Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
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Jefferson Byrd defeated James Kleinsasser for the Republican nomination for Quay County assessor during light turnout last Tuesday in the primary election. Byrd, 52, a rancher and windmiller from rural Tucumcari, earned a total of 466 votes in the county - 128 more than Kleinsasser, 63, a chief deputy assessor who lives in Tucumcari. That represented 58% of the vote for Byrd. Byrd won all precincts in the county. He faces current officeholder and Democratic nominee Dana Leonard in November's...
The Village of Logan has officially launched its first tourism campaign for Ute Lake, coining the slogan "the best lake you've never been to." The village also launched a new website, VisitUteLake.com, that provides potential visitors local fishing reports, where to eat, places to stay and more. Funding for the campaign came, in part, from a $15,000 outdoor marketing grant announced in March from the New Mexico Economic Development Department. The grant also is being used to print pamphlets and...
About 40 Quay County 4-H members competed in the annual county contest on June 2 in 14 competitions ranging from public speaking to meats identification. Novice and junior members are eligible to compete at district contests in Lovington and Hobbs on June 17-19. Seniors who finished in the top nine are eligible to compete at the state competition in Las Cruses in July. Participants develop decision-making skills and many other skills that can assist them in future employment opportunities with...
A man was arrested in California after being accused of taking a vehicle from a used-car business in Tucumcari for a drive and never returning to pay for it. Magistrate Judge Noreen Hendrickson on May 28 issued an arrest warrant for Leonardo Chavez Villasenor, 63, of San Fernando, California, on a felony charge of unlawful taking of a motor vehicle. The charge is a fourth-degree felony that can lead up to 18 months in prison or up to a $5,000 fine. According to a probable cause statement from New Mexico State Police patrolman Antonio Esparza,...
Two years ago, Kandel's Street Sips debuted its beverage business in a trailer parked off Route 66 on the city's east side. In recent weeks, Kandel's has graduated to a brick-and-mortar business on Tucumcari's Main Street corridor and has begun offering panini sandwiches, wraps and other food. The trailer still exists, parked across the street so it can be used for festivals and other events. But co-owner Rhonda Kandel said she's committed to the new space at 112 W. Main St., in a building that...
A Tucumcari business owner was one of 10 recent grant recipients from the Route 66 Extraordinary Women Micro-grants Program facilitated by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Flora May Cordova of the Route 66 Welcome Center and Gift Shop will receive a $2,000 grant. Cordova said the money will be used to restore a longstanding neon arrow atop her business. The arrow went dark after a severe hailstorm in May 2023 damaged it. In a telephone interview, Cordova indicated recent neon-sign restoration efforts by the Route 66 Association of...
The Mesalands Community College board of trustees recently agreed to a settlement with its fired athletic director that includes a $80,000 payout. Milan Rasic was among four former Mesalands employees who filed lawsuits in May 2023 against the college after they claimed they were unjustly fired from their positions. Though former Mesalands president Gregory Busch was not named in the suits, the firings occurred during his tenure. A news release from Rasic’s attorney, Daniel Apodaca of the SaucedoChavez law firm in Albuquerque, concerning the s...
Three players from Logan’s softball team earned all-district honors after the Lady Longhorns tied for first place in their district and made the postseason for the first time in years. The Longhorns’ all-district picks were junior Marilyn Moreno, eighth-grader Zaiyana Grijalva and senior Camryn Cantrell. Moreno, a catcher and shortstop, hit .696 with a 1.140 slugging average. Grijalva hit .455. As a pitcher, she struck out 84 batters in 71 innings. Cantrell hit .514 during her final season with the Lady Longhorns. Honorable mentions were sen...
Six players from Logan's state runner-up baseball team earned all-district honors in voting announced after the state tournament. Seniors Brock Burns, Kaeden Stoner and Izaiah Kneitz, junior Diego Sanchez and sophomores Mason Wallin and Devin Kotara of the Longhorns earned the top honors in District 3, which had four teams qualify for the Class 1A tournament. Wallin, a first baseman, led the team in batting average (.547), home runs (six), hits (41), slugging average (.973), RBI (45) and tied...
A group of people is undertaking the formation of the first American Legion baseball team in Quay County in 40 years. Anthony Kent, who said he one of the region’s last Legion players as a sophomore in 1984, will be one of the coaches for the newly formed American Legion Post 20 squad. Kent said the local team will be called the Rebels — the same nickname as four decades ago. He said they have signed up 10 players so far and need a few more. Players age 13 to 19 who reside in Quay County are eligible. In addition to players from Tucumcari, Ken...
A house fire at midday Friday in Tucumcari rendered a couple homeless and killed three of their dogs. One of the occupants, Sandra McLain, said she briefly was hospitalized for burns to her arms, shoulders, back and feet. The blaze apparently started shortly after noon when McLain said she was in the shower. Surrounded by flames, she barely had time to leave the house. "My shirt was melting on me," she said in front of the destroyed home on Sunday afternoon. "I didn't have time to put on any...
A former Logan Municipal School instructor recently was inducted into the New Mexico Agriculture Teacher Hall of Fame. Jack Wiley, now the dean of instruction and an agriculture professor at Trinidad State College in Alamosa, Colorado, was inducted into the hall's Class of 2024. Wiley taught agriculture at Logan and guided its FFA chapter from 1986 to 1989. Before that, he taught ag and FFA at Moriarty. He became an administrator at Clayton Municipal Schools, first as a principal and then as...
The historic Odeon Theatre in downtown Tucumcari marked a change in ownership Friday with a ceremonial ribbon-cutting and the screening of the animated movie "Kung Fu Panda 4." Though Jose Almeida is associated with local Atzmus Martial Arts studio, the first movie he chose to show was strictly coincidental. "It just happened; it just lined up that way," he said in a phone interview. "We were talking to the (film) booker about the different movies available, and this one was not too old, not...
Tucumcari Middle School during an assembly last Wednesday dedicated a bench in memory of slain New Mexico State Police patrolman Justin Hare. Hare died after being shot on March 15 west of Tucumcari when he stopped to help a motorist with a flat tire. The suspect, also charged with the killing of a paramedic in South Carolina, remains in custody on state and federal charges. Middle-school students and members of NMSP District 9 collaborated on the event. Many of Hare's co-workers also attended....
Tucumcari’s fire chief turned in his resignation last week after he had been placed on administrative leave earlier in the month. City manager Paula Chacon said Monday that Tucumcari Fire & Rescue Chief Garrett Nash submitted his resignation to the city’s human relations department on Friday. She said he gave no reasons for his stepping down. Nash had been placed on paid administrative leave on May 2, pending an internal investigation. Citing personnel matters, Chacon did not disclose why Nash was taken off duty. Nash, reached by phone on Mon...
Ruidoso ended Tucumcari’s softball season with a 13-3 decision over the Lady Rattlers on Wednesday in the first round of Class 3A playoffs at Cleveland High School in Rio Rancho. The 12th-seeded Lady Rattlers trailed the fifth-seeded Warriors 5-3 after two innings, but Ruidoso followed with eight unanswered runs. Tucumcari senior Haisley Huffman went 2-for-4 at the plate with a double and an RBI. Harley McKinney also smacked a double and drove in a run, and Caylee Benavidez tallied an RBI. Tucumcari left nine base runners stranded during the g...
The Logan softball team’s first postseason trip in six years was short in duration, with an 18-8 first-round loss to eventual state runner-up Mesilla Valley Christian on Wednesday. The Lady Longhorns lost despite the heroics of Marilyn Moreno, who went 3-for-3 with a triple and two home runs. She drove in four runs. “Marilyn is a phenomenal player,” Logan coach Dustin Robertson said. “She’s first-team all-state in my opinion, and no one will convince me otherwise.” Also for Logan, Jadyn Garcia hit a three-run triple and scored two runs. Presl...
Antonio Gonzales and Haisley Huffman were named the Senior Male and Female Athletes of the Year during the Rattler Athletic Banquet last Monday organized by the Tucumcari Diamondback Booster Club. About 350 people attended the annual gathering at the Tucumcari Convention Center, where Tucumcari High School athletes in cross country, football, cheer, volleyball, basketball, wrestling, powerlifting, softball, baseball, golf and track are honored. Gonzales participated in football, powerlifting...
The Arch Hurley Conservancy District board of directors last week declined to allocate additional water while it prepares its irrigation canals for an earlier allocation. The board officially voted on May 14 to not allocate any additional water at this time. Despite rain the previous weekend, district manager Franklin McCasland reported that Conchas Lake’s levels that morning were at 4,172.9 feet — about two-thirds of a foot higher than the previous month but below the optimum level of 4,174 feet and higher to release more water. The board in...
After a one-year hiatus, the Iron Pour returns next week to Mesalands Community College. The annual event involving art and coordination among artisans involving molten metal took a year off in 2023 during Mesalands' turmoil with its finances and leadership. Now that both have stabilized, Nate Glaspie and Bill Raney, both members of the college's art faculty, have taken on the reins of reviving and improving the event, which begins Sunday and runs through May 25. This will be the 24th edition...
Tucumcari’s fire chief was placed on paid administrative leave earlier this month pending an internal investigation. City manager Paula Chacon confirmed in a phone interview last week that Tucumcari Fire & Rescue Chief Garrett Nash was put on paid leave on May 2. Citing personnel matters, she did not disclose the reason Nash was taken off duty. Chacon did not know when the internal investigation would be finished. “Soon, I hope,” she added. Nash has been with Tucumcari Fire & Rescue since 2020. He previously worked for the Clovis Fire Depar...
A San Jon resident pleaded no contest to a charge of homicide by vehicle and will serve up to eight years in prison after he was accused of striking and killing a man at a Bernalillo County casino in 2022. Robert Joseph Archuleta, 68, accepted the plea agreement in April, less than a month before he was scheduled to stand trial. According to court documents filed May 7, the homicide by vehicle (DWI) charge is a second-degree felony with a potential sentence of 15 years in prison, followed by two years of parole and/or a $12,500 fine. The plea...
Kassidee Clark of Tucumcari was among about 100 West Texas A&M University honored during the Department of Agriculture Sciences’ year-end banquet. Clark, a senior, was among the top agriculture education students at the university. Top students from the department’s agriculture media and communications, equine industry and business, plant, soil and environmental sirens, agribusiness, agriculture business and economics, animal science and pre-vet programs also were honored. The students were honored during The Ag Gathering on May 1....
The Logan girls softball team on Sunday landed its first postseason bid since 2019 by earning a 12th-seed in this week’s Class 1A/2A tournament. The Lady Longhorns (8-7) will play fifth-seeded Mesilla Valley Christian (18-4) in a play-in game at 9 a.m. Wednesday at Cleveland High School in Rio Rancho. “I’m so excited!” Logan coach Dustin Robertson stated in a text. “I’m just so excited for the girls. They have worked so hard. I just can’t explain how proud of them I am.” Tularosa (20-4) is the top seed in the double-elimination tournament. The...
Tucumcari’s softball team earned a No. 12 seed in this week’s Class 3A tournament and will face district rival Ruidoso in a first-round game Wednesday. Playoffs pairings were announced by the New Mexico Activities Association on Sunday. The Lady Rattlers (12-12) lost all three games this season to the fifth-seeded Warriors (17-9) by a combined score of 46-5. Ruidoso finished second in its district with a 7-2 record, behind only third-seeded Dexter’s 8-1 mark. Dexter earned a first-round bye in the Class 3A tournament. Tucumcari plays Ruido...