Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
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The Quay County Commission without discussion Monday approved its county infrastructure and capital improvement plan for fiscal years 2021 to 2025. The plan serves as a wish list for when the New Mexico Legislature awards money for capital-outlay projects. Though the county can list items for the next five fiscal years, the summary details projects only for 2021 and 2022. Each item also is ranked by priority. Two changes occurred since the commission's public hearing Aug. 12 about the proposed...
After a brief but intense debate Thursday, the Tucumcari City Commission gave final approval to a code of conduct for city elected officials and employees. The debate centered on District 5 Commissioner Todd Duplantis' proposal to add a clause under the code's enforcement division that would provide a public hearing in case a commissioner is accused of misconduct under the code. The code passed with Duplantis' suggested clause, but not after District 1 Commissioner Ralph Moya, as he has in previ...
Three years of failing to achieve a 98% occupancy rate in its rental units may result in the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, taking control of managing the Tucumcari Housing Authority. A letter signed by Floyd Duran, director of New Mexico HUD operations, noted Tucumcari Housing Authority (THA) had accumulated three years of "unacceptable" scores - 13, 9, and 13 each out of possible total of 25 - in the "Management" category of HUD evaluations, which are based...
Mesalands Community College’s president told his board of trustees Aug. 20 he is looking at establishing a golf team by the new year. “We want to have a team by January,” college President John Groesbeck said after the meeting when asked about a timetable. The Mesalands golf team would play during the spring. Groesbeck said Mesalands would compete at a club-team level in the Southwest region that includes schools from Arizona and southern Colorado. He said it would play in a minimum of three tournaments and can compete as a guest team at NCAA-...
Tucumcari schools Wednesday — Breakfast: Egg and cheese muffinwich, cereal choice with cinnamon goldfish graham cracker, fruit, juice, milk; Lunch: Walking beef tacos, chicken ranch wrap, Spanish brown rice, pinto beans, shredded lettuce, fresh tomatoes, fruit, milk. Thursday — Breakfast: Sausage breakfast pizza, Trix cereal bar, fruit, juice, milk; Lunch: Cheese pizza, garden salad, baby carrots, fruit, milk. Monday — No school. Tuesday — Not available. Tucumcari Senior Center Wednesday — Chicken strips, mashed potatoes, broccoli with chee...
Sept. 6, 8 — Labor Day Bingo from 7 to 10 p.m. Win up to $750, and multiple winners will divide the prize. $20 a pack, with extra packs for $2 each or three for $5. Tucumcari Columbus Club, 202 E. Main St., Tucumcari. Sept. 14 — Gracie Whitson Benefit Roping. Books open at 9 a.m., close at 10 a.m., and roping begins at 10:30 a.m. Fee is $50 a roper, cash only, with prizes of saddles, buckles, breast collars and saddle blankets. All proceeds will go to Whitson, who was seriously injured in July in a horse-riding accident. Call Jaree Elliott at...
On this date ... 1969: The Tucumcari Community Theatre group last week began casting for a production of “Finian’s Rainbow” with a tentative curtain date of Nov. 6 at the junior high school auditorium. The group hoped to generate enough funds to develop a Little Theatre group and produce at least one play a year, along with children’s plays. The locals in recent years had staged productions of “My Fair Lady” and “Oklahoma!” for charity. • Concrete medians and curbs began to take shape on First Street to the Smith Avenue intersection. Work was p...
The Tucumcari school board on Aug. 19 gave its superintendent a one-year contract extension with a 6% pay raise after delaying its decision during its May meeting. The board, without discussion from members, unanimously approved the pact with Aaron McKinney after a 20-minute closed session, including about five minutes with him. His contract now will expire July 1, 2022. He will be paid $120,428 a year. McKinney has been the district’s superintendent for 13 years. The extension was retroactive to July 1. Business manager Leola Patterson q...
Harry Reid is starting to make sense. I was afraid this day would come. Perhaps it’s an indication of the Apocalypse or, at the very least, that multiple blows to the head, received during my less-than-stellar amateur athletic career, have finally caught up with me. It’s amazing what a politician will say when he isn’t running for anything or trying to hold onto power. This is one among many reasons I favor term limits, which are about as realistic as an Uber to Mars. Nevertheless, the former Senate Democratic leader has called out his party...
The federal government sometimes giveth and sometimes taketh away. Like a prime Biblical figure, it can also work in mysterious ways. Witness the events in recent weeks that could essentially end local control of Tucumcari’s Housing Authority, which is a federal creature in the first place. For reasons unknown, officials of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) have set standards for local housing agencies that housing authorities in small, rural communities find impossible to maintain. Because Tucumcari has not met t...
Dove season opens in California and across the U.S. on Sept. 1. For as long as I can remember, all I had to do when dove season rolled around each year was oil my 1970s-vintage shotgun, buy a case or two of shells at the nearby Big Five sports store and drive toward the Arizona border with my hunting buddies for a few happy days of shooting. But thanks to a proposition approved by 63 percent of Californians in 2016 and the leftist Democrat lawmakers in Sacramento who’ve been wrecking the state for 40 years, dove season this year will be more co...
Escalante quarterback Brendan Giles torched Tucumcari's defense for six passing touchdowns and 223 yards during a 40-14 victory during a storm-delayed season-opening game Friday at Rattler Field. Worse yet for the Rattlers, coach Wayne Ferguson's fears about injuries to his thin ranks of skill players came true - for one game, at least. Running back Robbie Hartmann provided most of the highlights for the Rattlers with two touchdowns. He returned a kickoff 89 yards for a score in the third...
Tucumcari’s cross-country coach is expecting better things from his squads after a disappointing season in 2018. Both the boys and girls teams finished well out of the running during the Class 3A state meet last year. Both open their seasons at 3:30 p.m. Friday at the Clovis Invitational at Ned Houk Park. Rattlers coach Gary Hittson said he’s guiding a total of nine runners on the boys team, with four strong competitors to anchor it — all-district sophomore Manny Hernandez, sophomore Ayden Lusk, freshman Curtis Gonzales and senior Joe Martinez....
Logan committed four turnovers and fell behind 16-0 en route to a 40-14 season-opening loss Friday to Mountainair at Logan during eight-man football action. The visiting Mustangs outgained the Longhorns 474 to 171 in total yards and picked off three Logan passes. Logan quarterback Jantzen Paris scored a 92-yard touchdown on a keeper. The Longhorns’ second TD came on a 40-yard run by Nick Brown. Logan hosts Boise City, Oklahoma, at 7 p.m. Friday. San Jon game canceled San Jon/Grady’s scheduled six-man football game Friday at Vaughn was can...
Tucumcari vs. Santa Rosa was expected to be a battle between two evenly-matched volleyball teams, and it didn't disappoint. But it was the Lady Lions who prevailed in crunch time during their 21-25, 25-15, 29-27, 26-24 victory at the Snake Pit in the Lady Rattlers' season opener. The match Saturday didn't prove decisively which team was better. Two of the games went beyond the usual 25 points, and only four points decided another. Santa Rosa coach Kevin Ortiz said he was pleased with his team's...
Someone burglarized the city of Tucumcari’s bulk-water dispenser for the second time in a month, but the machine remained open for customers. Gary Cooper of the city’s water department reported the break-in at the dispenser at Third and Main streets on Wednesday morning. The burglary occurred between the morning of Aug. 20 and Wednesday. According to a report by Tucumcari Police Sgt. Shaun Slate, someone had broken into the northeast corner of the structure, separating the wall from the building about 12 inches and damaging a brick footer. “Co...
We are plagued with preaching that narrows the message of Christ’s Gospel, until it is only about getting your little soul to heaven when you die. A friend of mine has perceptively called this an “incantational” Gospel. That’s probably not a real word, but he’s talking about a message that portrays the Gospel as a certain terminology — words in a certain order; and, a particular prayer prayed at the end of an evangelistic service. This version of the biblical Gospel is really more like a magi...
Booked The following were booked into local jails Tuesday - Thursday: Clovis • Dan Lucero, 31, probation violation • Amanda Garcia, 33, failure to appear on misdemeanor charge • Virginia Fallis, 49, failure to pay fines • Rito Ballejos, 35, probation violation • Jessica Pina-Garcia, 30, battery against a household member, criminal damage to the property of a household member (under $1,000), criminal trespass (damage), aggravated stalking (violation of protection order), resisting, evading or obstructing an officer • Nicole Flowers, 30, distrib...