Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
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Amid questions about its validity, the Tucumcari City Commission on Thursday passed by a 3-2 vote an ordinance designed to help the city keep historic neon signs in place. Mayor Ruth Ann Litchfield, District 2 Commissioner Paul Villanueva and District 1 Commissioner Ralph Moya voted in favor of the ordinance. District 4 Commissioner Chris Arias and District 5 Commissioner Todd Duplantis voted against it. The ordinance applies only to sign owners who volunteer to participate but imposes fines...
Voters in the Tucumcari school district on Tuesday approved by more than a 2-to-1 margin a $3 million bond issue that will be used for a proposed redevelopment of baseball and softball diamonds. A total of 815 people cast a “yes” vote on the bond issue, or more than 68%, while 371 voted against it during the special mail-in election. Turnout was 27%, which was 2 percentage points lower than the first-ever mail-in election a year ago for renewal of the two-mill capital-improvement property tax. Tucumcari Public Schools superintendent Aaron McK...
Twice a week after school, about a dozen Tucumcari High School freshmen gather in a classroom to dig into a Zip-lock bags and tangles of switches, sensors, tiny cameras and various gizmos to build autonomous robots for an upcoming competition. They are part of the inaugural Rattler Robotics club, though its mentor, Tommy Evans, is old hat at this sort of thing. Evans, now a history teacher at Tucumcari, previously guided a robotics club at San Jon Municipal Schools for about a dozen years and...
Tucumcari city manager Britt Lusk on Thursday evening announced his resignation from the city manager’s post and gave the city commission his 60-day notice at a regular meeting of the commission. Lusk said his last day will be April 5. Lusk has accepted a position as the city manager of Pilot Point, Texas, a lakeside community north of Dallas that has seen strong growth in the past 10 years. Pilot Point has about the same population as Tucumcari, he said. Lusk said working for the city “has been a pleasure,” and he was grateful for the exper...
Because of a bureaucratic delay, major construction work on converting a former ethanol plant on Tucumcari's north side into a methane facility has been delayed by about a month. That doesn't mean the principals are standing pat, though. In recent weeks, they've been readying the site with upgrades and other small construction jobs for so the plant and its offshoot operations are fully operational by spring 2021. During a tour of the idled ethanol plant on a chilly Thursday morning, Tucumcari...
The Quay County Clerk’s Office is reminding residents to get their voting information correct for the 2020 primary and general elections. Please verify you are a registered voter in Quay County with the proper address where you reside and a current mailing address. New Mexico holds closed primary elections. Voters must be registered as a Democrat, Republican or Libertarian to cast a ballot in the June 2 primary. The voter registration deadline for the primary is May 5. Early voting for the primary will be May 16-30, with in-person absentee v...
• March 8-14 — 22nd Iron Pour. Mesalands Community College will host its 22nd annual Iron Pour workshop. Meet sculpture artists and make your own creation from molten metal. The actual iron pour will take place Friday, March 13. For more information, call 575-461-4413, Ext. 138. Building D, 911 S. 10th St., Tucumcari. • March 14-15 — St. Paddy’s Day 5K/10K. These footraces will be hosted by Ute Lake State Park. For more information, call (575) 487-2284. Loop 540, Ute Lake State Park, Logan. • April 24-26 — 20th annual Chuck Wagon Cook Off. Chu...
Tucumcari schools Wednesday — Breakfast: Whole-grain egg sausage breakfast burrito, assorted cereal, salsa, cinnamon graham cracker, fruit, juice, milk; Lunch: Teriyaki chicken, American harvest salad, brown rice, steamed broccoli, baby carrots, fruit, milk. Thursday — Breakfast: Pancake sausage on a stick, ultimate breakfast round, fruit, juice, milk; Lunch: Cheeseburger, French fries, green leaf lettuce, fresh tomatoes, dill pickle chip, ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, fruit, milk. Monday — Breakfast: French toast sticks, assorted cerea...
The Tucumcari City Commission voted Thursday to end the city’s contract with Sunny505, an Albuquerque advertising and marketing firm, after the recommendation of the city’s lodgers tax board. The commission voted 4-1 to drop the contract, with District 4 Commissioner Chris Arias voting “no” and Mayor Ruth Ann Litchfield reluctantly voting “yes,” to support the advice of the lodgers tax board. City manager Britt Lusk defended Sunny505's performance, saying its efforts had resulted in significant growth in gross receipts tax and lodgers tax...
Future board meetings of Logan Municipal Schools will be streamed live on the internet and archived online. The board authorized the livestreaming during its meeting Feb. 10. The first meeting broadcast through the livestream.com portal will be in March 9. A direct link to the streaming site may be found through the school district’s website at loganschool.net. Superintendent Dennis Roch said in a telephone interview Wednesday that school boards in Clayton and Roswell livestream their meetings and other districts are considering it. ...
A free society cannot function without vibrant professional newspapers. In light of that truism, the latest dire news for the news business — that McClatchy newspapers, publisher of The Kansas City Star and almost 30 other newspapers in 14 states across America, is filing for bankruptcy — should worry every American who cares about our democracy. In this era of politicians who too often see accurate information as the enemy, real journalism needs all the public support it can get. The good news is that McClatchy, a 163-year-old family-owned com...
Some observations on the presidential campaign so far: n Making predictions on the outcome of the Democratic nomination race based on results from two small, non-representative states is like predicting the winner of the Super Bowl based on pre-season games, which are essentially practice days. n In “All the President’s Men,” we learned about the GOP’s “Dirty Tricks Squad,” and its role in assuring the Democrats’ weakest candidate, George McGovern, got the nomination in 1972. Substitute “Russian trolls” for “Dirty Tricks Squad” and I think you...
CNN issued a study a while back that found regularly attending church may increase a Christian’s lifespan, while at the same time help “them stay grounded and (provide) spiritual guidance.” I’m guessing this positive benefit results from the additional sleep gained by snoozing during boring sermons. This column normally takes a dim view of social “science” studies, but an exception will be made in this instance for two reasons. First, no taxpayer dollars appear to have been wasted. Second, there is no evidence of confirmation bias. The results...
I write for work in addition to these religion articles for the Quay County Sun. There are a few words that took me a while to figure out. “It” is an easy word for me to deal with, but I used to get “its” contraction with “is” (it’s) confused with “its” possessive (its) because, as everybody knows, possessives are made by adding the apostrophe “s” to the end of any noun. Some Bible words have been confused by men, leading to many of the denominations present today, which isn’t what Jesus wants (John 17:20-23; 1 Corinthians 1:10; Ephes...
A winter storm last week prompted a couple of school closings and delays with other classes, but the meager accumulations of snow proved to be more of an inconvenience than a major problem. About two inches total fell in Tucumcari from Monday night through early Wednesday. Spotters for the National Weather Service reported four inches about three miles east-northeast of Tucumcari, 2.5 inches at Conchas Dam and 1 inch three miles west of Logan. Spotters reported up to nine inches of snow in the Sandia Mountains east of Albuquerque. School...
These calls were made to the Tucumcari-Quay Regional Emergency Communications Center from Feb. 10 to Feb. 16: Monday • 2:52 a.m.: Breaking and entering in 300 block of West Aber Street, Tucumcari. • 10:47 a.m.: Harassment in 600 block of East Tucumcari Boulevard, Tucumcari. • 12:20 p.m.: Threat in 10200 block of Highway 104, Tucumcari. • 12:56 p.m.: Traffic accident with damage in 300 block of South First Street, Tucumcari. • 4:44 p.m.: Shots fired in 4000 block of Quay Road 64.8, Tucumcari. • 5:20 p.m.: Search warrant in 1000 block of So...
These individuals were booked into the Quay County Detention Center from Feb. 10 to Feb. 14: • Steven Blea, 26, Tucumcari, negligent use of a deadly weapon (discharge). • Jonathan P. Wolfe, 29, Albuquerque, disorderly conduct and possession of marijuana (one ounce or less). • Shelby Cahill, 26, Spring Hill, Florida, driving under the influence of drugs (first offense), driving while license suspended or revoked and open container (drink). These individuals were release from the Quay County Detention Center from Feb. 10 to Feb. 13: • Rodger...
On this date ... 1970: District Judge J.V. Gallegos sentenced a man and two women for their roles in an armed robbery and theft of a car at the Cedar Hill Service Station between San Jon and Tucumcari on U.S. 66. Walter Reynolds was sentenced to a total of 11 to 55 years in prison. Betty Reynolds and Shirley Jones each were given a sentence of 10 to 50 years in prison, with all but three years suspended. On Dec. 11, 1969, Cedar Hill co-owner Charles Murray was robbed at knifepoint, blindfolded and tied up in a back room of the station. The robb...
The Tucumcari boys basketball team pulled itself into a tie for second place in the district standings with two victories last week, including a come-from-behind 63-61 home victory Friday over New Mexico Military Institute. The Rattlers, who trailed much of Friday's game, rallied with a 7-1 run to take a 44-40 late in the third quarter and added a 9-2 run early in the fourth for a 53-46 advantage - one they would not relinquish. Jesus Ramos led the Rattlers with 19 points, going 10-for-15 from...
If the Tucumcari girls basketball team had held a state-ranked foe to just 18 points in the first half, you would think it'd be in great shape. You would be wrong. Instead, the Lady Rattlers suffered a 47-34 home loss Thursday to Melrose, ranked No. 2 in last week's Class 1A polls, in a performance marred by turnovers, poor shooting and squabbling that dismayed longtime Tucumcari coach Gary Hittson. The 34 points scored by Tucumcari (14-9) was the team's worst offensive outing since a 46-33...
The Logan boys basketball team’s 34-20 deficit at halftime proved too much to overcome during a 66-53 district loss Saturday at Fort Sumner. “(We) dug ourselves a hole in the first half and spent the rest of the game trying to dig out of it,” Logan coach Kyle Griffiths said. “Guys fought hard; just came up short.” Dante Sanchez scored 20 points to lead the Longhorns. Matthew Norman added 10 for Logan, who fell to 13-11 overall and 3-4 in Class 1A’s District 6. Fort Sumner, in second place in the district standings with a 5-2 record and one game...
The Logan girls basketball team wrapped up first place in regular-season district play with a 43-36 victory Saturday at state-ranked Fort Sumner. The Lady Longhorns (21-3), ranked No. 1 in Class 1A, improved to 7-0 in District 6 with just one game regular-season district game remaining — Thursday at Grady/San Jon. All the other teams in Logan’s district, including No. 2-ranked Melrose (18-4), have suffered at least two losses in district play. Karli Webb scored 17 points to lead Logan, while Jordan Hines added 11. Logan coach Glynna Strand said...
Members of the Tucumcari wrestling team won three district titles over the weekend's state-qualifying tournaments, including its first-ever female champion. In all, 11 Tucumcari wrestlers will compete in this weekend's state tourney. Senior A'Leaya Lucero (6-2) scored three straight pins in the 145-pound weight class, including against championship foe Katelin Klepac of Aztec, during the 30-team District 1 tournament Friday at Atrisco Heritage Academy in Albuquerque. Tucumcari junior Colt...