Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
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It's a tale of new social media, old Volkswagen mini-buses, new friends and old-fashioned doing things for other people, even strangers—and old Route 66. And then there's the movie. The movie was the whole point. Christian and Levi Mericle, two Tucumcari brothers, found themselves in the thick of all this, and they're attending the premiere of the movie on Sunday. The movie is called Circle the Wagen. It's about social media, old Volkswagen mini-buses, and the rest. It premieres at 4:30 p.m. at Albuquerque's Guild Cinema on Central Avenue, A...
Tenth District Prosecuting Attorney Tim Rose said he is ready to start the trial of Tony Day, the Tucumcari youth accused of killing his adoptive mother and stepsister on Nov. 26. Rose said he is pressing for a September trial. "We're ready now," Rose said. The defense, however, continues to ask for more time. In recent court records, Jeffrey Buckels, the public defender representing Day, said the defense may not be ready for trial until January. Court records indicate that Rose and Buckels have been consulting with Judge Albert Mitchell on a...
Quay County's 5.3-percent unemployment rate for April, the lowest reading recorded in nearly four years, is likely due to the addition of 20 part-tme jobs at the new Kodiak Produce facility in Tucumcari, preparation for the tourist season, and some new highway construction projects on Interstate 40 in the county, state and local sources agree. Tracy Shaleen, an economist with the state Department of Workforce Solutions, said Quay's employment pattern this year mirrors the pattern across the state. April is one of the lowest unemployment...
The first draft of the county's fiscal 2014 budget shows an expectation of very little change from the fiscal 2013 budget, according to County Manager Richard Primrose. QCS Photo: Steve Hansen Quay roads 64 and AI are the only two in the county that are fully paved, County Manager Richard Primrose says. Quay Road 64 was paved last year with federal block grant funds. Quay Road AI is where Tucumcari Airport is located. Primrose presented the budget to the Quay County Board of Commissioners on May 28. The proposed budget calls for about $8...
Tucumcari schools will be operating with about $400,000 less for the 2013-2014 school year, according to budget documents. The decrease in revenues represents about 3 percent of 2012-2013 revenues that totaled $13.7 million. The amount of revenues budgeted for 2013-2014 is about $13.3 million. The total revenue is expected to decline even as operational revenues, most from state tax funds under the State Equalization Guarantee, are expected to increase to about $8.8 million from $8.5 million in 2012-2013. That's an increase of about $316,000 do...
QCS photo: Steven Hansen Carolyn Birch of Tucumcari wheels boxes into place for loading. Blueberries, corn, mangoes, bananas and other fruits and vegetables bound for destinations in the Midwest and Southeast are stopping in Tucumcari twice a week to change trucks at a rate of 10,000 to 15,000 cases a day at the new Kodiak Produce distribution center, Plant Manager John Perry said. The Tucumcari distribution center for Kodiak, a Phoenix-based produce distributor with about $10 million in annual revenues, is operating in earnest and has been...
Others in the Logan area have joined the Logan Fire Department in collecting household items and cash for a Rosebud-area (Harding County) family of eight whose home was destroyed by fire on May 25. The fire destroyed the home of Jason Gorham, his fiancee Trina Escalante, and their six children ages 2-7. "I want to express my gatitude to the people of Logan," Gorham said on Thursday. "The Fire Department has been helpful. My kids' teachers...everybody in Logan. The way they all came together to help, it's amazing." Since the fire, Gorham said, t...
A second controlled explosion rumbled under the Ute lake shoreline May 22 at the construction site of the Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority's water project near Logan. Courtesy illustration: CH2M Hill Video frames capture the action from the second controlled explosion at the Ute Water Project site on the shore of Ute Lake on May 22. This blast and the first on May 17 are clearing the way for an intake structure for a pipeline to carry water from Ute Lake to Curry and Roosevelt counties. And on Friday, Thomas Hnasko, the Village of...
Quay County's unemployment rate for April, 5.3 percent, is the lowest the county has seen in four years. The last month that showed a lower unemployment rate was May 2009, when the rate was at 5.2 percent, New Mexico Dept. of Workforce Solutions reports show. In April of that year, the unemployment rate was even lower, at 4.9 percent. For April 2013, Quay County's unemployment rate jumped down eight tenths of a percentage point from March's 6.1 percent reading. The April rate was a full 2.6 percentage points lower than the 6.9 percent rates rec...
The Tucumcari City Commission unanimously awarded to Versatile Construction Co. of Tucumcari a construction contract to improve nine blocks of Whitmore Street between College Avenue and the U.S. 54 frontage road at its meeting on Thursday. As currently planned, work will consist of removing and replacing pavement and installation of wheelchair ramps at intersections, according to bid documents. Work on the project is expected to start in June, Donvil Worthington, an engineer for the engineering contractor, Forgrens Associates of Albuquerque,...
Some time in July, Quay County health officials expect to start operation of a home visitation program, in which expectant parents and caregivers of young children up to age 5 can receive visits from qualified advisors to learn about infant and child health and ways they can prepare children for school. The program has been in planning for nearly a year by a committee made up of public health, social service and education professionals and community leaders, acting on an initiative from the state's Children, Youth and Families Department, Alida...
Tucumcari City Commissioners on Thursday enacted new requirements requiring registration of dangerous dogs. The ordinance passed unanimously with no discussion. City Commissioner Robert Lumpkin was absent. The new set of conditions puts the city in compliance with the state's dangerous dog act, according to the new ordinance. The eight conditions the owner of a dangerous dog must meet to register the dog in the city under the new ordinance are: - The owner is able to keep the dog under control at all times. - A license, if applicable, has been...
A total of 3,256 customers, basically the entire city of Tucumcari, lost power from 7:06 to about 8:30 Saturday morning. Xcel Energy spokesperson Wes Reeves said the outage occurred because pieces of a bird's nest made contact with circuit protection equipment at the Tucumcari substation on Campbell Avenue....
A total of 3,256 customers, basically the entire city of Tucumcari, lost power from 7:06 to about 8:30 Saturday morning. Xcel Energy spokesperson Wes Reeves said the outage occurred because pieces of a bird's nest made contact with circuit protection equipment at the Tucumcari substation on Campbell Avenue....
The city of Tucumcari's finances are "in better shape" for the fiscal year that ends June 30, fiscal 2013, than they were as fiscal 2012 drew to a close, Dennis Dysart, the city's finance manager said. Dysart expects the city to close fiscal 2013 with a $143,000 deficit but with greater reserves in place than at the close of the last fiscal year. The deficit represents about 1.4 percent of projected $10.5 million in operating costs for the current fiscal year. Dysart presented figures and broke down budget changes to the end of fiscal 2013 at...
On May 13, the Quay County Commission revoked its approval of the Saddleback Acres subdivision just east of Tucumcari, and on the next day, the owner and developers filed a new application to develop the same property. The subdivision, which the commission had unanimously approved on January 14, would comprise 23 acres divided into four lots of a little less than six acres each on a parcel called WMQ Farms, owned by Paul Quintana of Tucumcari. Each of the lots would sell for $30,000 according to application documents. After the January...
Tucumcari School District residents will vote on continuing a 20-year-old tax to fund school operations in a special election on Feb. 5. The tax of $2 for every $1,000 in assessed property value funds maintenance and repairs, construction services, the purchase of computer software and similar activities, according to Leola Patterson, business manager for the Tucumcari Public School District. The tax is expected to raise about $165,000 this year, and similar amounts through 2018. Proceeds go to a capital improvement fund that is specified in...
A million-dollar (or more) question that is likely to face Curry and Roosevelt county lawmakers in the New Mexico Legislature's next session, which begins Tuesday, is how state capital outlay funds are divvied up among legislators and Gov. Susana Martinez. Near the end of the 2012 legislative session, Martinez penciled out $22.9 million of the $146.8 million, about 15 percent of the total, in capital outlay projects that the legislature had authorized, using line-item veto. She accompanied her...
Curry and Roosevelt County state lawmakers seem united on what issues need the most attention in the upcoming New Mexico Legislature, which begins Jan. 15. Education, economic development and financial reforms, either in taxes or in fund distributions, seem to be on the radar for Republicans and Democrats alike, and most have pledged, as Gov. Susana Martinez has, to work across the aisle. It will be the first term for Sen. Pat Woods, R-Broadview. He said he intends to "watch mostly" in his first year as a representative for Curry and Quay...
Patrick Vanderpool's plan for improving Quay County's economy is not complicated. The North American Wind Research and Training Center at Mesalands Community College is one of the examples of economic development through the renewable energy field. The center trains students on how to maintain and operate wind turbines. "Before you invite guests, you have to set the table," said the director of the Greater Tucumcari Economic Development Corporation. Few would argue the county needs a boost. Its median annual household income of $27,000 is...