Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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CLOVIS - The Food Bank of Eastern New Mexico has provided and supported food programs for 37 years, and continues to do so at its Brady Street building just north of the city's Public Works and Animal Shelter buildings. The current COVID-19 pandemic almost guarantees the food bank's 38th year will be one of its busiest and most vital. While the neighboring city buildings are closed to the public due to state public health orders, the food bank is seeing more traffic than...
CLOVIS — The Curry County Commission dealt with three other Cs during its Tuesday morning meeting — COVID-19, cameras and control. When it comes to adult detention center renovations, the first is keeping the county from getting the second, and the third is difficult to find. The commission met for 2 1/2 hours over the phone, a result of a state public health order banning mass gatherings. Paul Farless and Colton Treharn of SDV Construction noted there has been substantial progress on detention center work with increases in...
PORTALES — The learn-at-home era is under way at Portales Municipal Schools. School board members met virtually for about an hour Monday afternoon. They gave a positive review and a 4-0 approval of the plan Superintendent Johnnie Cain and the PMS staff created for the rest of the year with COVID-19 halting in-person instruction. “We started working on it, really, when we came back from spring break anticipating this,” Cain said. “It’s not perfect, but it’s going to be better than nothing and I hope we can keep the kiddos...
CLOVIS — Last year saw the Clovis City Commission waive numerous distance requirements for Main Street breweries setting up shop near churches, sometimes right across the street. New year, new commission, new precedents. Thursday night saw the commission vote 6-2 to allow Guadalajara to serve liquor at its planned restaurant in the Master’s Centre, across the hall from Wayland Baptist University’s Clovis campus. The 30-minute discussion and vote wrapped up a matter that spanned the course of three separate commission meeti...
PORTALES — A door closed on Portales’ Jim Lucero late in February. Less than a month later, a new door opened on the square. Lucero, recently laid off as plant manager for Ready Roast following its acquisition by Hampton Farms, is staying in Portales as executive director of the Roosevelt County Community Development Corporation. He replaces Bill Hendrickson, who is returning to his former residence in Las Vegas, New Mexico. “It just happened to be good timing on my part, I guess lucky timing when Ready Roast sold,” Lucero...
CLOVIS - When the state Alcoholic Beverage Control office did a preliminary site review of the Master's Centre for a liquor license transfer, the nearest church and elementary school were both found to be well outside 300 feet. That's the range the state establishes to protect such entities. However, nobody thought of the school across the hall from the potential site of the new Guadalajara restaurant, and the next Clovis City Commission will have to. Commissioners on...
CLOVIS — As Clovis Mayor David Lansford spent his final meeting in that position alone on the dais, handling an eight-person phone call, he heard arguments the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic created too much uncertainty to fund a long-term groundwater effort. Lansford responded too little was known about the pandemic and its economic effects to simply dismiss any effort and implored the commission to only look into the issue over the coming months. And with that, the final action of Lansford’s mayor term was passage of a res...
CLOVIS — The Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority is proceeding as usual, even though everything in the world around them is anything but. The authority had its monthly meeting Thursday at its offices, with much of the participation occurring through a conference call given state restrictions on gatherings of more than five people during the COVID-19 pandemic. Chair David Lansford was the only authority member to attend in person, with authority staff filling other slots. Authority Administrator Orlando Ortega said t...
CLOVIS — Just two weeks ago, you risked getting laughed out of the room if you called the average public meeting a mass gathering. How things have changed with the COVID-19 pandemic. In the latest effort to slow the virus’ spread, a Monday New Mexico Department of Health order has limited mass gatherings to five people through April 10. There will be issues moving ahead for public meetings, an anchor of local government transparency. For instance, the Clovis City Commission and Portales City Council are each comprised of nin...
PORTALES — Everybody at Friday’s Eastern New Mexico University regents meeting believed spring commencement was an important event for students, their friends and families they didn’t want to see canceled unless absolutely necessary. They also knew there was no way it would happen as currently scheduled for May 9, and decided after 40 minutes of meeting telephonically to postpone ceremonies with a replacement ceremony to be determined. By a 5-0 vote, regents agreed to postpone spring commencement at its Portales, Roswe...
Don’t gather with 10 or more people. Don’t go to the gym. Don’t go to the movies. Don’t eat inside a restaurant. It’s been a lot to keep up with during the COVID-19 pandemic, with state guidelines seemingly changing as soon as everybody put the infrastructure in to obey the previous guidelines. Thursday’s public health order from Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham shuttered numerous varieties of businesses — indoor shopping malls, recreational facilities, health clubs, resort spas, athletic facilities, theaters (including mo...
CLOVIS -- Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19 on March 11, and the NBA decided four minutes later to suspend its season, effective after ongoing games concluded. The next day, the state of New Mexico announced public schools would be closed for three weeks. The day after that, superintendents across the state had to have plans in to the Public Education Department over how they’d operate facilities and still provide some necessary functions to kids during the closure. That left little for Clovis s...
PORTALES - When the Portales Municipal Schools Board of Education first announced Monday morning's emergency meeting on the COVID-19 pandemic, members readied for a planning session. The meeting, however, was more of an information session because, in the words of board President Alan Garrett, "Most of those decisions have been made for us." Board members, and the crowd of just under 50 attending the morning meeting on the first day of a three-week state-mandated school...
CLOVIS — Area restaurant owners were already seeing the impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic with the general public practicing social distancing. Then the New Mexico Department of Health acted early this week, ordering restaurants fill no more than 50% of seating capacity, keep all tables at least 6 feet away from each other and limit party sizes. On Monday, President Trump urged all Americans to avoid bars, restaurants, food courts and other large gathering places for the next 15 days. Eateries, from mom-and-pops to n...
Following a directive to state agencies to accelerate remote-work initiatives, local entities have taken their own steps in reducing face-to-face interaction in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. "Right now," Gov. Michelle Lujan-Grisham said in a Sunday release, "the message to New Mexicans must be clear: Avoid social gatherings, wash your hands, and bottom line, stay home. That's the best thing we can all do to protect each other's health." In Clovis, that means Hillcrest...
PORTALES - When the Portales Municipal Schools Board of Education first announced Monday morning's emergency meeting on the COVID-19 pandemic late last week, members readied for a planning session. The meeting itself, however, was more of an information session because, in the words of board president Alan Garrett, "Most of those decisions have been made for us." Board members, and the crowd of just under 50 attending the morning meeting on the first day of a three-week...
PORTALES — The Eastern New Mexico softball team made a little bit of program history. And then they learned it. The question: When was the last time the Greyhounds swept rival West Texas A&M in a doubleheader? “Wow,” coach Kira Zeiter said shortly before giving up. Outfielder Jenny McElroy, with a nervous smile, responded with an unsure, “Never?” The answer: The Greyhounds started Wednesday afternoon’s twin bill with a 4-3 win for the first victory over the Lady Buffs since 20...
RUIDOSO — The next year at Eastern New Mexico University will be Jeff Elwell’s last. Elwell, the president of the Portales campus and chancellor for the university’s three-campus system, withdrew his request for a contract extension during Friday’s Board of Regents meeting at the ENMU-Ruidoso campus. Elwell plans to serve in his current roles no later than June 30, 2021. Elwell, who started as ENMU’s 11th president in July 2017, said he was unsure if he would simply retire, find a teaching position, be an administr...
With information often changing by the hour, area entities worked over the last few days implementing numerous procedures they hope will "flatten the curve" with the coronavirus pandemic. Cancellations, postponements, closures and extensions of breaks came from nearly everywhere, with the only certainty being that if your upcoming function had a chance to attract 100 people, it was postponed or canceled due to a state Department of Health order banning gatherings of 100 or...
PORTALES — The Eastern New Mexico women’s basketball team stepped off a bus from Frisco, Texas on Sunday, confident but not convinced they’d have at least one more road trip on the season. Less than an hour later, what energy the Lone Star Conference tournament and the bus trip hadn’t beaten out of them went to celebrating their next trip to Lubbock. The Greyhounds (22-9) discovered Sunday night they had qualified for their second-straight Division II national tournam...
CLOVIS - The Clovis/Curry County Chamber of Commerce's Chowder with Crowder delivered on its title's two promises Tuesday. The event featured Rep. Randy Crowder, R-Clovis, and other lawmakers to discuss the recent state legislative session, and it featured plenty of chicken corn chowder courtesy of Chamber volunteer Helen Casaus. But as the legislative session neared its final important day - Gov. Michelle Lujan-Grisham's noon Wednesday deadline to sign or veto legislation -...
CLOVIS — City voters chose a new direction Tuesday, selecting Mike Morris as their next mayor. Morris, a longtime insurance agency owner in Clovis, took a five-way race with 33.6% of the vote. He had 1,510 votes to finish ahead of Stephen North (1,132) and former city manager and police chief Raymond Mondragon (943). His first meeting with the mayor’s gavel will come when the commission meets April 2. Votes are unofficial until Thursday’s canvassing at the Curry County Commi...
CLOVIS — Voters on Tuesday picked first-time office seeker Mike Morris as their new mayor. But downballot races ran all across the spectrum of experience as Clovis voters retained two incumbents and added two new commissioners who are Clovis High graduates — 29 years apart. Leo Lovett won the most crowded field for a city office in 18 years, taking 28.4% of the vote in a seven-way race for District 1. The seat was won by Ladona Clayton in 2016; after she left Clovis for a job in Dallas, David Robinson accepted an app...
CLOVIS — No one in New Mexico had tested positive for coronavirus, at least as of Saturday. But it was in 28 states and the number of confirmed cases, and deaths, continue to rise around the nation. That’s why the New Mexico Department of Health was on hand Friday in Clovis to update residents on novel coronavirus and how to prepare. “We are encouraging people to take this seriously,” State Epidemiologist Dr. Michael Landen said, “but not to panic.” The Friday afternoon f...
CLOVIS — Mayor David Lansford has argued for months that “putting skin in the game” was eastern New Mexico’s best shot at getting federal funding for a major infrastructure component of the Eastern New Mexico Rural Water System. Then the City Commission approved a property tax to generate $15 million, on the condition the federal government chips in $40 million and the state $30 million by March 2022. Since then, the Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority has received federal and state awards of $15 million and $1 mill...
