Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
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An Albuquerque judge ordered the New Mexico Racing Commission to act within 90 days on whether to accept or reject Coronado Partners’ request for a racing license so it could build a track and casino in Tucumcari. District Court Judge Nancy Franchini in a ruling issued Friday afternoon affirmed Logan attorney and Coronado Partners principal Warren Frost’s request for a writ of mandamus against the commission. A writ of mandamus asks a court to compel another entity to perform its official duties. Franchini rejected arguments from com...
Undersheriff Dennis Garcia easily won the Republican nomination for Quay County sheriff, and Brian Dale Fortner prevailed in a five-way race for the GOP nod in the District 3 county commissioner race during the primary election Tuesday. Garcia overwhelmed recently retired Tucumcari police officer Herman Martinez by about a 5-to-1 margin in unofficial totals. Because no candidate filed for the Democratic nomination, Garcia almost certainly will become the county's new sheriff, succeeding the term-limited Russell Shafer. Fortner gained 403 votes...
The suspect in a fatal shooting following a spat at a Tucumcari graduation party faced additional charges, including another felony, as he made his first courtroom appearances last week. Meanwhile, relatives of the victim struggled to understand why the argument turned so deadly so quickly, especially after both men greeted each other genially the day before at a graduation ceremony. The district attorney's office on Thursday filed additional charges against Tyje Garrett, 42, of Tucumcari of tam...
Not bad for just five weeks of planning. A steady stream of people Saturday checked out the festivities of the Pinata Fiesta in the Tucumcari Convention Center parking lot despite a broiling sun and temperatures that reached 97 degrees. That night, more than 300 people bought tickets to dance to the music of Str8 Shot and Cuarenta Y Cinco in the center's air-conditioned main ballroom. The Pinata Fiesta served as a revival of the city's long-defunct Pinata Festival and a successor of the New...
The year off that Mesalands Community College's Iron Pour took in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic gave the organizers a chance to rejigger the annual fine-arts festival this year. The Iron Pour now has dedicated two days, instead of one, to pour molten metal into molds. Thursday's pouring around 7:30 p.m. will be used to fill smaller sand molds created by residents or amateur artists and will provide a different atmosphere. The second, more traditional pouring at 12:30 p.m. Friday will be for...
New Mexico’s primary election will be over by the time this article is published but, while the outcome isn’t known as I write, the results have likely been widely reported on radio, television and the internet. I suspect all concerned Americans are hopeful for a positive final outcome of this year’s elections, no matter how they view events over the past five years. I’ve heard a lot about hope lately, so I thought I’d write about that. A doctor we visited recently spoke with concern and hope our country survives all the emerging variants...
SANTA ROSA — Guadalupe County finally has a new extension agent. Susann Mikkelson’s first day on the job was June 1. A New Mexico native, Mikkelson comes to town by way of Tucumcari and Quay County, where she was the Family & Consumer Science extension agent for the past 2 1/2 years. She was raised on her family’s small cattle ranch in Datil in southwest New Mexico that was settled by her ancestors in 1882. Mikkelson has close to 30 years’ experience in the nonprofit sector and in small business development. That includes nonprofit management a...
A teenager’s possible threat on social media prompted Tucumcari Public Schools to cancel summer school for the day on Friday. According to a news release from New Mexico State Police, local law enforcement became aware of the possible threat about 8 a.m. Friday on an Instagram post by a 16-year-old juvenile in Tucumcari. “Through further investigation, it was determined there were no direct threats made to any of the schools in the Tucumcari area,” the release stated. “As a safety precaution, summer school in Tucumcari was canceled for the day...
On this date ... 1972: Three serious traffic accidents were reported in the region. A Memphis, Tennessee, man died in a crash two miles west of San Jon that also hospitalized his wife. Another man from Farley, New Mexico, died east of Springer in a collision with a truck. An Albuquerque man was in critical condition at Trigg Memorial Hospital after an accident five miles south of San Jon where he was believed to have suffered a heart attack. • The First National Bank was celebrating its 70th year, with female employees dressed in period costume...
Note: Events subject to change due to the COVID-19 pandemic. • Through Friday — Mesalands Iron Pour. The annual Iron Pour returns to Mesalands Community College after a coronavirus hiatus. Dozens of artists from Mesalands and elsewhere will gather to make their creations using molten aluminum. Daily studio hours at Building D are from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. The art show will be at the Tucumcari Railroad Museum from 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday. Two pourings of molten metal will occur — one at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and the other at 12:30 p.m. Frida...
The Tucumcari Senior Center and Logan Senior Center also offer grab-and-go meals to those who qualify. Those interested should call the Tucumcari facility at 575-461-2307 or the Logan facility at 575-487-2287 for more information. Tucumcari Senior Center Wednesday — Hot turkey sandwich, scalloped potatoes, Brussels sprouts, tropical fruit salad. Thursday — Chicken and mushrooms, rice, broccoli and carrots, roll, lemon pudding. Friday — Swiss steak, mashed potatoes, spinach, roll, pears. Monday — Breaded fish sandwich, tartar sauce, onion r...
An analysis of studies of the effects of lockdowns on COVID-19 mortality has just been released by a team of researchers at Johns Hopkins University, and their conclusion is depressing. “Our study finds that lockdowns had little to no effect in reducing COVID-19 mortality,” they wrote. “However, lockdowns during the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic have had devastating effects.” One of the papers reviewed by the Johns Hopkins researchers, “COVID-19 Pandemic: A Review of the Global Lockdown and Its Far-Reaching Effects,” published i...
Politicians speak most passionately about things they understand the least, like guns. This is especially dangerous when they talk about what they believe your rights are. President Biden has recently shown he doesn’t understand rights-- he confuses them with privileges and he’s plotting to violate our rights because he doesn’t like them. This is criminal behavior from him and should be treated as such. Recent events caused emotions to run high, which leads to foolish threats from authoritarian politicians. It doesn’t change what our rights...
We Americans like to accumulate stuff through most of our lives, then somewhere around old age we start trying to get rid of it. At least that’s true for me. I’ve been working to downsize my stuff since around my 60th birthday, and I’m still at it six years later. Right now, I’m going through a stack of boxes that contain bits and pieces of my life through the years. It’s a step back in time for me, to go through stuff that at some point I couldn’t quite let go of. I’m not a hoarder, but all those boxes suggest that, at one time or another, I c...
A Logan eighth-grader will be one of New Mexico's representatives at a national rodeo competition in Georgia later this month. Rylan Montoya, a student at Logan Municipal Schools, has earned a position on the New Mexico junior-high team and will travel with teammates to Perry, Georgia, on June 19-25 to compete at the National Junior High Finals Rodeo. Montoya will compete in team roping with partner Joe Cortese, a sixth-grader from Fort Sumner. Featuring about 1,200 contestants from 43 states,...
The superintendent of San Jon Municipal Schools is taking a position at another unnamed school district, according to the school board’s president. Board President Frank Gibson said superintendent Janet Gladu announced she was stepping down early last week. The school district’s website also posted a job opening for the superintendent’s position on Wednesday. Gibson said Gladu told him where she was heading, “but it’s not up to me to disclose.” “She got a better job offer,” he said. “It’s more money. That’s the name of the game, isn’t it?...
Cannabis sales in Tucumcari continued to show robust growth in May compared to April, the latter which was the first month recreational marijuana could be legally sold in New Mexico. Total cannabis sales in Tucumcari were $255,109.81 during the month of May, according to data from the Cannabis Control Division of the New Mexico Regulation and Licensing Department. Nearly $200,000 was listed as adult-use sales. A little more than $55,000 were medical sales. That compared to $181,000 in pot sales recorded in Tucumcari in April. May’s numbers w...
Quay County saw its number of COVID-19 cases decline last week, but most of the state’s counties, including Quay, landed in the red zone for risk of the disease spreading. Ten confirmed COVID-19 cases were reported in Quay County last week. That compares to 19 the previous week. In early May, the county went for two straight weeks without any cases being reported. The total number of cases in the county since the pandemic began in spring 2020 rose to 2,032. Quay County’s caseload was 24.6 per 100,000 people from May 17 to May 30, with a tes...
A former Tucumcari resident accused of extreme animal cruelty and felony drug charges avoided jail time but must pay fines of $7,000 and is forbidden from owning pets for three years in his sentencing Wednesday in a plea deal. Ralph Fletcher, 32, was charged in April 2020 with drug trafficking of methamphetamine, distribution of marijuana or synthetic marijuana, extreme cruelty to animals and resisting, evading or obstructing an officer during an arrest. He pleaded guilty to all those counts — all which were felonies — except for resisting pol...
These calls were made to the Tucumcari-Quay Regional Emergency Communications Center from May 23 to June 5: May 23 — 1:10 a.m.: Noise complaint in 800 block of East Rankin Avenue, Tucumcari. — 9:27 a.m.: Reckless driving at milepost 330, U.S. 54, Logan. — 9:54 a.m.: Arrest at South Seventh Street and West Tucumcari Boulevard, Tucumcari. — 11:19 a.m.: Theft in 200 block of East Center Street, Tucumcari. — 11:30 a.m.: Theft in 200 block of East Center Street, Tucumcari. — 1:27 p.m.: Reckless driving at milepost 83, Highway 209, Tucumcari....
These individuals were booked into the Quay County Detention Center from May 28 to June 3: — Charles Camerino, 32, Tucumcari, three counts of felony contempt of court. — Travion Chavez, 22, Tucumcari, contempt of court. — Francisco Galvan, 48, Tucumcari, driving while license suspended or revoked. — Tyje Ji-Tu Garrett, 42, Tucumcari, first-degree murder (willful and deliberate). — Stanley Gene Ingram, 51, Tucumcari, charge not listed. — Danny McCaughtry, 48, Tucumcari, battery. — Earl D. Mondragon, 31, Tucumcari, aggravated battery (no g...