Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
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The Quay County Commission on Monday unanimously approved a resolution that commits up to $1.75 million for public infrastructure improvements leading up to the site of a proposed horse-racing track and casino on Tucumcari’s east side. If the New Mexico Racing Commission awards a sixth license to Coronado Partners to build a nearly $80 million “racino” in Tucumcari, county officials said they anticipate not all of the $1.75 million would be needed to upgrade sewer, water, roads and utility lines to the site between Route 66 and Inter...
The Tucumcari City Commission on Thursday appointed Noreen Hendrickson, a longtime community volunteer leader, to be the city’s municipal judge. Hendrickson was appointed on a 4-1 vote, with District 1 Commissioner Ralph Moya voting against the appointment. Hendrickson and Larry Brown, who has been serving as acting municipal judge, were interviewed before Thursday’s meeting. Moya said “both candidates were very, very impressive” in the interviews but in Brown “we have a very good judge.” Hendrickson on Friday said “I’m thrilled and ho...
Based on the number of ballots returned, Quay County’s first-ever mail-in election is a success, with turnout at least three to five times higher than usual. Whether that translates to success for the Tucumcari school district’s efforts to renew a two-mill property tax won’t be known until the evening of Feb. 5, when the results are tabulated. Quay County Clerk Ellen White said 1,054 ballots had been returned as of Friday afternoon after initially being mailed to voters Jan. 8. Considering previous Tucumcari school-board elections had count...
Tucumcari schools Wednesday — Breakfast: Egg and cheese muffinwich, cereal choice with cinnamon goldfish graham cracker, fruit, juice, milk; Lunch: Walking beef tacos, ham and cheese wrap, Spanish brown rice, pinto beans, shredded lettuce, fresh tomatoes, fruit, milk. Thursday — Breakfast: Sausage breakfast pizza, cereal choice with cinnamon goldfish graham cracker, fruit, juice, milk; Lunch: Cheese pizza, garden salad, baby carrots, fruit, milk. Monday — Breakfast: Blueberry muffin with string cheese, cereal choice with cinnamon goldf...
• Saturday — Knights of Columbus Indoor Flea Market. Get rid of old items and gain a little cash. The cost is $5 per table. For more information, call Benji Torres at 505-582-7459. Knights of Columbus Hall, 202 E. Main St., Tucumcari. • Feb. 9 — Valentine’s Dance. Treat your sweetheart to a night of dancing. Doors open at 7 p.m. Tickets are $15, with only 150 tickets available. To buy tickets, call 575-461-4980. Tickets must be purchased before the event; no tickets will be sold at the door. Tucumcari Columbus Club, 204 E. Main St., Tucumcari...
On this date ... 1969: “George W. May, Quay County Sanitarian, reports there is a growing tendency to dump more and more trash and dead animals on the county roads of Quay County. This is a bad habit to form because it is unsanitary and a potential health hazard; besides it is unsightly. May says there are county and state regulations prohibiting dumping of any road right-of-way, and the County Sanitarian suggests that everyone carry their soiled waste to the dump grounds so they can be disposed of properly.” • Tucumcari students selec...
Much of a 15-minute meeting of the Tucumcari school board on Jan. 21 was spent discussing the governor’s recent order to eliminate a teacher-evaluation system. During the public-comment part of the meeting, board member Corinne Hayes asked what would happen in the wake of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s executive order Jan. 3 for the New Mexico Public Education Department do away with the PARCC test, an acronym for Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, and find new ways to track student achievement and evaluate tea...
The board of Tucumcari MainStreet fired the downtown improvement organization’s executive director Gail Houser, board members and Houser confirmed Thursday. Houser was informed of his firing Jan. 21 and given only a few hours to collect his belongings and leave, he said. He had served as MainStreet’s director since August 2014. MainStreet board president Cooper Glover confirmed Houser was fired Jan. 21, saying MainStreet was moving “in a new direction.” Glover said Friday, “We’re not doing anything crazy, no major changes. We just decided we...
The concept seems so ... un-American. Government can decide how much a Mom and Pop shop has to pay its employees? That has to be unconstitutional, doesn’t it? But just as we’ve allowed government to tell restaurant owners whether smoking is allowed in their place ... Just as we’ve allowed government to decide whether alcohol can be sold on Sundays ... Just as we’ve allowed government to determine who can host horse races — and who can’t ... ... It seems we simply have accepted the idea that Big Brother knows best when it comes to how we oper...
Russell Baker, who died on Jan. 21 at age 93, has joined the likes of Mike Royko, Jimmy Breslin and Art Buchwald in the special part of heaven reserved for those who could make millions laugh on deadline. Baker’s New York Times “Observer” column ran at various frequencies from 1962 to Christmas Day 1998. Inviting the risk of a big “So what?” I’ll say that as a journalism student in the early 1970s, Baker’s work inspired me to want to write. I’ll qualify that — not just to want to write (Hemingway did that for reasons I still can’t fathom) — b...
I’m done with the NFL. At least for this season. If I were a man of higher principles, I’d be done with it for good. The New Orleans loss to the Rams was the straw that broke my back. To essentially end a great season with such a blatant penalty that wasn’t even called is tough to take. And what’s going to come of that? Further delays to the game, as officials will now be allowed to second-guess their calls (and non-calls) on the field. And now we’ve got to watch those cheatin’ Patriots, again, this year up against a franchise that’s move...
It took an uncharacteristic offense, a lot of effort and overtime, but the Tucumcari girls basketball team on Saturday stunned top-ranked and previously unbeaten (Las Vegas) Robertson 39-36 at the Snake Pit. Kalani French and Ashley Shipley's free throws in the final minute of OT secured the Lady Rattlers' victory. After the final buzzer, Shipley jumped for joy in front of Tucumcari assistant coach Patrick Benavidez as other teammates also celebrated. French led a balanced attack with 10...
The Tucumcari boys basketball team could cite several reasons for its 58-56 Homecoming loss in the last minute Friday to Bosque, but an old bugaboo - poor free-throw shooting - proved decisive again. The Rattlers (2-15) made just 7 of 20 shots from the free-throw line, or 35 percent, at home in the Snake Pit. The Bobcats (11-6) went 9-of-17, or 53 percent, from the foul line. Tucumcari coach John Span also lamented his team's decision-making down the stretch but clearly was frustrated with the o...
The Tucumcari wrestling team won two of three dual matches during a meet Thursday in Amarillo, Texas. The Rattlers lost to host Amarillo 51-12 but defeated Texas teams Pampa 65-30 and Bushland 51-40. Tucumcari improved to 12-5 in dual meets on the season. Tucumcari’s Rod Dunlap won all three of his matches at 145 pounds and improved to 23-1 overall. Joe Martinez at 152 and Colt Garcia at 182 won two matches Thursday. Tucumcari coach Eddie Encinias said Garcia and Dyson Clark at 195 pounds have been performing stronger as of late. “Colt is rea...
Tucumcari's Wayne Ferguson was inducted Saturday into the New Mexico High School Track and Cross-Country Coaches Association's Hall of Fame. Ferguson, who also is Tucumcari's football coach and athletic director, was honored during a ceremony in Albuquerque. Ferguson became Tucumcari's assistant track coach in 1994 and helped the boys team win the state title in the 800-meter relay the next year. He became head coach in 1996 and won two state titles the same season - in the 300-meter hurdles...
The Logan girls basketball team not only lost a key district game Thursday, but it may have lost one of its best players for the rest of the season. The Lady Longhorns, ranked No. 1 in Class 1A by MaxPreps.com before the game, lost 48-45 at Melrose, and junior power forward Karli Webb, one of Logan’s top scorers, went down with a knee injury after scoring a team-high 12 points. Logan coach Glynna Strand said it appeared to be an anterior cruciate ligament injury that would require season-ending surgery and months of rehabilitation. Logan f...
A Logan boys team and the San Jon girls each won their respective championship games at the San Jon Junior High Basketball Tournament. The Logan White boys squad defeated Dora 55-19 in the title game. During the tournament, the team also dominated Floyd 70-12 and Springer 86-8. Logan fielded a second team, Logan Red, which finished third in the consolation bracket. The San Jon boys won the consolation title by defeating Melrose 38-22. San Jon edged Logan Red 30-28 in the consolation semifinal and lost to Clovis Christian 51-17 in the opening...
The Logan boys basketball team notched a key district victory by edging host Melrose 61-59 on Thursday. The Longhorns led 53-46 at the end of the third quarter and hung on the rest of the way. They improved to 2-0 in district play. Dyson Day led Logan with 25 points, while Kyle Knight added 11 and Dante Sanchez 10. “It was a full team effort,” Logan coach Kyle Griffiths said. “We had some players step up in big moments. Defensively, we did a good job making it tough on them to score.” Melrose, ranked No. 3 in Class 1A by MaxPreps.com, fell to...
People who read a Quay County Sun story last week about a Tucumcari man accused of abusing a puppy wondered on social media why the suspect was released from jail one day after his felony arrest. The answer is complicated. But one reason the suspect was freed by a magistrate judge was because of a recent ruling by the New Mexico Supreme Court. A city police officer on Jan. 17 arrested Ralph Fletcher, 29, on a felony complaint of extreme cruelty to animals. The officer, responding to a complaint of a dog being beaten, stated he saw Fletcher...
The O’Reilly Auto Parts store coming to Tucumcari is projected to open by February 2020, but a project manager with the chain said it may open in the fourth quarter this year if construction and permitting go smoothly. O’Reilly Auto Parts store No. 5437 is slated at 1316 E. Tucumcari Blvd., the site of the now-closed Cactus RV Park. O’Reilly filed a business license with the city several weeks ago. Jared Minor, a project manager with the Springfield, Missouri-based auto-parts chain, said in a phone interview he was hopeful final permits and r...
Three students from House Municipal Schools won awards Saturday at the New Mexico Student Press Association/New Mexico Activities Association state journalism competition in Las Cruces. Senior Ellie Aikman took first place for newspaper photojournalism; freshman Matthew Sperry took first place for yearbook photojournalism; and freshman Aiden Aikman took third place for newspaper sportswriting. The competition was not divided by class, meaning House students were pitted against writers and photographers from much larger schools in Albuquerque...
A fourth suspect — a juvenile — recently was detained for his alleged role in a violent home invasion in Tucumcari in October that hospitalized the victim. Albuquerque police arrested a 17-year-old male juvenile on charges of aggravated burglary, aggravated battery, unlawful taking of a motor vehicle, false imprisonment and interference with communications. He was being held in the Bernalillo County juvenile-detention facility, said Quay County Sheriff Russell Shafer. Albuquerque police also recently arrested Jamal Jones, 19, on a warrant issue...
Mesalands Community College will begin its spring community education classes in February. A new schedule of classes will be offered each month. For February, Mesalands Community College will offer a “Love is in the Air” crafting class from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday in preparation for Valentine’s Day. Cost is $10, plus a $10 supply fee payable to the instructor the day of the class. Learn how to loom in the “Basic Loom Knitting 101” class from 6 to 7 p.m. on Mondays through Feb. 25. Cost is $10, plus a $10 supply fee payable to the instructo...
For local educators in search of relevant lessons for their students on concepts of engineering and energy careers, it doesn't get much more hands-on than climbing inside of a windmill. Some 30 teachers from districts in Curry and Quay counties had that opportunity Friday, first with a day of workshops at Clovis High School and then with a sunset field trip to the turbines in progress at the Grady Wind Farm and those already completed on the Broadview project. A Science, Technology, Engineering...
My family loves science fiction or superhero-related media. We’re a bunch of nerds. So, it wasn’t out of character for us to check out the pilot for the Syfy channel’s new series, “Deadly Class.” Spoiler alert: We won’t be returning for more. It’s like a toilet backing up and filling the house with its contents. On the other hand, at the risk of sounding less than holy, you Christians might benefit from watching this first episode. Don’t expect harmless entertainment, though. That’s not what...