Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
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A Quay County sheriff’s deputy helped a local woman give birth by the side of the road Thursday night after she and her husband couldn’t make it to a hospital on time. Rudy Vallejo, a deputy for about 18 months, said during a telephone interview he was on patrol on Interstate 40 about 8 p.m. Thursday when he heard an emergency dispatcher send an ambulance on Highway 209 south of Tucumcari. He left the interstate and headed south on the highway to see whether he could assist before the ambulance arrived. About six miles east of Ragland, Val...
The New Mexico Department of Health on Thursday reported six confirmed cases of coronavirus in Quay County on a day when the state set a record high with 672 cases. According to the DOH website, the five females and one male who contracted the virus all were in the Tucumcari ZIP code. The age breakdown of the cases was a child younger than age 10, one age 20 to 29, one age 30 to 39, two age 60 to 69 and one age 70 to 79. Quay County remained in the green zone this week for school reopenings. However, the six cases in one day put the county in d...
A fuel vendor’s mistake at the Yesway convenience store in San Jon led to fouled engines for numerous residents and other customers who filled up their diesel vehicles for about a four-day period. A company spokeswoman said the Iowa-based company would reimburse customers for repairs, towing expenses and alternate transportation caused by the flub. She did not know how many customers were affected. The fuel vendor inadvertently put gasoline into a diesel storage tank in front of the store, she said. Steve Kent, owner of S.S. Kent C...
Two proposals to promote Tucumcari via entertainment received funding authorization Thursday from the Tucumcari City Commission. “Bands of Enchantment,” a proposed music television series approved by the New Mexico Public Broadcasting System and primarily featuring New Mexico musicians, received up to $60,000 in city lodgers’ tax proceeds to produce four of eight episodes planned for the series, as recommended by the city’s lodgers’ tax board. Vince Chavez, owner of La Tewa Media LLC, based in Sapello, said the series will be produced...
The Tucumcari Lodgers Tax Advisory Board on Wednesday missed a chance to rent five billboards west of Santa Rosa at a low price after a motion to secure them deadlocked in a 2-2 tie. Concerns from city officials and two board members about being fiscally responsible amid tight budgets during the COVID-19 pandemic ultimately doomed the proposal. Board member Al Patel presented the three-year contract plan of five billboards 30 miles west of Santa Rosa on Interstate 40 that had been used by Flying C Ranch. The billboards could have been secured...
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s office announced it is soliciting applications for two positions on the board of regents for the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. Applicants for the positions must be registered voters in New Mexico. Appointees to boards of regents must be confirmed by the New Mexico state Senate. The deadline for submitting applications is 5 p.m. Oct. 20. Applicants are asked to send a resume, letter of interest, and letters of recommendation to Melissa Salazar, director of Boards and Commissions, at melissa. s...
On this date ... 1970: The Tucumcari Recreation Center hosted a three-hour hearing moderated by highway engineer B.L. Smith where state and local officials discussed details about a new alignment of Interstate 40 and the Highway 66 bypass. • Mayor Kenneth Schlientz said through the cooperation of local photographer Leo Borabaugh, slides had been prepared to show businessmen in other cities to attract plant relocations or expansions in Tucumcari. • The Odeon Theatre in Tucumcari was screening a western comedy, “The Cheyenne Social Club,...
Note: Events subject to change due to the COVID-19 pandemic. • Friday and Oct. 30 — Fall Vendor Market. Tucumcari MainStreet will host three local vendor markets for local food and craft vendors this month, each from 5 to 7 p.m. at the historic Tucumcari Railroad Depot. All state health regulations will be followed, and vendors will be spaced to promote social distancing. For more information, call Connie at (575) 461-3701 or email [email protected]. 100 W. Railroad Ave., Tucumcari. • Saturday — Elks Lodger Shrimp Boil. Each meal in...
The Tucumcari Senior Center and Logan Senior Center remain closed to the public indefinitely but will deliver meals to those who qualify. Those interested in meal deliveries should call the Tucumcari facility at 461-2307 and the Logan facility at 487-2287 for more information. Some area schools are using a hybrid model of online and/or in-person teaching. Tucumcari schools Wednesday — Breakfast: Chocolate-filled crescent roll, fresh apple, orange juice; Lunch: Walking beef tacos, shredded romaine lettuce, fresh tomatoes, salsa, roasted corn, f...
Secrecy fuels suspicion. It’s natural to wonder what happens behind closed doors. After immense public pressure from activists and politicians as well as a court motion by an unidentified juror, Kentucky’s attorney general elected to release a recording of the grand jury proceedings that didn’t result in homicide charges for the officers involved in the killing of Breonna Taylor. (One officer was charged with wanton endangerment for firing through a wall.) Roughly 15 hours of audio includes witness testimony, but not the prosecutor’s recomme...
After hearing the Oct. 6 vice presidential candidates debate by Queensbury rules, I had to ask if I were the only one left wondering if vice presidential candidates should have been leading their tickets, especially after the barroom behavior of the ticket headers the week before. The best part of the vice presidential debate wasn’t the fly on Vice President Mike Pence’s head, it was the debate — the usual kind between candidates, complete with talking points, verbal jabs at each other and the tops of their tickets, deflections and dodge...
The Kamala Harris-Mike Pence death match will go down in history as another forgettable vice presidential debate, but it had its pluses. It showed us two important things we already knew. It showed us that Vice President Pence is a smart, sober and able defender of Donald Trump and his record at home and overseas. And it showed us that Sen. Harris is an empty pants suit who likes to laugh and smirk, play the race and gender cards, hide her own leftwing politics and blame the Trump administration for everything that’s wrong with the world. T...
Noting a large increase in coronavirus cases in recent weeks, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said Thursday the state was “at extreme risk of uncontrolled spread” of the disease and feared a rollback of restrictions this week, including imposing a curfew, if the daily caseload didn't show signs of stability. Two confirmed cases were reported Saturday in Quay County — one a child under 10 years old and the other person age 60 to 69. Both were in the Tucumcari ZIP code. The governor and Human Services Secretary David Scrase said New Mexico's virus...
Homonyms, also called homophones and homographs, are words that sound the same but have different meanings and usually different spellings (for example, bear, as in carry; bear, as in Smokey; and bare, as in naked). I was recently reminded that homonyms can be fun when one of my devotional writers used the words “hole” and “whole” in an article, although, they made no connection about them being homonyms. So I thought I’d write an article about biblical use of “hole” and “whole” and their homonymic variations, although I can’t even begin...
The Tucumcari Talking Tour is approaching its fundraising goal to buy a historic neon sign that once graced the Trav-O-Tel Motel along U.S. 54 in town. The 10-foot-tall "MOTEL" sign once hung on the ornamental stone chimney of the motel that now is the K9 Design Dog Grooming business at 1001 E. Main St. It also hung for years on the Historic Route 66 Motel on the city's Route 66 corridor. The sign had been listed on eBay last month for almost $3,000 until locals, including Karen Alarcon at...
The Intimate Partner Violence Task Force, a committee of the Quay County Health Council, is launching an awareness campaign in conjunction with Domestic Violence Awareness Month. In March, the task force conducted a community readiness survey around the issue of intimate partner violence. “The process was very eye-opening,” coordinator Brenda Bishop stated in a news release. “It highlighted what resources were available and how hard it was to locate local data on the issue.” During the process, the task force identified resources, communi...
New Mexico’s Secretary of State last week warned of false information about social media about early voting for the general election. “We received reports today of a post on Facebook by a local New Mexico group claiming that Gov. Lujan Grisham was planning to shut down polling locations throughout the state on Oct. 15, 2020. This information is completely false,” Maggie Toulouse Oliver stated in a news release Wednesday. Absentee voting and early in-person voting began at county clerks’ offices, including Quay County, on Oct. 6, with wider e...
The New Mexico Public Education Department announced Wednesday it awarded school nutrition grants to the Tucumcari, Logan and House school districts to expand programs to buy food directly from local farmers, food hubs or cooperatives and distributors. These grants were announced for Quay County school districts: • Tucumcari Public Schools, $4,983; • Logan Municipal Schools, $1,661; • House Municipal Schools, $623. A total of 53 grants totaling $332,000 were awarded to school districts across the state. The Student Success and Wellness Burea...
These calls were made to the Tucumcari-Quay Regional Emergency Communications Center from Oct. 5 to Oct. 11: Monday • 12:07 a.m.: Theft in 400 block of West Turner Avenue, Tucumcari. • 12:34 a.m.: Domestic disturbance in 700 block of West Sunset Avenue, Tucumcari. • 9:44 a.m.: Theft in 200 block of South U.S. 54, Logan. • 10:01 a.m.: Fraud in 200 block of East Center Street, Tucumcari. • 12:58 p.m.: Reckless driving in 1600 block of South Jackson Street, Tucumcari. • 3:29 p.m.: Arrest warrant in 300 block of East Center Street, Tucumcari....
These individuals were booked into the Quay County Detention Center from Oct. 5 to Oct. 11: • Danford Cross Jr., 35, Tucumcari, contempt of court. • Kristopher Jaquarias Morris, 24, Tucumcari, three counts of contempt of court. • Kazmierz Nizynski, 48, Tucumcari, two counts of contempt of court. • Michael Anthony Romero, 31, Tucumcari, aggravated battery against a household member (great bodily harm), resisting, evading or obstructing an officer and warrant from other counties or states. • Danford Cross Jr., 35, Tucumcari, driving while und...
The first domino fell on New Mexico’s fall high school sports season Wednesday, and the rest fell Thursday. The New Mexico Activities Association announced Wednesday the fall season's first prep sports events scheduled for Saturday were canceled because Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham hadn't signed off on them. The next day, citing a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases statewide, Lujan Grisham said she wouldn't update the state's public health order regarding high-school sports, thus effectively delaying all fall games until at least early 2021. One d...
Quay County commissioners and the commission’s lobbyist on Monday discussed state legislative priorities for the upcoming 60-day session in January, including the possibility of scaling back the governor’s powers during public health emergencies. Kathy Elliott, a lobbyist at Clinton D. Harden & Associates of Clovis, said she wanted to hear counties’ concerns earlier than normal because of additional difficulties in contacting legislators during the COVID-19 pandemic. Harden is a former state senator. County commissioner Sue Dowell said state...
Vaquero Asador served its first dinner Friday night - a culmination of bringing back a restaurant at the Quality Inn hotel in Tucumcari after its predecessor, The Branding Iron, closed in January. Todd Duplantis, who also owns Cornerstone First Edition and Kix on 66 restaurants in Tucumcari and serves as a city commissioner, acknowledged keeping a low profile for the restaurant for several weeks while gradually reopening it at the hotel at 3716 E. Tucumcari Blvd. The restaurant's name...
Many judges often breeze to retention during their elections. That may not be the case for Judge Albert Mitchell Jr. of the 10th Judicial District, which oversees cases in Quay, Harding and De Baca counties. He faces such a retention vote during the general election Nov. 3. County Clerk Ellen White said Mitchell needs a simple majority that favors retention to keep his post. Not only have voters decided to not retain Mitchell before, but also the New Mexico Supreme Court censured him in April...
Citing a rise of coronavirus cases statewide, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Tuesday announced an extension of the public health order and new restrictions on hotel occupancy limits, a 10 p.m. closing time for restaurants that serve alcohol and a reduction of public gatherings ban from 10 to five, effective Friday. The governor's office announced the new restrictions via email. She stated more details would be announced during her regular briefing Thursday. New Mexico recorded a record-high 483 confirmed cases of COVID-19 on...
