Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
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Area suppliers of natural gas or propane said they anticipate price increases for customers in the wake of severely cold weather that strained supplies and sparked widespread power outages, but they weren’t prepared to say how much those hikes would be. Natural gas suppliers across the country are warning of spikes after frigid conditions constrained supplies and caused the spot market for gas spiral wildly upward. In one case, the city of Grove, Oklahoma, was forced to buy natural gas Wednesday at $622 per dekatherm when its supply nearly r...
Quay County vaulted from the yellow to green zone in COVID-19 risk assessments announced Wednesday by the New Mexico Department of Health, allowing further relaxation of health restrictions of businesses. The state also modified the public health order Wednesday, allowing more day-to-day activities and commercial operations such as bars, recreational facilities and entertainment venues. The state added a level of COVID-19 risk – turquoise – for counties that have landed in the green zone for consecutive two-week periods. State parks, which prev...
When Xcel Energy announced rolling blackouts were possible last week, some residents assumed the company's backup power plant on Tucumcari's north side - designed to alleviate local outages - would have picked up the slack if they occurred. They would have assumed incorrectly. Instead, an approximately 45-minute citywide blackout occurred Tuesday morning in an effort to lessen the strain on Xcel's power grid and other utility networks, especially in Texas. About 3,500 customers in Tucumcari...
Quay County commissioners on Monday seemed receptive Monday to a proposal to pay about $24,000 to provide emergency air ambulance service for every household in the county. Commissioners didn’t act on the proposition from Ryan Smith of Rico Aviation but openly discussed paying for the service after the county begins budget discussions for the next fiscal year in April. The proposal from Phoenix-based PHI Air Medical and Rico, based in Amarillo, would offer special-rate memberships for every household in Quay County and surround counties. The m...
The Tucumcari Senior Center and Logan Senior Center remain closed to the public indefinitely but will deliver meals to those who qualify. Those interested in meal deliveries should call the Tucumcari facility at 461-2307 and the Logan facility at 487-2287 for more information. Tucumcari schools Wednesday — Breakfast: Whole-grain egg sausage breakfast burrito, salsa, chilled pears, orange juice, milk; Lunch: Hamburger, tater tots, ketchup, lettuce salad, fresh tomatoes, dill pickle chip, applesauce cup, chocolate skim milk. Thursday — Bre...
Note: Events subject to change due to the COVID-19 pandemic. • April 16-18 — Spay and neuter clinic. A low-cost clinic to spay and neuter pets will be sponsored by Quay County Paws and Claws Animal Rescue. The cost for each surgery will be $40. Payment is due when applications are submitted. Applications are available at Best Care Pharmacy, Logan Subway, Tucumcari Subway and the shelter’s website at pawsandclawsanimalrescueofquaycounty.com. The application and payment must be received by mail by April 10 to: Paws and Claws, P.O. Box 143, Tucum...
On this date ... 1971: Wilfred R. Sanchez, 36, owner of the Tucumcari Credit Bureau and other credit bureaus in Belen and Taos, was arrested when vice squad officers served a search warrant on the car he was riding in with two other people in Albuquerque. In the trunk, detectives found a suitcase containing more than $14,000 worth of coins that police said were stolen during a November burglary of an Albuquerque coin shop. The Internal Revenue Service also seized Sanchez’s plane as part of a tax-evasion investigation. • Hearing unanimous sup...
I hear there are dozens of presidential executive orders coming soon that tighten the regulation of Second Amendment rights. This is a fundamentally spiritual and moral issue. For years, I have advocated that political candidates should be asked to explain where they think our rights come from. Since government is in the business of securing our rights, how do you know which rights ought to be secured? This is a great question because it’s like a laser-pointer that hovers on issues of m...
The Quay County Health Council will host an online community presentation on March 4 on suicide prevention. Dr. Avron Kriechman is one of the state’s leading experts in suicide prevention. Kriechman will debunk some myths about the topic. Most people are suicidal for only a short period of time, and if they are given some tools including a safety plan, the suicide attempt can be prevented. In addition, the community around the victim is deeply affected by a death by suicide. Kriechman will share ideas for helping the community heal. The p...
The front-door windows of St. Anne's Catholic Church in Tucumcari were vandalized a few hours before a service took place there Saturday evening. According to a Tucumcari Police Department report, officer Justin Garcia was sent to the church at 306 W. High St. about 3:30 p.m. Saturday after parishioner reported the damage. Edward Perea said someone had called him after seeing the damage, and he went there to find the front doors' stained-glass windows had been broken. Garcia had Perea open the...
The details of what went wrong in Texas last week — most likely the biggest forced blackout in U.S. history — will take time to establish. So will exactly what to do about it. But this emergency already underlines something that should’ve been obvious before. As the growing threat of extreme weather puts vital economic systems at risk, climate resilience needs to be taken much more seriously. Even Friday morning, nearly 190,000 homes were still without power as Texas grappled with an unusual weather pattern that sent temperatures plumm...
OK, Ron Warnick, here it is. I am finally going to confess to the world that I have had COVID-19. I told Warnick, the Quay County Sun’s full-time journalist, about it, but very few others. Warnick, however, urged me repeatedly to tell my story. Others did, too. So here it is: I had a “mild to moderate” case in August, which made me feel like a one-man war zone for about three weeks. I went through a short stretch of fever and chills, an incidence of heart palpitations that sent me to the emergency room, chronic fatigue and long daily naps, and...
His fans knew it was coming, but they were still crushed to hear the news that Rush Limbaugh had died. His political enemies and the liberal mainstream media, on the other hand, fell all over themselves trying to see who could spit the most venom and hatred on his grave before he was even in it. They called him names, misrepresented his personality and, in the end, succeeded only in betraying how little they had listened to his show during the last 30 years. The bums who run the New York Times were ready with their Page 1 obituary. It was a...
Quay County returned to a more modest level of administering COVID-19 vaccines last week, partly because bad weather prevented a shipment of them to one of its clinics. C. Renee Hayoz, administrator of Quay County Family Health Center in Tucumcari, said she anticipated giving 150 booster shots of the Moderna vaccine but instead gave only 110. She said she was anticipating another shipment of vaccine last week, but bad winter weather delayed it. Those 40 patients without their booster shots will have to reschedule, Hayoz said. Hayoz said...
The New Mexico Public Education Department announced last week it and its partners have accounted for 78% of more than 12,000 students who were enrolled in public schools last spring but not this fall and were feared to be outside the educational system. As of last week, all but 2,716 students have been accounted for and their status documented. A cross-agency team accomplished this by working with districts, cross-referencing databases and making phone calls. The PED and its partners — the Early Childhood Education and Care Department; the I...
Quay County stayed in a low trickle of coronavirus cases, totaling three in the past week. The continued downward trend fortifies cautious optimism the county could land in the green zone when COVID-19 risk assessments are announced Wednesday, further relaxing health restrictions. Quay County landed in the yellow zone Feb. 8, opening restaurants to limited indoor dining for the first time in more than three months. The latest case Sunday was reported in the Tucumcari ZIP code. No cases were reported Monday. The county has recorded eight cases s...
A week after in-person classes resumed for Tucumcari middle-school and high-school students for the first time since March, several school board members asked about the prospect of bringing back a full day of classes and whether traditional physical education and music classes also could resume. The short answer: not likely for the rest of the school year. School board member Bo Wallace asked about bringing back music and P.E. classes, as did board colleague Heather Gonzales during the board’s regular Feb. 15 meeting via Google Meets. Board m...
Schedules for Tucumcari and other area prep football teams won't be known until at least Tuesday this week. Tucumcari athletic director Wayne Ferguson said schedules will remain uncertain until a Zoom videoconference with other athletic directors in New Mexico. High school football teams in the state who last week opted into playing shortened versions of fall sports in the spring will play four regular-season games, then the playoffs. One usual football foe for the Rattlers, Robertson, won't be...
Mesalands Community College saw about a 20% drop in enrollment during fall 2020 — the college’s first full semester during the COVID-19 pandemic — compared to the previous year. Aaron Kennedy, vice president of student affairs, presented the college’s enrollment report during the board of trustees’ regular meeting Feb. 16. Three metrics to determine student numbers at Mesalands — full-time equivalent students, headcount and credit hours — all showed declines of 19% to 20% during the fall 2020 semester in Kennedy’s report, compared to the...
PORTALES — A former Roosevelt County sheriff’s deputy was convicted last week of a petty misdemeanor for possession of stolen property. Chris McCasland, 34, was found guilty by District Judge Drew Tatum during a two-hour morning bench trial. Tatum took about 20 minutes to reach his decision. Sentencing will be set at a later date. McCasland faces up to six months in jail and a $500 fine. The charges arose from allegations McCasland was involved in 2014 burglaries in Angel Fire while he worked for its police department. He was indicted by a Roo...
These individuals were booked into the Quay County Detention Center from Feb. 13 to Feb. 20: • Alyssa Gonzales, 24, Tucumcari, two counts of contempt of court. • Shelly Naylor, 33, Portales, contempt of court. • Amber Osborn, 29, Logan, felony contempt of court. • Samuel Quintana, 55, Tucumcari, contempt of court. These individuals were released from the Quay County Detention Center from Feb. 12 to Feb. 20: • Pete John Apodaca, 42, Tucumcari, time served. • Francisco Galvan, 47, Tucumcari, time served. • Aaron Keith Martinez, 20, Tucumcari, co...
These calls were made to the Tucumcari-Quay Regional Emergency Communications Center from Feb. 8 to Feb. 21: Feb. 8 • 1:17 a.m.: Domestic disturbance at North College Street and East Whitmore Avenue, Tucumcari. • 7:58 a.m.: Shots fired at South Sixth and West High streets, Tucumcari. • 9:31 a.m.: Trespassing in 2600 block of South First Street, Tucumcari. • 10:05 a.m.: Property damage at Highways 312 and 268, Melrose. • 11:19 a.m.: Civil dispute in 1000 block of North 10th Street, San Jon. • 11:35 a.m.: Trespassing at South Seventh Street and...