Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
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The Quay County commission on Monday took several significant steps to building a new hospital to replace aging Trigg Memorial Hospital in Tucumcari, including unanimously approving a nearly $1 million design service fee with an Arizona architectural firm. The $981,718.94 design service fee with Stantec Architecture in Phoenix, which has designed 19 other rural hospitals, covers architectural, structural, mechanical, plumbing, electrical, landscaping, civil engineering and heliport designs. It included an estimated $58,000 discount because of...
A Tucumcari man was sentenced to more than 13 years in prison Thursday after a Quay County jury found him guilty of second-degree murder in the shooting of his friend that he claimed was an accident. Joshua Braziel, 31, had been charged with first-degree murder and felony possession of methamphetamine after he shot Bryan Youman, 19, of Tucumcari in the head with a handgun on Sept. 4, 2020, after asking him whether he wanted to die that day. Braziel pleaded guilty to the possession charge after his murder conviction. Before his sentencing,...
Because of tinderbox conditions, Tucumcari City Commission likely will impose restrictions on the sale or use of certain types of fireworks during a special meeting at 1 p.m. June 16. Most commissioners, however, indicated they weren’t willing to extend those restrictions to the annual Fourth of July fireworks display at the Elks Lodge 1172. During a work session Thursday, City Manager Mark Martinez said the timeline demands a fireworks proclamation be passed within 20 days of the holiday. He said similar city proclamations during other dry s...
Weather conditions forced plenty of rejiggering of the schedule for the 23rd annual Iron Pour at Mesalands Community College last week. The event that gives artists from across the globe the opportunity to pour molten metal into sculpture molds was supposed to hold two consecutive days of that activity - one on Thursday for new or inexperienced artists with small artworks, then the traditional Friday pour for veteran participants with larger art pieces. But on Thursday evening, a thunderstorm...
It can’t keep going like this. I mean, it can’t, right? Something’s got to give. The divisions in this country get deeper, and then the threats hurled across the chasm get darker. Tragedies abound and all the arrows point down. I wonder what depths we’ll have sunk to when my future grandchildren show up. How’d our boat get in this gooey, brown creek, anyway? And, where did that paddle go? The ones who do, in fact, study history, are doomed to gnash their teeth while all the unread yahoos repeat it. So, we’ll continue like this, circling th...
Note: Events subject to change due to the COVID-19 pandemic. • July 4 — Red, White and Ute Fourth of July Celebration in Logan. The event will include the annual downtown parade at 10 a.m. and fireworks over Ute Lake at dusk. Register for the parade before 9:30 a.m. behind the Old Country Inn motel. It is offering a $10,000 raffle prize drawing on July 3; tickets can be purchased from local business, Ute Lake Chamber of Commerce directors or from LoganNM.com. • Aug. 4-7 — Tucumcari Rattler Reunion. This annual event for all Rattler alumni...
Tucumcari on Saturday recorded its hottest day in recorded history, and it also was the hottest place in New Mexico. According to the National Weather Service, its weather station at Tucumcari Municipal Airport recorded a high of 112 degrees on Saturday afternoon. That beat the old record of 106 degrees for June 11, and it surpassed Tucumcari’s previous all-time hottest day of 110 degrees in 2020. Tucumcari on Saturday also proved to be the hottest spot in New Mexico, with only Roswell and its high of 111 degrees approaching it. The NWS r...
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 — Carne adovada, refried beans, chuckwagon vegetables, flour tortilla, Jell-O with pineapple. Thursday — Baked chicken, wild rice, carrots and green beans, roll with margarine, chocolate pudding. Friday — Pork roast, mashed potatoes with gravy, asparagus with onions, roll with marga...
The same day an 18-year-old gunman killed 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, two students were found with guns at Albuquerque-area schools. The boy who allegedly brought a handgun to Cleveland High School in Rio Rancho on May 24 was arrested, booked into the Bernalillo County Juvenile Detention Center and the incident was summarily cloaked in secrecy. The 14-year-old boy who allegedly brought a gun fitted with an extended magazine filled with 20 hollow-point bullets to Volcano Vista High School in...
Everyone has their own unique personal preferences. This is probably a good thing since it makes life interesting and keeps us from all fighting over the exact same stuff. Think how boring it would be if everyone preferred identical things. Variety is the spice of life. As long as everyone remembers their preferences are only preferences, not a matter of one being right and the other being wrong, there’s no problem. It’s only when people try to impose their preferences on everyone that it becomes an issue. It’s the difference between prefe...
We’ve been living with inflation all our lives. That’s why old folks can remember when a gallon of gas cost under a buck and bread cost about a quarter a loaf. But now it’s getting out of hand. The most recent Consumer Price Index report shows a whopping 8.6% rise in prices over the past 12 months. Prices are going up on gasoline and diesel, food and clothing, housing and household items, air travel and new and used vehicles, medical costs and recreation. Wages and salaries are also going up, but it’s not keeping up for everyone. Inflati...
An Arizona man suing American Airlines for being jailed for a crime he didn’t commit gave descriptions about his 17-day incarceration at the Quay County Detention Center that alleges “grossly unsanitary conditions” and lack of precautions taken during the COVID-19 pandemic. Michael Lowe, 46, of Flagstaff, Arizona, filed the lawsuit last week in Tarrant County, Texas, through his Dallas-area lawyer, Scott Palmer. The suit initially was reported by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and the story was picked up major news outlets across the country, in...
Quay County’s number of new cases of COVID-19 quadrupled last week, but New Mexico’s top health official said he didn’t foresee the imposition of new mandates, including masks, because of the lesser severity of a new Omicron subvariant spreading through the state. A total of 43 confirmed COVID-19 cases were reported in Quay County last week. That compares to 10 the previous week. The county has experienced three straight weeks of double-digit numbers of cases. As recently as early May, the county went for two straight weeks without any cases...
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 last Tuesday's primary election. Garcia overwhelmed retired Tucumcari police officer Herman Martinez by about a 5-to-1 margin. Garcia gained 947 votes to Martinez's 187. Because no candidate filed for the Democratic nomination, Garcia almost certainly will become the county's new sheriff,...
The idea of a regional behavioral health facility for Curry, Roosevelt, Quay and De Baca counties seemed to have wide support among public officials, public safety first-responders and health professionals who gathered Thursday in Portales to hear a report on such a facility’s feasibility. James Corbett, principal of Initium Health, the Denver-based consulting firm that conducted the feasibility study, told the assembly in Portales’ Yam Theater that experience and insight from interviews and a work session in March demonstrated a behavioral hea...
REPUBLICAN PARTY County commissioner at large, Position 3 Brian Dale Fortner — 403 Kent Terry — 280 Zachary Scot Murray — 103 Justin G. Knapp — 203 Franklin D. Gibson — 175 County sheriff Herman Isidro Martinez — 187 Dennis Victor Garcia — 947 County assessor Janie L. Hoffman — 935 Probate judge Christina M. Wilson — 885 Magistrate judge, Quay magistrate Noreen Hendrickson — 871 U.S. Representative, District 3 Alexis Martinez Johnson — 861 Governor Jay C. Block — 128 Rebecca L. Dow — 308 Gregory Joseph Zanetti — 158 Ethel R. Maharg — 12 Mark V...
The San Jon Municipal Schools superintendent is returning to Illinois after four years of running the eastern Quay County district. Janet Gladu submitted her resignation letter on May 31 to the San Jon school board “after much prayer, deliberation and thought,” she wrote. She enacted the 30-day notification of resignation clause in district policy and her contract. “For personal and professional reasons, it is time for me to move on from San Jon Municipal School District,” she wrote. She expressed her “heartfelt appreciation for the privilege a...
One week after a judge ordered the New Mexico Racing Commission to make a decision on Coronado Partners’ license application, the commission placed it on the agenda for this week’s meeting. The commission’s regular meeting Thursday contains one of three items — listed as “Coronado Partners vs. NMRC” — amid a closed executive session about pending litigation. The same item also is listed in unfinished or new business after the session. Warren Frost, a lawyer representing Coronado Partners and one of its principals, stated in an email he woul...
Former Logan Municipal Schools teacher and coach Rhyan Daugherty received a $175,000 payment during a recent settlement of his whistleblower and retaliation lawsuit against Logan superintendent Dennis Roch. The Quay County Sun received a copy of the 10-page settlement and general release of claims agreement, signed by Daugherty on March 29, through an open-records request to Roch. Parties in the agreement include Roch, Daugherty, the Logan school board, New Mexico Public Schools Insurance Authority and all the authority’s and school d...
LOGAN — San Jon’s village clerk was elected vice-chair of the Eastern Plains Council of Governments board during its annual meeting Wednesday at Logan’s village hall. Cynthia Lee, who was treasurer of the EPCOG board, was nominated to the No. 2 position for the 2022-2023 fiscal year during the meeting, then confirmed by its voting members. The current chairman, Roman Garcia of Vaughn, was re-elected by acclimation after he said he was willing to serve again. Leona Powell of the Village of Grady was nominated and affirmed as the organ...
On this date ... 1972: A little bit of history walked into the front door of the Tucumcari Daily News when W.J. “Bill” Curren of Clovis paid a visit. He is the son of J.E. Curren, founder of The Pathfinder, which was Tucumcari’s first newspaper. Bill Curren posed next to a framed copy of The Pathfinder in the News’ office. J.E. Curren, known as “the fighting editor,” established the first newspaper in Tucumcari and launched other newspapers in Deming, Kingston, Lake Valley, Clovis, Melrose and Clayton. • The Urban Development Agency in Tuc...
These calls were made to the Tucumcari-Quay Regional Emergency Communications Center from June 6 to June 12: Monday — 12:12 a.m.: Disturbance in 400 block of South Dawson Street, Tucumcari. — 1:41 a.m.: Fire in 400 block of West Mesa Vista Avenue, Tucumcari. — 3:25 a.m.: Disturbance in 400 block of North Rock Island Street, Tucumcari. — 4:42 a.m.: Reckless driving in 32300 block of Interstate 40 east, Tucumcari. — 7:50 a.m.: Reckless driving at West Washington Avenue and South Ninth Street, Tucumcari. — 10:48 a.m.: Domestic disturbance...
These individuals were booked into the Quay County Detention Center from June 6 to June 12: — Matthew Loftis, 56, House, contempt of court. — Pete Anthony Martinez, 54, Tucumcari, contempt of court. — Steve Baca, 52, Santa Rosa, contempt of court. — Travis J. Callison, 35, Tucumcari, battery. — Cassandra Lynelle Duran, 43, Tucumcari, contempt of court. — Chandler Edwards, 52, Cornersville, Tennessee, speeding, putting injurious material or trash on a highway and aggravated driving while under the influence of intoxicating liquor or any drug (r...