Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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CLOVIS — About 80 Clovis businesses are expected to see pandemic-related relief expenses from the CARES Act small business continuity grants. The city has approved applications ranging from a few thousand dollars to $100,000. City officials said last week they have decided to cap awards at $100,000 and open a second round of applications so that more businesses might receive funding. A list of applicants acquired by The News shows 13 local businesses will not see their full requested reimbursement amounts with a r...
PORTALES - Parker Smith was blessed with the athletic ability to be a collegiate softball player, and the decisiveness to know exactly what she wanted to do as a career. "I never wanted to be anything else," Smith said, "but a softball coach." So why wait? Smith is forgoing her senior season at Eastern New Mexico University to take over at Stephenville High School, just 45 minutes from her hometown of Early, Texas. She starts Monday at Stephenville as a physical education...
CLOVIS — The Clovis Police Department’s 2019 crime report included fewer calls for service, incident reports, citations and arrests from 2018. However, it did report more incidents of motor vehicle theft, larceny/shoplifting/auto burglary and felony arrests. The department reported the following crime numbers for 2019, with comparisons to 2018. • Murder: 2 (up from 1 in 2018) • CSP (Rape)/CSP of a Minor: 45 (33 in 2018) • Robbery: 29 (23 in 2018) • Aggravated Assault: 82 (67 in 2018) • Burglary: 342 (331 in 2018) • Larce...
CLOVIS — Curry County saw its second day of triple-digit COVID-19 case confirmations Monday, and Clovis' 88101 ZIP code had the state's third-highest count according to data provided by the New Mexico Department of Health. The county confirmed 100 new cases of COVID-19 Monday, part of a day that saw the state confirm 2,259 cases for a total of 84,148 since the pandemic began in March. Curry confirmed a record 104 cases Friday, along with 85 on Saturday and 45 on Sunday. Plains Regional Medical Center confirmed 28 total p...
Plains Regional Medical Center Interim Administrator Jorge Cruz spoke with The News on Tuesday morning regarding operations at the hospital as the COVID-19 pandemic entered its 38th week since its March 11 declaration by the World Health Organization. How many COVID-19 patients are at PRMC as of Tuesday morning? How many of those are in the ICU? 28 total, 8 in ICU. When was the last time there were this many ICU patients at PRMC, and what were the circumstances? I have been...
CLOVIS — To cap or not to cap. The Clovis City Commission pondered such amid a discussion-only update on its first round of CARES Act small business continuity grants Thursday night. The city received $4.26 million from the state to reimburse local businesses for COVID-19 related expenses like employee payroll, rent and renovations to operate commerce under COVID-safe practices. The Clovis-Curry County Chamber of Commerce, operating under a $60,000 contract with the city, is handling the application and review process b...
CLOVIS — The Clovis school district will hold a special election in February to renew $10 million in general obligation bonds, with the election proclamation approved Tuesday night by its board of education. The election will be held by mail, with the Curry County Clerk’s Office reporting the results Feb. 16. It will be the district’s first such election since changes to election law took place in 2019. The Portales and Texico school districts have previously held successful elections through the process. Art Melendres of th...
ELIDA — Following a lengthy back-and-forth over the parameters, Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority members agreed Thursday to commit up to $58,000 on Colorado attorney Peter Nichols for help facilitating a town hall and land trust to aid in an anticipated federal program to protect groundwater. The News participated in the meeting via telephone due to COVID-19 restrictions. Authority Chair David Lansford said through the Readiness and Environmental Protection Initiative, the area could receive up to $30 million in f...
CLOVIS — The city of Clovis has taken the first step in expanding taxpayer-funded economic development to retail businesses. However, many steps remain following an 8-0 resolution approval at the City Commission’s Thursday virtual meeting. Mayor Mike Morris said in his first days as mayor with the COVID-19 pandemic just beginning, he asked city administration what could be done for local retailers affected by state-mandated closures to mitigate virus spread. He discovered Local Economic Development Act money — taxpayer funds...
CLOVIS — Clovis Municipal Schools and Melrose Schools have chosen to return to remote learning, citing rising COVID-19 cases in the community and a desire to retain some control over a return to hybrid learning models. Both districts essentially ended virtual learning this week, with Melrose beginning remote learning on Monday and Clovis starting Nov. 30 after taking this week off for the holiday season. The districts were first cleared for a phase-in to in-person learning in September, when Curry County met the state’s gat...
CLOVIS — Much of a two-hour Curry County Commission meeting Tuesday morning dealt with local effects of COVID-19 infection spikes, with commissioners briefly going back and forth about their roles as leaders during the pandemic. The virtual meeting began with a pair of presentations from Plains Regional Medical Center Interim Administrator Jorge Cruz and Cannon Air Force Base Commander Col. Robert Masaitis. As of Tuesday morning, Cruz said, the hospital had 26 COVID-19 patients, with six in intensive care and three on v...
PORTALES — The trial for two men charged with killing a Muleshoe woman is scheduled for August. Keith Cordova, 22, and Francisco Bustamante, 24, both are charged with murder in connection with the slaying of Jaime Edgmon in rural Roosevelt County. Records show Edgmon, 41, was killed about sunrise Oct. 13, approximately six hours after she may have witnessed a shooting in the vicinity of 10th and Pile streets in Clovis. Cordova and Bustamante will be tried together, with an Aug. 2 docket call and a trial setting of Aug. 1...
PORTALES — In what was likely the last sports update for the foreseeable future, Eastern New Mexico University Athletic Director Matt Billings reported some hiccups but overall good feelings about student-athletes being back on campus for the first time since the pandemic began. The morning address to the board of regents by Billings preceded a state shelter in place order for two weeks that does not include exceptions for sports practices. Billings said since programs came back to campus, starting with basketball, the a...
While New Mexico’s newest public health order means many businesses will be closed and those that remain open will do so under extreme conditions, nothing changes at public schools. School districts that have been operating in hybrid mode, a combination of virtual and in-person instruction, have been cleared to remain in those modes. However, schools in remote learning mode will stay there for the foreseeable future. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham did note that school districts could make their own decisions to move from h...
PORTALES — Eastern New Mexico University officials are excited to get started on a $15 million renovation of the Roosevelt Science Hall. They’ll have to wait a few days to name a new architect, following a strong rebuke from regents on university policy. Regents voted 3-2 against accepting Dekker/Perich/Sabatini as the architect for the project, and later voted 5-0 to handle the matter via special meeting to avoid possible project delays. The regents didn’t take any issue with the firm, which has done other projects for t...
Anger, frustration, resignation. Those are just a few of the emotions eastern New Mexico residents felt over the weekend, with the state once again on the cusp of a shelter in place order during the COVID-19 pandemic. No one seemed surprised. "I knew we were going to get locked down," Margarita Walton said Saturday morning from her IronCurves Fitness Club, a three-year-old facility that a community of about 40 call their workout home. Walton said the new orders were...
PORTALES — In what was a relatively brief meeting for the Portales Municipal Schools Board of Education, Superintendent Johnnie Cain admitted he hadn’t compiled much of a report. “I don’t know if there’s nothing to report or there’s too much to report and I don’t know what to write,” said Cain, who was waiting on an almost certainty of new state public health restrictions with the COVID-19 pandemic. Cain said teachers were working hard, but reports from principals indicate it’s becoming more difficult to keep the kids eng...
CLOVIS — The Curry County Commission met for nearly three hours Tuesday, with the primary reason for the meeting taking just five minutes. With no major problems to report, County Clerk Annie Hogland directed commissioners through a quick canvassing board meeting where she detailed one of the busiest election seasons in memory with a record turnout of 15,152. Hogland said the high turnout — with 8,875 early in-person voters, 3,354 mail ballots and 2,923 Election Day voters — meant every day felt like its own election day. “Th...
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to be problematic for eastern New Mexico, with 224 cases reported in three days through Curry and Roosevelt counties. The influx in cases is causing difficulties for medical communities, public entities and schools - with Clovis Municipal Schools temporarily shutting down a meal site and shifting an elementary school back to remote learning. Monday saw the region record 61 new COVID-19 infections - 51 in Curry County, 10 in Roosevelt -...
CLOVIS - Jimmy Mondragon was well known around his South Lea Street neighborhood for construction projects and checking on his elderly neighbors. But he also battled depression and schizophrenia, family members said, and they believe a police standoff that ended with Mondragon's suicide could have and should have been prevented. "There were a lot of things that could have been prevented," said Tiffanie Mondragon, a sister-in-law. "By the late night, things had escalated to a...
CLOVIS — In what must feel like a lifetime ago, Louis Gordon came to a place he had never heard of called Clovis because Cannon Air Force Base was the only stateside base that house F-111 aircraft. Gordon was honored for his second retirement at Thursday’s Clovis City Commission meeting, following just over 22 years with the city. Tuesday is his final day as a building safety administrator. After Mayor Mike Morris said somebody like Gordon simply isn’t replaced, the commission and city administrators expressed their appre...
In a world with few sure things, and even fewer during a pandemic, general obligation bond passage in New Mexico is one of them, as it’s rare to see any such question not meet at least 60% support. Still, you never know until the votes are counted, and local leaders are happy state voters approved bond issues that will translate into nearly $14 million for area entities. “It’s been a tough year,” Eastern New Mexico University Chancellor Patrice Caldwell said following news of a Bond C approval that netted more than $10 mil...
Ballot counters in Nevada, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Arizona worked into the weekend, as national media outlets held off calls to project winners until Saturday saw former Vice President Joe Biden become presumptive President Elect Joe Biden. It doesn’t even feel like the same country in eastern New Mexico, as Curry and Roosevelt counties reported mostly smooth elections Tuesday despite record or near-record turnouts Curry County reported 15,128 ballots cast, breaking the 2012 record of 13,681. Roosevelt County Interim C...
The state reported its two largest days of COVID-19 infections with four-digit days Thursday and Friday, including a record 1,082 cases Thursday. Another record was reached Friday, with 13 deaths reported from COVID-19 to bring the state total to 1,007. None of those deaths were recorded in Curry or Roosevelt counties, which accounted for 62 cases over Thursday and Friday. Through Friday, Curry County had seen an October accounting for almost half of its total cases since the pandemic began in March — 851 of a total 1,615. O...
CLOVIS — Bobby Sandoval has repeatedly dedicated his end-of-meeting commissioner reports to asking Curry County citizens to wear masks and practice social distancing to combat the COVID-19 pandemic wave that has hit the county. Fellow commissioners decided his message should stay there, and eliminated from Thursday’s special meeting agenda a resolution penned by Sandoval encouraging mask wearing in public. The 3-2 vote essentially had the same effect as defeating the resolution had it remained on the agenda. Commissioner Set...
