Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
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The Tucumcari City Commission unanimously approved a resolution asking for a special state appropriation to fund construction of a new hospital to replace the aging Dr. Dan C. Trigg Memorial Hospital in Tucumcari. Quay County manager Daniel Zamora read the resolution during the commission’s meeting Thursday. He said he would seek other area municipalities’ approval of the resolution and present those to the New Mexico Legislature before it convenes for its January session. The resolution, citing a feasibility study earlier this year by the Sta...
The Tucumcari Public Schools board formally authorized the district's superintendent to pursue donating the entire 13-acre Mountain View School property to Eastern Plains Early Head Start, which operates a daycare there. The board stated in its action during its Nov. 28 meeting it may later pursue a covenant with the transfer to the property, with the board's president suggesting the property can be used only for children's benefit. Superintendent Aaron McKinney said the board could decide to...
Not only was Quay County dealing with usual coronavirus cases, but it also was experiencing a spike of influenza infections. Trigg Memorial Hospital and the Quay County Family Health Center, both in Tucumcari, each were reporting elevated caseloads of flu last week. “We are seeing a pretty big uptick in Flu A cases through the clinic and in the Emergency Department,” Trigg administrator Vickie Gutierrez stated in an email Friday. “COVID-19 cases remain low.” Renee Hayoz, administrator of the health center, said Friday her clinic has been ex...
Dec. 7, 1941, was described by President Franklin Roosevelt as “a day that would live in infamy” because of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor. While most Americans have come to peace with Japan since then, the term “day of infamy” became associated with any day of such tragedy and disgrace. We’ve had a few more of those days since then, but each day of infamy has united our nation making us stronger and eventually resulted in a day of honor, such as V-J Day. The Bible describes many days of infamy followed by days of honor and glory that lead t...
Christmas was simpler when I was a little kid. Maybe it was just that my wishes were simpler back then. I didn’t wish for world peace so much as I just believed it already existed. And I didn’t wish that people would get along, because in my rosy little world, they did. Cue a 1970s “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing” moment here. I also believed in the magic of Christmas. Still do. I believe that rather than name-calling and fighting, we need to remember that we belong to one another, brothers and sisters. I believe that rather than sepa...
Tucumcari’s UPS Customer Center closed a few weeks ago — right before residents would begin to ship packages for the holidays — with no nearby alternate from the company. A poster affixed to the UPS facility’s front door at 524 E. Tucumcari Blvd. stated the UPS Customer Center there was permanently closed effective Oct. 31. UPS package deliveries are continuing as normal in the region. The poster stated nearby locations servicing UPS packages could be found at ups.com/dropoff. However, the website could not find a drop-off location for anyone...
On this date ... 1972: Several survivors of a plane crash earlier in the week at Tucumcari Municipal Airport said they were counting their blessings. The Lockheed twin-engine plane, chartered by Investment Dynamics Corporation of Minneapolis, crashed at the airport while attempting an instrument landing on Sunday night, killing the pilot and co-pilot and three passengers. Six passengers were injured. According to later reports, the crew had failed to realize the plane was misaligned with the airport’s runway due to limited visibility. • An uni...
Tucumcari schools Wednesday — Breakfast: Sausage breakfast pizza, assorted cereal, graham crackers, orange, orange juice, skim, 1% or strawberry milk; Lunch: Ham and cheese chef salad, chicken nuggets, breadstick, garlic mashed potatoes, country gravy, fresh broccoli, baby carrots, ranch dressing, pineapple, skim, chocolate skim, 1% of strawberry milk. Thursday — Breakfast: Cocoa Puffs, graham crackers, blueberry and yogurt parfait, apple juice, orange juice, skim, 1% or strawberry milk; Lunch: Ham and cheese chef salad, cheese pizza, pep...
Note: Events subject to change due to the COVID-19 pandemic. • Friday-Saturday — Christmas Carriage Rides. Tucumcari Rawhide Days is presenting this event with food, music and horse-drawn carriage rides through downtown. Tickets are on sale at tinyurl.com/2p96ny23. Rides start from the Tucumcari Historic Railroad Plaza at 4 p.m. both nights through 8:30 p.m. • Saturday — Very Merry Tucumcari Christmas Dash. This free event by the Quay County Health Council’s Healthy Eating Active Living Committee will give participants holiday headgear...
Back in 2001, precious few Americans could have explained what Houston-based Enron did as a company and how it got so spectacularly wealthy. When it filed for a record-breaking bankruptcy, Americans got schooled fast about not putting their trust and money behind swaggering, fast-talking con artists. But fools and their money regrouped over the years, and along came FTX, a $32 billion cryptocurrency exchange that repeated many of Enron’s mistakes and yielded the same abysmal results. We suspect that a lot of investors who lost their shirts i...
Governments don’t respect rights. Your rights don’t change when you cross a line; not a state line or a national border. Rights are the same everywhere. Only the ways in which your rights are violated differ by location. Rights don’t change over time or due to majority opinion, either. If something is a violation of your rights today, it was a violation no matter how far back in history you go and it would remain a violation into the distant future. No matter what else changes. Slavery always violated the rights of the slaves, even when it wa...
Every time I go back to my home country, I pine for the good old days of my youth. I was born in Ozark, Ark., where the Arkansas River Valley meets the Ozark Mountains, and graduated high school upstream in Fort Smith. In between, I also grew up in other small Arkansas cities and towns, as the son of an itinerant minister. In the mid-1970s, I left Arkansas, and started bouncing around, mostly between Tennessee, Kentucky and Arkansas. By the 1980s, I “settled down” in my native state, back to be close to family, and started a family of my own. I...
The Tucumcari boys basketball team opened its season with a consolation championship Saturday by defeating Maxwell 46-41 at the West Las Vegas/Brian Gallegos Tournament. The Rattlers (2-1) outscored the Bears 16-10 in the third quarter to create some space. “We opened it up in the second half and went to a straight press defense, try to wear them down a little bit,” Tucumcari coach John Span said. “We missed some opportunities, but we gained enough to put them away a little bit.” Kamren Apodaca, a 6-foot-4 freshman, lead Tucumcari with 20 point...
The Lady Rattlers couldn't ask for a better way to start their season. The Tucumcari girls basketball team rampaged through the Lady Lion Classic at Santa Rosa, including a convincing 58-35 victory over the host team Saturday in the title game. Alexus Lafferty, named Most Valuable Player of the tournament, led Tucumcari with 14 points. Sisters Cambree and Caylee Benavidez each added 13 points, and July Lafferty scored 10 points. Kyla Lopez, July Lafferty and Caylee Benavidez also were named to...
The Logan boys basketball team advanced to the finals Saturday at the Dora Tournament but encountered a big roadblock in Dora center Steven Masini. Masini, a 6-foot-5, 220-pound senior center, scored 26 points and grabbed 13 rebounds against the Longhorns during a 49-37 victory, giving the tourney title to the Coyotes (4-0). “Their big man is a load for anyone in the state to guard,” Logan coach Kyle Griffiths said. “If we would have made some open shots, we would have been right there at the end. “Overall, I’m proud of the way we competed...
The Tucumcari boys wrestling team opened its season by going 3-2 in dual matches Saturday at the Los Lunas Duals event. The Rattlers defeated the Los Lunas junior varsity, district foe Del Norte and Bloomfield but lost to big-school powerhouses La Cueva and Atrisco Heritage. Fernando Ureste, wrestling at 114 pounds, won all five of his matches for Tucumcari. Defending state champion Xzander Garcia, competing at 166 pounds, went 4-1 for the Rattlers. First-year Tucumcari coach Tim Clark said 121-pound wrestler Billy Otero was out with the flu. C...
Tucumcari High School’s new baseball and softball fields that are under construction won’t be ready for games by spring, said the school district’s superintendent last week. That means the Rattlers baseball team will have to play its home games at Logan High School’s field near the entrance of Ute Lake State Park, said superintendent Aaron McKinney during a Tucumcari Public Schools board meeting on Nov. 28. McKinney said he will coordinate with Logan Municipal Schools’ athletic director to avoid a scheduling conflict with the field. McKinney...
Logan senior linebacker Park Strong helped the Red team to a 29-6 victory Saturday at the Small School Red vs. Green All-Star Football Event. The game, organized by the New Mexico High School Coaches Association, was played at the Bulldog Bowl in Artesia. Logan coach Dwayne Roberts, who attended the game, said Strong made "10 or 12 tackles. He did well, as expected." Roberts said Strong also made two sacks and several other tackles for a loss. "He was in the backfield a lot," he said. Strong...
The Mesalands Community College esports team recently qualified for the playoffs in its very first season. The Stampede made it to the postseason for its play in “Halo: Infinite,” “Super Smash Bros Ultimate” and “Call of Duty: Warzone” video games. All Mesalands players qualified for the playoffs as a starter or substitute. Mesalands was eliminated in the early rounds of the postseason, including losses to top-seeded Hutchinson Community College of Kansas and No. 1 overall seed Shelton State Community College of Alabama. “We are proud of the...
The Logan Municipal School board during a special meeting Nov. 28 officially petitioned the state for a waiver from the required daily money deposits by the school district because of the reduction of a local bank’s hours. New Mexico Bank & Trust on the week of Nov. 21 cut back operations at its Logan branch to two days a week, citing a lack of staff. The Logan branch is scheduled to close permanently at noon Dec. 16. The board voted to petition the New Mexico Public Education Department for a waiver from having to deposit daily any cash the d...
The Logan girls basketball team won two games after dropping its season-opener against a Texas squad at the Dora Tournament. The Lady Longhorns closed the tourney with a 52-10 pasting of Cloudcroft on Saturday. Hailee Robertson led Logan with 17 points, and teammate Lizzy Horner added nine. “Overall, I thought the girls did a good job this weekend,” Logan first-year coach Dustin Robertson said. “Everyone received some much needed experience that I hope helps their confidence grow. “We did have moments where our inexperience showed up, but the...
The Quay County Health Council recently received a $3,000 grant from the Union Pacific Community Ties Giving Program to help it upgrade its videoconferencing technology. Health council coordinator Brenda Bishop stated in an email the organization will use the money to buy an Owl Labs videoconferencing system and projector so meeting attendees can see presentations with the room’s lights on. The grant also will be used to buy a new sound system. “This makes the hybrid meeting better on both ends,” she stated. A news release from the counc...
The New Mexico Department of Health urges pet and livestock owners in De Baca County and surrounding area to vaccinate their animals against rabies after a cat tested positive for rabies last week. It was the first cat that tested positive for rabies in De Baca County based on records that go back to 1966. “This positive rabies test in a cat shows the importance of keeping pets, horses and valuable livestock up-to-date on rabies vaccinations,” said Dr. Chad Smelser, deputy state epidemiologist. “Domestic animals can come into contact with...
These calls were made to the Tucumcari-Quay Regional Emergency Communications Center from Nov. 28 to Dec. 4: Monday — 6:48 a.m.: Reckless driving in 4000 block of East Tucumcari Boulevard, Tucumcari. — 8:31 a.m.: Accident in 1900 block of South Mountain Road, Tucumcari. — 8:51 a.m.: Accident with injuries at Highways 104 and 129, Conchas Dam. — 9:51 a.m.: Arrest warrant in 300 block of South Third Street, Tucumcari. — 12:14 p.m.: Reckless driving in 1300 block of South Fourth Street, Tucumcari. — 12:31 p.m.: Property damage in 4200 block of Qu...
These individuals were booked into the Quay County Detention Center from Nov. 28 to Dec. 5: — Isabel Chivara, 21, Tucumcari, contempt of court. — Stephine Talarico, 28, no address listed, contempt of court. — Moses Adrian Griego, 47, Portales, criminal damage to property (under $1,000). — Bryan Ediberto Ochoa, 40, Tucumcari, contempt of court. — Nathaniel J. Lopez, 25, Tucumcari, larceny ($100 or less) and criminal trespass (unposted). — Francisca Donovan, 44, Tucumcari, five counts of contempt of court. — Sheryll Dillon, 51, Tucumcari, co...