Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Sorted by date Results 401 - 425 of 5814
PORTALES - Louella Bourbeaux' 1999 Buick Park Avenue has been a good car to her, almost a companion. Since she first got it 12 years ago, she's driven about 170,000 of its total 269,000 miles. It's comfortable for trips short and long, and its engine is powerful enough to cruise through the mountainous terrain of various Southwest destinations. So when it was pretty clear she was going to need a face covering everywhere she went, she figured her car should be along for the...
CLOVIS — With four meetings in July, the Curry County Commission had already knocked out most of the business it otherwise would have tackled in its first August meeting on Tuesday morning. With a light agenda, commissioners spent most of the 40-minute meeting discussing rural fire departments and infrastructure concerns. After some back-and-forth during the virtual meeting, the commission unanimously voted to approve a 45-day extension to Griego and Sons for work on the Ranchvale Fire Department building. County F...
PORTALES - Eastern New Mexico University announced Tuesday evening it would begin the fall semester as it ended the spring semester - online while the COVID-19 pandemic continues. A message to students and staff from Interim Chancellor Patrice Caldwell stated in part: "Although we have been excited to return to campus and see our Greyhound family in person again," Caldwell said, "we also know we must support efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19. "The University will not...
TEXICO - Water takes a 50-mile trip through the Frio Draw, mostly through three Texas counties. It takes just a few seconds for New Mexico motorists to pass over where it rises in Curry County. Or at least it will sometime early next year, when the New Mexico Department of Transportation anticipates finishing the $4 million bridge replacement it began in late January. The Curry County bridge is one of 530 managed by NMDOT's District Two, which includes Curry, Roosevelt and...
PORTALES — The state giveth, but the state — mandateth? — much more. The Roosevelt County Commission discussed both of those in a Friday meeting that included approval of the final budget for the 2020-21 fiscal year. County Manager Amber Hamilton gave the three commissioners attending — Paul Grider, Tina Dixon and Dennis Lopez — some positive news following Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s Thursday announcement that largely renewed existing public health orders during the COVID-19 pandemic. Part of those new state directives...
CLOVIS — The superintendent for Clovis Municipal Schools, while detailing plans to open the year, summarized feelings for a lot of people. “Today,” Superintendent Renee Russ said at Tuesday’s board meeting, “sure has been a long week.” Russ’ second year as superintendent will begin as her first one ended, with schools limited to online learning while New Mexico and the nation battle the COVID-19 pandemic. The district planned to open its campuses in late August with two cohorts that spent two days on campus and three days in...
CLOVIS — The company that purchased the Allsup’s Convenience Stores chain last year is beginning plans to close its corporate office in Clovis, with the first phase to include eliminating 18 positions in late September. Yesway, which acquired the chain’s 304 locations last October, made the announcement in a letter received by Curry County Commission Chairman Ben McDaniel. The letter notes the Sept. 26 downsizing is the first phase, and would provide information about additional phases later. “This action is expected to be pe...
CLOVIS - One of three Clovis residents facing charges of abusing an infant will remain in the Curry County Adult Detention Center while he awaits trial. That was the ruling made Tuesday morning by District Judge Fred Van Soelen following a 20-minute hearing on a pretrial detention bond for William Teague. Teague, 29, is the father of a 2-month old Clovis baby who suffered multiple bone fractures. Teague is facing a first-degree child abuse charge along with mother Lachel...
CLOVIS - Plains Regional Medical Center moved its chief nursing executive up a rung Monday, placing Jorge Cruz as its interim hospital chief executive. Cruz, who has been with PRMC since December 2002, replaces Drew Dostal. Dostal left PRMC after eight months to pursue a job in Michigan. Cruz has been the chief nursing executive for three years, and served in many other roles since he and his wife Laci first arrived as traveling nurses and decided to stay following a 13-week a...
PORTALES — A former school superintendent was among three indicted Monday by a Roosevelt County grand jury for misusing funds while associated with the Dora Consolidated School District in 2016. Indictments were returned against Steve Barron of Elida and Steven and Amy Butler of Dora as part of a joint prosecution from the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office and the Ninth Judicial District. These cases came to light in 2017 after the state auditor issued a special audit report identifying 13 areas in which the three all...
CLOVIS — The show must go on. By a unanimous vote Tuesday morning, the Curry County Commission approved the Kevin Roberts Show Arena as the site for parent-driven livestock shows Aug. 11-15. A junior livestock sale, commissioners said, would be held outside of county property. In June, the commission canceled the Curry County Fair that normally includes shows and the sale due to state public health orders banning mass gatherings to limit COVID-19 spread. An expo planned in its place for the mid-August timeframe has met o...
CLOVIS - Slowly but surely, things are ramping up for Clovis Community College. The campus is sparsely populated, even factoring in the late July timeframe. The college is still taking every precaution it can with the COVID-19 pandemic - one entrance and one exit, temperature checks, maintaining a visitor's log for contract tracing the college hopes it won't have to use. But things are going on. Students are coming in to talk with advisors on their plans for eight- or 16-week...
SANTA FE — New Mexico’s public schools will open the year with online-only instruction, and will continue to do so until at least the Labor Day weekend. That was announced Thursday, during a press conference from Gov. Michelle Lujan-Grisham. The governor noted infection rates for COVID-19 haven’t gone down as state officials had initially hoped, despite good news on most gating criteria. The state set a single-day record Thursday with 343 confirmed cases, including seven in Curry County and six in Roosevelt County. As of Fr...
PORTALES — After a national search for a new president at the Eastern New Mexico University-Ruidoso campus was conducted, it was determined the best candidate was just down the hallway. The ENMU regents on Friday appointed Ryan Trosper as the fifth president in the branch’s history. He replaces Ryan Carstens, who leaves after more than three years to pursue other opportunities. The special meeting was held telephonically, with Student Regent Joseph Gergel attending in person on the ENMU Portales campus. Following a sea...
CLOVIS — With 10 days left in the 2019-20 fiscal year, the Clovis City Commission met for 10 minutes to approve the 2020-21 final budget. The special meeting Tuesday at the North Annex of the Clovis-Carver Public Library didn’t last long, following an update on the $58.8 million in expenditures anticipated for the upcoming year. City Finance Director LeighAnn Melancon noted the city had an ending general fund cash balance of around $6.8 million with a non-designated cash reserve of about $2.3 million, and credited the wor...
CLOVIS — The Curry County Commission received a slate of good news on the financial front Tuesday, with a quick rundown of the final quarter of the 2019-20 fiscal year. County Finance Director Carol Pipes told commissioners in the virtual meeting that the county had $19.635 million between general fund dollars and other investments. Pipes noted gross tax receipts revenues were down 1.8% while property tax revenues were up 7.8%. While some departments had to request increases in the quarter due to salary updates, Pipes s...
CLOVIS — New Mexico restaurant patrons were able to eat indoors again on Monday. For a few hours anyway. Then the state’s Supreme Court ruled otherwise, sending diners back to covered patios or curbside. K-Bob’s Steakhouse in Clovis allowed inside dining briefly, but owner Sid Strebeck said half of the patrons wanted to eat in the patio anyway. By the time staff heard about the Supreme Court ruling, Strebeck said, the dinner rush was pretty much over. On Monday morning, an Ed...
CLOVIS — New Mexico restaurants briefly got the chance Monday to take things inside, until the state Supreme Court said otherwise. On Monday morning, an Eddy County district court judge issued a restraining order for 10 days against the current public health order by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and Health Secretary Kathy Kunkel that forbid indoor restaurant dining and limited service to carry-out and delivery. In his order, District Court Judge Raymond L. Romero noted the state had not responded by an 11 a.m. Monday d...
CLOVIS - One way or another, Curry County commissioners and fair board members want youth livestock shows and a junior livestock sale, arguing such gatherings are not recreation but part of the essential business of agriculture. Whether the governor's office agrees with them, and whether the events take place on county properties, is still to be determined. The commission, in a Friday special meeting, voted 5-0 to send a resolution and a letter to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham...
CLOVIS — After raising many of the same questions the Planning and Zoning Commission had a week prior, the Clovis City Commission also provided unanimous approval to requests paving the way for a new subdivision near 21st Street and Humphrey Road. By an 8-0 vote Thursday, the commission granted a zone change from Residential Single Family 170 to Residential Single Family 7 for what is proposed as the Colonies Subdivision on a 101-acre tract of land northwest of the 21st-Humphrey intersection. The numbers in the zoning d...
CLOVIS — Plains Regional Medical Center Administrator Drew Dostal, in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, provides weekly updates to The News. Here are parts of a Q&A conducted Monday with Dostal: Q: How many COVID-19 patients are in PRMC as of Monday? A: Five. None in the Intensive Care Unit. Q: Have any additional PRMC employees tested positive for COVID-19? If so, do you believe the source to be outside of the hospital? A: No additional employees. We believe the cases we’ve tracked down are from sources outside the...
PORTALES — The 2020-21 school year in Portales will begin as a mix of in-school and at-home instruction. That’s the plan for now, as approved Monday by the Portales Municipal Schools Board of Education, in a meeting held via web conference. Superintendent Johnnie Cain said the district website would soon have the full plan posted, and there would also be a shorter document with highlights of the plans for in-person and remote re-entry. Included in the plans is language that gives Cain latitude to make changes as nec...
CLOVIS — Some of the old COVID-19 restrictions are coming back, and they’re being joined by new ones. And it’s not at all unpredictable how local residents feel about it. “It sucks,” Ronnie Erwin said bluntly Friday, before adding some context on face coverings and other measures to combat the pandemic. “I don’t know whether they’re working or not; time will tell.” The two biggest changes in the new public health order, which takes effect Monday, roll back indoor restaurant dining and tighten requirements on wearing face c...
CLOVIS - Senior citizens are an obvious high-risk population during the pandemic. And Clovis Senior Services Director Barbara Riggan said without a vaccine available it's possible senior centers across New Mexico will remain closed until spring. Committee members met Thursday for the first time since November to discuss an uncertain future. Locally, the pandemic has already led to the cancellation of the 54th nonagenarian tea, the Old-Timers Day slated for the now canceled...
By fall, every New Mexico law enforcement officer must wear a body camera and keep the footage on hand for roughly four months. Officials are still looking into exactly how much it will cost them, and what they’ll need to do to be ready when the legislation takes effect in early October, 90 days after the measure was signed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. The camera bill passed 31-11 in the Senate and 44-26 in the House of Representatives during the June special session that was largely dedicated to patching pandemic-related...
