Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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Priscilla Hogg sticks a Bush/Cheney sign into her yard Tuesday in Clovis. Hogg’s first sign was stolen in the last week. (Staff photo: Eric Kluth) When Curry County Democratic Party co-chairman Gary Swinford helped Democrats campaign in the past, the vandals he was up against were manageable. Sure, they stole campaign signs here and there. But never has he seen the chaos that has engulfed Clovis, where he said 97 of 100 Kerry/Edwards signs were stolen about two weeks ago — the same day they were erected. Some of those sig...
President Bush took a light-hearted jab at Clovis on Wednesday during a campaign stop in Rochester, Minn., a Clovis native who sat with the president said. Asked by Bush to tell her story, a former Clovis fifth-grade teacher at Cameo Elementary, Jill Wooten, said she grew up in a little town in eastern New Mexico called Clovis. She told the president she moved in the summer of 2003 to Minnesota, where her husband got a job at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester. “The president said ‘I know Clovis, we all know why you left the...
lovis Fire Chief Ron Edwards will be retiring at the end of the month after 31 years with the Clovis Fire Department. (Staff photo: Eric Kluth) Much has happened in the 31 years Fire Chief Ron Edwards has been employed with the Clovis Fire Department: He was among several firefighters to fight a vicious fire that destroyed the Tower Theater in Portales in the mid-1970s; his fellow employees once dumped flour in his bed while he was in the shower; and his coworkers say his calm temperament in the face of emergency is one of hi... Full story
Members of the Ute Water Commission on Friday voted to form a subcommittee to research options for renewing a contract that reserves water as a drinking supply for eastern New Mexicans. Members of the commission said extending the water reservation for 10 years could hamper the $307 million Ute Pipeline Project in a variety of ways: It could relay a message to Congress that there’s plenty of time to obtain federal funding; relax deadline pressure on Ute pipeline organizers to complete the project; and increase the cost of t...
Cops and Courts The Clovis Police Department received two awards Friday for above and beyond support for the New Mexico National Guard. Police Chief Bill Carey received one award and the department received the other at an Employers Support Guard and Reserve Luncheon at K-Bob’s Steakhouse. “We all support the Guard, these guys while they’re gone,” Carey said. Six Clovis police officers in the past year have entered into active duty in the National Guard. The event was hosted by City Manager Ray Mondragon. Cannon Air Force B... Full story
Members of the Ute Water Commission on Friday voted to form a subcommittee to research options for renewing a contract that reserves water as a drinking supply for eastern New Mexicans. Members of the commission said extending the water reservation for 10 years could hamper the $307 million Ute Pipeline Project in a variety of ways: It could relay a message to Congress that there’s plenty of time to obtain federal funding; relax deadline pressure on Ute pipeline organizers to complete the project; and increase the cost of t... Full story
Thanks to a soggy summer and unseasonably cool fall temperatures, the area wheat harvest is being threaten by a pre-beetle grub that feasts on the plant’s roots. The cool weather for the last month and above average rainfall in eastern New Mexico created prime soil conditions for wheat diseases and insects, said Mark Marsalis, an agronomy specialist with New Mexico State University’s Agricultural Science Center north of Clovis. “We’re seeing poor stand establishment at several locations in Curry County,” he said of the crop....
City Commissioner Fred Van Soelen speaks during Tuesday’s Public Safety meeting at city hall. (Staff photo: Eric Kluth) City Manager Ray Mondragon told members of the Public Safety Committee that city officials are working on a plan to increase police pay, one he hopes will go before the city commission by Nov. 4 for approval. Although specifics of the new payment plan haven’t been ironed out, Mondragon said Tuesday the plan will be comparable to other police agencies in the state. Currently, the Clovis Police Department ran...
Bobby Jimenez bales water away from his home Wednesday evening south of the intersection of Curry Road 7 and H. (Staff photo: Eric Kluth) At the edge of what became a 30-acre swamp southeast of Clovis, Troy Johnson waded through his sunken living room where a pair of boots and a single shoe drifted in shin-high water. His home, his garage and his front and back yards were still under water on Thursday, more than 36 hours after 3 inches of rain poured down roads onto his and his neighbor’s property at the southeast corner o...
When longtime Clovis educator Sara Mitchell writes a former student she tries to persuade his thoughts away from his current situation. Her letters are positive and light. They focus on subjects that include books they’ve read, politics and positive reinforcement. She tries to refrain from beginning her letters with “How are things with you?” For Mitchell, who spent 30 years as an administrator and teacher in Clovis schools, it’s pretty obvious how things are for a young man serving a lifetime prison sentence. But that ha... Full story
Priscilla Salazar is one of hundreds of extras getting ’60s-style hair for the movie “Believe in Me.” Salazar was getting her hair styled Monday by Instincts Salon owner and stylist Elizabeth Ware. (Staff photo: Mike Linn) With locks stretching like cotton candy over their beady heads, a group of female customers at a local salon joke they resemble their mothers. Their hair sticks to the tops of cars, is held to together with a lacquer-like hair spray and can’t be washed. Not until filming is over, at least. Instinc... Full story
Richard Rees, 14, of Clovis walks on 14th Street past the lake at Chavez Park Tuesday afternoon. The level of the lake had risen within a couple feet of the road by late afternoon. (Staff photo: Eric Kluth) Sammy Cordova said he pushed at least 20 cars out of a flooded intersection at Grand Avenue and Hull Street on Monday morning. Later in the evening, he said he drove around town in his 1995 Ford F-250 truck to pick up family members whose cars were too low to make it through what he described as the “rivers” of Clo...
Clovis police believe this house at 700 E. 10th St. in Clovis was the site of numerous sexual assaults against children. (File photo) It was an innocent note to a classmate, a few lines of sympathy from a third-grader devastated his friend was being sexually abused. “I’m so sorry that I couldn’t help you from being raped and stop it,” Zachary Padilla wrote to his female friend at Parkview Elementary. “Just know that I care for you very much.” Liza Marquez, Zachary’s mother, said she and the boy’s grandmother found the letter...
The U.S. Air Force has roughly 1,200 F-16s in service. (Courtesy photo) Half of the U.S. Air Force’s F-16 fighter jets are likely slated for retirement by 2010, but the plan is not expected to affect the future of Cannon Air Force Base, an official with U.S Sen. Jeff Bingaman’s office said Thursday. Representatives from the offices of two other U.S. congressmen agreed talks of retiring F-16s are in the works but said nothing has been finalized. Cannon is home to 80 F-16s, the only aircraft at the base. Jude McCartin, Bin... Full story
First lady Laura Bush addresses the crowd at the '04 Victory Rally Wednesday at the Curry County Fairgrounds in Clovis. (Staff photo: Eric Kluth)e Against the backdrop of a hay-filled truck with a “Viva Bush” sign in the window, first lady Laura Bush told scores of eastern New Mexicans about her husband’s dedication to education, the economy and quelling the tide of terrorism. During a 20-minute speech at the Curry County Fairgrounds on Wednesday, Bush said her husband’s “character and conviction” will continue in the Whit... Full story
Half of the U.S. Air Force’s F-16 fighter jets are likely slated for retirement by 2010, but the plan is not expected to affect the future of Cannon Air Force Base, an official with U.S Sen. Jeff Bingaman’s office said Thursday. Representatives from the offices of two other U.S. congressmen agreed talks of retiring F-16s are in the works but said nothing has been finalized. Cannon is home to 80 F-16s, the only aircraft at the base. Jude McCartin, Bingaman’s communications director, said officials are hoping a newer gener...
A few days after 3-year-old David Lucas’ sister died from complications during childbirth he stopped by her gravesite and made her a promise. Forty years later he’s trying his best to keep it. “I told her I’d be back, that when I got older I’d come back and get her,” said Lucas, a drug and alcohol counselor in Sacramento, Calif. “We knew we would be leaving (Clovis), because (the family) always talked about moving to California. We weren’t going to leave her there all by herself.” The Clovis native tried to make good on his... Full story
CLOVIS — Against the backdrop of a hay-filled truck with a “Viva Bush” sign in its window, first lady Laura Bush told scores of eastern New Mexicans about her husband’s dedication to education, the economy and quelling the tide of terrorism. During a 20-minute speech at the Curry County Fairgrounds on Wednesday, Bush said her husband’s “character and conviction” will continue in the White House for four more years, and provided a list of reasons to support her predictions. A recent rise in the country’s employment rate...
Jeremiah Staber (right) and Mark Garcia, both 10, play in the puddles Monday near their Clovis home. Clovis received 2.21 inches of rain from Friday night to 8 a.m. on Monday, according to the National Weather Service. (Staff photo: Mike Linn) It’s getting hard to stay dry around here. Some streets are starting to resemble lakes and puddles are almost unavoidable. Umbrellas, boots and rain coats have become all too familiar. Officially, Clovis recorded 2.21 inches of rain from Friday through 8 a.m. Monday, the National W...
Curry County Manager Geneva Cooper talks with Lance Pyle, executive assistant and indigent specialist, Friday in the Curry County Courthouse. (Staff photo: Eric Kluth) Top-level officials like Curry County Manager Geneva Cooper are becoming a statistical rarity. She got married when she was a junior at Portales High School. She never went to college. She succeeded on work ethic, training and experience, staff members say. She readily admits that when she hires for her office she looks for applicants with a college degree — a...
A Clovis police officer and a Methodist pastor — a husband and wife remembered for their love of God and outgoing personalities — died together shortly after 9 p.m. Wednesday night in a motorcycle accident five miles west of Cannon Air Force Base. Boden Garrison, 35, and wife Amanda, 39, were attempting to pass a semi-truck going eastbound on U.S. 60/84 when the motorcycle they were riding ran out of lane, according to a press release from the New Mexico State Police. Their motorcycle traveled onto the south shoulder and clip... Full story
A Clovis doctor spent years operating a local nursing home, months fighting to keep it and minutes accepting a judge’s decision it was gone. But Dr. Ali Ghaffari said the good memories of Buena Vista Nursing Home will linger for a lifetime. District Judge Stephen Quinn on Thursday afternoon issued a ruling that the state’s decision to take over the management of Buena Vista was justified. Quinn agreed with state officials that the facility’s care and conditions put its residents in danger of death or harm, according to a pre...
A Clovis police officer and a Methodist pastor — a husband and wife remembered for their love of God and outgoing personalities — died together shortly after 9 p.m. Wednesday night in a motorcycle accident five miles west of Cannon Air Force Base. Boden Garrison, 35, and wife Amanda, 39, were attempting to pass a semi-truck going eastbound on U.S. 60/84 when the motorcycle they were riding ran out of lane, according to a press release from the New Mexico State Police. Their motorcycle traveled onto the south shoulder and clip...
Mike Linn: CNJ news editor Competition for police officers is so stiff statewide that in one case Clovis taxpayers paid for an officer’s training only to lose him after two weeks on the streets. The pricetag for those two weeks: roughly $40,000, Clovis Police Chief Bill Carey said. That type of figure, along with a myriad of issues related to retaining and recruiting police officers, has Clovis city commissioners and law enforcement officials screaming for change. Commissioners on Thursday night unanimously approved a $... Full story
City officials are hoping a new incentive package for Clovis police will help hike staffing levels and attract more experienced officers to the force. City Manager Ray Mondragon will present an approximately $80,000 annual incentive package for approval at tonight’s city commission meeting. If approved, the average incentive pay for an officer will come to $1,481 annually. He said the Clovis Police Department — like law enforcement departments nationwide — is in the midst of a staffing crunch and fewer people want to join...
