Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
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 district receives.
“If approved by PED, the district will be permitted to hold cash on campus for up to three days or up to $1,500 before having to arrange to have it deposited in the bank,” superintendent Dennis Roch stated to the Quay County Sun in an email.
School officials learned just before the board’s regular board meeting Nov. 14 about the bank branch’s unexpected reduction in hours — too late to place it on the agenda.
New Mexico Bank & Trust initially announced in March it would close its Logan branch in early June. It rescheduled that closing to mid-December after several government entities passed resolutions that requested the closing be delayed so a new bank could be found.
No new banking tenant has been found for Logan. It would be the first time in more than a century the village has lacked a bank.
New Mexico Bank & Trust’s departure from Logan would be less than two years after it acquired the branch and other banks in the region during its purchase of FNB New Mexico in February 2021.
New Mexico Bank & Trust is a subsidiary of HTLF, formerly known as Heartland Financial USA Inc., based in Iowa that operates in 12 states.
In other business, the school board accepted an award of about $5,500 from the Public School Capital Outlay council to cover part of the cost to update the district’s facility master plan. The total cost is expected to be about $34,000. Roch said local funds will cover the rest of the balance.
