Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
Sorted by date Results 1 - 20 of 20
The Tucumcari City Commission previously was considering a $1.50-an-hour raise for all city employees to make their pay more competitive in the regional marketplace. Now the commission is taking a look at $2.50-an-hour raises, especially for its police officers. Commissioners during a work session Thursday ultimately asked acting city manager Mark Martinez and Finance Director Rachelle Arias to look at the fiscal effect of $2.50 raises for officers or the entire city staff before they make set a budget and submit it to the state during its...
The Tucumcari school board last week approved revised student regulations on dress codes for the 2022-2023 school year but delayed action on hair styles and tattoos until members could discuss it further at its August meeting. Board members, who agreed dress-code revisions were overdue during its June meeting, unanimously approved the new regulations for tops and bottoms during its July 18 meeting so parents could go shopping for clothes before the school year begins in mid-August. However, board members expressed misgivings about revised...
Mesalands Community College’s president told the board of trustees during its regular meeting last week the college earlier that day had landed a $700,000 grant to help launch its nursing program. Mesalands President Gregg Busch said during the board’s July 19 meeting he received a phone call just an hour before from an official with the New Mexico Higher Education Department about the grant. He said the grant will be confirmed later by the governor’s Cabinet secretary. Busch said a one-time allotment of $500,000 from that grant will be used to...
Simon the sorceror in Acts 8 has the distinction of having a particular sin named after him, “simony.” Note to self: There are things you don’t want to be remembered for. One of them would be messing up so badly that your name is associated with a type of sin from now on. Simon’s sin was offering money in exchange for spiritual authority. In doing so, he was seeking to circumvent the order that Jesus Christ set down for his followers in the upper room. It was there that he clothed himself like a slave and served his people, by washing their fee...
A veteran folksinger who has rubbed elbows with Bob Dylan and Judy Collins early in their careers recently wrote and recorded a song about an indelible moment he experienced in eastern Quay County nearly 70 years ago. John Winn, 88, earlier this month uploaded a video to his new song, "Tucumcari Wind," recorded in a friend's studio near Winn's Grand Junction, Colorado, home. Since going live on YouTube, the song wracked up more than 500 views in less than 10 days. Accompanied by mandolin, piano...
On this date ... 1972: A Philadelphia man died and two others were being treated at Trigg Memorial Hospital after a two-vehicle crash on U.S. 66 one mile east of Bard. The accident occurred when one of the vehicles attempted to pass a truck in a no-passing zone at the top of a hill. The man’s body was shipped back to his home in Pennsylvania by a TWA flight from Amarillo. • A man from Peoria, Illinois, was injured and hospitalized after he was clipped by a westbound Rock Island Railroad train while walking along the tracks near San Jon. The...
Note: Events subject to change due to the COVID-19 pandemic. • Friday-Saturday — Quay County 4-H Rodeo. Events start each day at 5 p.m. at the Quay County Fairgrounds arena in Tucumcari. Concessions will be available. • Saturday — Down at the Depot. This event will feature live music, food trucks and arts and crafts booths in the Tucumcari Historic Railroad Depot near Second and Main streets. Festivities begin at 4 p.m. • Aug. 4-7 — Tucumcari Rattler Reunion. This annual event for all Rattler alumni primarily will take place at the Tucumcari C...
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 — Kraut dog, California vegetables, baked fries, strawberries and bananas. Thursday — Lasagna, mixed vegetables, garden salad with dressing, French bread, plum cobbler. Friday — Chicken strips, mashed potatoes with gravy, whole-wheat roll with margarine, oatmeal cookie. Monday — Ham...
Tucumcari police jailed a local woman after she was accused of letting a toddler in her care wander away from his home and down a street by himself twice during 100-degree weather. Michaela Brownfield, 26, of Tucumcari, was charged July 19 with abuse of a child – negligently caused (no death or great bodily harm) after being booked into Quay County Detention Center the previous day. That charge is a third-degree felony that can lead up to three years in prison and up to a $5,000 fine. According to a complaint filed by Tucumcari Police p...
Quay County again saw elevated case numbers of COVID-19, with another 34 cases and three more deaths confirmed by the state last week. That compares to the 33 cases and three deaths during the previous week. It was the third consecutive week more than 25 cases were reported in the county. The COVID Act Now website on Friday also raised Quay County’s risk level from “moderate” to “high” for spread of the disease, as it did for the rest of New Mexico. The website raised the county’s risk level for two successive weeks. The total number of c...
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador wants to take full credit for the recent capture of notorious drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero. But the signs point to some degree of cooperation between the U.S. and Mexican governments. At any rate, we welcome Caro Quintero’s arrest and other recent developments as evidence that the U.S. and Mexico are taking steps to mend their relationship despite what López Obrador’s rhetoric suggests. Caro Quintero is no average drug lord. He served 28 years in prison for the 1985 kidnapping and killing of U.S...
It feels like the future is being pulled in two directions at once. Things are getting better, while things also feel like they are getting worse. Both are probably true. I’m not so naive as to believe this is something new. Looking back at history I see how every era of the past had opposing forces pulling in different directions, fighting to shape the future. Two steps forward and one step back, as one or the other got the upper hand for a time. I do believe the long-term trend -- with notable exceptions -- has been toward a better future. A...
The Governor’s Office recently boasted of record-setting in-state spending from the filmmaking industry. And while a good chunk of that is going into the Rio Grande Corridor, where Netflix and other filmmakers have set up shop, smaller cities and towns are benefiting as well. According to state figures, the film, television and digital media production industry pumped $855.4 million in “direct spending” into the New Mexico economy in fiscal year 2020-21, an impressive leap from $626.5 million in FY 2020-21, and eclipsing the $292 million spent...
It’s time to usher in the Donnie Garcia era for Tucumcari High School football. Garcia, a football coach at Tucumcari Middle School for 12 years and an assistant coach for the high-school football program for four years, was named head coach of the Rattlers gridiron team on Friday. He succeeds Wayne Ferguson, who stepped down from the post in May after 10 seasons with a 26-71 record, including 1-9 last season. Ferguson will remain as athletic director through mid-2023, at which point he said he will retire. In the past few years, Garcia h...
Two Quay County 4-H teams captured state championships during the 2022 state 4-H conference in Las Cruces earlier this month. The range team of Rilee Nials, Payson Nials, MiKayla Klinger and Destinee Scioli won a state title in its competition. The range team is judged by identifying plants suitable for pasture. Rilee Nials also was the high-point individual of the competition. Payson Nials was runner-up, and Klinger finished fourth. Quay County's agronomy team of Payton Oliver, Ashton Smith,...
Work began last week on a long-delayed baseball and softball park development project on Tucumcari's west side. Work started the morning of July 18 in clearing trees. During his superintendent's report at a school board meeting later that evening, Aaron McKinney said a long-awaited survey on the site had been finished, and the Tucumcari City Commission soon would approve the deed of its property to the school district, likely at its July 28 meeting. Voters approved a $3 million bond issue in...
A Tucumcari High School robotics team recently finished sixth overall at a world competition in Oklahoma - the highest finish ever for a New Mexico squad. The Tucumcari 805 team of sophomores Aaron Chand and Justin Keith and junior Nolan Ryen - one of four teams from the Tucumcari-based Diamondback STEM club - finished sixth of 48 teams, including from Austria and Australia, at the Global Conference of Educational Robotics competition in Norman, Oklahoma. The Tucumcari 805 squad also received...
In a bit of housekeeping, Quay County Commission on Monday approved resolutions approving the final quarter financial report and adopting the final budget for fiscal year 2022. Cheryl Simpson, the county’s finance director, said the only change to the final budget was the creation of a hospital improvement fund that contains $1 million. That fund was created several weeks ago to plan and design for a new facility to eventually replace an aging Trigg Memorial Hospital in Tucumcari. She said the budget also accounted for a $1-an-hour pay i...
These calls were made to the Tucumcari-Quay Regional Emergency Communications Center from July 17 to July 24: Monday — 8:38 a.m.: Arrest warrant in 300 block of South Third Street, Tucumcari. — 11:02 a.m.: Arrest warrant in 100 block of South Monroe Street, Tucumcari. — 11:31 a.m.: Fight at milepost 314, U.S. 54, Tucumcari. — 2 p.m.: Shots fired in 200 block of South Third Street, Tucumcari. — 3:44 p.m.: Juvenile problem in 1100 block of South Second Street, Tucumcari. Tuesday — 2:05 a.m.: Vandalism in 800 block of East Rankin Avenue, Tucumcari...
These individuals were booked into the Quay County Detention Center from July 18 to July 21: — Ernest L. Arguello, 71, Tucumcari, contempt of court. — David K. Garcia, 51, Tucumcari, contempt of court. — Michaela Brownfield, 26, Tucumcari, child abuse – negligently cause (no death or great bodily harm). — Charles J. Gutierrez, 44, Tucumcari, felony contempt of court. — Lodrick Ibrahimu, 21, Albuquerque, contempt of court. — Scott Cain Garcia, 23, Tucumcari, contempt of court. — Billy Jack Baca, 42, Tucumcari, contempt of court. — Francisca Don...
