Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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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... Full story
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 — 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...
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...
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 — 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...
