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  • Business feature: CIDC launches Clovis Remote

    Kathleen Stinson, Staff writer|Updated Aug 31, 2021

    CLOVIS — The Clovis Industrial Development Corporation on Friday launched Clovis Remote, a program to help connect people in the community with remote job opportunities. “There are a lot of people who say they want to work remotely but they are not prepared,” said Andrea Corpening, owner of Elite Business Performance, LLC, a contractor working for CIDC. “Clovis Remote participants will receive training on how to start a remote working career, as well as a variety of support including resume and interview preparation, virtual...

  • Health secretary concerned hospitals could reach crisis

    Kathleen Stinson, Staff writer|Updated Aug 28, 2021

    New Mexico Department of Health Secretary David Scrase said Wednesday during a COVID-19 update that New Mexico hospitals could reach a crisis in standards of care this week. According to the state’s Crisis Standards of Care Plan posted at the DOH’s website, “A pandemic or catastrophic emergency may strain medical and aligned resources and thereby require a shift in care from that which was previously focused on the individual patient to that which is focused on doing the most good for the greatest number.” The goal would b...

  • Public works approves paving money

    Kathleen Stinson, Staff writer|Updated Aug 28, 2021

    CLOVIS — The Clovis Public Works Committee on Wednesday approved the department’s recommendations for $700,000 in residential street paving for this year’s budget. Public Works Director Clint Bunch and Mayor Pro Tem Chris Bryant told The News the department identified the following streets in most need of repaving: • Lakeview from Fairway Terrace North to Colonial Parkway • Fifth Street, between Prince and Axtell • Beta Street between Seventh and Debra • Lore Street from Mañana Boulevard to Echols. Bunch also referenced a ...

  • Q&A: Cannon chief of media relations talks COVID-19

    Kathleen Stinson, Staff writer|Updated Aug 22, 2021

    President Joe Biden announced his support on August 9th for Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s plan to add the COVID-19 vaccination to the list of required vaccinations for service members by mid-September. The News asked Misty Mercado, chief of media relations at Cannon Air Force Base about the requirement Wednesday. Q: What percentage of Cannon personnel are vaccinated as of right now? How many with at least one dose, and how many with both shots? A: The vaccination rate among Cannon Air Force Base personnel is on par w...

  • Clovis approves final adoption of cannabis ordinance

    Kathleen Stinson, Staff writer|Updated Aug 21, 2021

    CLOVIS — The Clovis City Commission approved the final adoption of its cannabis ordinance at its meeting Thursday. The ordinance approved by the city commission, among other things, creates a new section that states cannabis retail businesses are only allowed in Commercial General and Industrial zones and that cannabis manufacturing businesses and cannabis production businesses are only allowed in Industrial zones, said city attorney Jared Morris. The ordinance will go into effect on Sept. 1, at which time the city can s...

  • EPCOG hears speaker on government funding

    Kathleen Stinson, Staff writer|Updated Aug 16, 2021

    CLOVIS — Raymond Mondragon, governmental specialist for the Eastern Plains Council of Governments, spoke Wednesday at the board meeting about the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act recently passed by Congress. “Based on formula funding,” Mondragon said, “New Mexico is expected to receive $2.5 billion in funding.” Some of that, Mondragon said, will be towards the Eastern New Mexico Rural Water System. Mondragon said during a conversation with Clovis Mayor Mike Morris, he was informed the legislation would fund the feder...

  • Floyd students begin 'exciting' year

    Kathleen Stinson, Staff writer|Updated Aug 10, 2021

    The first day of school for students in the Floyd Municipal School District happened without a noticeably significant level of empty seats, Superintendent Damon Terry said Monday. The opening of the school year followed weeks of disputes with the Public Education Department’s requirement for all elementary school students to wear a face mask in school. The Floyd school board decided in a July 26 meeting to make the PED’s COVID-19 mitigation practices optional, and declined to change its stance in an Aug. 2 special mee...

  • Area school districts adopt state mask mandates

    Kathleen Stinson, Staff writer|Updated Aug 10, 2021

    PORTALES — The Portales Municipal School Board voted 4-1 Monday in favor of approving state Public Education Department guidelines, which require elementary school students wear a face mask while in school. Board member Rod Savage, after making a long statement about the New Mexico constitution, cast the lone vote to make face coverings optional for students. About 100 people attended the meeting on Monday, many of whom expressed their displeasure with mask mandates in the public comment period. The News covered the t...

  • In tribute: Longtime teacher loved cross-stitch, decorating

    Kathleen Stinson, Staff writer|Updated Aug 9, 2021

    Dell Dickenson, a longtime teacher in the Clovis school system, passed away on July 2 at the age of 90. Dickenson began teaching elementary school in Plainview, Texas and taught for a total of 34 years, more than half of that in Clovis, said her son Keeney Dickenson. She taught third grade at Cameo Elementary School in Clovis. "Last year we made a video for her 90th birthday and we received more than 200 videos for her birthday," Dickenson said. "Some of these had her as...

  • Curry fair celebrating 100th anniversary

    Kathleen Stinson, Staff writer|Updated Aug 7, 2021

    CLOVIS — The 2021 Curry County Fair will celebrate the 100-year anniversary of the fair and will be held Tuesday through Saturday. K.C. Messick, general manager of the Curry County Events Center and Fairgrounds, said fair officials would have liked to have this 100th year of the fair be the biggest ever but “unfortunately due to the COVID restrictions they had to cancel the indoor major concert series.” “Our biggest focus of this 100th anniversary of the fair will be all the military aspects such as the GoldStars Tribute...

  • Curry gives county employees pay raise

    Kathleen Stinson, Staff writer|Updated Aug 7, 2021

    CLOVIS — Curry County employees, effective today, will receive a 5% cost of living salary increase, the county commission decided Tuesday. County Manager Lance Pyle said the county ended the year in “great financial condition” and that county employees “went above and beyond” in their duties over the year, especially with an ongoing pandemic. “It is becoming increasingly difficult,” Pyle said, “to attract qualified employees.” The increase is for all employees with one continuous year of employment with the county. All emplo...

  • Rural wifi funding passes US House

    Kathleen Stinson, Staff writer|Updated Aug 7, 2021

    Funding to expand the wifi network at the Curry County Fairgrounds has passed the U.S. House of Representatives. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez, D-N.M., secured the approval of the U.S. House for a $250,000 appropriation last week to fund the design, purchase, and installation of an expanded WiFi network at the Curry County Fairgrounds. This is part of a group of more than $74 million in community project funding requests in appropriations legislation made by the congresswoman, according to a press release from her office. The...

  • Clovis hopes to make economic development change

    Kathleen Stinson, Staff writer|Updated Aug 7, 2021

    CLOVIS — The Clovis City Commission on Thursday paved the way to include retail as an eligible category of economic development dollars. The Nov. 2 general election ballot will include a question as to whether Local Economic Development Act dollars, collected as an increment of gross receipts taxes, can be used to recruit and retain retail businesses. Senate Bill 49, which went into effect July 1, allowed communities of 35,000 or more to make that change. City Attorney Jared Morris told the commission voter approval is r...

  • Stuff the Bus campaign to be held Saturday

    Kathleen Stinson, Staff writer|Updated Aug 3, 2021

    This year’s United Way “Stuff the Bus” campaign to collect school supplies from the community will be held from 9 am to 4 p.m. on Aug. 7 at the Walmarts in Portales and Clovis and at the Big Lots and OfficeMax in Clovis. Erinn Burch, executive director of United Way of Eastern New Mexico, said that weekend is “tax free weekend” in New Mexico. On those days, gross receipts taxes are not collected on most school supplies and select clothing and computer items. United Way volunteers will be at the store sites to collect d...

  • Roosevelt County board discusses cannabis sales

    Kathleen Stinson, Staff writer|Updated Jul 31, 2021

    PORTALES — The Roosevelt County Board of Commissioners Tuesday discussed the regulation of cannabis sales, manufacturing and consumption and whether to change the commission’s meeting time to evenings. Although the commission approved a Notice of Intent For Consideration of a draft ordinance on cannabis, which sets the approval process in motion, most of the discussion revolved around the concept of regulating activity on private land, with very little talk about specifics of the draft. Two commissioners said they did not thi...

  • Official: Curry fair will be 'unorthodox'

    Kathleen Stinson, Staff writer|Updated Jul 24, 2021

    CLOVIS — The 2021 Curry County Fair will be somewhat “unorthodox this year as far as what people expect to see,” said K.C. Messick, the general manager of the Curry County Events Center and Fairgrounds. The fair will be held August 10th through 14th at the fairgrounds. Included in what's new this year is the GoldStars Tribute Wall, a traveling show in tribute to the fallen soldiers from the Gulf War, Messick said. The wall will be at the fair the 12th, 13th and 14th. “We're hoping to (get) a lot of people from the Cannon Air...

  • Roosevelt fair to include new events, rides

    Kathleen Stinson, Staff writer|Updated Jul 24, 2021

    PORTALES — The Roosevelt County Fair this year will include several new events, including seven new carnival rides, said fair board president Sheila Hays. The fair runs from August 17th through the 22nd at the fairgrounds in Portales. This is the first time the fair will be held since 2019 before COVID and “we’re super excited about this,” Hays said. “We’re so glad to have this to offer to the community again. It will be great to have everyone in the community come and enjoy themselves at the fair.” Coach J’s BBQ and RC-Q pr...

  • Curry events center reopens

    Kathleen Stinson, Staff writer|Updated Jul 24, 2021

    CLOVIS — The Curry County Events Center in Clovis reopened the last weekend in June after closing for 14 months due to the COVID-19 restrictions. “We’re looking at adding some more community-driven type of events,” said K.C. Messick, the new general manager of Curry County Events Center and Fairgrounds. “People are ready to get out and see stuff so we’re going to make it available for them,” he said. The center is a county-owned, equestrian-based facility, which contains 98,000-square feet, Messick said. It is a 112- acre p...

  • House passes PFAS action act

    Kathleen Stinson, Staff writer|Updated Jul 24, 2021

    WASHINGTON — The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday passed the Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) Action Act that included an amendment on water used for agricultural purposes introduced by Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-NM). Speaking to the House, Fernandez said Highland Dairy, which is in her district, learned in 2018 that PFAS “from the nearby (Cannon Air Force Base) leaked into the shared aquifer that watered the grass which fed the cows. The PFAS contamination poisoned the cows and the dairy could not...

  • Superintendent: Standards could be 'contentious'

    Kathleen Stinson, Staff writer|Updated Jul 13, 2021

    New Social Studies standards that the New Mexico Public Education Department is developing could be “contentious,” Portales Municipal School Superintendent Johnnie Cain Monday wrote in a report presented Monday to the school board at the board’s regular monthly meeting. The social studies standards, Cain said in an interview after the meeting, are likely to include some guidelines involving “critical race theory,” a topic that has become very controversial nationwide. Critical race theory teaches that racism has been buil...

  • Dairy farmer addresses groundwater contamination

    Kathleen Stinson, Staff writer|Updated Jul 10, 2021

    A Clovis dairy farmer who has been fighting the federal government for more than two years on groundwater contamination addressed the matter Friday. The News was invited to a virtual press conference with Highland Dairy owner Art Schaap and Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández, D-N.M. Cannon Air Force Base in 2018 disclosed the presence of PFAS and PFOA in a plume surrounding the base, with the root cause firefighting foams used by its fire department. The Environmental Protection Agency has no federal standard for drinking water, but...

  • Airport working to qualify for improvement award

    Kathleen Stinson, Staff writer|Updated Jul 10, 2021

    CLOVIS — The Clovis Regional Airport is working with the city and Cannon Air Force Base to qualify for an annual $1 million Federal Aviation Administration award to make improvements to the airport. Chairman T.J. Curtis said at Tuesday’s Civil Aviation meeting, covered virtually by The News, that official business base travel out of the airport is “still a critical piece” of the effort to increase the enplanement — an airport term for total passengers. “Our FAA yearly entitlement is $150,000,” Airport Director James Harris...

  • In tribute: Harry Sheets 'always had another idea to make life easier'

    Kathleen Stinson, Staff writer|Updated Jul 10, 2021

    Harry Sheets came to Farwell as an eighth-grader, and spent most of the rest of his life making it a better and more powerful place. Sheets died June 5 at his home at the age of 91, according to a eulogy by son Gene Sheets. He was a self-made businessman, occasional pilot and generally witty and funny role model. "He was very creative," said his other son, Dr. Kyle Sheets. "(He) always had another idea to make life easier." In 1950, Harry had an idea to use natural gas...

  • In tribute: Lifelong resident Jerry May was 'a real cutup'

    Kathleen Stinson, Staff writer|Updated Jul 10, 2021

    Jerry May could always make people laugh, even when he was the target of the laughter. May, a lifelong resident of Clovis, died June 9. His wife of 52 years, Sammye May, said they went to high school together in Clovis but connected while attending Eastern New Mexico University. They became acquainted when Jerry was helping her brother-in-law move to San Angelo, Texas. "We dated a few months and then ran off to Juarez, Mexico and got married in 1969," she said. He had a colleg...

  • Officials work on marijuana ordinance

    Kathleen Stinson, Staff writer|Updated Jul 3, 2021

    CLOVIS — Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Monday signed into law legislation legalizing adult-use cannabis in New Mexico. At the local level, the city of Clovis and its Planning & Zoning Commission met Wednesday in a study session to begin fashioning a city ordinance outlining days and hours of operation, zoning and density of dispensaries around the city and other issues. City Attorney Jared Morris said the state bill is about one and a half pages, meaning much of the regulation is left to local jurisdictions. Morris said h...

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