Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
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Several local political figures uniformly condemned the violence by a mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol last week but differed along partisan lines on its cause. Hundreds of people apparently loyal to Republican President Donald Trump barged into the Capitol on Wednesday and forced lawmakers, who had convened to formally approve the Electoral College vote for the presidency, into hiding in an underground bunker for hours. Five people died, including a police officer. Lawmakers affirmed Democrat Joe Biden’s election victory early the next m...
A film crew will arrive in Tucumcari next month to begin filming four episodes of the "Bands of Enchantment" music television show, the city manager said during a Lodgers Tax Board meeting Wednesday. City Manager Mark Martinez said Elkhorn Entertainment, based in Chicago and Los Angeles, is tentatively scheduled to begin filming at the historic Tucumcari Railroad Depot on Feb. 11 and will stay in town for two weeks. Martinez said Elkhorn originally envisioned staging the music performances at th...
The Tucumcari / Quay County Chamber of Commerce has a new executive director while the outgoing executive director is sticking around a few more days to show her the ropes. Dominique "Nikki" Murray's first official day at the post was Jan. 4. She will replace Carmen Runyan, who announced last month her last day there would be Jan. 15 after a little less than three years at the helm. "She's been showing me everything and explaining everything well," Murray said about Runyan during a phone...
Larry Smith, owner of the Motel Safari in Tucumcari, on Thursday accepted the 2020 New Mexico Route 66 Association Heritage Award to the motel and said previous owners deserved to accept it, as well. The New Mexico Route 66 Association gave the award "in recognition of numerous renovations to the Classic Googie Style Motel, a New Mexico Route 66 landmark," it stated in a news release the day before. Smith received from association President Melissa Lea Beasley a plaque, a metal New Mexico Route...
The Tucumcari Lodgers Tax Board on Wednesday recommended a new visitors guide, print ads or billboards, creating merchandise featuring its new logo and new directional signs in town be part of a “plan of attack” for tourism efforts using leftover funds from events canceled by the COVID-19 pandemic. Board members also gave a green light to City Manager Mark Martinez to pursue a short-term tourism marketing contract with the Alamogordo-based Leighton Moon firm, which designed the city’s new logo. The board formed a short list of prior...
The rollout of COVID-19 inoculations continued last week when the Quay County Family Health Center in Tucumcari received a shipment of the new Moderna vaccine. Presbyterian Medical Services Administrator C. Renee Hayoz said the clinic gave 80 doses of the vaccine last week and planned 20 more on Monday. "It's nice for us to be able to offer this vaccine to community members," she said. "It's something I'm glad we can offer to rural New Mexico." In addition to clinic staff receiving the vaccine,...
The owner of a Tucumcari motel torched an effigy of a much-maligned 2020 and mementos of people's misfortunes that year in a bonfire broadcast live over the internet on New Year's Eve. David Brenner, owner of the Roadrunner Lodge Motel, burned about a dozen submitted items Thursday night as the year 2020 - marred by deaths and economic destruction from the COVID-19 pandemic and a tumultuous presidential election - drew to a close. In addition to a handful of people who watched in the motel's...
Quay County government spent all its $152,000 allotment in federal CARES Act funds to cover expenses related to the COVID-19 pandemic before last week’s deadline. Meanwhile, the county earlier last month helped divvy out more than $372,000 in those federal funds to 16 area businesses for their coronavirus-related expenses. County manager Richard Primrose said the county has submitted its last of three reimbursement applications for the county’s COVID-19 expenses due Dec. 30. The county received $152,550 in federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and...
The COVID-19 pandemic forced Tucumcari restaurateur Todd Duplantis to make adjustments to the fourth annual Operation Thank You for the Christmas holiday. Instead of taking cookies, brownies and thank-you cards to soldiers at a New Mexico air force base, this year he gave them to first responders in the region. Duplantis, who owns Cornerstone First Edition, Kix on 66 and Vaquero Asador restaurants in Tucumcari, said in an interview Wednesday at Kix that he usually distributes his bags of six...
The Family Dollar in Tucumcari will begin extensive renovations in mid-January that will close the store for two months but would add more than 2,500 square feet to its footprint. Kayleigh Painter, a manager, investor and media relations representative for Dollar Tree, which owns Family Dollar, stated in an email to the Quay County Sun on Thursday the renovations to the Tucumcari store at 112 W. Tucumcari Blvd. would increase its space from 9,385 square feet to 11,931 square feet. "The...
San Jon Municipal Schools soon will upgrade its phone system for less money and also comply with two laws. The district’s board of trustees voted Dec. 21 to enter into a three-year agreement with Plateau to improve its phone system. The cost, which includes the district’s fax service and internet, would be $470 a month. San Jon presently is paying $502 a month. The phone upgrade also conforms with Keri’s Law and Ray Baum’s Act before the deadline of February, or else the district would have faced an initial fine of $10,000, plus $300 a day, it...
A long-awaited coronavirus vaccine arrived Friday in Quay County when about two dozen health workers at Trigg Memorial Hospital in Tucumcari were injected with the Pfizer version of it. The first person at Trigg to receive the vaccine was registered nurse Sandi Missildine of Tucumcari, who provides care for COVID-19 patients at their homes. The first people in New Mexico to receive the Pfizer vaccine, which received emergency approval Dec. 11 from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, are...
The director of Mesalands Community College’s wind-energy center outlined efforts to add to the college’s drone and alternative-energy education curriculum, including adding 700 solar panels to its grid. Jim Morgan, director of the college’s North American Wind Research and Training Center, described during the board of trustees meeting Dec. 15 the center’s future forays into solar and microgrid technology along with its existing wind-energy offerings. Morgan said the college also might add hydroelectric energy and geothermal. Morgan said the c...
Tucumcari Public Schools superintendent said last week required surveillance testing of COVID-19 of all school employees would double when classes resume next month after winter break. Superintendent Aaron McKinney said during the school board’s regular meeting Dec. 14 more than 10% of district workers would take a new saliva test for coronavirus that promises results within 48 hours. Some in-person classes were scheduled to resume Jan. 18 after the New Mexico Public Education Department extended the winter break for all public schools, f...
Residents and travelers in Tucumcari were treated to a surprise sight Friday night - lights glowed brightly on on the big "T" of Tucumcari Mountain's northwestern face for the first time in many months. The sight also signaled a stronger possibility the faded whitewash on the big "T" would be refurbished soon after the mesa's previous part-owner had blocked access for several years. The "T," formed from rocks and boulders, had been repainted annually by Tucumcari High School students since at...
The New Mexico Department of Health last week reported the sixth coronavirus death in Quay County since the pandemic began. Meanwhile, the volume of COVID-19 cases was falling in the state and the county, though officials cautioned there might be spikes after Christmas and implored residents to refrain from holiday gatherings that would make the spread of the virus more likely. The latest casualty in the county was a woman in her 70s who was hospitalized, according to an email Wednesday from the agency. Identities of those killed or infected by...
Annie McCauley outgrew the travel trailer she used for her Blanco Creek Boutiques clothing and jewelry business. So she recently opened a less mobile but roomier location in downtown Tucumcari. Blanco Creek Boutiques opened Dec. 11 in its new digs at 209 S. Second St. in the former Spin Digity gym that closed in November. McCauley owns the business, and Jessica Gonzales offers her New Mexico Ranch Wife Designs jewelry in the shop, as well. McCauley initially opened her business in the travel...
More than half of Logan’s middle-school students were considered low-growth academically in assessment tests during a period from December 2019 to December 2020, illustrating the challenges of remote-learning environments during the COVID-19 pandemic. Superintendent Dennis Roch during his academic update presented the Measures of Academic Progress, or MAP, data to Logan Municipal Schools board members during their virtual regular meeting Dec. 14. Roch showed student data divided into four quadrants — high achievement and high growth, low ach...
Students at San Jon High School earlier this month were among the winners of the New Mexico Governor’s STEM Challenge for the second straight year. San Jon juniors Saisravya Bandla and Jenna Lopez, sponsored by San Jon math teacher Raj Bandla and science teacher Sharla Rusk, designed a solar-powered recycling device that electronically sorts aluminum cans and dispenses coins to donors. Saisravya is Bandla’s daughter. A total of 33 high-school teams competed in the contest. Eighteen teams, including San Jon’s, were declared winners. Each stude...
The Mesalands Community College board of trustees last week approved an annual auditor’s report that refutes some allegations made by the college’s former president in a whistleblower and retaliation lawsuit. Marty Mathisen, principal for the Atkinson & Co. auditing firm in Albuquerque, reviewed via videoconference the audit during the board’s regular meeting Dec. 15. The audit briefly addressed the lawsuit, and he also remarked about it during his presentation to the board. The audit noted the lawsuit filed by former president John Groes...
A Quay County government official launched her own suicide-prevention campaign after learning of a spike of deaths by suicide in the area - including a friend's - and recalling her own memories of contemplating suicide years ago. County Assessor Janie Hoffman said she became motivated to begin her "Make the Call" campaign after "a very close friend" died by suicide. She subsequently found out about eight such deaths in the county in recent months. After beginning the campaign in early November,...
The New Mexico Department of Health issued new public health orders Thursday that include a temporary delay on non-essential surgeries because the COVID-19 pandemic is straining the state’s hospitals. The orders came two days after state health officials said during a webinar that hospitals likely would begin rationing health care before the end of the month. Human Service Secretary David Scrase said earlier in the week New Mexico’s hospitals contained a more than 1,000 COVID-19 patients, and hospital bed availability was “a very dynamic situat...
Monday's meeting of the Quay County Commission proved to be the finale for commissioners Sue Dowell and Mike Cherry, who had served in their posts since 2012. Commission Chairman Franklin McCasland gave each a plaque of appreciation for their service to the county shortly after the meeting began. Dowell and Cherry both were term-limited and couldn't run for re-election. "It was an honor to serve with you," he said, and invited both to attend future meetings. Dowell, who served in District 1 in...
The owner of the fire-damaged Loretta's Burrito Hut in Tucumcari anticipates repairs will be completed on the Route 66 restaurant next month. In the meantime, Loretta Muller purchased a new trailer that allows her to serve her Mexican dishes in the west parking lot of her restaurant at 321 E. Route 66 Blvd. Loretta's began taking to-go and delivery orders Wednesday from her temporary new digs. "We needed to go back to work," Muller said during a telephone interview Thursday. "I have employees...
Quay County manager Richard Primrose said Monday the commission received a certificate of appreciation from the New Mexico Department of Health regarding last month’s National Rural Health Day that was revoked by request of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s office three days later. Several people in the gallery gasped or laughed with astonishment about the revocation, including incoming District II commissioner Jerri Rush, who will take office next month. “That’s priceless,” county Chairman Franklin McCasland said sarcastically. Lujan Grisham’s...