Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
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Quay County's road superintendent told county commissioners Monday it will receive $1.5 million from the state to make safety improvements to the intersection of U.S. 54 and Airport Road northeast of Tucumcari. Road superintendent Larry Moore said the design for the troublesome crossroads would be finished later this year, and bids would be let during the winter. Construction is expected to begin in summer 2022. Moore said improvements would include turn lanes, plus extra lanes for accelerating...
For the second straight year, this week’s Quay County Fair will not have a carnival on the west side of the fairgrounds, mostly due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, this year’s fair includes a new wrinkle that could prove appealing to many more young children — the board lowered the age requirement for exhibitors to 6 and up, from the previous 9 years of age. This year’s fair at the county fairgrounds in west Tucumcari runs from Thursday through Saturday, with the Junior Livestock Auction at 6 p.m. at the show arena to conclude...
A bigger-than-expected crowd of an estimated 450 to 500 Tucumcari High School alumni descended on the city over the weekend for the 50th edition of the Rattler Reunion. Philip Box, one of the alumni board members, had a registration count of 339 through Friday, which exceeded Reunion Chairman Joe Szaloy's expectations. "With everything considered, we're thinking 450 to 500 people registered online and in-person at the event," Szaloy said during a telephone interview Sunday afternoon, after the...
On the whole, I’m a science guy. I’m not afraid of science, nor do I perceive any threat from it. As a Christian man, I have no worries that science will damage my faith. In fact, if my faith could be scientifically disproved, then it would deserve to be. I wrote in this space a couple years ago that science needs the Christian worldview to ground its basic assumptions (specifically, things that make experimentation possible, like logic, sense reliability, and the uniformity of nature) whi...
Tucumcari FFA students MiKayla Klinger and Ashton Smith recently were named national finalists for their hydroponic tomato perception research project. They were ranked in the top 10 in their division to earn the nationals berth after winning the state competition. Klinger and Smith's project tried to determine whether respondents had a preference with how their tomatoes were grown. "This was important to us because our FFA chapter operates a hydroponic greenhouse and often struggles...
The Quay County Health Council will offer a virtual mental health first aid training session next month. "The pandemic has brought to light the need for mental health support for many in our communities,” Brenda Bishop, Quay County Health Council Coordinator said. This course will be on Sept. 17 and Sept. 24 from 9 a.m. to noon over the Zoom videoconference platform. Before the first class, there will be a couple of hours of online preliminary work participants can do at their own pace. The registration deadline is Sept. 1; for those who regist...
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children issued an alert Thursday for a Tucumcari teen who's been missing since May. The center issued the alert for Kaden Freeman, 13, who went missing in Tucumcari on May 8. "Kaden may still be in the local area or he may travel to San Jon or Clovis, New Mexico, or Amarillo, Texas," the center stated in its alert. Kaden is listed as 5-foot-4 and 120 pounds. Those who have knowledge of Kaden's whereabouts are asked to call the center at (800)...
On this date ... 1971: Penny Hartley of Roy was named first runner-up Saturday in the National High School Championship for Rodeo Queens in Twin Falls, Idaho. She took top honors at the pageant for horsemanship. Cindy Hagen of Grand Forks, Minnesota, was crowned queen. • Four Tucumcari teachers will attend the annual vocational education conference for teachers at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. Attending will be John and Wanda Bush, Sue Tucek and Jimmy Speed. • Here were the listed prices of items at a Tucumcari grocery store: coo...
Note: Events subject to change due to the COVID-19 pandemic. • Thursday-Saturday — Quay County Fair. The rabbit, poultry and swine shows will be Thursday. The goat, sheep and cattle shows will be Friday. Saturday includes the Itty Bitty Rodeo, pet parade, horseshoe pitching contest and, at 6 p.m. the Junior Livestock Sale. • Aug. 20 — Fired Up Friday. This event will host an End of Summer Bash. Food trucks will operate from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. or until the food runs out. Tucumcari Historic Railroad Plaza at Second and Main streets. • Sept. 17...
The Tucumcari Senior Center and Logan Senior Center also offer grab-and-go meals to those who qualify. Those interested in grab-and-go should call the Tucumcari facility at 461-2307 or the Logan facility at 487-2287 for more information. Tucumcari Senior Center Wednesday — Hawaiian pork, tossed salad with dressing, whole-wheat bread, strawberries and vanilla pudding. Thursday — Pepper steak, baked potato with margarine, California vegetables, roll, cherry cobbler. Friday — Turkey breast, pasta with Alfredo, spinach with margarine, bread...
Quay County last week continued to see exponential growth in number of coronavirus cases with 31, including eight confirmed by the state’s Department of Health on Friday. That compared to 14 cases in the previous week and two the week before that. The surge was the latest sign the highly contagious Delta variant of COVID-19 was spreading fast — the vast majority of cases among the unvaccinated. Last week, cases were reported in these ZIP codes: 22 in Tucumcari, five in Logan, four in San Jon and one in Bard. Vickie Gutierrez, administrator at...
Road construction crews this week turned the intersection of East Tucumcari Boulevard and U.S. 54 into a four-way stop as part of the multiyear Mountain Road reconstruction project. The traffic signal at the intersection was scheduled to be removed Monday. Four stop signs will be placed there, and the intersection will remain a four-way stop through the end of 2021. Motorists should use extra caution there. Crews are building detour pavement and extending a concrete box culvert near the southbound lane of U.S. 54 north of Interstate 40. One...
American healthcare is too expensive. Exhibit A is a new study of Americans’ medical debt published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. That debt is twice as large as had previously been estimated — $140 billion in collections as of June 2020, compared to an earlier estimate of $81 billion. And it disproportionately affects the dozen states like Missouri that have refused to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. Despite a referendum that approved Medicaid expansion, and the fact that the federal government would hav...
Recently, I have heard some thoughtful arguments against COVID-19 masks and the requirements to wear them. I respect the opinions I have heard, but I still think they are dangerously wrong in the face of a worldwide pandemic of a very contagious, too-often fatal and debilitating disease. As with previous pandemics, this one can only be gotten rid of by near-universal adoption of inconvenient preventive measures. I heard from some people that masks are useless because viruses can pass right through them. They say the viruses are so tiny that...
Teddy Roosevelt fervently believed that the president of the United States should be at the center of the political universe, constantly attracting attention to himself. But he’d never met Joe Biden. Biden is the most powerful man in the world and yet makes almost no impression. No one, besides political and media professionals, wonders what Biden is going to say about something or considers him a figure of fascination. In fact, he barely rates. His recent CNN town hall was a fizzle, averaging only 1.5 million viewers. Fox News easily beat i...
Seventy 4-Hers and their families traveled to Tucumcari on July 30-31 to participate in the Quay County 4-H Rodeos at the fairgrounds Arena. Contestants from all over the state earned prizes provided through the donations of Quay County businesses, ranging from saddles for the overall winners, to all-around buckles for the runners-up and buckles for event winners in each age division. Points earned qualify participants for the state finals in September. Each competitor was allowed to enter up to four events nightly. The points from their...
These individuals were booked into the Quay County Detention Center from Aug. 2 to Aug. 4: • Michelle Gloms, 51, Tucumcari, contempt of court. • Amber Osborn, 29, Logan, contempt of court. • Joey J. Trujillo, 38, Tucumcari, criminal trespass (unposted). • Marcus Hill, 39, Logan, aggravated battery against a household member with a deadly weapon. These individuals were released from the Quay County Detention Center from Aug. 2 to Aug. 4: • Danford Cross Jr., 36, Tucumcari, court ordered. • Maria Margarita Romero, 33, Tucumcari, court order...
These calls were made to the Tucumcari-Quay Regional Emergency Communications Center from Aug. 2 to Aug. 8: Monday • 8:22 a.m.: Disturbance at West Aber and South Third streets, Tucumcari. • 9:13 a.m.: Accident in 600 block of East Tucumcari Boulevard, Tucumcari. • 10:25 a.m.: Theft in 600 block of South Jackson Street, Tucumcari. • 2 p.m.: Property damage in 200 block of Sunrise Boulevard, Logan. • 2:07 p.m.: Fraud in 300 block of South Third Street, Logan. • 3:58 p.m.: Fraud in 1700 block of South 11th Street, Tucumcari. • 4:01 p.m.: Arrest w...
The lone filing day for candidates for November elections for seats on local municipalities, villages, schools, colleges and soil and water conservation districts is approaching. Filing day at the Quay County Clerk’s Office at 300 S. Third St. in Tucumcari will be from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Aug. 24. Necessary forms for filing can be obtained from the clerk’s office or the New Mexico Secretary of State website at sos.state.nm.us. Here are the offices the county clerk stated will decided during the general election on Nov. 2: • City of Tucum...
The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted businesses and people's lives throughout the courntry in the last 18 months or so. The ripple effects of the virus also affected agricultural research, including at the Rex E. Kirksey Agricultural Science Center in Tucumcari. The center on Aug. 3 held its first in-person field day in two years, with 89 people attending to see the latest results of that research. The center held a virtual field day last year because of the pandemic restrictions, but superintendent...
The Public Education Commission on Wednesday suspended the five board members for Floyd Municipal Schools for voting to disregard COVID-19 protocols for the upcoming school year. The department also reinstated superintendent Damon Terry, stating in its release Terry refused to carry out the board’s wishes. The board placed Terry on paid administrative leave on Aug. 2. Board President Leon Nall told The News the board did not have a disagreement with Terry and placed him on leave to protect him. Suspended along with Nall were board members J...