia Chavez was reunited with Fasa, a 4-year-old neutered bull mastiff weighing between 60 and 70 pounds, in the office of the Paws & Claws Animal Rescue of Quay County. The dog wagged its tail and licked her face as she knelt with the animal. Chavez also showed how she taught the...
LOGAN - The No. 1-ranked Melrose girls basketball team survived its second district scare in three days with 72-66 victory Thursday that saw the Lady Longhorns erase a 20-point deficit with less than a minute left. In the end, Graci Odom scored the game's final five points to secure the win. Odom scored 18 points, and teammate Sorrell Allen tallied a game-high 27 points, including going 15-for-20 from the free-throw line. Melrose, which escaped on Jan. 17 with a 53-52 district victory at Fort...
LOGAN - The Melrose boys basketball team wanted a fast start during its district matchup against Logan, and it got it during a 62-51 victory on Thursday. The Buffaloes surged to leads of 11-2 and 15-6 in the first quarter. Melrose (13-4), ranked third in Class 1A by MaxPreps.com, led by as many as 20 and never let the Longhorns get closer than 10 in the second half. "We challenged them to start fast," first-year Buffs coach Drew Hatley said. "We beat Logan at the Reserve Tournament last weekend...
The City of Tucumcari received a $216,803 state grant to repair its municipal pool, which has been closed since 2019. The grant was one of 36 Regional Recreational Centers/Quality of Life Grants totaling $45 million awarded across New Mexico and announced by the governor's office on Friday. The Village of San Jon received $300,000 for a park improvement project. The Village of Logan also received more than $4.9 million to build two softball or Little League ballparks, a BMX track and other...
The Tucumcari City Commission on Thursday approved $107,000 in engineering services related to future street repairs near downtown and the south side. Stantec Engineering will study what is required to fix South Third and South Fourth streets between West Main and West High streets. It also will study South Third Street from West Washington Avenue to one block south of West Estrella Avenue, near Interstate 40. City manager Paula Chacon said an engineering study would make it easier for the city to more quickly receive a variety of funding...
LOGAN - The state last week awarded the Village of Logan a nearly $5 million grant to build a recreational and softball complex near Ute Lake State Park. Ray Mondragon, governmental specialist of the Clovis-based Eastern Plains Council of Governments, made the official announcement during the village board's regular meeting on Jan. 10, though the village and EPCOG issued a news release about the grant the day before. EPCOG worked with the village using information from WH Pacific engineering...
Quay County's manager said contrary to recent rumor, a new Dr. Daniel C. Trigg Memorial Hospital would not perform abortion procedures there. Daniel Zamora, making a presentation Thursday during a Quay County Health Council meeting, said the new hospital would not be equipped to perform such invasive procedures. He said he first heard about concerns about abortions at the proposed facility shortly after a Stantec engineer presented a nearly complete hospital design during the Quay County Commiss...
Members of the Tucumcari Lodgers Tax Advisory Board reluctantly turned down the Fast TV Network’s request for about $135,000 in motel tax funds but indicated it would approve a revised application if it involved the nonprofit New Mexico Route 66 Association that is part of the project. The Fast TV Network and the New Mexico Route 66 Association announced during a news conference in October they are acquiring and moving into the vacant Kmart building at U.S. 54 and Route 66 on the city’s east side to set up film and television studios, a wel...
The Arch Hurley Conservancy District board of directors swore in a new member and chose officers during its first meeting of 2023 last week. Quay County Clerk Ellen White administered the oath of office to new trustee Jason Box, a farm manager at the Rex E. Kirksey Agriculture Science Center who was appointed during the board’s December meeting from two applicants. Justin “Slik” Knapp also was an applicant, but he withdrew himself from consideration and recommended Box’s appointment after the board indicated it would continue as a four-pe...
The Quay County Commission on Monday elected District 1 Commissioner Robert Lopez as its chairman for the next year while a new commissioner served in his first meeting in the role. With no discussion, District 2 Commissioner Jerri Rush nominated Lopez as chairman, and new District 3 Commissioner Brian Fortner seconded it before the vote. Rush and Lopez each were elected as commissioners two years ago. Lopez also previously served as a county commissioner from 2005 to 2012. Rush was named...
A healthcare planner presented to the Quay County Commission a "90% finished" design of a new Dr. Dan C. Trigg Memorial Hospital in Tucumcari that's expected to approach $30 million. Mike Williams, a principal and senior healthcare planner at Stantec Engineering that was hired for nearly $1 million to design the hospital, said the new design accounts for a 41,000-square-foot building that includes the addition of a procedure room and remodeling an existing 3,500-square-foot physical therapy buil...
A new Quay County sheriff, a new commissioner and other county officials were sworn into office during a brief ceremony last Tuesday in the county commission chambers. The first to take the oath of office from County Clerk Ellen White was sheriff-elect Dennis Garcia, who won his Republican primary in June and was unopposed during the November general election. He replaces previous Republican sheriff Russell Shafer, who was term-limited and takes over Garcia's previous position as undersheriff....
The Tucumcari girls basketball team won two of three during its inaugural Lady Rattler Invite tournament last weekend and came within an eyelash of winning the first-place trophy. The Lady Rattlers (8-3) closed the tourney Saturday with a come-from-behind 47-40 victory over Santa Rosa. Tucumcari scored the last nine points of the game. Alexus Lafferty, who made the all-tournament team, scored 17 points to lead the Lady Rattlers against the Lady Lions. Teammates July Lafferty and Caylee...