Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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CLOVIS — Clovis Community College has pushed in-person graduation ceremonies again due to the COVID-19 pandemic, following an announcement Wednesday by President Charles Nwankwo. Graduates from the spring and fall 2020 semesters will be allowed to join spring 2021 graduates in the May ceremonies if they wish, and Nwankwo is looking at the Curry County Events Center as a site given the potential large number of students. The Curry County commission voted in September to close the events center until March. A virtual pinning c...
CLOVIS - The show must go on ... eventually. Officials with Clovis Community College told The News the Mesa Theater, owned by the college since 2011, was getting ready to open for events when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and has since moved its timeline into 2021. Last month the Santa Fe New Mexican wrote an article, titled "The show must go on," about how the three historic theaters in downtown Clovis were being restored. CCC had stated in the article that they were planning on...
CLOVIS - Following amendments to state public health orders, a pair of Clovis establishments have received the green light for socially distanced activities. On Friday, St. Bernard Farms opened its attractions, and Hook's Alley announced bowling leagues were cleared to practice the following week. St. Bernard Farms is known locally for its pumpkin patch, corn mazes, jungle gyms, and other small rides and attractions. Due to COVID-19 it had to change some normal operations to...
CLOVIS - The Leal's Mexican restaurant location on Prince Street is for sale, but owner Laura Leal said she intends to keep the popular eatery's Mabry location open. Leal said the decision to try and sell the Prince Street location was influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic and the effect associated public health orders have had on the restaurant business. "Whenever COVID happened, I decided to reduce down to one store not knowing what was going to happen from day to day," Leal...
PORTALES - Virtual learning will not stop Eastern New Mexico University's theater department from practicing its craft. The department's upcoming shows, debuting Thursday, will be delivered entirely over Zoom - an online meeting software that has become increasingly popular among academia due to the pandemic. Professor Annie Beck is the director of the one-act play series titled "American Voices: By and About Women." The theme was chosen to pay tribute to the centennial...
Though it might not catch much attention on a daily basis, the usual blue skies of eastern New Mexico have given way to a few weeks of on-and-off haze due to ongoing fires outside of the Land of Enchantment. While air quality here is not adversely affected, long-burning fires in California, Oregon and Colorado have resulted plenty of days with a grayish-yellow cloud coverage. “The latest runs of the HRRR (High-Resolution Rapid Refresh) smoke continue to transport smoke from the wildfires across the western CONUS (...
Ballot drop boxes are no stranger to elections, but the state is encouraging an increase in their presence this year out of concerns from the COVID-19 pandemic. A statement from the New Mexico Secretary of State’s Office is advising counties to consider installing ballot drop boxes as a compromise for voters who do not want to send their absentee ballot in via the postal service but also do not want to have in-person contact at their respective early voting sites. The boxes also give absentee voters an option to meet the 7 p...
CLOVIS - John Burns, owner of the Burns Do It Center hardware store in Clovis, was awarded a $20,000 grant Thursday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Energy for America Program. The store is putting the grant towards purchase and installation of a solar panel array which will generate more than 65,000 kilowatt hours of energy every year - enough to power six homes. The grant is part of more than $816 million invested to help rural New Mexico businesses lower energy...
PORTALES — After suddenly losing its county clerk last month, the Roosevelt County Commission approved a family gesture to honor Stephanie Hicks McMath going forward. County Manager Amber Hamilton told commissioners during their Tuesday meeting at the Jake Lopez Community Building that she was approached by Hicks McMath’s family, who asked for permission to place a bench in her memory under the shade tree outside of the clerk’s office at the Roosevelt County Courthouse. The commission approved the request, with Shane Lee noti...
From a young boy to his last day, friends and family said, Stanley Hardwick was a good man. From the time he was growing up on his family's ranch in eastern New Mexico, Hardwick, who died Aug. 14, was known as humble, kind, hardworking, and considerate. "His family had the movie theaters for one thing; they were fairly well-off people but you couldn't get that from him," Ted Hartley, Stanley's childhood and lifelong friend, said. "The hard truth is in today's world, and I...
Though nothing has made its way through Congress, there is talk about a second stimulus check for Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic. Glenda Horner Taylor of Clovis is still wondering when the first stimulus check is coming, and reached out to The News in hopes to spread awareness about people who qualify for the economic relief payment but still haven’t seen it. The Internal Revenue Service, as of late June, had sent out more than 159 million economic relief payments for individuals, including those who filed tax r...
MELROSE - One of Melrose's longest-standing buildings is no more. The Melrose train depot was demolished on Wednesday. The building, constructed in 1907, was owned by the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Company, which informed the village last year of its intent to clear the structure. "It was a year or two ago that they let us know they would be doing that, and we discussed it in several council meetings," Village Clerk Khira Whitehead said. "They told the village that...
Since a Aug. 29 public health order allowing museums in New Mexico to reopen in limited capacity, local museums are slowly getting back into the routine. The Bosque Redondo Memorial in Fort Sumner announced it is looking forward to welcoming the public back to its site soon, and the Norman & Vi Petty Rock N Roll Museum in Clovis turned the Clovis Sound back on Aug. 31. During the pandemic places like these came up with ways to evolve past their in-person exhibits to keep...
MELROSE - Being an advocate for science has paid off for a Melrose teacher, and he's hoping to make his recent award pay off for his students. Alan Daugherty, who has taught 25 of his 30 years in Melrose, received $10,000 as part of the Society for Science and the Public's Advocate Program. The Advocate Program is focused on providing funding for teachers to help students pursue scientific research, and Daugherty said the $10,000 was part of an additional grant to help...
The weather is getting weird this week as eastern New Mexico goes from a high of 93 degrees on Monday to a cool 40 degrees on Wednesday, then back in the high 70s on Saturday. With fall still two weeks away, what's causing this drastic change? Blame Canada. The Albuquerque office of the National Weather Service described a "clipper system," or a fast-moving low-pressure area weather system that generated in the Canadian Rockies and headed South out of Alberta on Monday. It wor...
PORTALES - The Portales City Council's meeting Tuesday night largely dealt with council concerns on traffic issues. Councilors raised constituent concerns about motorist speeding through stop signs near Lindsey-Steiner Elementary. City Manager Sammy Standefer said staff will look into increasing traffic controlling methods in the area and possibly adding rumble strips. Councilors said time was of the essence with schools preparing to resume in-person schooling when cleared by...
Portales school Superintendent Johnnie Cain is disappointed students won't be returning to class in person for at least a few more weeks. But at least students are participating in the online approach, he said. "Our high school has been going for two weeks, and our junior high, and we've actually had really good participation in both the schools. It's still not like being in class but at least they're going to school like they're in school," Cain said. "I think upwards of 90%...
CLOVIS — The Clovis-Curry County Chamber of Commerce is accepting video submissions from area residents for a promotional project they are working on. “Life in Clovis” will be a series of videos that feature short clips of different people, places, and lifestyles in the area. The project is based loosely off of the “Life in a Day” documentary that came out in 2011 and can be found on YouTube. Originally the Chamber was hoping to capture footage during events around Clovis. However, due to the pandemic and its effects o...
CLOVIS — There are 20 additional students at the Clovis Christian Schools this semester, an increase — to 235 — that Superintendent Jim Haley attributes to in-person instruction. “In trying to come up with plans for returning to school I was needing to know if we fall under the (Public Education Department) guidelines for the public schools because we're a private Christian school,” Haley said. “And the governor actually said in one of her addresses that private schools are considered a business, so we follow the same guidel...
CLOVIS — A presentation on new robotic road management software was the highlight of last week’s Clovis Public Works Committee meeting. The software, called Roadbotics Roadway Management, is used to digitally track the quality of roads throughout the city to help determine when and where roadwork should take place. On a screen in the North Annex of Clovis-Carver Public Library Geographic Information System coordinator Steven Hewett showed how Roadbotics was able to map and grade individual roads on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 b...
Tina Dziuk, chairwoman of the Roosevelt County Republicans, said the Republican National Convention is off to an energized start. She is attending the RNC in Charlotte, North Carolina, as a national delegate and was in attendance during the roll call to re-nominate President Trump. “The roll call was great! Everyone was enthusiastic and energized to nominate President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence for their second term,” she said in a telephone interview on Monday. “Seeing the president and vice president was an unexpec...
Only one New Mexico county has made it through the pandemic without a single reported case of COVID-19. While this could be due to De Baca County’s demographics — approximately 2,300 square miles of land with 1,800 residents, and the one major municipality of Fort Sumner — there are other local theories. “There’s not very many people here so we’ve got a lot of natural distancing,” De Baca County Commission Chairman Scot Stinnett said. “We do have a lot of traffic through here since we have two major highways that join here,...
Census officials report only Alaska and Puerto Rico lag behind New Mexico when it comes to filling out the 2020 census. But Curry County ranks among New Mexico's top 10 when it comes to being counted. Nikki Lovett, the county's point of contact for the census, said local officials have put a lot of effort into the process, making use of two $63,000 grants intended for the purpose. "We've been running newspaper ads and radio ads, that kind of thing. We also just recently have...
After a hectic two days, Roosevelt County wrapped up its livestock show Wednesday with exhibitors now waiting to receive their premium checks. Joy Levacy, Roosevelt County Livestock Sale Committee secretary, said the fund set up to pay for the premiums is still open for donations, and the committee will meet to discuss final figures once it closes. "We don't have any of those figures yet because we are continuing to take those funds until (Sept. 2) and then we will have a...
CLOVIS - From breweries to fitness centers, downtown Clovis is seeing a surge of incoming businesses as old buildings on and around Main Street are being renovated to house new endeavors. Range Movement opened its doors in April as founders Brooke McDonald and Meg Crawford combined childcare and fitness to create a unique workout space. "We are a fitness studio specializing in small group classes. We do everything from strength, HIIT, yoga, barre, and recovery," McDonald...
