Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
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The newly renovated east room of the Tucumcari railroad depot was scheduled Saturday to host a book-signing and presentation by the author of a book on the extinct coal-mining town of Dawson. But the event also served as a surprise honor for Tucumcari's Frank Turner, who helped save the historic depot from demolition, founded the Tucumcari Railroad Museum and played a role in acquiring a grant from Union Pacific for the east room's renovation. Turner traveled with his wife from his North...
After two other motions failed, the Arch Hurley Conservancy District board of directors approved an allocation of 1 inch of water per acre and will re-evaluate the possibility of future allocations during its August meeting. With about a dozen farmers observing the proceedings at the July 9 meeting, board member Debra Mitchell first moved to not allocate any water at this time. The motion died from the lack of a second. Board member Larry Perkins then moved to allocate 2 inches of water per acre, matching the district’s allocation in April. T...
An unexpectedly large inaugural Independence Day Parade in Tucumcari on Thursday had organizers already looking ahead to improving or tweaking the event for next year and beyond. Bobby Hockaday, one of the parade's organizers, said after the event he had hoped to draw 15 entries. He had kept expectations modest because the Tucumcari/Quay County Chamber of Commerce had only two months to prepare and it also being Tucumcari's first July 4 parade in recent memory. Hockaday said signups for the para...
The Quay County Commission on Monday approved an Infrastructure Capital Improvement Plan that puts replacement of the courthouse’s windows and climate-control systems high on its priority list. The plan, which serves as a guide to the state legislature for capital outlay funding, still has $30 million to build a new Trigg Memorial Hospital as the top item. The county is due to receive $10 million in state funding for the hospital project later this year, and county manager Daniel Zamora is applying for an additional $20 million in funds from t...
Recognition of retiring Quay County Undersheriff Russell Shafer was on the agenda for Thursday's county commission meeting, but he received an unexpected bonus. Sheriff Dennis Garcia also gave Shafer a medal of valor "for actions above and beyond the call of duty" during a May 14 fatal officer-involved shooting near the settlement of Quay. Shafer indicated surprise by the honor. Four deputies were dispatched to 77-year-old Aubrey Osteen's home near Quay after dispatchers received calls of him br...
Tucumcari’s city commission approved a $60,000 contract with Tucumcari MainStreet, but not without hesitancy and additional conditions because of lingering uncertainty about city finances. After several minutes of discussion, commissioners approved the Tucumcari MainStreet contract that allocates $50,000 in Local Economic Development Act funds, plus another $10,000 in executive lodgers tax funds. The commission during a previous meeting tabled action on the pact after Mayor Mike Cherry questioned whether the city legally could use more than $...
Tucumcari Middle School remains on the chopping block as part of a proposed five-year strategic plan. However, skeptical Tucumcari Public Schools officials still are considering an option to renovate at least part of the middle school and were scheduled to present that idea to state officials as an alternative. Members of the school board last Monday heard by teleconference a final proposal for the five-year plan from Kerrianne Wolf, senior director of strategic consulting for Woolpert. The...
The Mesalands Community College board of trustees last Tuesday announced five finalists for president of the college, including its current interim president. The announcement came after a closed executive session of almost an hour. Allen Moss, appointed by the board as Mesalands’ temporary acting president in February 2023, was among the finalists. He previously was senior executive director of concurrent enrollment and academic outreach at Mesalands. The board appointed Moss as president after the departure of his predecessor, Gregg Busch, f...
The Tucumcari City Commission during a special meeting last Tuesday voted to consolidate its bank reconciliations so it could complete its fiscal year 2023 audit and not endanger capital outlay funds due from the state. The move came after the recommendation of Michael Steininger, a budget and finance analyst to the New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration. Steininger said by videoconference that consolidating the city’s bank reconciliations “does have shortcomings.” But he said if the city’s audit for FY2023 were not complet...
A New Mexico State Police report shows an unnamed Santa Rosa dispatcher refused to send an ambulance to aid a dying New Mexico State Police officer on March 15 because the location was “out of their jurisdiction.” The director of communications for Santa Rosa Dispatch denied the allegation. The allegation was made by NMSP Officer Nathan Schwebach in state police reports obtained by the Quay County Sun. Schwebach is stationed out of Santa Rosa in Guadalupe County. NMSP Patrol Officer Justin Hare died in Tucumcari’s hospital about 2 1/2 hours...
It was not by choice, but Tucumcari Rawhide Days showed it could keep rollin', rollin', rollin' without its signature Texas Longhorn cattle. The festival, which salutes the "Rawhide" television show shot in the Tucumcari area in the late 1950s and early 1960s, had set up a pen for the cattle a half-block west of the Tucumcari Historical Museum so festival-goers could get an up-close look at the animals. However, one local rancher who planned to bring the Longhorns had a family emergency,...
Questions from Tucumcari’s mayor about the legality of a professional services agreement with Tucumcari MainStreet prompted the city commission to delay action on approving it last Tuesday. A lodgers tax aid request from the Logan-Ute Lake Chamber of Commerce for its July 6 fireworks show was delayed for similar reasons. Before the sticking point surfaced with MainStreet, the commission approved a resolution supporting a public-private economic development project, a biannual memorandum of understanding and a 2023 service delivery report f...
Tucumcari Public Schools introduced Doug South as its new high school football coach last Monday, and he said he intends to stick around for at least four years. The district's incoming superintendent, Carl Marano, introduced South during a meet-and-greet last Monday at Rattler Gymnasium. About 50 students and parents attended. Marano acknowledged the lack of stability with the high school football program, with South being the fourth Rattlers coach in four years. The Rattlers' previous coach,...
SAN JON — The board for San Jon Municipal Schools during its regular meeting Wednesday gave its superintendent a 3% pay raise for the coming fiscal year. Alan Umholtz will be paid $128,832 annually. The raise comes with the stipulation that he provide quarterly updates on the district’s goals. The 3% hike matches state-mandated raises given to teachers for the 2024-2025 school year. The unanimous decision by the board followed an executive session of nearly an hour. Umholtz went behind closed doors with board members for a few minutes, exi...
The man charged with killing New Mexico State Police Patrolman Justin Hare in March threatened healthcare workers while he was being treated for injuries after his capture. Jaremy Smith, 33, of South Carolina, also threatened a former girlfriend and a travel companion before Hare was killed. And he is accused of entering an empty ranch house near Newkirk, where he ate food and stole ammunition, cash and a pickup truck before being shot and apprehended by police in Albuquerque a day later. Those...
The Tucumcari Lodgers Tax Advisory Board seemed amenable to an aid request from the Logan-Ute Lake Chamber of Commerce for its Fourth of July fireworks show, scheduled for July 6. Mayor Mike Cherry, the board’s liaison, said Logan will spend $20,000 on its fireworks display, hence the request. The pyrotechnics will be set off in sequence by professionals, he said. However, Logan didn’t submit a specific amount of funding it wanted from the board. Because of that, board Chairman Matt Bednorz suggested the request be ultimately decided by the...
Quay County’s manager said he was inclined to move up priority of replacing the courthouse windows on its Infrastructure Capital Improvement Plan. The county commission on Monday held a public hearing on updating the five-year plan, which serves as a guide and wish list for capital outlay funding from the New Mexico Legislature. County manager Daniel Zamora said the county spends $3,000 to $5,000 a month on electricity in the courthouse, which also holds other county offices. He said new windows would improve its energy efficiency. Last y...
City officials and two members of an accounting firm gave a status update during a special commission work session Wednesday on efforts to reconcile the city’s finances as far back as 2022. City manager Paula Chacon said she, finance director Hallie Ferguson and Liz Martinez and Angelica Pacheco, client services managers of Mitchell, Beasley & Co. CPA of Las Cruces, have identified many deposits and credits, with only two debits they have been unable to find, from December 2022. “I think we’ve made a lot of progress,” Chacon said. “We’re...
Members of the Tucumcari Public Schools board last Monday approved a $15.1 million operating budget for 2024-2025 that includes a $3.3 million carryover when the fiscal year begins on July 1. The cash will prove critical, as Tucumcari will have to absorb costs on a few teachers and aides that were covered by coronavirus relief funds. The federal Elementary and Secondary Emergency Relief Fund required 20% of it to be spent on academics. Those funds will sunset in December. When pressed by board members how much the district would have to...
Tucumcari city commissioners last Tuesday arrived at a consensus to submit a preliminary budget of nearly $17 million that includes employee raises of $1.50 an hour. The three commissioners present — Mayor Mike Cherry, Jonathan Brito and Renee Hayoz — didn’t officially make a motion to accept the budget after a special meeting that lasted for more than three hours. They instead vocally came to consensus to let city manager Paula Chacon and finance director Hallie Ferguson submit the preliminary budget to state officials by the deadline of Ma...
Paws & Claws Animal Rescue of Quay County will receive $6,000 upfront from the county government, plus $10,000 annually after the shelter's president pleaded for such aid. Kathi McClelland, president of the nonprofit shelter on Airport Road east of Tucumcari, told county commissioners during their regular meeting last Tuesday that "we're struggling financially" due to rising costs and that the shelter's ability to acquire grants has been "hit or miss." She said Paws & Claws is rebuilding nine...
The Mesalands Community College board of trustees recommended during a special meeting Wednesday requesting $990,000 in state funds to improve Building A and Building E on campus. Mark Martinez, the college’s executive director of operations and procurement, said he initially was going to recommend $500,000 after noting that insurance claims from the May 2023 hailstorm would improve those buildings. However, board Chairman Richard Primrose doubted that request would be enough and recommended the ask be raised to $990,000 — the same amount req...
The Tucumcari City Commission on Thursday greenlighted an initiative to create a Hometown Heroes Park at the Sand Dorsey site at Second and Main streets. Anthony Kent and Tucumcari MainStreet director Connie Loveland presented the idea for a memorial to recognize noteworthy Tucumcari residents. The idea for a park to honor local heroes sprung from Kent, who two years ago proposed a downtown memorial for deceased New Mexico civil rights activist Alice Faye Kent Hoppes, a Tucumcari native. Kent was Hoppes’ nephew. Loveland said New Mexico M...
A hiccup Friday during the Mesalands Community College Iron Pour may have led to an inadvertent twist for future events - the prospect of working more with the molten metal during nighttime hours. A balky electrical generator kept the 24th Iron Pour from using one of its kilns at midday as planned. A phone call from Mark Martinez, the college's executive director of operations, to an electrician resolved the situation hours later, but the pouring of iron lasted well into the nighttime hours....
A year after a severe hailstorm, Mesalands Community College still is trying to repair buildings damaged by it. Mark Martinez, the college’s executive director of operations and procurement, during the board of trustees meeting last Tuesday detailed his ongoing efforts to repair campus buildings. Martinez said he is working to have repairs completed to four Mesalands buildings. He said repairs would begin on Building E in August. He said the former armory building, Building A and Building. D would require $61,900, $142,890 and $74,000 in r...