Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
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Though state-mandated COVID-19 restrictions had affected all corners Quay County the first month of the year, the virus itself made a big impact in 2020's second half. A total of 140 cases were reported in the county in November, with over 80 more in December. Two-thirds of Quay County's cases occurred in less than a two-month period, along with five deaths. Dozens of businesses and entities saw confirmed cases among employees. Tucumcari experienced two significant outbreaks during the year, inc...
Six new confirmed cases of COVID-19 also were reported in the county Saturday by the New Mexico Department of Health. Four of the cases were reported in the Tucumcari ZIP code, with one each in Logan and McAlister. Four males and two females tested positive for the virus. The age breakdown was one age up to 10, one age 20 to 29, two age 40 to 49, one age 50 to 59 and one age 70 to 79. After a relative lull in late December, Quay County has recorded 30 coronavirus cases in January. The total number of confirmed cases in the county since the...
The New Mexico Department of Health on Friday reported the eighth COVID-19 death in Quay County since the pandemic began. Eight new confirmed cases of the virus also were reported in the county Friday. After a relative lull in late December, Quay County has recorded 24 cases in January. The latest death was a woman in her 80s, according to an email from the agency. The DOH does not give the identities of those who have been infected or died from the virus. Three deaths were reported in the county in November and two in December. Seven of the...
Conchas Lake State Park has closed access to all boat ramps due to dropping water levels, resulting in safety concerns, and to prevent property damage during launching and loading of boats. Low precipitation and above-average temperatures have resulted in extremely low water levels at several state park lakes causing boat access ramps to be closed, the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department stated in a news release Friday afternoon. New Mexico State Parks is using the closure to rehabilitate and improve on the existing ramp. The...
The New Mexico Department of Health on Tuesday reported five new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Quay County. Three of the cases were reported in the Tucumcari ZIP code, and two others came from the Logan ZIP code. Four women and one man were affected. The age breakdowns were three age 20 to 29, one age 3o to 39 and one age 40 to 49. The total number of confirmed cases in the county since the pandemic began rose to 345, with seven deaths. The total number of people in the county who have been deemed as recovered from the virus rose to 189 by...
The rollout of COVID-19 inoculations continued last week when the Quay County Family Health Center in Tucumcari received a shipment of the new Moderna vaccine. Presbyterian Medical Services Administrator C. Renee Hayoz said the clinic gave 80 doses of the vaccine last week and planned 20 more on Monday. "It's nice for us to be able to offer this vaccine to community members," she said. "It's something I'm glad we can offer to rural New Mexico." In addition to clinic staff receiving the vaccine,...
The New Mexico Department of Health announced Monday that its vaccination website at vaccinenm.org now enables users to complete their comprehensive personal profiles. These profiles — which include personal medical conditions and employment information, along with other key data — allow the state to notify New Mexico residents when vaccine doses become available in their area. “Our highest priorities remain the same: ensuring that vaccine goes to those who are most exposed to infected people or infectious materials and preventing vacci...
CLOVIS - Alijah Jasper was scheduled to come into the world Jan. 4 through a C-section delivery at Plains Regional Medical Center. He had other plans, and instead arrived at 8:51 a.m. Friday as PRMC's first baby of 2021. Alijah, who weighed 6 pounds, 2.9 ounces and measured 19'3/4" at birth, is the first male child in the family of Andruw and Beverly Jasper of Logan. He joins his 2-year-old sister Azariah and 12-year-old twin sisters Aailyah and April. The couple knew a boy was coming after the...
On Dec. 20, our preacher spoke about “wonderful” as it’s related to Jesus based on Isaiah 9:6, including that Jesus’ birth was wonderful in his because of the simple location, which we presume to be a stable and not a corral (sheepfold), where there also would be a manger with hay. I then wondered: Why, actually, was Jesus born in a stable or possibly even a sheepfold? The easy answer is, “Because there was no room in the inn (Luke 2:1-7).” The inn wasn’t what we call a hotel; it was likely an upper room in one of Joseph’s Bethlehem relat...
A Tucumcari man accused of leading police on a high-speed chase in town in August had charges against him dismissed last week because time expired for his preliminary examination in court due to COVID-related reasons. The district attorney said charges will be refiled against him. Anthony Martinez, 22, was charged with aggravated fleeing law enforcement, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, criminal damage to property of over $1,000, criminal trespassing and resisting, evading or obstructing an officer. Three of the charges were...
Quay County remained in the red zone in the latest evaluations last week on the statewide COVID-19 map, but it landed on the shortlist of greatest improvement in its per-capita and test-positivity rates for the virus. All but one of New Mexico’s counties — Catron — also remained in the red zone in the evaluation from Dec. 15 to Dec. 28. Catron County improved to the yellow zone, which allows it to reopen restaurants to 25% capacity in indoor dining and other relaxed restrictions. Quay County’s per capita rate of coronavirus cases was 16.7 da...
All year long in her cell in Texas, Lisa Montgomery crochets angels and Christmas tree ornaments and elaborate nativity scenes overrun with more angels. On Christmas Eve, her attorneys called her to say that a judge in Washington, D.C., had ruled that a new execution date for her couldn’t even be scheduled until Jan. 1 at the earliest. Then, she’d have to be given the legally required 20 days notice of that new date, according to the ruling from D.C. District Judge Randolph Moss. It wasn’t clear how much of this Montgomery really under...
This week, we gleefully put behind us a year of closings, cancellations and isolation, and enter a year that gives us hope that at least some social life will return as we chip away at the COVID-19 pandemic. I have tried to make the best of a year spent mostly at home with my wife, our cat and my trusty desktop computer. The computer hosted just about all of my work and leisure life in 2020. I got pretty good at Zoom, interacting with images of others trapped in offices or living rooms, and my work has consisted mostly of covering meetings I...
What a difference a terrible year makes. Last year at this time, my wife, Colleen the travel agent, and I were getting ready to take 40 of her clients on a 15-day cruise out of Dubai to India and back. This year, thanks to the COVID-19 virus and the strict lockdowns imposed to fight it, the world’s travel industry barely exists and Colleen and I will be spending January under house arrest. Unfortunately, house arrest has become the new normal for 40 million Californians. We’ve been locked down, masked up and ordered to stay in our basements for...
The New Mexico Department of Health last week reported the seventh death in Quay County because of COVID-19. According to a news release Wednesday, the latest victim was a man in his 70s who was hospitalized. The agency does not identify confirmed cases or casualties of the disease. It was the second coronavirus death reported in December in the county. Three deaths were reported in November. On Saturday, six confirmed cases of COVID-19 were reported in Quay County — a jump after it appeared the region’s caseload had plateaued starting in mid...
The Quay Apartments in Tucumcari last week filed a lawsuit against Quay County Assessor Janie Hoffman, claiming a wrong assessment is causing it to pay thousands of dollars more in taxes. Quay Apartments LLC at 702 Sunset Road, Tucumcari, filed the complaint Wednesday in the 10th Judicial District Court in Tucumcari. It states Hoffman classified the apartment complex as nonresidential property and assessed it at a nonresidential tax rate. Citing state law in the complaint, the Quay Apartments states “‘residential property’ means property consi...
The owner of a Tucumcari motel torched an effigy of a much-maligned 2020 and mementos of people's misfortunes that year in a bonfire broadcast live over the internet on New Year's Eve. David Brenner, owner of the Roadrunner Lodge Motel, burned about a dozen submitted items Thursday night as the year 2020 - marred by deaths and economic destruction from the COVID-19 pandemic and a tumultuous presidential election - drew to a close. In addition to a handful of people who watched in the motel's...
Quay County government spent all its $152,000 allotment in federal CARES Act funds to cover expenses related to the COVID-19 pandemic before last week’s deadline. Meanwhile, the county earlier last month helped divvy out more than $372,000 in those federal funds to 16 area businesses for their coronavirus-related expenses. County manager Richard Primrose said the county has submitted its last of three reimbursement applications for the county’s COVID-19 expenses due Dec. 30. The county received $152,550 in federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and...
The law firm representing Mesalands Community College last week issued multiple denials to allegations from by the college’s former president in his whistleblower and retaliation lawsuit against the college, and it made new ones against him. The Cuddy & McCarthy law firm, based in Santa Fe, filed a six-page response Wednesday in Tucumcari district court to John Groesbeck’s lawsuit. He sued the college after its board of trustees fired in him in April. In his lawsuit, Groesbeck states he confronted the Mesalands Community College Foundation mem...
These individuals were booked into the Quay County Detention Center from Dec. 28 to Jan. 3: • Danica Rachelle Hogue, 43, Clovis, contempt of court. • Bernie Palomino, 33, Tucumcari, driving under the influence of liquor (second offense), resisting, evading or obstructing an officer (service of process), concealing identity, speeding (over 16-20 mph) and no proof of insurance. • Adam Apodaca, 23, Tucumcari, driving under the influence of drugs (first offense) and careless driving (careless, inattentive or imprudent). • James Dean Cordova...
These calls were made to the Tucumcari-Quay Regional Emergency Communications Center from Dec. 14 to Dec. 19: Monday • 10:15 a.m.: Fraud at South Sixth Street and West Tucumcari Boulevard, Tucumcari. • 10:42 a.m.: Theft in 6200 block of Quay Road AQ, Tucumcari. • 12:08 p.m.: Accident in 400 block of U.S. 54, Logan. • 1:59 p.m.: Threat in 100 block of East High Street, Tucumcari. • 3:27 p.m.: Threat in 200 block of East Estrella Avenue, Tucumcari. • 4:30 p.m.: Threat in 3600 block of Quay Road 63, Tucumcari. • 11:11 p.m.: Shots fired in 700...
