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  • Options to renovate, replace Trigg explained

    Ron Warnick, QCS Senior Writer|Apr 6, 2022

    An engineer explained to county commissioners three options on dealing with an aging Dr. Dan C. Trigg Memorial Hospital in Tucumcari - building a new facility, renovating it or using a hybrid of the two. Either way, it's going to cost at least $19 million and likely more. Mike Williams, a healthcare planner and principal at Stantec Architecture in Phoenix, talked by videoconference about those options from a feasibility study for the hospital during a Quay County Commission meeting Thursday....

  • Gateway edges Logan in extras

    Ron Warnick, QCS Senior Writer|Apr 6, 2022

    LOGAN - Gateway Christian and Logan's baseball teams may face each other again later this spring during the Class 1A playoffs, including a possible rematch of last year's title game. For now, the Warriors have bragging rights against the defending 1A champ. Gateway Christian scored the go-ahead run in extra innings, then retired Logan in order for secure a 4-3 victory on March 28. That gave the Warriors (3-3) two wins in three games against the Longhorns (4-2) this season. Gateway quickly recove...

  • City barely passes Logan bank measure

    Ron Warnick, QCS Senior Writer|Mar 30, 2022

    A Tucumcari City Commission on Thursday barely approved a resolution that asks New Mexico Bank & Trust to rethink the planned closing of its Logan branch later this year. The resolution split by a 3-2 vote in favor of the measure. Commissioners Mike Cherry, Christopher Arias and Mayor Ruth Ann Litchfield voted for it. Mayor Pro Tem Ralph Moya and Commissioner Paul Villanueva cast votes against it. The resolution requests Iowa-based HTLF, which owns New Mexico Bank & Trust, to “reconsider” its decision to close its Logan branch. Moya noted banks...

  • Mother Road music

    Ron Warnick, QCS Senior Writer|Mar 30, 2022

    A South Carolina-based music composer recently was in Tucumcari to soak up inspiration for his forthcoming "Route 66 Suite" orchestral composition. Nolan Stolz said he's found plenty of it in this region. "I have very specific things about Tucumcari that will go into the music," he said. Stolz, an associate professor of music at University of South Carolina Upstate, took a sabbatical in July to travel Route 66 and conduct research for his symphonic piece. He said he tries to stay overnight at...

  • Tucumcari native writes book on city's history

    Ron Warnick, QCS Senior Writer|Mar 30, 2022

    Semi-retired history professor David H. Stratton was 75 years old when he began his research into the history of Tucumcari, his hometown. Twenty years later, Stratton's book, "Tucumcari Tonite!: A Story of Railroads, Route 66 and the Waning of a Western Town," has been published by University of New Mexico Press and is available for purchase on April 1. Though it took two decades for it to come to fruition, Stratton said he never thought composing the book was tedious. "The writing of it was a l...

  • Lady Rattlers down Santa Rosa

    Ron Warnick, QCS Senior Writer|Mar 30, 2022

    The Lady Rattlers softball team grabbed a big early lead, then held on during the last few innings for an 11-8 victory on March 22 to hand Santa Rosa its loss of the young season. Tucumcari (4-3) got big production from the top of the batting order, with Harley McKinney, Haisley Huffman and Alexus Lafferty combining for 10 runs scored and seven stolen bases. They fueled the Lady Rattlers taking a 10-3 lead after three innings. Mireya Estrada earned a complete-game victory for Tucumcari. She...

  • MCC to host Paulita's pilot plant

    Ron Warnick, QCS Senior Writer|Mar 23, 2022

    Paulita’s New Mexico will use Mesalands Community College’s armory building as a pilot manufacturing and worker-training facility while it looks for a more permanent site to relocate in Tucumcari. Those plans by the Rio Rancho-based food company were revealed last week during the college’s board of trustees meeting last week, with more details from a Mesalands official on Wednesday. During a board of trustees meeting March 15, Mary Beth Busch of Mesalands’ Center for Workforce Development said Paulita’s New Mexico will use the gymnasium...

  • Logan bank closing delayed to December

    Ron Warnick, QCS Senior Writer|Mar 23, 2022

    New Mexico Bank & Trust announced Friday it would extend the closing date of its Logan branch by another six months, giving local leaders more time to find another banking tenant there. A spokeswoman for New Mexico Bank & Trust’s main office in Albuquerque stated in an email the closing of its Logan branch along U.S. 54 would occur Dec. 14 instead of the previously planned June 10. Local leaders had lobbied New Mexico Bank & Trust to reconsider its decision or delay the closing the Logan site. The shuttering of the Logan branch would leave the...

  • Mesalands OKs four-day week

    Ron Warnick, QCS Senior Writer|Mar 23, 2022

    Mesalands Community College will move to a four-day week for employees and students after spring graduation. The Mesalands board of trustees during its March 15 meeting voted to approve the four-way week for its 2022-2023 academic calendar on the urging of President Gregg Busch. Employees and students would have Fridays off, generally with working hours from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday. The four-day week takes effect May 16, after spring commencement. Busch advocated the four-day week because it would give the college an edge to...

  • Mountain View School may be given to state

    Ron Warnick, QCS Senior Writer|Mar 23, 2022

    The superintendent of Tucumcari Public Schools said he was considering donating or selling for a nominal sum the Mountain View Elementary School property to the State of New Mexico on which a day-care center operates there. Superintendent Aaron McKinney said during the school board's March 14 meeting that Eastern Plains Early Head Start rents the former school building on South Rock Island Street for $1 a year. He said it costs the district thousands of dollars a year for upkeep on the structure...

  • Lodgers tax board receives $117K in aid requests

    Ron Warnick, QCS Senior Writer|Mar 23, 2022

    The Tucumcari Lodgers Tax Advisory Board last week received more than $117,000 in aid requests from tourism entities or festival organizers for the 2023 fiscal year and heard pitches from two of them during a work session Wednesday. Aid applications the board has received: • $38,200 from the Tucumcari/Quay County Chamber of Commerce; • $43,575 from the Tucumcari Historical Museum; • $25,000 from the Rockin’ Route 66 festival; • $9,000 from the Fired Up Festival by Tucumcari MainStreet; • $2,000 from Down at the Depot events. Tucumcari Rawhide D...

  • Chamber chief may become events director

    Ron Warnick, QCS Senior Writer|Mar 16, 2022

    The executive director of the Tucumcari/Quay County Chamber of Commerce advocated to city commissioners reprising his office’s former role as the city’s events coordinator. City commissioners during a work session Thursday seemed amenable to the idea and asked City Manager Mark Martinez to draw up a contract for the post by its next meeting March 24. Martinez advocated acting quickly because he wanted to have a placeholder event – a possible small-scale revival of Tucumcari’s long-dormant Pinata Festival — to replace the New Mexico Music Sho...

  • Prospects dim for Arch Hurley water allocation

    Ron Warnick, QCS Senior Writer|Mar 16, 2022

    Prospects dimmed for the Arch Hurley Conservation District to allocate water to area farmers this spring as Conchas Lake’s levels continued to stagnate due to drought. During the district’s regular board meeting last week, district manager Franklin McCasland reported the lake’s level was 4,160 feet — slightly lower than the 4,160.4 feet reported the previous month. Conchas Lake received 354 acre-feet of inflow in February, with 1,073 acre-feet of evaporation or other losses, he said. The Arch Hurley district typically does not allocate water u...

  • Higher fuel prices affect same-day motel stays

    Ron Warnick, QCS Senior Writer|Mar 16, 2022

    A Tucumcari motel owner said skyrocketing fuel prices primarily due to the war in Ukraine had lowered same-day reservations but not yet affected reservations of Route 66 travelers. David Brenner, owner of the Roadrunner Lodge Motel and a former chairman of the city’s lodgers tax advisory board, said last week he’s seeing fewer spring-break travelers than expected, which he attributes to higher gas prices. “The people who have made reservations have showed up,” he said. “The people who do same-day reservations have kind of fallen off a bit. I...

  • 'Communities at risk' from nuclear waste transport

    Ron Warnick, QCS Senior Writer|Mar 16, 2022

    A woman from Santa Fe County warned Quay County commissioners the U.S. Department of Energy’s changes in nuclear waste transportation put “communities at risk” along the Interstate 40 corridor and other highways in the state. Citing U.S. government documents that include the Federal Register, Cindy Weehler said during a PowerPoint presentation Monday the disposal of nuclear-warhead waste at an underground facility in southeast New Mexico was going far beyond its original scope and was violating state and federal laws. Weehler said the Waste...

  • House player helps Vixens in title run

    Ron Warnick, QCS Senior Writer|Mar 16, 2022

    Avery Cavett is the only player from the southern Quay County school district of House as part of its sports cooperative with the Fort Sumner girls basketball team. Yet it's hard to imagine the Vixens winning a Class 1A championship last weekend without her. Cavett, a senior, totaled a team-high 15 points and 10 rebounds during a 37-30 victory over Logan in Friday's semifinal at Bernalillo. She went 6-for-6 from the free throw line against the Lady Longhorns during a pressure-packed fourth...

  • Foul outcome for Lady Longhorns

    Ron Warnick, QCS Senior Writer|Mar 16, 2022

    BERNALILLO - Fouls and foul shots spelled doom for the Lady Longhorns in the semis. Fort Sumner-House made 11 of 12 free throws in the fourth quarter as three Logan starters rode the bench due to foul trouble during a 37-30 comeback victory Friday for the Vixens in the Class 1A girls basketball semifinals at Spartan Gym. Second-seeded Fort Sumner-House (21-4) went on to capture the state title by soundly defeating district rival and fourth-seeded Melrose 56-30 on Saturday at The Pit in...

  • THS track coach optimistic about squads

    Ron Warnick, QCS Senior Writer|Mar 16, 2022

    Tucumcari High School's track coach expressed optimism about his boys team and especially the girls squad as their seasons begin Saturday. The Rattler Relays at Tucumcari's Rattler Stadium kicks off with field events at 9 a.m. Saturday, then with the running events at 11 a.m. Logan, a traditional Class 1A power with their boys and girls teams, will be among the participants at the meet. Tucumcari coach Wayne Ferguson said he has only 15 girls going out for track, but he's impressed with that...

  • Board urges extension for tourism marketer

    Ron Warnick, QCS Senior Writer|Mar 9, 2022

    The Tucumcari Lodgers Tax Advisory Board on Wednesday voted to recommend a one-year contract extension to the city’s tourism marketer after several members expressed satisfaction with her performance. The Tucumcari City Commission, as with all actions by the board, makes the final decision on whether to follow the advisory board’s recommendations. The commission’s next regular meeting is Thursday. If approved by the city, tourism marketer Robyne Beaubien of Robyne Beaubien Consulting will receive $55,000 a year. During Wednesday’s meeting...

  • Logan bank closing in June

    Ron Warnick, QCS Senior Writer|Mar 9, 2022

    LOGAN - Barring some sort of intervention in the coming weeks, the village of Logan will be without a bank for the first time in more than a century. New Mexico Bank & Trust will close its Logan branch on June 10, said company CEO and President Greg Leyendecker in an email Friday to the Quay County Sun. It is the only bank in Logan. "We continually assess and review our strategy and effectiveness in the markets where we operate, and this decision followed a careful evaluation of many factors,...

  • Lady Longhorns survive scare

    Ron Warnick, QCS Senior Writer|Mar 9, 2022

    LOGAN - In the first half of Friday's first-round Class 1A basketball playoff game, it was gut-check time for the Lady Longhorns. Third-seeded Logan couldn't buy a defensive rebound, its post player was struggling to score and 14th-seeded Evangel Christian/Oak Grove was eyeing an upset. Logan made a defensive adjustment at intermission and outscored the Lady Eagles 27-10 in the second half to turn a scary game for the Lady Longhorns into a relatively comfortable 51-34 win. The Lady Longhorns...

  • New baseball coach focuses on basics

    Ron Warnick, QCS Senior Writer|Mar 9, 2022

    The Tucumcari High School baseball program has a new coach, and with his arrival brings a new emphasis on the game's fundamentals. George Montano is well-acquainted with teaching the basics. He coached Little League and youth all-star teams in Tucumcari for two years before he took the jump to high-school varsity baseball. He also was a catcher for a few of Rattler baseball's best teams during the late 2000s and early 2010s. Montano said he's motivated to right the program after it recorded...

  • Softball coach enthused about young team

    Ron Warnick, QCS Senior Writer|Mar 9, 2022

    Tucumcari coach CJ Oglesby admits he's had sleepless nights about his softball team, but it's for the right reasons. It's because this year's team reminds him of the Lady Rattlers squad in 2019 that finished with a best-ever 17-5 record and its first postseason berth and a highly promising 2020 team whose season was abruptly canceled by the COVID-19 pandemic. "We're more well-prepared than any other year. It's all because of the will of the players who want to get better," Oglesby said before a...

  • City's new 911 pact may save money

    Ron Warnick, QCS Senior Writer|Mar 2, 2022

    The Tucumcari City Commission approved an amended pact with the county’s regional 911 system that the city manager anticipates will save money. The commission unanimously voted during its regular meeting Thursday for the three-year joint powers agreement with the Tucumcari/Quay County Regional Emergency Communications Center that rejiggers the city’s share of the cost of the emergency dispatch phone service. City commissioner Christopher Arias was absent. City manager Mark Martinez said the previous agreement contained a 45% split each bet...

  • Miles of trucks

    Ron Warnick, QCS Senior Writer|Mar 2, 2022

    Extended an invitation, the miles-long People's Convoy accepted it and made a one-hour stop Friday afternoon in Tucumcari as the cross-country protest against coronavirus restrictions rolled to Washington, D.C. Big trucks and conventional vehicles, numbering in at least the hundreds, stretched down two miles of Route 66 in two lanes as dozens of residents waved an assortment of American and other flags to greet them as they rolled off Interstate 40. The co-organizer said the convoy stretched 16...

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