Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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Outsiders of college basketball's insulated world may hear about Daven Võ's current gig – first-year head coach of Eastern New Mexico University men's basketball – and wonder: Why is this your dream job? During recruiting season, he trades warm dinners with his wife, Laura, and three kids, for sprawling rural highways filled with unfamiliar faces for players who may commit elsewhere. What's more, his dream job takes place in Portales; a close knit, but isolated town wher...
On a warm October night, the trio peeled off Clovis' Seventh Street into a cemetery. After entering, their sedan wobbled over uneven gravel until parking at a beige mausoleum. It's difficult to tell what's scarier: How quiet it was or how dark it was. Unpredictability and tombstones don't mix well. For most people, their fight or flight instincts are screaming "Flee! Flee! Flee!" But this trio – Jeff Conner, Jason Kapera and Renaee Latham – aren't most people. They're gho...
At Celebratory Recovery – the place that helped Liz Reese find sobriety – it was business as usual that Oct. 2. Before the faith-based recovery meeting kicked off at Portales’ First Baptist Church, she chatted with friends and munched on sloppy joes. During it, she read Scripture and handed out sobriety chips. Afterward, she maintained her duties as the church’s custodian by helping clean up. In those simple acts, Reese, who said she was addicted to meth and cocaine,...
After making a speech at her retirement ceremony, Sandra Taylor-Sawyer awaited a long line of people with a gracious smile. Each person looked more elated than the next to congratulate her on a storied career working for the Small Business Development Center at Clovis Community College. If Taylor-Sawyer ever wondered if she made an impact on local small businesses, the sea of people at CCC's Eula Mae Edwards Museum last Tuesday afternoon confirmed it. Following a career that...
Following a 42-24 Lone Star Conference loss on Saturday at Steve Loy Family Foundation Stadium, members of the Eastern New Mexico University football team watched a herd of West Texas A&M Buffs stampede off the turf and toward the scoreboard to take ownership of the Wagon Wheel, the trophy awarded to the winner of this contentious rivalry. "This is their trap and we just took it over," one Buff bellowed into his iPhone while recording the moment. The scene may have marked the...
While a Regional Behavioral Health Center won’t go live until at least November 2026, updates regarding its operations were given last week at the Clovis Civic Center. With no crisis care facilities locally, it’ll provide people needing immediate treatment, for days or weeks, with a closer, cheaper and more comfortable option, proponents contend. The information session was led by James Corbett, a longtime behavioral health advocate and principal with Initium Health, the Denver healthcare consulting firm that’s suppo...
Highway officials on Thursday in Texico rolled out their latest version of a railroad overpass at the New Mexico and Texas state line. The latest plan is not much different than one presented in May that would divert traffic to and from Lubbock around most of the Texico business district, with little impact on Farwell. The latest version provides easier access for motorists with additional lanes. Texas Department of Transportation District Environmental Coordinator Ayssa Trevino said the U.S. 70/84 Railroad Elimination...
Portales City Council members on Tuesday briefly discussed the idea of Portales pivoting from Xcel Energy to Roosevelt County Co-op. Portales Mayor Michael Miller said the idea won’t likely work because, “We’re (Portales) under a franchise agreement with Xcel until 2036.” But Councilman Rustin Self said, “They (Xcel) could be bought out.” Councilman Eldon Merrick told The News after the meeting that a switch in electricity providers could provide benefits for Portales and its residents. “They (the co-op) have a lot of infras...
The Portales High School trumpet line left the school board meeting room Monday and marched toward the hallway to perform. It was done to ensure that meeting attendees didn’t burst an eardrum, Director Kelli Morrison explained. So, they played. Attendees rejoiced. Then the trumpet line returned and spoke to the room about how band has provided enduring friendships, and an understanding of work ethic and discipline. A couple members — and Morrison even — teared up. In a post-pandemic world, where anxiety and depression are r...
Not long ago, when COVID-19 hollowed out hallways across the nation, school administrators and teachers fought to answer one question: What will the future look like? Since restrictions have been lifted, researchers have found a discouraging answer to that question: Test scores are down; mental health challenges are up; chronic absenteeism and teacher burnout are becoming frighteningly common. But step inside Zia Elementary's gym last Thursday, for its Blue Ribbon...
With dour faces and schlepping cleats, Eastern New Mexico University football players plodded out of their locker room following Saturday's 44-28 homecoming loss to No. 11 Central Washington at Steve Loy Family Foundation Stadium. The problem isn't losing to CWU. The Wildcats are the 11th-best Division II squad in the nation, and could be a darkhorse to win a national title this winter. What is the problem, however, is that it was the Greyhounds' third-straight loss. While com...
Life can feel too complicated, moving too fast nowadays. Tensions are rising in the Middle East. An upcoming election could further split an already divisive country. Not to mention deadlines, commitments, bills and ruminating over the things you forgot to do – and things you wish you didn't do – that can feel all consuming. But simplicity and a slower pace was found inside Eastern New Mexico University's Golden Student Success Center as the High Plains Cosplay Club took pla...
In a post-pandemic world where some educators feel public education is in peril, Zia Elementary is thriving. The evidence: its Blue Ribbon award. That means it's been nationally recognized for creating a secure, welcoming educational environment where students master challenging and engaging concepts. Zia is one of 356 schools in the nation – and one of three in New Mexico – to receive the designation this year. Kaylene Davis is the school's leader. Since becoming pri...
In light of a recent train crash near Portales, Roosevelt County Commissioner Dennis Lopez on Tuesday requested the county take advantage of a program called Section 130. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration, the “Program provides funds for the elimination of hazards at public railway-highway crossings.” The crash occurred the morning of Sep. 25 and sent occupants of a vehicle to the hospital with injuries that were not life threatening, according to BNSF. “There’s no way a train...
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, on behalf of the longtime manager of Allen Theatres in Clovis, filed a lawsuit Monday against the theater group. Abby Parish is alleging Allen Theatres committed age discrimination against him. Parrish, who’d worked at the Clovis movie theater since 1991, alleges Russell Allen, the president of the company, “forced him to retire in September 2020, and refused to return him to work in March 2021 (after pandemic restrictions were lifted) because he was 72 years old,” accor...
Kwesi Felix Boafo, an Eastern New Mexico University graduate student from Ghana, stood over a new polymerase chain reaction machine, wrapped in plastic. He looked at it eagerly, like a kid hovering over a gift on Christmas eve. Over the next several months, Felix Boafo will use the machine – which amplifies and detects DNA – for his upcoming graduate project: Determining liver abscess in cattle. A recent West Texas A&M University report revealed this "can lead to more th...
A cacophony of smashing pads and cheering fans flowed through Steven Loy Family Foundation Stadium on Friday night, as youngsters from Valencia High School and Portales High School duked it out in the fourth quarter of a meaningful district melee. Then in the fourth quarter, up by one possession, PHS quarterback Tommy Lopez pump-faked a screen pass, found Kaidyn Cordova streaking up the sideline and ripped a deep ball into the pitch-black sky. Time froze. The cacophony...
Portales officials decided Tuesday they’d like to continue discussions with EPCOR possibly providing water to the city. “We’d like to know what we need to do and how we move forward with you guys -- if that’s what we choose to do -- so that we’re clear with the community and that we’re not just stringing y’all along,” Councilor Mike Rackler told EPCOR Vice President Jeffrey Stuck at the City Council meeting. Officials agreed to set a work session to continue discussion. “When we schedule this working session, it will be open...
Mike Morris wants peace with Logan and Quay County officials as they address ongoing issues with the Ute Water Pipeline. “It is past time … to move past the contention around this project,” Morris, the chairman of the Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority, told Logan Mayor Barry Bass on Thursday. After the water authority meeting, Morris was seen talking with Bass and Eldon Merrick, an ENMWUA board member from Portales. Asked about that conversation, Morris said, “I think we are going in the direction of a respect...
Editor’s note: This is one in a continuing series of interviews with local officials and community leaders. Vick Christian is a board member of cooperative companies Deaf Smith Electric and Golden Spread Electric, which are in the process of seeing if they should back up a data center that would power Artificial Intelligence with 206 megawatts. That’s more than 200 times the amount of electricity Farwell uses. Q: Can you outline this potential deal involving Deaf Smith Electric and Golden Spread Electric and the data cen...
Finally, after 35 years, 100-plus cracked homicide cases and thousands of lives positively impacted, Dan Aguilar has decided to retire from law enforcement. A 2002 Officer of the Year while at the Clovis Police Department, Aguilar has been lauded by peers for his commitment and fearlessness: No better example than the seven years he spent working to catch Clovis' Noe Torres and Edward Salas who were involved in the murder of 10-year-old Carlos Perez in 2005. "Dan doesn't have...
In an ever-changing college sports landscape, where name, image and likeness deals, conference realignment and ladder climbing reign supreme, Eastern New Mexico University rodeo coach Albert Flinn is an outlier. This isn’t because he’s 83 and dons a bluetooth headset (yes, those still exist). Instead, it’s because he happily accepts getting paid half a typical salary – roughly $30,000 a year – to dedicate his life to lifting an underfunded program to national prominenc...
Officials on Thursday broke ground on a pipeline project intended to deliver 6.5 million gallons of water per day to the city of Portales. If all goes as planned, the water should begin to flow about 2031. The Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority calls it Finished Water 3B of the Ute Water Project. The ceremony was held at the intersection of Lime Street and Boston Avenue in Portales. FW3B is scheduled for completion in about a year. It will cost "about $15.5 million,"...
Rodeo takes center stage this weekend at Eastern New Mexico University. ENMU will host 17 other schools Thursday through Saturday in the annual College "Daze" Rodeo at Lewis-Cooper Arena. The rodeo arena is about five minutes southwest of the ENMU campus at 2221 W. 18th St. in Portales. ENMU's Shacie Marr, who competes in breakaway roping, barrel racing and goat-tying events, said the event appeals to much of the community. "Especially in Portales ... There's a lot of farmer,...
During Portales High School's halftime homecoming ceremony last Friday night, the Rams public address announcer introduced nominees and read out quotes from each one. Common themes were faith in the Lord, being a good person and virtues of hard work. But one, which came from Pierce Culpepper – a 6-foot-5 sophomore PHS defensive end – stood out. It was a message to his older brother, Paxton Culpepper, PHS' senior quarterback, about how his season-ending ACL tear was just...
