Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Sorted by date Results 76 - 100 of 420
Cannon Air Force Base and the Clovis-Curry County Office of Emergency Management use different systems to report severe weather — and residents should be aware of it to avoid confusion, officials of the two entities said Friday. The Clovis-Curry County Office of Emergency Management relies on the National Weather Service, while Cannon Air Force Base relies on its own observations. But Cannon uses an Air Force weather evaluation system intended to give personnel time to protect sensitive equipment and its “worst case sce...
Gov. Bill Richardson speaks at a town hall meeting Tuesday at Clovis City Hall. Richardson was visiting cities and towns in eastern New Mexico, discussing the past Legislative session and new initiatives for each community. CNJ photo: Eric Kluth. Gov. Bill Richardson promised help in getting funds for an overpass over State Road 467 during a stop in Clovis Tuesday on a swing through eastern New Mexico. Approximately 30 people attended the town-hall style meeting in the Bert Cabiness City Government Center, which included a...
Faced with a $1.3 million shortfall in their 2004-2005 budget, Curry County commissioners voted Tuesday to consider increasing county gross receipts taxes by 3/16 of a percent. That’s about 18 cents extra per $100 sale on merchandise. Commissioners said most of the shortfall is the result of growing expenses at the county’s adult detention center. On average, expenses have increased $10,000 a month for the last 10 months, Detention Center Administrator Don Burdine said. The tax increase — composed of a 1/8 percent and a 1/1... Full story
The Curry County Commission approved traffic restrictions Tuesday on a county road bordering Cannon Air Force Base during construction of a new gate at the base. County Roads Superintendent Danny Davis told the commission base officials have closed Cannon’s main entrance at U.S. Highway 60/84 during the construction, which is expected to last until late August. Instead they are using County Road R for traffic entering and leaving the base. However, the road, which runs north and south on Cannon’s west side, wasn’t desig...
Eastern New Mexico Rural Water Authority board members voted Wednesday to let the Albuquerque securities firm Dain Rauscher do a study of the authority members’ financing capacity, while awaiting the completion of a second, related, study. Kevin Powers, a vice president of Dain Rauscher’s municipal fixed income division, said company personnel will visit authority members to study outstanding debt, bonding capacity and familiarize them with the various types of bonds they could use to raise money for capital, operating and...
Joel Burdell has resigned as both chairman and president of American Heritage Bank, the bank’s board of directors said Wednesday. Gordon Morris, interim president and acting chairman of the bank, said Burdell and the board came to a mutual agreement about his resignation April 8. “For months, they’ve been discussing what the possibilities were. It was first brought up by Mr. Burdell himself,” Morris said. Burdell did not return a phone call made to his home by press time Wednesday night. American Heritage Bank, with a branc... Full story
Reporter's Notebook Jenny, a mixed-breed dog adopted from the Clovis Animal Shelter who died saving her master from a rattlesnake, has been nominated for the Elizabeth Lewyt Award for Heroic and Compassionate Animals, said Merrit Clifton, editor of Animal People, a Clinton, Wash.-based animal newspaper. The purpose of the award, presented to 50 animals since 1999 by the North Shore Animal League America, is to spotlight the heroic or compassionate deeds of former shelter animals, Clifton said. If an animal is selected, a... Full story
Eastern New Mexico Rural Water Authority board members voted Wednesday to let the Albuquerque securities firm Dain Rauscher do a study of the authority members’ financing capacity, while awaiting the completion of a second, related, study. Kevin Powers, a vice president of Dain Rauscher’s municipal fixed income division, said company personnel will visit authority members to study outstanding debt, bonding capacity and familiarize them with the various types of bonds they could use to raise money for capital, operating and...
Two Cannon Air Force Base youths received Congressional Award bronze medals Monday from U.S. Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M., during a town hall meeting in the Clovis-Carver Public Library’s North Annex. Patrick Adams and Collin Randall each completed 100 hours of volunteer service, 50 hours of personal development, 50 hours of physical fitness training and at least one overnight expedition to earn the medals. The Congressional Award is a public partnership created by Congress to promote and recognize achievement, initiative, and s...
Two Cannon Air Force Base youths received Congressional Award bronze medals Monday from U.S. Rep. Tom Udall, N.M., during a townhall meeting in the Clovis-Carver Public Library’s North Annex. Patrick Adams and Collin Randall each completed 100 hours of volunteer service, 50 hours of personal development, 50 hours of physical fitness training and at least one overnight expedition to earn the medals. The Congressional Award is a public partnership created by Congress to promote and recognize achievement, initiative, and s...
Three Clovis High School students have received in-school suspension for passing out a flier at school protesting administrative censorship of their school newspaper. Purple Press editor Matthew Coker and two reporters said they were punished for violating school procedures in distributing the fliers on school property without prior administrative approval. The one-day sentences to what the school calls the “Behavior Intervention Program” will be carried out next week, Coker said. The students said they were trying to gai...
Two altercations involving prisoners at the Curry County Adult Detention Center over the weekend have resulted in at least $4,000 worth of damage to the jail and an injury to a guard, Detention Center Administrator Don Burdine said today. One incident forced guards to call in Clovis police officers for backup, who came toting bean-bag-shooting shotguns, he added. The mayhem points up the need for either more guards or fewer prisoners at the detention center, Burdine said. Early Friday morning, a guard trying to break up a...
Ogallala Aquifer water under Curry County is being used up at a rate almost five times faster than it can be recharged, the director of the State Engineer’s water rights division said here Wednesday. Paul Saavedra, who addressed a meeting of Clovis’ water policy advisory board at city hall, said an estimated 210,000 acre feet of water were used in Curry County in 2000. But, given 16 inches of rain or snow a year, the aquifer recharges itself at an average rate of 44,000 acre feet a year, he said. CIovis/Curry County Cha... Full story
Ogallala Aquifer water under Curry County is being used up at a rate almost five times faster than it can be recharged, the director of the State Engineer’s water rights division said here Wednesday. Paul Saavedra, who addressed a meeting of Clovis’ water policy advisory board at city hall, said an estimated 210,000 acre feet of water were used in Curry County in 2000. But, given 16 inches of rain or snow a year, the aquifer recharges itself at an average rate of 44,000 acre feet a year, he said. CIovis/Curry County Cha...
Curry County is facing a $1.3 million shortfall in the upcoming fiscal year, due mostly to the cost of housing county prisoners out of state, officials said. County Manager Geneva Cooper told commissioners on Tuesday that preliminary figures for the 2004-2005 budget show the county with total revenues of $5.7 million, but total expenditures of $7 million. Expenditures at the county’s adult detention center are projected to reach more than $3.1 million, an increase of more than $841,000 over last year, according to county d... Full story
Officials: Housing state prisoners is ruining budget. Curry County Commissioners voted Tuesday to join a lawsuit aimed at forcing state officials to pay the costs of housing state prisoners in county jails. It asks the court for a declaratory judgment that the defendants are liable for the cost of housing prisoners charged with state crimes and an injunction prohibiting them from incarcerating parole and probation violators in the county jail unless they are willing and able to compensate the county for the costs. “I think t...
In a process a Clovis official called “blatant favoritism,” and which may have violated its own regulations, the state Community Development Council failed to award key funding to a project to build an overpass over State Road 467 in Curry County. The council — whose members were replaced last year by Gov. Bill Richardson — awards federal Community Development Block Grant funds to projects statewide. Curry County Grant Facilitator Twila Rutter-Wooley said the county applied for $500,000 in CDBG funds this year to help st...
Zoning issues and a discussion of growth in Clovis dominated much of Thursday’s City Commission meeting. The commissioners unanimously voted down a request by Joseph Riccardi of Portales to rezone property at 600 W. 14th St. in Clovis from a single family to a multi-family residential designation. Planning Administrator Louis Gordon said 20 percent of neighborhood residents said they oppose the rezoning. About 10 people attended the commission meeting to speak against it. Riccardi and architect Paul Reed told the c...
Few people worry about storm-water runoff in a drought, officials admitted, but the subject generated almost two hours of debate at Wednesday’s meeting of the city’s public works committee. The public works department developed a plan for managing storm-water runoff from commercial lots that was approved by the city commission Jan. 22. But city officials are still trying to reach an agreement with home builders over a plan for residential developments. The public works committee appointed a committee of builders, city officia...
Curry County officials on Friday supplied employee salary and benefits information as requested by the Clovis News Journal — but the paper’s officials said Monday their dispute is not over. The newspaper last week sued the county for release of the salary information, contending it is public record. County Attorney Stephen Doerr twice denied the paper’s request in writing prior to the newspaper filing the lawsuit. The packet received Friday includes information about county employees’ benefits and salaries, which the paper h... Full story
Spring must have arrived in Clovis — Clovis Livestock Auction Inc. will hold its first horse auction this year today, Saturday and Sunday in its sale barn at 504 S. Hull. Held four times a year — in March, May, August and November — the event brings hundreds of people, and horses, to Clovis. Auction manager Steve Friskup said he expects to have 1,000 head of horses this weekend. While Clovis Livestock Auction specializes in ranch geldings and roping horses, Friskup said he will have a little of everything this weekend, “from...
In Curry County, 450 children a year suffer some form of abuse or neglect, according to the Ninth Judicial District’s Family and Children’s Court Services. The abuse can range from lack of food, decent clothing and shelter to physical and sexual victimization, said Marsha Gilliland, executive director of CASA, the Court Appointed Special Advocates for these children. CASA has proclaimed April “Child Abuse Prevention Month,” and, as it does each year, will hold a candlelight and prayer ceremony at noon on April 1 at the Cur...
MELROSE — The board of the Eastern New Mexico Rural Water Authority voted Wednesday to add three more construction efforts to the Ute Water Project, raising the cost of the project by $10 million. The additions bring the total construction cost of the project to $263 million, said ENMRWA Project Manager Scott Verhines. The three efforts are: • a sewer system for the village of Logan, for $6 million. • a remodeled wastewater treatment system for Tucumcari, for $2 million. • a proposed “energy recovery project,” actually a...
Curry County’s incumbent county clerk will run unopposed in the June primary and in the November election, while three county commissioners face challenges and the county treasurer’s job has three contenders. No opponent from any political party filed to challenge County Clerk Mario Trujillo, Tuesday. In the commission races, former commissioner and Commission Chairman Paul D. Barnes filed to run against District 5 commissioner and former Commission Chairman Tim Ashley, while former Clovis City Commissioner Gloria Wicker fil...
Curry County Commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to request bids for a plan to erect a building over the rodeo arena at the fairgrounds as an economical way of building a county special events center. Several county residents at the meeting raised questions about the proposal, but commissioners said — if the bids are close to estimates — it offers the best chance for building an events center the cash-strapped county can afford. Commissioners Albin Smith and Pete Hulder told the audience the plan is to erect a metal bui...
