Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
Sorted by date Results 901 - 925 of 2304
A second Nara Visa motorcyclist has died in three days in separate traffic accidents. According to a news release from New Mexico State Police, officers were dispatched about 9 p.m. Aug. 1 to milepost 98 of Highway 104 north of Tucumcari in San Miguel County. The initial investigation indicated a 2002 Harley Davidson, driven by Robert S. Evans, 60, of Nara Visa, was traveling east when it struck a deer on the roadway. Evans suffered fatal injuries, the release stated. He was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead by the Office of the...
An Oklahoma man drowned at Ute Lake State Park in Logan on Saturday afternoon while trying to rescue his 11-year-old son who was struggling in the waters. A good Samaritan saved the child. Sebastian Perez-Gonzales, 36, of Guymon, Oklahoma, was pronounced dead at the scene at 3:47 p.m. Saturday by the Office of the Medical Examiner about 30 minutes after he failed to resurface in the lake. According to a New Mexico State Police news release, Perez-Gonzales’ son was in the lake in an inner tube near the park’s Cottonwood Campground when the tub...
The Quay County Health Council is hosting a community presentation this week by Brenda Bishop on ways to deal with stress. With county fair, getting in that last summer trip, back-to-school activities and other events of the fall, stress is on the rise for many. The council wants to offer ways to reduce that stress. The workshop will be at 6 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 4. Participants may attend this workshop in person at the Quay County Extension Service at 216 E. Center St. by using the side door. Participants also can watch the presentation by Zoom...
Quay County for the fourth straight week saw elevated case numbers of COVID-19, with 30 confirmed by the state last week. That compares to the 34 cases reported during the previous week. It was the fourth consecutive week more than 25 cases were reported in the county. The COVID Act Now website on Friday stated Quay County remained at a “high” level of community risk, along with the neighboring counties of Curry, Roosevelt and De Baca. San Miguel County’s risk was at a moderate level, and Guadalupe, Harding and Union counties were listed as lo...
A local motorcycle rider died Saturday after crashing into a semi-tractor trailer on U.S. 54 near Nara Visa. About 8 p.m., New Mexico State Police officers were sent to U.S. 54 milepost 351 east of Nara Visa to investigate a crash between a motorcycle and a semi-tractor trailer. The initial investigation indicated John Alfonso Tafoya, 45, of Nara Visa was riding a small 212cc motorcycle going west in the right lane of westbound U.S. 54. For unknown reasons, Tafoya veered into the side of a Kenworth semi-tractor trailer also traveling west in...
Mesalands Community College’s president told the board of trustees during its regular meeting last week the college earlier that day had landed a $700,000 grant to help launch its nursing program. Mesalands President Gregg Busch said during the board’s July 19 meeting he received a phone call just an hour before from an official with the New Mexico Higher Education Department about the grant. He said the grant will be confirmed later by the governor’s Cabinet secretary. Busch said a one-time allotment of $500,000 from that grant will be used to...
Tucumcari police jailed a local woman after she was accused of letting a toddler in her care wander away from his home and down a street by himself twice during 100-degree weather. Michaela Brownfield, 26, of Tucumcari, was charged July 19 with abuse of a child – negligently caused (no death or great bodily harm) after being booked into Quay County Detention Center the previous day. That charge is a third-degree felony that can lead up to three years in prison and up to a $5,000 fine. According to a complaint filed by Tucumcari Police p...
Quay County again saw elevated case numbers of COVID-19, with another 34 cases and three more deaths confirmed by the state last week. That compares to the 33 cases and three deaths during the previous week. It was the third consecutive week more than 25 cases were reported in the county. The COVID Act Now website on Friday also raised Quay County’s risk level from “moderate” to “high” for spread of the disease, as it did for the rest of New Mexico. The website raised the county’s risk level for two successive weeks. The total number of c...
It’s time to usher in the Donnie Garcia era for Tucumcari High School football. Garcia, a football coach at Tucumcari Middle School for 12 years and an assistant coach for the high-school football program for four years, was named head coach of the Rattlers gridiron team on Friday. He succeeds Wayne Ferguson, who stepped down from the post in May after 10 seasons with a 26-71 record, including 1-9 last season. Ferguson will remain as athletic director through mid-2023, at which point he said he will retire. In the past few years, Garcia h...
Two Quay County 4-H teams captured state championships during the 2022 state 4-H conference in Las Cruces earlier this month. The range team of Rilee Nials, Payson Nials, MiKayla Klinger and Destinee Scioli won a state title in its competition. The range team is judged by identifying plants suitable for pasture. Rilee Nials also was the high-point individual of the competition. Payson Nials was runner-up, and Klinger finished fourth. Quay County's agronomy team of Payton Oliver, Ashton Smith,...
A Tucumcari High School robotics team recently finished sixth overall at a world competition in Oklahoma - the highest finish ever for a New Mexico squad. The Tucumcari 805 team of sophomores Aaron Chand and Justin Keith and junior Nolan Ryen - one of four teams from the Tucumcari-based Diamondback STEM club - finished sixth of 48 teams, including from Austria and Australia, at the Global Conference of Educational Robotics competition in Norman, Oklahoma. The Tucumcari 805 squad also received...
In a bit of housekeeping, Quay County Commission on Monday approved resolutions approving the final quarter financial report and adopting the final budget for fiscal year 2022. Cheryl Simpson, the county’s finance director, said the only change to the final budget was the creation of a hospital improvement fund that contains $1 million. That fund was created several weeks ago to plan and design for a new facility to eventually replace an aging Trigg Memorial Hospital in Tucumcari. She said the budget also accounted for a $1-an-hour pay i...
Tucumcari’s municipal judge is resigning this week less than a year after he won a contested November election for the post. Christopher Maestas, 78, last week submitted a letter of resignation, effective July 22. Maestas stated in his letter he decided to step down “after careful consideration” due to health, physical and mental conditions. He stated it was a privilege to have served in the position. “I’m not very healthy,” Maestas said in a phone interview Friday. “I’m going to have to get someone to take it over. I’m pretty old. I hop...
Quay County continued to see elevated case numbers of COVID-19, with another 33 cases and three deaths confirmed by the state last week. That compares to the 28 cases and no deaths during the previous week. Last week’s infection totals were the highest since early June, when the county saw a brief spike of 43 cases in one week. The COVID Act Now website last week also raised Quay County’s risk level from “low” to “moderate” for spread of the disease. The total number of coronavirus cases in the county since the pandemic began in spring 2020...
Two city officials during a work session Thursday for the fiscal-year 2023 budget outlined plans to give substantial raises to employees to lessen the city’s competitive disadvantage with other municipalities. However, the city also is facing possible deficits in two funds because of large-ticket items, despite robust tax revenue overall. Acting City Manager Mark Martinez, noting some city employees are paid barely above the minimum wage, proposed step increases of 38 cents an hour for each year of service. The current minimum wage is $11.50 a...
The Tucumcari chapter of Altrusa International announced its annual scholarships given to one student from each of the school districts and one community college in Quay County. Each of the students received a $600 scholarship to attend a college or trade school of their choice. If they do not enroll, the scholarship will be given to an alternate. The scholarship winners and their alternates by school: • House High School: Avery Cavett, with Ross Lee as an alternate; • Logan High School: Rilee Nials, with Reece Goldston as an alternate; • S...
The Logan Municipal Schools board of education last week approved a new, two-year contract with its superintendent. Dennis Roch’s pact runs through June 30, 2024, with an annual salary of $125,000, he stated in an email. That is a raise of nearly $12,000. The board’s decision to award him a new contract was unanimous, he said. “I am very grateful for the board’s continuing support and for the opportunity to keep serving the students and families of Logan,” Roch stated in the email. “I’m pleased to serve alongside a talented faculty and s...
The Quay County Commission last week unveiled its annual draft of infrastructure and capital improvement plan, with reconstruction of Quay Road 63 near Tucumcari its top priority. The plan essentially is a wish list sent to the New Mexico Legislature to help lawmakers decide where to allocate annual capital improvement funds. The commission held a public hearing on the list during its regular meeting July 11. It likely will approve the final list during its next meeting July 25. Several projects, especially high-dollar items such as roads, are...
A Tucumcari man pleaded no contest to three charges in an incident a year ago where a city police officer was captured on video picking up and slamming the suspect to the ground as he resisted arrest after a traffic stop. The officer later was cleared of wrongdoing after an internal review. Pete Apodaca, 44, pleaded no contest earlier this month to charges of resisting, evading or obstructing an officer, driving while license revoked and no proof of insurance, all misdemeanors. Counts of battery upon a police officer, failure to register a...
Quay County’s accommodation and food-services industry saw robust growth during the January-to-March quarter compared to the same period the previous year, reported the New Mexico Economic Development Department. The accommodation and food-services sector in the county experienced a jump of 45% in its matched taxable gross receipts during the quarter compared to the previous year, the agency reported. That revenue rose by more than $2.1 million. Those figures confirm what has been observed by many the tourism industry in Tucumcari, who r...
CLOVIS – Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Friday announced state funding for the Eastern New Mexico Water Supply Project, a pipeline that will deliver water from the Ute Reservoir in Quay County to the more than 70,000 residents of Clovis, Elida, Portales and Texico. The $30 million in state money, paired with local and federal funding, aims to provide a long-term water source for the community. “Without this pipeline, the aquifer the community relies on will be depleted within 10 to 15 years,” Lujan Grisham stated. “This collaborative effort...
Logan catcher Park Strong was named Class 1A Player of the Year and Logan coach Kyle Griffiths was named Class 1A Coach of the Year during recent All-State Team voting by the New Mexico Baseball Coaches Association. Pitcher Kaeden Stoner also was a first-team selection in Class 1A from the state-champion Longhorns. Infielder Mason Wallin was a second-team selection in Class 1A, and outfielders Aydin Kotara and Diego Sanchez each were honorable mentions. Strong, a junior, led the Longhorns in...
The Quay County Fairgrounds in Tucumcari will host a Canadian River Local Food Summit on July 20-21 that will feature several local food producers. Ogallala Commons, a nonprofit education and leadership organization, is collaborating with Quay County Extension Services and the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union-Cooperative Development Center to conduct the summit at the fairgrounds at 1100 Camino del Coronado, according to a news release. The purpose of the summit is to provide information, ideas,...
Quay County saw another spike of COVID-19 cases last week with 28, after a month of low numbers. One week in early June, the county saw a one-week spike of 43 cases. Save for that one outlier, Quay County’s case numbers had remained at 10 or fewer per week. The total number of coronavirus cases in the county since the pandemic began in spring 2020 rose to 2,128. The breakdown of total COVID-19 cases by ZIP code in Quay County through Friday was 1,641 in Tucumcari, 298 in Logan, 98 in San Jon, 35 in House, 22 in McAlister, 18 in Bard and 14 i...
New coronavirus cases in Quay County continued to glide downward to a relatively low level. A total of seven confirmed COVID-19 cases were reported in the county last week — a decrease from 10 recorded the previous week. One week in early in June, the county saw a one-week spike of 43 cases. Save for that one outlier, Quay County’s case numbers have remained at 10 or below weekly. The total number of coronavirus cases in the county since the pandemic began in spring 2020 rose to 2,100. The breakdown of total COVID-19 cases by ZIP code in Quay C...