Serving the High Plains
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 2366
A Tucumcari police officer shot and killed a dog Thursday on the city’s north side after it attacked him, according to a fellow officer’s report and the police chief. The officers had received reports Thursday and the previous day of loose dogs in that area attacking an elderly man. According to TPD Chief Patti Lopez, Ordella Jaynes was issued two citations for an animal at large and a vicious animal, plus a criminal summons. According to a police report written by TPD Cpl. Matthew Lopez (no relation to the chief), he and fellow officer Jes...
The Tucumcari boys basketball team endured a tough week, including three losses at the Mighty Lion Basketball Classic tournament at Santa Rosa. The Rattlers closed the tournament Saturday with a 66-51 loss to Mora in the seventh-place game. THS coach John Span said the second and third quarters proved critical in his team’s loss. Mora outscored Tucumcari 40-23 during that span, turning the Rattlers’ three-point lead early into a double-digit deficit. Span also noted Mora was whistled for only four fouls the entire game. “Both teams playe...
Estancia kept it close initially, but Logan blew it open during the first and second quarters. The Logan boys basketball team, unbeaten and ranked No. 1 in Class 1A by MaxPreps.com, scored 28 unanswered points on a flurry of 3-pointers, fastbreaks and inside shots. That run turned a 5-5 game into a 33-5 advantage early in the second period against the visiting Bears on Saturday. The Longhorns then set the cruise control for an 81-42 victory. “We came out with a lot of energy and really did a great job sharing the ball with each other,” Log...
Leading Estancia by just four points at intermission, the Logan girls basketball team outscored their opponent 29-18 in the second half to secure a 48-33 victory Saturday at Logan. The Lady Longhorns rallied to a double-digit lead halfway through the fourth quarter and built on it. Logan coach Dustin Robertson said his team won despite a suboptimal performance. “We played a little bit flat,” he said. “The girls were going hard but just never could get rolling very good. “But they continued to fight and play with maturity and got the win. I was...
Two Tucumcari wrestlers took home first-place honors at the 12-team Red River Classic tournament at Vernon, Texas. Tucumcari’s Fernando Ureste and Josiah Sanchez each prevailed in eight bouts Friday and Saturday to win their respective weight classes. The Rattlers finished a strong fourth in the team standings at the event, which featured teams from Texas and Oklahoma. “I was happy; it was a great day,” Tucumcari coach Tim Clark said. “In a hard, solid tournament, we were right up there. We were the only New Mexico team there. We came in look...
The Logan High School girls powerlifting team boasted four first-place winners and captured the team title at a seven-team Logan Invitational meet on Jan. 13 at Logan. Also, a San Jon girl also finished first in her division and lifted the most weight of the day. For Logan, April Lansdell (competing in the 105-pound division), Aaliyah Lansdell (114), Makinlee Judd (132) and Kara Bibbs (220) each won their respective classes at the tournament. The Lady Longhorns easily won the team title with 53 points. San Jon finished with fifth with 15...
SAN JON - Travelers who take advantage of the free overnight camping at San Jon Village Park have more of a reason to stop there. The village recently completed several improvements to its nearly 50-year-old park, paid for with a $300,000 state grant. Village Clerk Cynthia Lee said the money was used to buy and build new park equipment, including a family shelter with picnic tables and new awnings and tables for the camping area. "Our goal was to provide a new and safe recreational area for...
A recently completed audit for the Village of San Jon revealed the village was the victim of the email scam that almost cost it over $31,000. According to the fiscal-year 2024 audit report by Scott Northam CPA, a deputy village clerk fell victim to a fraudulent email regarding a vendor payment of capital outlay funds for a park-improvement project, resulting in a temporary loss of $31,508 in September 2023. “The Village was alerted of the fraud when the vendor called and inquired about the payment being thirty days late,” the report sta...
The Quay County 4-H Parliamentary Procedure Team recently won the Western Nationals Roundup Parliamentary Procedure Contest in Denver. The team of Charmaynn Hall, MiKayla Klinger, Maddie Kenyon, Ashton Smith, Greyson Bollinger and Paxton Smith also won the New Mexico State 4-H Parliamentary Procedure contest in January 2024 and had been practicing for the national contest for the past three months. Erin Smith coached the squad, and Jason Lamb was the assistant coach. The Quay County team...
The Tucumcari Film Festival announced last week it is waiving entry fees for all video and film submissions from elementary through high school students residing in Quay County. The festival will take place on April 25-26 at the Odeon Theatre downtown and the Tucumcari High School Auditorium. "We believe in the power of storytelling and want to give our young filmmakers the chance to shine," Bobby Hockaday, executive director of Film Tucumcari and a key organizer of the festival, stated in a news release. "By waiving the entry fees, we hope to...
Three Quay County students at West Texas A&M University in Canyon made the President’s List or Dean’s List during the fall 2024 semester. — Skyler Deluca of Tucumcari, Dean’s List, a senior in pre-engineering; — Kaiden Jones of Logan, Dean’s List, a senior in electrical engineering; — Jenna Lopez of Tucumcari, President’s List, senior in public relations/advertising. The Dean’s List honors students with a grade-point average of 3.50 to 3.99. The President’s List honors those with a GPA of 4.0. Also, Jodi Michelle Vance-Furlow of Tuc...
Jaremy Smith will spend the rest of his life behind bars without the possibility of parole after pleading guilty to multiple federal charges Friday for fatally shooting a New Mexico State Police patrolman west of Tucumcari last March and killing a South Carolina paramedic. Smith’s guilty plea was part of a plea agreement. Federal law-enforcement officials made the announcement Friday. On March 13, Smith abducted a paramedic Phonesia Machado-Fore from her home in South Carolina, transported her in a stolen vehicle and fatally shot her with a h...
The Arch and Ola Hurley House in Tucumcari recently was designated to the National Register of Historic Places. The designation for the century-old home became official on Jan. 3, according to an email Friday from the National Park Service, which administers the National Register program. The home at 117 W. High St., a block-and-frame structure built in 1918 on a nearly half-acre lot, was noted as an excellent example of a Craftsman-style house in Tucumcari, according to the National Register...
Dorothy Marie Kvols, a longtime director of the Tucumcari/Quay County Chamber of Commerce, died at a nursing home in Colorado in November. She was less than two weeks from her 101st birthday. Kvols led the Tucumcari-based chamber for about 35 years, according to her obituary. She also was active in the Tucumcari chapter of Altrusa International sorority, the Red Hat Ladies group and the Center Street Methodist Church in Tucumcari. Dorothy Marie Thompson Kvols was born Nov. 19, 1923, in Laurel, Nebraska. She married her husband, Damon Kvols, in...
Local basketball fans can only speculate how the No. 1-ranked Logan boys basketball team would have done at the Eastern Plains Athletic Conference Tournament, better known as EPAC. Last week’s annual eastern New Mexico tournament, scheduled to be hosted by Texico this year, was postponed, then canceled after a snowstorm rolled through the region on Thursday and caused hazardous driving conditions through much of Friday. The Clovis region received about six inches of snow. “Stay safe and warm, and we’ll see you at EPAC next year!” organiz...
Another weekend, another tournament title for Tucumcari standout wrestler Josh Pacheco. The senior, competing in the 152-pound weight class, won all four of his bouts Saturday at the 20-team Sammy Vivian Invitational tournament at Socorro, including defeating Aztec’s Zach Sanders by pin in the championship. “He had to earn it,” THS coach Tim Clark said, noting he toughed out a bout against Isaiah Chavez of Las Cruces in the semifinal. Against Sanders, “Josh actually was losing in the third period, but he was able to turn it and pin the kid. He...
The winter storm that struck the Quay County region on Thursday didn't contain a lot of snow, but it still packed a punch. The storm prompted local schools and governments to close early, postponed events and forced the closings of several highways because of vehicle accidents, including eastbound Interstate 40 on Thursday night into late Friday morning. Dozens of trucks and other vehicles with nowhere to go clogged east Route 66 and the exit and entrance ramps around Tucumcari through Friday...
A man once considered to be a kidnapping victim after an apartment shooting in September in Tucumcari now is wanted on a felony charge of harboring a felon and other counts. Tucumcari Magistrate Judge Noreen Hendrickson issued an arrest warrant on Jan. 7 for Nathaniel Marcus Estergo, 22, of Tucumcari on charges of harboring a felon, tampering with evidence and making a false report. The harboring and tampering charges each are fourth-degree felonies that can lead up to 18 months in prison and up to a $5,000 fine. Estergo was not in custody as...
The New Mexico Supreme Court struck down ordinances by counties and cities that would have restricted abortions or regulated abortion clinics or providers. The court’s unanimous opinion on Thursday invalidated ordinances by Roosevelt and Lea counties and the cities of Clovis and Hobbs that attempted to restrict access to abortion services. The court issued an order — a writ of mandamus — prohibiting the local governments from enforcing the ordinances. “Our Legislature granted to counties and municipalities all powers and duties not inconsi...
Tucumcari senior wrestler Josh Pacheco earned another tournament title this season — this time at the 14-team Matador Classic at Lubbock, Texas, on Saturday. Wrestling in the 150-pound weight class, Pacheco won all four of his bouts on Saturday, including against Michael Castillo of Canyon West Plains in the championship. “He looked really good,” Tucumcari coach Tim Clark said of Pacheco. “In the finals, he was against a kid that he wrestled this summer in freestyle wrestling in Amarillo. Josh said it was going to be a tough match, and they ba...
Municipalities and school districts in Quay County saw plenty of change during the second half of 2024. Not only did new superintendent Carl Marano officially take over Tucumcari Public Schools in July, but longtime Logan superintendent Dennis Roch announced in November he would retire and take a position with New Mexico Senate Republicans. Tucumcari city manager Paula Chacon announced in July she would retire at the end of the year. Her assistant, former District 4 Commissioner Renee Hayoz, officially took over her position after New Year’s D...
An Albuquerque man was apprehended months he was accused of shooting a man and carjacking another in Tucumcari. Alex Joe Patrick Gutierrez, 24, was wanted on charges of first-degree kidnapping, attempted first-degree murder and three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. The kidnapping charge is a first-degree felony that could lead up to 18 years in prison and up to a $15,000 fine. The other charges also are felonies. Quay County Sheriff Dennis Garcia said that Albuquerque Police apprehended Gutierrez last week. According to court...
A woman from Minnesota died and a sheriff’s deputy escaped injury during a crash Sunday on U.S. 54 near Nara Visa that involved four vehicles and was exacerbated by icy roads. New Mexico State Police reported that Joy Sundquist, 72, of Chisholm, Minnesota, a passenger in a Subaru driven by an unidentified male, was declared dead at the scene by the Office of Medical Examiner at mile marker 355 westbound, near the Texas border. A Quay County sheriff’s deputy initially responded to a crash with no injuries about 8 a.m. Sunday involving a sem...
The Logan boys basketball team kept rolling and remained undefeated after a dominating 80-32 victory over visiting Des Moines on Saturday. The Demons (4-4) made it semi-competitive in the first quarter, with them trailing 19-11. But the Longhorns (9-0) put distance between them and their opponents after that, leading 39-21 at intermission and 64-27 after three quarters. Hayden Bruhn led the Longhorns with 21 points. Not far behind were teammates Diego Sanchez with 17, Aydin Kotara with 14 and Devin Kotara with 13. “We shot the ball well from t...
The Logan girls basketball team overcame a double-digit deficit against visiting Des Moines and rallied for a 58-46 victory on Saturday. The Lady Longhorns trailed 32-21 at halftime but finished the third quarter with a 15-4 run, slicing the Lady Demons’ lead to 39-38. Logan continued the onslaught early in the fourth quarter, going on a 13-1 run to grab a 51-40 lead midway through the period. Des Moines never threatened after that. “Our defensive energy got more intense,” Logan coach Dustin Robertson said of the rally. “For us, that’s...