Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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CLOVIS — Rada Winkles always had a perfect stitch, a perfect story or just a kind word, locals who knew the longtime Clovis resident said. Winkles, who died June 2 at the age of 80, gained many friends along the way in a life spent in eastern New Mexico and west Texas. The Hereford native, who retired in Clovis following more than 20 years at the Texico post office, could be found frequently at the Plains Regional Medical Center gift shop as part of the hospital’s auxiliary. Rhonda Murdock, an executive assistant at PRMC and...
CLOVIS — After hearing numerous concerns over what future homes would look like, and if they were even needed, Clovis planning and zoning committee members recommended Wednesday for a zone change allowing for a new subdivision at 21st Street and Humphrey Road. The 7-0 decision, like any other committee decision, now goes to the Clovis City Commission for final approval. It would create a zone change from Residential Single Family 170 to Residential Single Family 7 for what is proposed as the Colonies Subdivision on a 1...
A few angry customers have been turned away, but local small business officials said they haven’t seen many issues with a public health order mandating face coverings in public. The requirement was announced last week after infection rates rose in four of New Mexico’s five regions. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said enforcement was needed because encouragement hadn’t been effective. The citation carries a fine of up to $100 and possible jail time of up to six months. Locally, law enforcement agencies have reported no incid...
CLOVIS — The Curry County Commission was pretty much in consensus that the new adult detention center was money well spent and a step in the right direction. As far as wearing face coverings during the COVID-19 pandemic, the debate was a little more contentious. The commission discussed both items during commissioner reports near the conclusion of its Tuesday meeting, held virtually due to limitations on public gatherings. The discussion of face coverings came up with Commissioner Seth Martin noting his thanks to area b...
With more than a month to go before area schools are set to open for fall instruction, there are still more questions than answers regarding COVID-19. “That’s the million-dollar question,” Floyd Superintendent Damon Terry said Monday when The News asked him about plans for the upcoming year. Though not every school could be reached for comment, school plans generally fall into two areas. The larger schools, Clovis and Portales, will look at a hybrid plan that will separate students into cohorts where one goes on campus while...
CLOVIS — The Clovis High marching band’s eight-year winning streak at the Zia Marching Band Fiesta is on hold, and the entire competitive band season with it, due to COVID-19 pandemic concerns. The decision to cancel the schools’ competitive marching band season and all band camps and marching band activities was announced in a Tuesday letter from Clovis Municipal Schools Music Education Director Brandon Boerio. In the letter, Boerio said the news was undoubtedly disappointing to students and parents alike, but said the p...
PORTALES - As an avid planter of pretty much any fruit, vegetable or flower the eastern New Mexico climate will allow, Margie Plummer knows there are cycles when it comes to growing food. The same applies to selling food, so she wasn't dissuaded Monday by sparse turnout as Portales officially opened the farmer's market for the year. That's just the pattern for the first few events in July in Portales and Clovis. The Portales farmers market at First Street and Avenue B runs...
CLOVIS - During a pandemic which has left little certainty on anything, eastern New Mexico legislators provided two certainties to business leaders Thursday. First, the rocky financial road the state is experiencing only looks rockier in the next few years. Second, local legislators aren't the ones driving. Three of the area's legislators - Sen. Pat Woods and Reps. Randy Crowder and Martin Zamora - shared their thoughts on the five-day special session that concluded June 22....
CLOVIS — The Clovis Municipal Schools 2020-21 school year, with classes beginning Aug. 17 and ending May 27, will go on as planned. At least that’s the plan. The lack of a change was made official at a Wednesday evening CMS Board of Education meeting, where a revised calendar died on the floor because board members declined to make a motion. The proposed new calendar, which would have moved the school year to Aug. 10-June 4, followed a New Mexico Department of Education suggestion to add 10 extended learning days. That was in...
CLOVIS — New Clovis Mayor Mike Morris had weeks ago told residents he planned to wear face coverings as positive reinforcement when they were recommended to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. Now with the masks required in public, Morris took a stronger stance and called the masks the best thing an individual could do for the various sects that make up Clovis. Morris’ comments came at the Thursday Clovis City Commission meeting, held one day after the state announced it had moved past encouragement and onto enforcement with...
CLOVIS — The Clovis Municipal Schools Board of Education will hold a special meeting Wednesday to consider how the district will reopen with the COVID-19 pandemic anticipated to weigh heavily on the 2020-21 school year. The 5:30 p.m. virtual meeting contains two items — swearing in of new board officers and consideration of an updated 2020-21 calendar that complies with New Mexico Public Education Department mandates to open schools at 50% capacity and fulfills an NMPED suggestion to add 10 extended learning days. The mee...
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: You have some visitor policies that will change for July. What are they? There are minor tweaks to a few different things, but the big ones most of the people will notice is we’ll allow one visitor for patients in the inpatient setting. Another change is that two visitors at a time can come in for pediatric matters. We...
CLOVIS — Longtime Clovis physician Dr. Albert Kwan has been selected as Plains Regional Medical Center’s new medical director. Kwan, who will assume the position in mid-July has been president of the PRMC medical staff since 2010. He will replace Dr. Donna Thibodeau, who is leaving the position, but plans to stay at PRMC in home health, hospice and infusion service roles. Kwan is the president of the American Society of General Surgeons, a past president of the New Mexico Medical Society, and the EMS medical director for the...
CLOVIS — The Clovis Municipal Schools Board of Education will hold an emergency meeting Wednesday to consider how the district will reopen with the COVID-19 pandemic anticipated to weigh heavily on the 2020-21 school year. The 5:30 p.m. virtual meeting contains two items — swearing in of new board officers and consideration of an updated 2020-21 calendar that complies with New Mexico Public Education Department mandates to open schools at 50% capacity and fulfills an NMPED suggestion to add 10 extended learning days. The mee...
The dairy industry was just humming along in early January. Milk prices had been holding steady around $17.50 per hundredweight - roughly 15.625 cents a pound - and producers were making a decent profit. And then the rest of 2020 happened. Just as the COVID-19 pandemic rocked every corner of the globe, the U.S. dairy industry got hit with some devastating blows. But local dairy representatives think the industry is well on the path to recovery. "I would have to say that...
PORTALES — Eastern New Mexico University’s board of regents on Friday discussed a pair of presidential searches, one underway and one needing to start soon. Regent Dan Patterson discussed the need to start the process to replace Jeff Elwell, who resigned as ENMU system chancellor and Portales campus president in April. While Patterson said he has trust in Interim Chancellor Patrice Caldwell, he believes the regents have an inherent duty to keep her time in the position limited. Caldwell is not interested in applying for the...
CLOVIS — The Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority had optimism, albeit cautious, a $1 million capital outlay award it received from Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham in February would survive a coronavirus-fueled budget cutting special session. With the session concluded and the authority meeting Wednesday, state consultant Joe Thompson said the optimism was justified. The money remains in the authority’s ledger to help cover costs of the authority’s Finished Water 3 construction. Thompson said during the session there were...
PORTALES — With the caveat that plans will certainly change based on state guidance and whatever public health orders exist as the COVID-19 pandemic continues, Eastern New Mexico University staff updated regents on plans Friday to resume in-person instruction on its Portales campus. Interim Chancellor Patrice Caldwell said the ENMU system, to nobody’s surprise, “is experiencing unprecedented stress points” due to the pandemic, but has seen modest increases in fall enrollment and could see some uptick in July when reopeni...
PORTALES — Matt Billings has been the athletic director for Eastern New Mexico University for roughly five months. Less than two months into the job, he no longer had athletic events to oversee due to COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns. Friday, he couldn’t guarantee when there would be athletic events again as he updated ENMU regents on plans to reintroduce student-athletes for the 2020-21 year. “The first five months have been interesting; not really what I pictured,” said Billings. “What I walked into is a great group of coache...
CLOVIS — After meeting for the first time since January, the city of Clovis’ Public Works Committee decided it would need at least an additional meeting to take care of much of its leftover business. The committee met Wednesday morning at the North Annex of the Clovis-Carver Public Library, a recent standard for public meetings given the facility’s large capacity and infrastructure for Internet streaming. The main discussion items of traffic near the Walgreens pharmacy and recycling bin relocation were discussed in some detai...
CLOVIS - It is often said it takes a village to raise any generation. Should their paths go astray, the criminal justice system has secure villages more commonly known as detention centers. Curry County's village gets a little larger this week, as officials plan to start using their recently completed detention center expansion. A tour of the facility was offered Wednesday to county officials and media, with Administrator Mark Gallegos leading an hourlong journey through the...
PORTALES — The Roosevelt County Commission heard both extremes when it came to precipitation during its regular meeting Tuesday morning. About a dozen people, mostly county officials, filled out a socially distanced Jake Lopez Building and heard County Manager Amber Hamilton detail the ramifications she knew so far from a Monday night storm with widespread hail reported. Hamilton said there was obvious damage to a few roofs of county buildings, and numerous county vehicles took substantial windshield damage, but a complete r...
Plains Regional Medical Center Administrator Drew Dostal, in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, has agreed to regular discussions with The News. Here are parts of a Q&A conducted Monday: Are there any COVID-19 patients being treated at PRMC? There is one, who just came in today. Have you had to take patients from other facilities due to COVID-19? We have not. How many open beds are there as of Monday? Right now, we have about 25. We are remaining flexible so we can go back (to higher amounts) if we need to, but...
CLOVIS — The city’s first Parks, Recreation and Beautification meeting since February gave board members new and old optimism about upcoming projects and improvements to existing city facilities. The committee met Monday evening at the North Annex of the Clovis-Carver Public Library, seated throughout the room to establish social distancing for the 11 people in attendance — three city staff, seven committee members and the media. Two items took the majority of discussion during the 20-minute meeting — a proposed shootin...
PORTALES - The 1600 Cherry Street building that has housed Eastern New Mexico University presidents since 1973 will continue in that regard for the foreseeable future. The $650,000 in capital outlay originally allocated by the state has been swept back under Senate Bill 5. The award was one of 80 taken back under the bill totaling $13.9 million, but that total does not account for funds entities have already expended. The bill passed 36-6 in the Senate and 68-1 in the House...
