Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
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A Tucumcari High School freshman died in a one-vehicle accident last week, touching off spasms of grief from the student body and gestures of support from the community. Jayden Gloms, who had marked his 15th birthday two weeks before, died when the vehicle he was riding in overturned at the firing range site of Five Mile Park on the city's west side. Records by New Mexico State Police stated the accident was reported shortly before 5 p.m. Jan. 24. According to a first-responder radio...
Matt Bednorz, who the Tucumcari City Commission appointed to fill the term of recently retired District 3 commissioner Ruth Ann Litchfield, said Friday he would step down after District 4 Commissioner Chris Arias filed a lawsuit to block the appointment because Bednorz doesn’t live in the district. Reached Friday afternoon by phone after the Quay County Sun received a copy of Arias’ lawsuit, Bednorz said he would resign his appointment from the commission. “I’m done, I’m done,” he said. “I’m not going to fight it.” Bednorz said he had decid...
A pack of roaming dogs attacked and killed a Tucumcari man as he was walking near Mesalands Community College on Wednesday night. Five mixed-breed dogs attacked Stanley Hartt, 64, as he was walking down 11th Street near Gamble Avenue, according to a news release from New Mexico State Police, which is investigating. Hartt died of his injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene by the Office of Medical Examiner. NMSP will give its final report to the district attorney’s office for the possible filing of charges. A state police spokesman s...
The Tucumcari City Commission on Thursday voted 3-1 to appoint Matt Bednorz to fill in as District 3 commissioner for the rest of the year, though he lives outside the district. Bednorz's case appears to occupy a legal loophole. Though he admitted in an interview with the Quay County Sun he has lived for at least two years south of Interstate 40 outside of District 3, he owns a home on South Sixth Street in the district. His voter registration also lists the same South Sixth Street home's...
The City of Tucumcari is without a police chief after he was fired Thursday. City manager Paula Chacon confirmed in her office after the city commission’s regular meeting Thursday night that Police Chief Pete Rivera had been terminated from his position that day. Chacon did not give a reason for Rivera’s termination, citing personnel matters. Chacon on Saturday said that TPD corporals, Detective Reyes Gonzales and her would oversee the department until an acting police chief was chosen sometime this week. She said she was placing advertisements...
Groundhog Day is tomorrow, or today, if your Quay County Sun comes in the mail and you live fairly locally. Groundhog Day is celebrated in the U.S. and Canada, based on European traditions about various animals emerging from their burrows and seeing their shadows or not. Apparently, the actual animal doesn’t matter as long as it winters underground because the traditional point was actually a four- to six-week weather forecast based on whether it’s sunny or cloudy that day. The accuracy rate of that forecast is generally less than 50% but con...
Our Christmas tree is still up. Neither one of us is in any great hurry to take it apart and put it in the duct-taped box. Clearly, since it’s February. In the wee hours each morning, I open the curtains and plug in the tree. I putter around the living room, caffeinating myself, in the glow of multi-colored lights. I find them as peaceful as they are beautiful. When I was a kid, it took f-o-r-e-v-e-r for Christmas to get here. Or longer. Now, I blink and Valentine’s stuff is on the store shelves, this year before Dec. 25. The season hit so qui...
Confirmed COVID-19 cases in Quay County remained stable last week, though a website that tracks community spread of the virus downgraded the region to high risk of community spread of the disease. The county’s number of cases last week was eight, compared to seven the previous week. According to the COVID Act Now website, the county’s rate of new cases rose slightly to 90.9 cases per 100,000 people last week, compared to 84.8 the previous week. The website on Friday, however, downgraded the county from “low” to “high” risk of community s...
On this date ... 1973: The Tucumcari Draw Watershed project, aka Tucumcari Lake, that hit a snag and seemingly was at a standstill appears to be on the go again. Howard Shanks, conservationist with the soil conservation office in Tucumcari, reports this is what a recent meeting with the Bureau of Sports Fisheries and Wildlife, New Mexico Department of Game and Fish and Environmental Agency indicates. Shanks said the meeting detailed changes in the plan, and the agencies likely wound endorse it. Among the changes was an additional flood...
• Feb. 11 — Valentine’s Shrimp Boil. This Valentine’s feast from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Logan Civic Center benefits the Friends of Ute Lake State Park. Tickets are limited. For more information, call (575) 487-2284. • Feb. 11 — Diamondback STEM Paint Night & Cornhole tournament. The Tucumcari Elks Lodge is hosting a fundraiser for Tucumcari’s Diamondback STEM team from 4 to 8 p.m. The paint event is $25 per person with three designs to choose from. The tourney is $40 per team with a 50% payout. Contact [email protected] or through Facebook at @...
Tucumcari schools Wednesday — Breakfast: Sausage breakfast pizza, assorted cereal, graham crackers, fresh apple, orange juice, strawberry, 1% or skim milk; Lunch: Ham and cheese sandwich, grilled cheese sandwich, tater tots, baby carrots, frozen vegetable cup or Sunbelievables, strawberry, chocolate skim, 1% or skim milk. Thursday — Breakfast: Sausage and egg muffinwich, assorted cereal, graham crackers, apple juice, orange juice, strawberry, 1% or skim milk; Lunch: Turkey and cheese sandwich, cheeseburger, french fries, baked beans, rom...
These individuals were booked into the Quay County Detention Center from Jan. 23 to Jan. 29: — Travion Chavez, 23, Tucumcari, contempt of court and felony contempt of court. — Gerald B. Baca, 27, Tucumcari, aggravated stalking (violation of protection order), violation of restraining order prohibiting domestic violence, criminal damage to the property of a household member (under $1,000), harassment and resisting, evading or obstructing an officer. — Victoria Lee Krym, 29, Tucumcari, driving while license suspended or revoked. — Charlen...
Recent headlines have brought news of declining student performance in reading and math across the country. We could see it coming. Student outcome scores have been plateauing over the last decade. Then COVID hit. The results from the previous two years are as bad as we thought they would be. A few questions are top of mind. What are we doing about it, and is it — and will it be — enough? And will the concern last into the future so that we don’t forget about this in a year or two? There is a lot at stake if we don’t get this right. There a...
In his ongoing attacks on what he describes as “woke politics,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has denied permission for an African American history course to be taught in Florida public high schools. NAACP Director Ivory Toldson condemned the course’s rejection, calling DeSantis’ decision a “dereliction of his duty to ensure equitable education for all Floridians.” “Dismissing this important subject as lacking ‘educational value’ defies centuries of evidence to the contrary,” Toldson said in a statement. “African American history is American h...
It’s a stretch, but I think I know the real reason the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago. We’ve been told for months that the DOJ ordered a search of Donald Trump’s home in Florida because he was not turning over a bunch of classified documents to the National Archives fast enough. Supposedly, the ex-president was violating the Presidential Records Act by hoarding boxes of “Top Secret” documents in his game room and Melania’s closet. But I believe the raid last August at Mar-a-Lago had less to do with Trump than with the failure of President Biden and h...
The Tucumcari City Commission on Thursday voted 3-1 to approve a change order for construction of a new cell at the landfill, but not without grumbling from the dissenting commissioner. The cost to the city is not to exceed $32,560, though project manager Ralph Lopez said that sum would be negotiated downward. The change-order document states an engineer’s error in a liner location at the landfill led to the excavation of an additional 2,400 cubic yards of material. The order replaces that material and requires a survey to ensure the project i...
An Albuquerque district judge last week rejected arguments by the New Mexico Racing Commission to dismiss a lawsuit by Coronado Partners, setting up a legal showdown this spring whether to issue a sixth and final license to build a horse-racing track and casino in Tucumcari. District Judge Nancy Franchini’s three-page ruling on Jan. 23 to deny a motion to dismiss and allow the lawsuit to proceed was expected. Franchini had signaled during a telephone hearing in December she would allow the appeal by Coronado to contest the commission’s rej...
The Quay County Commission on Monday approved a rental agreement with Rawhide Days LLC to use the county fairgrounds on June 16-18 — about five weeks later than its usual schedule in early May. Rawhide Days LLC will pay the county $1,000 before the event to use the fairgrounds, plus damage deposit fees. The festival also must provide proof of $1 million in liability insurance. Alan Daugherty, representative of the Tucumcari Historical Museum that is organizing the festival this year, said the event will include a junior ranch rodeo p...
Tucumcari High School boys and girls basketball games last week were canceled or postponed in the wake of a player’s death in a vehicular accident. Jayden Gloms, a freshman on the boys junior varsity team, died when a vehicle he was in overturned the afternoon of Jan. 24 at Five Mile Park. (See other story in this edition.) Gloms also was a running back and linebacker on the football team. As a result of the tragedy, boys and girls non-district home games Thursday against Melrose as part of Homecoming week were canceled. THS’ boys and girls dis...
LOGAN - Logan freshman guard Desta Rose sank a long 3-point shot with about 42 seconds left to help lift her team to a 43-40 victory Saturday in a key district battle against Fort Sumner. Rose totaled a game-high 22 points as the Lady Longhorns, ranked ninth in Class 1A by MaxPreps.com, improved to 14-8 overall and 2-1 in district play. Hailee Robertson added 12 points, all on 3-pointers. No. 1-ranked Melrose (18-1) continues to be the favorite in District 6. But Logan coach Dustin Robertson sai...
LOGAN - A highly touted Fort Sumner-House boys basketball team didn't have its best shooting night. But a scoring run in the third quarter was all it needed to secure a 70-56 district victory Saturday over Logan. The No. 2-ranked Foxes led 36-31 at halftime and embarked on a 16-7 run in the third quarter. That gave Fort Sumner a 52-38 lead, and it maintained a double-digit advantage the rest of the game. Clay Norman led the Foxes with 18 points, and 6-foot-7 center Cash Burney added 16. Fort...
The Tucumcari boys wrestling team scored dual-meet victories Thursday over Class 5A school Volcano Vista and district foe Academy at Albuquerque. “The boys did excellent, excellent, excellent,” Tucumcari coach Tim Clark said, lifting his hopes for the district tournament at Socorro on Feb. 10-11. The Rattlers scored a 42-36 victory over Academy despite giving up four forfeits. Josh Pacheco (145 pounds), Aden Otero (152), Xzander Garcia (172) and Antonio Gonzales (189) piled up the points for Tucumcari with victories by pin. Against non...
These calls were made to the Tucumcari-Quay Regional Emergency Communications Center from Jan. 23 to Jan. 29: Monday — 8:30 a.m.: Theft in 700 block of West Sunset Avenue, Tucumcari. — 9:29 a.m.: Juvenile problem in 1000 block of South Seventh Street, Tucumcari. — 10:42 a.m.: Juvenile problem in 1100 block of South Seventh Street, Tucumcari. — 12:18 p.m.: Theft in 300 block of South Third Street, Tucumcari. — 3:43 p.m.: Domestic disturbance in 1000 block of South Monroe Street, Tucumcari. — 6:54 p.m.: Theft in 2300 block of South First Stree...