Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
cowsingreenweb
link Cattle graze in June 2014 on deep green grass in a Quay County field. Despite more grazing grass due to improved rainfall this year, herds are not likely to grow soon. Ranchers are cautious.
Here are the top Quay County Sun stories of 2014 (click on the the titles below to see stories. Click on "Go to Top" after each story to return to the title list):
linkTony Day sentencedlinkRain brings benefitslinkCopter crashlinkHampton Inn firelinkElection resultslinkUte LakelinkTucumcari Commission changeslinkSpecial election,emergency dispatch serviceslinkJudge MitchelllinkFelonies and JusticelinkBusiness newslinkLesser prairie chickenlinkSame-sex marriageslinkRockabilly on the RoutelinkLynn Moncus dieslinkScott BidegainlinkCops and CoatslinkFired Up!linkRailroad DayslinkMesalands Community College
linkTony Day sentenced
Tony Day, 15, who killed his adoptive mother and sister in November 2012, was sentenced on Aug. 14 to be incarcerated and treated by the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department until he is 21.
Tenth Judicial District Judge Albert Mitchell accepted Day’s plea of guilty to two counts of first-degree murder before passing sentence. It was the maximum allowed by law.
Day killed his adoptive mother, Sue Day, and her daughter, Sherry Folts, on Nov. 26, 2012. Folts died of asphyxiation and stab wounds. Sue Day was shot to death. Tony Day was 14 when he committed the slayings.
On July 25, Mitchell decided after hearing three days of testimony that Day would likely respond well to behavioral health treatment and that Day would be sentenced as a juvenile if he were found guilty of murder.
Day’s age at the time of the slayings gave Mitchell some discretion in whether Day should be treated as an adult or a juvenile, he said.
Family members of the victims read statements after Day received his sentence, expressing outrage at the judge’s decision.
John Wilson, Bobbi’s husband, said of Tony Day, “He thinks like an adult. He brutally murdered Sue and Sherry and planned it like an adult, and yet the court has deemed him a juvenile. I would like the court to (impose) the maximum sentence it can impose on him.”
Another daughter, Sabra Williams, said in a statement read to the court, “The only thing my family did wrong was to care and try to give him (Tony Day) a family to be part of and show him that not everybody just throws you away.”
Mitchell said while he would give the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department discretion in Day’s rehabilitation program, he would honor a request from Tenth Judicial District Attorney Tim Rose to recommend Day remain in custody until he turns 21 and require that Rose be informed any time Day’s location is changed in order to protect family members living in the Albuquerque area.
When Mitchell announced his decision to sentence Day as a juvenile in July, he said he had to consider factors that included past abuse and neglect, home life and social and emotional health, due to Day’s age.
Home life in the Day household, he said, was chaotic, which was the wrong atmosphere for Tony Day after he had experienced traumatic abuse and neglect as a younger child, and constant shuffling between homes as a foster child.
The Day home, he said, was chaotic before Tony was adopted and after he was adopted, Mitchell said, not faulting the Days, who, he said, were foster parents to as many as five children of varying ages at a time.
Other factors that went into his decision, Mitchell said, include Day’s exemplary record as a student and athlete, and his clean criminal record.
On Dec. 15, the mobile homes in which Day killed Sue Day and Folts, and where the family lived, burned to the ground.
The mobile homes, abandoned on Dec. 15, were leveled by a fire that started in a corner of one of the mobile homes just before 3 a.m. The fire then spread rapidly through both buildings, which were attached to each other, according to the Rev. John Hinze, chief of the Rural District 1 Fire Department.
Deputy Fire Marshal Randy Arnold said Tuesday the fire is under investigation.
linkRain brings benefits
Near-normal rainfall beginning in late 2013 and extending into 2014 resulted in reassuring rises in Ute and Conchas lake levels and for Quay County farmers who irrigate from Arch Hurley Conservancy District facilities, their first crop in four years. Cattle ranchers, while encouraged by increased rainfall, were still hesitant to increase herd sizes that have been greatly reduced or eliminated due to years of drought.
The rainfall allowed Arch Hurley to allocate 15 inches of irrigation water in 2014 to each of its members’ 42,000 acres—the district’s first water allocation in four years. That resulted in the first harvests of irrigated corn, haygrazer feed, sunflowers, milo and alfalfa crops since 2010.
McCasland estimates the immediate economic impact of increased rainfall in Quay County between $10 and $13 million, including purchases of seed, vehicle fuel to plant and harvest, and added labor to harvest the crops.
In the three years before 2014, drought conditions kept Conchas Lake’s level below the elevation at which allocations to Arch Hurley customers would be allowed. Conchas Lake is the district’s source of irrigation water.
Amanda Martin, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said the whole state enjoyed a stronger “monsoonal surge” this year, compared to previous years, due to favorable patterns occurring in the upper atmosphere.
McCasland said cattle growers had grass for grazing and enough milo and haygrazer after feeding their own livestock to supply dairies and feedlots, earning additional profits.
Nonetheless cattle herd sizes did not increase in 2014. In its cattle count of June 10, the Quay County Assessor’s office showed 31,098 head in the county. In October 2013, the assessor’s office recorded 32,767 head, County Assessor Janie Hoffman said.
Local ranchers said that while rebuilding of herds always takes time, they are hesitant to begin the rebuilding process based on one good year after 13 years of subnormal rainfall. One good year does not end the drought, they say.
Rainfall during June and July increased the elevation at both Conchas and Ute lakes. In July, Conchas Lake was at 4,180 feet above sea level, the highest it had been in nearly a decade.
Ute Lake’s elevation had risen to nearly 3,780 feet above sea level, said Rex Stall, Ute Reservoir caretaker.
U.S. Geological Survey information showed Ute Lake’s level at 3,778 feet above sea level on Monday. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers showed Conchas Lake’s elevation at 4,177 feet above sea level on Monday.
linkCopter crash
7-17--The National Transportation Safety Board on Tuesday was continuing its investigation of a helicopter crash July 17 near Newkirk that claimed the lives of three employees of Tristate CareFlight, a helicopter medical flight service that serves Dan C. Trigg Memorial Hospital in Tucumcari.
New Mexico State Police identified the crash victims as David Cavigneaux, 46, of Rio Rancho; Rebecca Serkey, 29 of Rio Rancho; and James Butler, 46, of Albuquerque.
The three were flying from Santa Fe to Tucumcari to pick up a patient when their helicopter crashed into a mesa and burst into flames about two miles north of Newkirk, 34 miles from Tucumcari. The crash occurred about 2:50 a.m.
John Cole, Tristate’s director of business development, said the helicopter had been dispatched from Santa Fe to Tucumcari because the crew normally based in Tucumcari was responding to another service call. An aircraft from another service was dispatched to pick up the Tucumcari patient when Tristate learned that something had gone wrong with the flight from Santa Fe, Cole said.
Crash investigations can take up to 18 months, Keith Holloway, an NTSB spokesperson, said.
The FAA said the cause of the crash was unknown, but the National Weather Service said there were low clouds and gusty winds, and possibly rain in the area at the time.
linkHampton Inn fire
Tucumcari’s Hampton Inn motel was destroyed by fire in the early morning of July 16, and all guests in the motel’s 50 occupied rooms made it to safety before flames burned completely through the roof.
With all but eight of the motel’s 58 rooms occupied when the fire broke out, all guests and employees were evacuated without injuries, Tucumcari Fire Chief Larry Rigdon said. Rigdon declared the incident over about 6 p.m. July 16.
Randy Arnold, a state fire marshal’s investigator, said the fire started with a lightning strike on the top of the hotel’s southwest corner.
Rigdon said about 30 firefighters responded from the Tucumcari Fire Department and the Rural 1 Fire District.
One of the motel’s owners, Nitin Bhakta, said that while he was grateful no one was injured, the motel was “a total disaster” as a result of the fire.
Rigdon said floors of several third-floor rooms had crashed through to the first floor as firefighters directed streams of water at the flames on the roof through most of the morning.
Fire crews arrived minutes after police did, Tucumcari Police Sgt. Paul Bell said.
Assistant Fire Chief Scot Jaynes said he and other firefighters alerted the last of the guests. While none were injured, many guests had to leave luggage, wallets, cash, credit cards and even car keys in the rooms in the rush to get out. Some third-floor guests said there was smoke in the air as they made their way through the hallway.
Tim Hooten of the Tucumcari First Baptist Church said he and other volunteers were helping guests to find clothes, shoes and phones to contact family members.
linkOther Fires
The building that housed Stuckeys and the Dairy Queen at Palomas, eight miles west of Tucumcari, was destroyed by fire on April 20. Fire officials received the first alarm shortly after 11 a.m. Sunday, according to the Rev. John Hinze, chief of the Quay County Rural I fire department. Eleven units from Rural I, Rural II, Rural III, Tucumcari Fire Dept. and the Bard-Endee helped fight the blaze. Hinze said about 20 volunteer firefighters responded, and crews stayed until about 5 p.m. The cause of the fire was suspicious, Hinze said.
Two abandoned Tucumcari motels burned to the ground in separate fires on Sept. 3 and Sept. 5. An abandoned house was left charred but still standing in a Sept. 3 fire that occurred about an hour before the first motel blaze.
The cause of all three fires is suspicious, Tucumcari Fire Chief Larry Rigdon said.
The abandoned Payless Inn in Tucumcari and an the abandoned house were destroyed in fires that occurred within an hour of each other in the early hours of Sept. 3. The Tucumcari Motel building at Adams and Smith streets, Tucumcari burned to the ground in a fire that began at around 11 p.m. Friday night.
A former Tucumcari Police officer, Dustin “Dusty” Lopez and two others have been charged with arson in the Payless Inn fire.
On Sept. 26, an abandoned house at East Main and South Dawson streets, Tucumcari, was destroyed and a second abandoned building damaged in suspicious fires, according to Larry Rigdon, Tucumcari Fire Chief.
Rigdon said the fires brought the total of suspicious fires in the city within one month to five. While firefighters were extinguishing the Main and Dawson fire, a second fire was reported at an abandoned building on the 600 block of South Dawson.
Rigdon said firefighters were able to extinguish the second fire before it destroyed the building, but there was fire and water damage to its interior. Both fires were declared suspicious in origin, he said.
Tucumcari Fire Department firefighters extinguished two fires on Nov. 28 and Dec. 1 in different parts of the city.
A fire of suspicious origin struck a shed behind an abandoned home Dec. 1 in the 600 block of South Eighth Street.
Only the shed was damaged, Tucumcari Assistant Fire Chief Scot Jaynes said.
Jaynes said three Tucumcari firefighting units and 12 firefighters responded to the blaze, and Rural District 1 sent three units and seven or eight personnel.
On Nov. 28, fire struck an equipment room at the Tucumcari Quality Inn on the 3700 block of east Route 66.
Damage was confined to the room, Jaynes said. There were no evacuations, but some guests were moved to new rooms, according to hotel employees.
linkElection results
Municipal elections, March 4
Tucumcari voters elected two new commissioners, replaced a commissioner and kept a third, and retained the city’s municipal judge by a margin of more than 4 to 1 over his closest challenger, unofficial vote totals show.
Municipal Judge Joe Dominguez retained the bench, garnering 471 votes. Challengers Gary Southern and Danford Cross received 85 votes and 72 votes, respectively
One incumbent commissioner, District 3’s Ernest Dominguez, lost his seat. Dominguez was defeated in a three-way race, losing to Ruth Ann Litchfield. The third candidate was Edward Perea.
In District 5, where incumbent Mayor Amiel Curnutt did not run, John Mihm was elected over three other candidates.
District 4 Commissioner Robert Lumpkin easily retained his seat in an 83-32 victory over challenger Thomas Even.
In San Jon, the only other Quay County community in which there was a contested position, Mayor Billie Jo Barnes maintained her seat, defeating Darrell Musick, 28-15. Therese Schleizer ran unopposed for her village council seat, receiving 29 votes, according to Village Clerk Cynthia Lee.
In Logan, all three village council candidates ran unopposed, Mayor David Babb, 63 votes; Apolonio Ramirez, 67 votes; and Rosemary Lower, 64 votes, according to Angelina Cordova, village clerk-treasurer.
In House, incumbents Judy Morrow and Hilous Hargrove ran unopposed. There were 12 votes cast, Anita Allen, village clerk reported, but she did not have totals for each candidate.
Primary election, June 3
Democrat Nathan Wallace was elected to face Republican Russell D. Shafer in the race for Quay County Sheriff in the Nov. 4 general election, which Shafer won in November, and Republican Franklin McCasland virtually won election to Quay County Commission seat for District 3.
McCasland beat out primary opponent Warren E. “Lucky” Carter by a vote of 457 to 322. No Democrats ran for the seat. Incumbent Brad Bryant did not run.
Wallace won in a six-way race to win the Democratic primary, garnering 290 votes. His closest competitor was Dennis Smart, who received 226 votes.
Shafer beat out opponent Juan Barreras by a 606 to 125 vote.
Voter turnout was good for the primary election, with about 37 percent of eligible voters casting ballots, according to Ellen White, chief assistant county clerk. She said 39 percent of registered Republicans and 35 percent of registered Democrats cast votes in Tuesday’s primary, In all, 1,029 Democrats cast votes out of 2,938 registered. A total of 792 Republicans voted out of 2,047 registered, she said.
In the 2012 primary, Democratic turnout was 36 percent—1,100 votes out of 3,030 registered voters. Republican turnout was 39 percent — 769 voters out of 1,960 registered voters.
General election Nov. 4
Quay County voters elected Russell Shafer to be Sheriff of Quay County for the next four years and voted to oust Tenth Judicial District Judge Albert Mitchell.
Voter turnout was 2,731, or 45 percent of eligible voters, Chief Deputy County Clerk Ellen White said. White said the turnout was about average for a mid-term election.
Shafer won by exactly 100 votes in the unofficial count Monday—1,379 votes to Wallace’s 1279, a margin of 3 percent of the 2,658 votes cast in the race.
Mitchell declined to comment, except to acknowledge that he did not receive enough votes to be retained.
In all three counties of the Tenth Judicial District , 1,884 voted to remove Mitchell, and 1880 voted to retain him. The counties include Quay, Harding and DeBaca counties.
A majority of Quay County voters—1,341 voted to remove Mitchell and 1,248 voted to retain him.
According to county clerks’ offices in Harding and DeBaca counties, Mitchell received a 284 to 198 vote to retain in Harding County but a 348 to 345 in favor of his removal in DeBaca County.
Since state law would have required Mitchell to receive 57 percent of the vote, the margin of four votes against retention in preliminary results indicate he may be removed from the bench.
Unopposed in Quay County races were Republican District 3 Quay County Commissioner candidate Franklin McCasland (2,004 votes), Republican county assessor candidate Vic Baum (2,153 votes), Republican state Rep. Dennis Roch (2,165 votes), Democrat Magistrate Judge David Joel Garnett (2,061 votes), Democrat County Probate Judge Nelda Burson (1,821 votes), and Republican Public Regulation Commissioner Patrick H. Lyons (1,987 votes).
Quay County’s Jefferson Byrd received 1,527 votes in Quay County in his quest to unseat U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, who received 1,107 votes in the county. Lujan retained his seat.
In state races, Quay County voters contributed 1,820 votes to Republican Gov. Susana Martinez’s victory over Democratic Gov. Gary King, who received 858 votes in the county. Quay County voters cast 1,557 votes for Republican Allen Weh for U.S. Senate and 1,125 votes for incumbent Democrat Sen. Tom Udall. Martinez retained the governor’s position, and Udall retained his house seat in the statewide vote.
linkUte Lake
As construction nears completion on the $14-million intake structure designed eventually to draw water from Ute Lake for a journey south to Roosevelt and Curry counties, Quay County interests continue to worry about the project’s impact on the lake’s recreational uses.
After a federal court of appeals in Denver refused to reverse a decision in August giving the green light to construction of the intake structure in August, Quay county opponents of the project received a second blow in October.
That was when the Interstate Streams Commmission took over a $50,000 capital outlay designed to finance an independent study of the lake’s capacity to give up water for the Ute Lake Projects. Those funds were earmarked for a study to be managed by the village of Logan, state Rep. Dennis Roch, who engineered the outlay, said.
“This was not my intention at all,” Roch said. “I supported the funding with the legislative intent that the village of Logan would get money, set parameters for the study and hire a firm to conduct it independently.
“I have made calls to the governor to clarify this situation and explain to her that this was not my intent for the money when I supported the appropriation,” Roch said.
“The intent for the request for this money was to have an independent, new study done to produce current and relevant data,” Larry Wallin, Logan’s village manager, said. “It was not intended for the use of updating or collaborating with an existing study.”
Quay County, Tucumcari and Logan are pooling funds to finance their own study.
Quay County community representatives are concerned that sending more than 16,000 acre feet of water to Curry and Roosevelt counties every year could drain the lake below the level required to maintain recreational activities on the lake.
Mayor Robert Lumpkin said those activities support as many as 400 jobs in Quay County.
Quay County officials question the validity of a study done in 1994 that showed the lake could tolerate the loss of 16,000 acre-feet per year. The Eastern New Mexico Rural Water Utility Authority has said the 1994 study is still valid, but Quay County officials said the last 13 years of drought call into question the ability of the 1994 study to predict the lake’s capacity.
The Ute Pipeline Project, which would deliver the water to users in Curry and Roosevelt counties, is a $500-million, 20-year project.
The southern counties are looking for new water sources as the Ogalalla Aquifer, their current water source, continues to shrink.
Progress continues in Curry and Roosevelt counties on the project’s second phase, a groundwater pipeline, is nearly complete and construction should begin within the next 18 months.
“The authority is confident in the existing studies and data and will continue to move forward,” Brumfield said.
linkTucumcari Commission changes
The Tucumcari City Commission ended a period of conflict and started acting with unity in 2014 after a recall election eliminated one commissioner, another resigned, one lost his seat in a municipal election, and one, Mayor Amiel Curnutt, did not seek re-election.
The city commission now includes only one member, Mayor Robert Lumpkin, who was on the commission at the end of 2013.
On Jan. 2, 2014, voters in City Commission District 2 ousted their commissioner Jimmy Sandoval. Commissioner Dora Salinas-McTigue, District 1, survived a recall vote in the same low-turnout election. Sandoval was recalled by a vote of 60 for his recall and 50 against. Salinas-McTigue retained her commission seat by a vote of 42 for her recall and 49 against. Both had been elected in 2012 to serve terms that end in 2016.
On Feb. 27, the commission unanimously selected Amy Gutierrez to replace Sandoval as District 2’s commissioner. Her term now expires in 2016.
On March 18, two newly elected commissioners, John Mihm,representing Curnutt’s District 5 after winning a five-way race, and Ruth Ann Litchfield, who unseated incumbent Ernie Dominguez to represent District 3, took their commission seats. On the motion of Salinas-McTigue, who had been an antagonist of Curnutt and Lumpkin, the commission elected Lumpkin to be the new mayor. Litchfield was elected Mayor Pro Tem.
A week later, on March 25, Salinas-McTigue resigned from the commission, citing urgent family health matters.
”It is not an easy decision to make, but my family comes first,” she said.
On May 13, after interviewing three candidates, the commission unanimously voted to appoint Rick Haymaker to take Salinas-McTigue’s District 1 seat.
Since that time, the commission has taken unanimous votes on every matter it has acted on, including the hiring of Jared Langenegger as the city manager in October. Langenegger, who had been the region manager of New Mexico State Parks’ northeast region, replaced Doug Powers, who had been the city manager since 2012.
Powers’ temporary firing in Fall 2013, which was reversed two weeks later, triggered months of divisive bickering among city commissioners. Powers remains on the city staff as assistant city manager.
linkSpecial election, emergency dispatch services.
Quay County voters decided on Sept. 23 to impose a one-quarter of 1 percent gross receipts tax on county businesses to fund operations of the emergency radio dispatch system that serves Quay County and parts of Harding County.
The tax is expected to bring in about $370,000 to pay most of the $500,000 required annually to operate the emergency communications dispatch center, Richard Primrose, county manager, said.
The vote total countywide was 286 in favor of the tax increase and 251 against. In Tucumcari, however, the measure was opposed by 134 votes to 67 votes in favor. The measure won in all other polling places. On Wednesday, the Quay County Commission affirmed the totals in a canvass of the vote.
While funds from the tax are accumulated, the emergency dispatch center continues to be operated by the city of Tucumcari and is manned by police department personnel under the supervision of acting Tucumcari Fire Chief Scot Jaynes.
Before the tax was passed, dispatch center operations were financed by the city of Tucumcari and Quay County, which each paid 45 percent of the center’s costs, with the remaining 10 percent coming from the villages of Logan and San Jon, and Harding County. Financing the dispatch center an independent agency with its own funding source will avoid raising taxes among other jurisdictions to fund needed improvements for the facility and make the facility eligible for other grants and loans, Larry Wallin, Logan’s village manager said.
The Tucumcari/Quay Regional Emergency Communication Board, made up of representatives from the agencies that use the system, currently oversees the central dispatch system, and, Wallin said, with the dispatch center independently financed, the board would have more direct control over the management of the facility.
linkJudge Mitchell
Tenth Judicial District Judge Albert Mitchell failed to win retention in the Nov. 4 general election, but he is still trying to keep his job.
Mitchell and Don Schutte, the former judge Mitchell defeated in a 2008 election to take the bench, are now awaiting Gov. Susana Martinez’s decision on which one will assume the district’s only judge position.
Both were recommended by a judicial nominating commission that interviewed both candidates on Dec. 11.
As of Dec. 29, the governor had not announced a decision.
The Tenth District includes Quay, Harding and De Baca counties and is the only judicial district in New Mexico with a single judge.
Opposition to Mitchell’s retention surfaced in October a few weeks before the general election when a group called the Committee for Law and Order began an advertising and direct mail campaign against Mitchell. Mitchell responded with a counter-campaign.
In the general election, Mitchell failed to receive the 57 percent majority he would have needed to retain his seat.
Mitchell submitted his name for nomination, as he said, to fill the vacancy left by his failure to be retained. His application survived a supreme court challenge filed by Warren Frost, representing the Committee for Law and Order, and Mitchell interviewed to replace himself before the nominating commission. The court said the time to challenge Mitchell’s application would be after the governor announces an appointee.
linkFelonies and Justice
Randall Jones
A jury on May 22 convicted Tucumcari resident Randall Jones, 23, of first-degree murder in the July 9, 2011, slaying of Shirley Pacheco of Tucumcari.
On Oct.2, Jones was sentenced to life in prison for the crime, with more than 10 years added for other counts associated with Pacheco’s murder. Including aggravated burglary, auto theft and tampering with evidence among others..
Tenth Judicial District Attorney Tim Rose said the mandatory sentence for willful, deliberate murder, the first-degree murder charge on which Jones was convicted, is life imprisonment with eligibility for parole in about 30 years.
Muziwokuthula Madonda
On April 14, Tenth Judicial District Judge Albert Mitchell ordered that an apparent confession made by double-murder suspect Muziwokuthula Madonda be removed from evidence in the case.
Madonda, a native of South Africa, is accused of the March 2011 slayings of Gabriel Baca, 37, and Bobby Gonzales, 57, both of Tucumcari. The bodies of both men were found shot to death in the bathroom of a unit at the Tucumcari Inn motel. Baca and Gonzales had been occupying the room next to Madonda’s.
In May, Tenth Judicial District Attorney Tim Rose appealed Mitchell’s ruling to the state supreme court, The supreme court had not heard Rose’s appeal as of Tuesday.
Dustin Lopez
On Dec. 15, Dustin “Dusty” Lopez, a former Tucumcari police officer facing felony arson charges, entered a not-guilty plea to the charges on Monday before District Judge Albert Mitchell in Tucumcari.
Co-defendant Robert Sandoval of Tucumcari also entered a not-guilty plea, Mitchell said.
Another co-defendant, Dani J. Martinez, will be arraigned later, said Matt Chandler, special prosecutor for the case.
Chandler filed two additional charges of breaking and entering against Lopez and Sandoval on Dec. 3 in Quay County Magistrate Court before the cases were bound over to district court.
All three are free on bond, Chandler said.
Lopez, Martinez and Sandoval were charged on Oct. 28 with arson and conspiracy to commit arson.
All three are charged in connection with fires in the early morning of Sept. 3 that destroyed the abandoned Payless Inn, 200 E. Route 66 Blvd. in Tucumcari, and an abandoned house at 524 N. Fourth St. in Tucumcari.
The fires were reported within an hour of each other, former Tucumcari Fire Chief Larry Rigdon said.
Lopez resigned from the Tucumcari Police Department on Oct. 2, the day after New Mexico State Police searched his home. Lopez did not give a reason for his decision to resign, said Tucumcari Police Chief Jason Braziel.
linkLesser prairie chicken
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on March 27 declared the lesser prairie chicken a threatened species but kept in place a regional plan developed by officials from five states to protect the species.
The prairie chicken’s five-state habitat area includes parts of southeastern Quay County, and the Quay County area includes high and medium priority ranges near Forrest and south of Bard.
The habitat area is spread over areas of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado as well as New Mexico. The Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, made up of fish and wildlife officials from the five affected states, drew up the plan.
The “threatened” status is the second-most urgent designation the FWS can assign to a species, the most urgent being “endangered.”
“We’ve always said the scientific data do not justify listing this species,” Quay County Manager Richard Primrose said, “and hopefully, the FWS will leave control of species management to the states.”
linkSame-sex marriages
Pam Workman and Lisa Harvey of Oklahoma City, Okla., applied for and received the first same-sex marriage license issued in Quay County. The couple received their license on Jan. 2, said Georgia Lujan, deputy county clerk.
The County Clerk’s office had registered 96 same-sex marriage licenses by Monday, Luján said.
linkRockabilly on the Route
The main concert June 8 started an hour late, but Rockabilly on the Route’s headline event played to a standing-room crowd at the Tucumcari Convenstion Center.
Following the convention center performances, concert-goers packed the Tri-Star Bar elbow-to-elbow for more rockabilly music.
The evening capped what Rockabilly on the Route promoters and others called a very successful weekend of Rockabilly on the Route, and led the promoters to start planning a third Rockabilly on the Route for next year.
Like last year’s Rockabilly event, this year’s celebrated the 1950s and 1960s with music, car shows, period costumes and events like the Old-School Burnout on the Tucumcari Alco store’s parking lot, in which contestants treated a cheering crowd to 90 minutes of spinning, squealing tires, growling engines and billows of white smoke that reeked of burning rubber and stressed-out drive trains.
Other signs of success: The lines of vintage cars that proceeded down Route 66 or the Cruise 66 event on Friday evening and the Wheels on 66 Parade on Saturday morning were twice as long as last year’s, Davila said.
Like the Tri-Star bar on Saturday, the Pow Wow Restaurant’s Lizard Lounge also hosted a capacity crowd who witnessed the Gilded Cage Burlesk Show and heard the music of Mr. Right and the Leftovers and Hellbilly Homicide. That followed another Rumble on the Route concert at the convention center that included rockabilly acts Voodoo Swing, of Arizona; Mad Max and the Wild Ones from Salt Lake City, Utah; and Eddie Clendening.
Rockabilly on the Route attracted people from as far away as Denver, Colo., and Las Vegas, Nevada. Garry and Carolyn Laemmle, Vegas residents who moved there from Queensland, Australia, made the trip for the music. They attended the bowling alley opening event and danced at the concerts.
Rockabilly on the Route also proved to be a bonanza for Tucumcari’s motels and restaurants, which reported capacity crowds over the weekend.
linkBusiness news
Odeon Theater
After four months of remodeling and restoration, Tucumcari’s Odeon Theater re-opened Jan. 10.
A sellout crowd saw the Disney animated epic “Frozen,” spread onto a dazzling state-of-the-art white screen by a state-of-the-art digital projector.
The Odeon is now the only theater in an area that includes about 9,000 people from Guadalupe and Quay counties, according to Christie Dominguez, who, along with Robert Lopez, owns the theater.
Tractor Supply
9-17 Tucumcari's 19,000 square-foot Tractor Supply outlet opened for business at 8 a.m. Sept. 20, store manager Darin Corley said, and the store held a grand opening on Sept. 27. he said.
Tractor Supply, Inc., a Nashville, Tenn.-based farm supply and hardware chain, announced it had purchased the store site in April, according to the Quay County Clerk’s office.
Tractor Supply bought the store site in the East 1300 block of Route 66 Boulevard from Mark and Debra Whittington, but the purchase price was not disclosed, according to the Quay County Clerk’s office. The sale was completed on April 1.
Tractor Supply spokesman Bob Hoskins said the chain picked a Tucumcari location “due to the part-time and hobby farmers, and horse owners in the area.”
The Tucumcari area “was attractive due to the part-time and hobby farmers, and horse owners in the area,” Hoskins said in a statement. The Tucumcari Tractor Supply store plans to employ between 12-17 full and part-time workers, Hoskins said.
Tractor Supply currently operates a store in Clovis and in 10 other New Mexico locations.
ALCO declares bankruptcy, all stores to close
All ALCO Stores, Inc., stores, including the outlet in Tucumcari, will close their doors after the company declared bankruptcy on Oct. 12, according to an advertisement on the home page of the ALCO Stores website on Nov. 21. No closing date has been announced, and the Tucumcari ALCO store was open on Tuesday.ALCO and Kmart, on opposite sides of Tucumcari along Route 66, are the largest general merchandise stores in the city.
Infigen
The Quay County Commission on Dec. 22 gave final approval to industrial revenue bonds that will give a tax break to a company that plans to build a solar power generating plant next to the wind farm near San Jon.
The county and the San Jon school district both plan to benefit from the bonds, which do not place the county or the district at financial risk, but make the bonds to finance the solar power generation project the equivalent of municipal bonds, which are tax-free.
The county may receive more than $84,000 a year in “payments in lieu of taxes” over the life of the bonds, County Manager Richard Primrose said, and San Jon Schools could receive more than $58,000 annually in benefits over the life of the bonds. Those totals are based on negotiated rates of $1,535 per megawatt for the county and $1,066 per megawatt for the schools. The plant may produce up to 55 megawatts at any given time.
linkLynn Moncus dies
Lynn Moncus, a long-time columnist for the Quay County Sun, as well as an author, teacher and historian, died on June 23 after a bout with bone cancer. She was 79 years old.
Moncus wrote weekly columns for the Sun and its predecessors from 1964 to April 2014, when she stopped the column due to her illness.
linkScott Bidegain
Scott Bidegain, a manager and co-owner of the sprawling T-4 Ranch , resigned as chair of the New Mexico Game Commission after being charged with four other men with illegally hunting down and killing a cougar on Feb. 9.
Three of the defendants have filed pleas in the case, but Bidegain and another defendant are still awaiting trial in the case before Judge in Fourth Judicial District Court in Las Vegas. The case was moved there from the Tenth Judicial District.
The 180,000-acre T-4 ranch lies in Quay, San Miguel and Guadalupe counties. The allegedly illegal cougar killing occurred in San Miguel County.
linkCops and Coats
The Tucumcari Police Department’s second Cops and Coats drive collected or bought 163 coats and jackets for Quay County school children in 2014.
The coats were given away Nov. 3 and 4, with 157 of them going to Tucumcari Elementary School students. Others went to San Jon and House.
Cops and Coats was organized by Sgt. Brian Holmes and Patrolman Kenny Fernandez in winter 2013 after they saw children walking to school without outerwear on cold days.
Contributors donated jackets at Tucumcari’s ALCO and Kmart stores and at five churches. Donors could also make cash donations at Everyone’s Federal Credit Union.
linkFired Up!
About 2,000 visitors watched competing blacksmiths, fire dancers and a pottery maker, among other attractions and demonstrations Sept. 27 at the fourth annual Fired Up! event.
As with previous Fired Up! events, the focal point of the downtown Tucumcari event was the Tucumcari Train Depot, which is soon to become a railroad museum.
The event, coordinated by Tucumcari MainStreet and sponsored by businesses and institutions in the city, also featured country music, lots of vendors, information booths, and food.
There was also competition to crown a Prince Tocom and a Princess Cari among four- and five-year olds who dressed up in Native American costumes for the contest. The contest honors the Legend of Tucumcari, a tale of star-crossed love involving Apache tribal royalty. The cries of “Tocom” and “Cari” at the end of the story, the legend goes, is how the town got its name.
Tucumcari VFW Post 2528 added a touch of solemnity with a color guard ceremony, and members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans added a booming touch of history with a mock Civil War cannon duel between Confederate and Union artillery units. The group used the cannons to punctuate fireworks to close the event.
It was also an evening of winners in a blacksmith contest and a car show.
Blacksmith competitors won cash prizes put up by sponsoring businesses in the farrier industry, Carole Keith, who, with her husband Jim Keith, helped coordinate the event.
The Las Cruces-based fire-dancing troupe OddLab made a return appearance.
linkRailroad Days
The inaugural Tucumcari Rail Road Days attracted over 800 people to the Tucumcari Train Depot last weekend.
The two-day event featured static displays of historical items used by the railroad industry, two major model rail clubs coming from Albuquerque, and had model train sets in both the east and west wing of the train depot. On Saturday, 45 people attended a dinner that featured a presentation by Vern Glover, a leading historian of the El Paso/Southwestern Railroads.
linkMesalands Community College
Mesalands plans $8 million expansion
Mesalands Community College announced on Sept. 23 plans to expand with a new animal/equine science and fine arts building and rodeo grounds on land leased from the Greater Tucumcari Economic Development Corporation, college president Thomas Newsom said.
The $8 million expansion will be located on 92 acres on the west side of Tucumcari near the Tucumcari Memorial Park Cemetery, he said. Plans call for the expansion to be completed in two phases. The first will be completed in 10 months at a cost between $70,000 and $100,000. The second will cost $8 million and require seven to 10 years to complete, Newsom said.
The Mesalands Community College Foundation, Inc., and the economic development corporation have signed a memorandum of understanding to allow the college to lease the land.
Newsom said that the new construction will double classroom and facility size for the animal science and rodeo students and will double the space for the college’s fine arts programs.
“With this venture we are going to be able to improve the quality of education for rodeo, animal science and fine arts students,” Newsom said.
Newsom said the college’s animal and farrier science and rodeo programs are growing and will need the extra space. The Mesalands Foundation, he said, will fund the majority of the construction cost and will be the signing agent and lease holder for the project.
Mesalands receives health programs grant
A federal grant of more than $550,000 will enable Mesalands Community College to offer a certified nursing assistant (CNA) and phlebotomy program next year, college officials said.The grant is from the Trade Adjustment Assistant Community College and Career Training competitive grant program, co-administered by the U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Department of Education.
“We hope by offering these additional programs that we will attract more students,” said Natalie Gillard, vice president of academic affairs.
“These are programs in high-demand health fields that are continuously growing. They provide credentialing for our students, they are a stepping stone to a bachelor of science (degree) in nursing, they help our local health employers, and provide additional employment opportunities for our students.”
