Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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A former Portales High School and Eastern New Mexico University football player died early Sunday morning in a car accident in Las Vegas, Nev. Calvin Griffin, 19, played for Portales Rams football coach Glenn Johnson and graduated from Portales High in 2003. He had recently moved to Las Vegas to live with his father and pursue a career in personal training, Johnson said. Johnson described Griffin as one of the best linebackers he’s coached at the high school level in 23 years on the sidelines. Beyond his athletic ability, J...
A multi-million dollar civic center will not be large enough to host high school graduations and large events like the Home and Garden Show. That’s according to the project’s conceptual design, which the Clovis City Commission approved by a 6-2 vote Thursday night. Commissioner Isidro Garcia and Fred Van Soelen cast the dissenting votes. Garcia said project is “too expensive for what we’re getting.” Van Soelen, on the other hand, said he doesn’t believe the center will serve its purpose if it’s not big enough to host graduati...
Jordan Perry, left, holds up his United Parcel Service shirt as service provider Jatonna Hankins helps with his hat Tuesday in Clovis. When Hankins delivers packages in the neighborhood, the 5-year-old runs out to meet her. CNJ photo by Eric Kluth. Five-year-old Jordan Perry loves the big brown truck. And the driver of the big brown truck loves little Jordan. Through life-threatening forms of cancer and years of deliveries to homes on Shay Marie Court, United Parcel Service driver Jatonna Hankins and Jordan share a special bo...
Recent Clovis High grad Virginia Lee enjoys reading all types of literature, from Shakespeare to Steinbeck. CNJ photo by Eric Kluth. Unlike most young women her age, 18-year-old Virginia Lee loves reading the literary works of some of the world’s most renown authors. The Clovis High School graduate began reading Leo Tolstoy’s classic, “Anna Karenina,” about three weeks ago and said she should finish the novel within a day or two. “I think it’s important to read some of the classics, it’s good to be well-read. It helps you...
Unlike most women her age, 18-year-old Virginia Lee loves reading the literary works of some of the world’s most renown authors. The Clovis High School graduate began reading Leo Tolstoy’s classic, “Anna Karenina,” about three weeks ago and said she should finish the novel within a day or two. “I think it’s important to read some of the classics, it’s good to be well-read. It helps you relate to others,” she said. But teens such as Lee are becoming harder and harder to find in America, according to a recently released survey...
Every day it’s something different: Cannon Air Force Base is expanding. Cannon Air Force Base is closing. Dillard’s is closing. A high-ranking school official has his eyes set on a job at city hall. So goes the gossip that infiltrates coffee shops, beauty salons and government buildings in area code 88101. Those most likely to know insist Dillard’s is not closing and there’s no shakeup brewing at city hall or in the school administration. Changes may be in store for Cannon, but not until 2005 when the federal governm...
The Clovis Police Department will receive $30,185 in federal funds to help fight crime in the city, U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici announced in a press release Thursday. Clovis qualified for the funds because of a high number of violent crimes (murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault) in the city, according to the release. “As part of the continuing efforts to eliminate crime in New Mexico, these awards support key resources and programs that allow police to enhance local protections and security for New Mexicans,” Dom...
When it comes to street signs, popularity is in the name. Or the lane — as in Clovis’ Happy Lane. Street signs notifying drivers of the intersection of Happy Lane and Stone Place have become a favorite among Clovis’ sign thieves, city officials say. At one point, street department employees decided to weld the sign to its pole to keep it safe. That didn’t work, though, Assistant City Manager Joe Thomas said. “Someone would just about need a hacksaw to get it out,” Thomas said. “... They would have just about had to dig it...
Stephen Page didn’t like Clovis High School. The classes were too big and he felt he wasn’t getting the attention he needed as a student. But instead of dropping out, Page spent his senior year at Choices, an alternative high school for students who don’t fit into the typical school setting. “If it wasn’t for Choices I probably wouldn’t have graduated (high school),” the 2004 graduate said. “The teachers, I worked real well with them. They don’t give up on you. If you’re behind they’ll stay late or come in early. They want t...
Decades of camaraderie and Friday night bingo sessions faded with the smoke and flames that engulfed the second floor of American Legion Post 117 late Wednesday afternoon. Nobody was in the structure at 1400 W. Seventh St. and firefighters reported no injuries, but the more than 55-year-old building is unsalvageable, Clovis firefighters said. For hours firefighters attacked the fire with three high-powered water hoses from a variety of angles. But they were unsuccessful in containing the blaze that overtook the building’s s...
Clovis residents have been conservative with their water use since mid-June, when city officials set voluntary guidelines for “non-essential use.” Kathy Wright, vice president and manager of New Mexico American Water, said residents being frugal with their water and a recent surge of timely rainfall are keeping area water wells in good standing — pumping about 2 million gallons a day below capacity. Wright said there has been no date set to discontinue voluntary water restrictions — which calls for no yard watering between...
The street sign at the corner of Happy Lane and Stone Place has become a favorite among Clovis’ sign thieves, according to Clovis city officials. CNJ photo by Eric Kluth Mike Linn: CNJ News Editor When it comes to street signs, popularity is in the name. Or the lane — as in Clovis’ Happy Lane. Street signs notifying drivers of the intersection of Happy Lane and Stone Place have become a favorite among Clovis’ sign thieves, city officials say. At one point, street department employees decided to weld the sign to its pole to...
A member of the Eastern New Mexico Rural Water Authority believes there is a 50 percent chance the funding formula for the estimated $307 million Ute Water Project will change. ENMRWA board member Catherine Haynes, who was in Washington, D.C., last week lobbying for federal funding of the project at 80 percent, said an attorney for U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., told her projects federally funded at 80 percent or more are special cases. “We know most projects of this kind are funded at a 50/50 match, and we know there a...
Samplings of recent calls received by Clovis-area law enforcement officers, according to reports: Police responded to the 900 block of Delta Street on Wednesday after a woman claimed her stepmother had beaten her. The woman said she and her father were talking when her stepmother came in and slapped her across the mouth and punched her in the face, on her head and on her left arm. The woman had a split lip and bruises on her left cheek and arm. The woman’s brother and father told police a different story. The father and b...
A member of the Eastern New Mexico Rural Water Authority believes there is a 50 percent chance the funding formula for the estimated $307 million Ute Water Project will change. ENMRWA board member Catherine Haynes, who was in Washington, D.C., last week lobbying for federal funding of the project at 80 percent, said an attorney for U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., told her projects federally funded at 80 percent or more are special cases. “We know most projects of this kind are funded at a 50/50 match, and we know there a...
About 10 young girls went to the emergency room Thursday night after falling from atop a 28-foot-high slide at an end-of-the-year softball party at Spencer Park. Parents of the children — all under 8 and members of the Clovis Girls Athletic Association (CGAA) — were in the emergency room at Plains Regional Medical Center. They said the worst injuries were a possible broken collar bone and a possible fractured ankle. An official at PRMC — where parents in the emergency room comforted children in wheel chairs and held ice p...
A district judge on Thursday advised lawyers for the De Baca County sheriff and the county commission to try to resolve issues related to an extended feud between the two outside of court. Ninth Judicial District Judge Teddy Hartley also overruled an ex-parte order signed by District Judge Joe Parker two weeks ago. The order would have forced the De Baca County Commission to restore Sheriff Gary Graves’ county cell phone and reissue credit cards used to buy gasoline out of the Fort Sumner area. Hartley said since he is the j...
A district judge on Thursday advised lawyers for the De Baca County sheriff and the county commission to try to resolve issues related to an extended feud between the two outside of court. Ninth Judicial District Judge Teddy Hartley also overruled an ex-parte order signed by District Judge Joe Parker two weeks ago. The order would have forced the De Baca County Commission to restore Sheriff Gary Graves’ county cell phone and reissue credit cards used to buy gasoline out of the Fort Sumner area. Hartley said since he is the j...
State officials plan to relocate residents of a Clovis nursing home within 30 days, claiming the health care facility poses health concerns for its occupants. Wednesday’s decision to move all 19 residents of Buena Vista Nursing Home came after a recent barrage of heavy rainfall compounded existing problems with the facility’s roof, according to a press release from the New Mexico Department of Health. The leaking roof, combined with the discovery of toxic black mold, gave state officials no options but to seek safer acc...
Like a grown man who never let go of his favorite pair of Chuck Taylors, so Vicki Kelley doesn’t want to let go of her 22 years working at Clovis Municipal Court. The municipal court administrator describes herself as the “old shoe that never wears out” — and she’d like to keep it that way. As would Municipal Judge Jan Garrett, who on Tuesday described Kelley as meticulous, organized and a great help. Thanks to a glowing written recommendation from Garrett, the New Mexico Association of Municipal Court Clerks named Kelley “C...
Bethany Hanner of Clovis searches for jobs online Thursday at the New Mexico Department of Labor in Clovis. (CNJ staff photo: Eric Kluth) The parking lot of the state labor department’s Clovis branch was virtually empty Thursday afternoon. Inside the building, Bethany Hanner — a 20-year-old who lost her job on Tuesday — searched the labor department’s online database for work. “This place has been helpful,” she said. She was the only one there looking for a job. “These new businesses in Clovis have helped; unemployment...
PORTALES — This is the story of a group of black men who fought for their lives, and one black man who fought for their honor. It’s about soldiers who sought shelter, and a Portales man in search of a colorless society. It’s about a 50-foot hill near the Texas border in Roosevelt County, a dusty embankment where a group of 25 to 40 black soldiers dissolved sugar in their own urine and that of their horses and drank it to fight dehydration in July of 1877. The soldiers — Troop A of the U.S. Tenth Cavalry — were trying to...
Ninth Judicial District Judge Joe Parker on Friday sentenced a former Cannon Air Force Base airman to 12 years in prison in connection with the December 2002 death of her 15-month-old son. Alesia Thomas, 22, faced a maximum penalty of 18 years after entering an Alford plea — maintaining innocence of the crime while acknowledging there was enough evidence to convict — in February to the charge of child abuse resulting in death. Thomas’ attorney Jerry Daniel Herrera, who asked the court to implement probation, said his client c...
Two years, a few thousand dollars, and many hours in a Clovis auto repair garage helped transform Sgt. Rob Burke’s 1972 hippie bug into what he says is one of roughly 50 “Herbie the Love Bug” replicas in the world. And all the work has paid off for Burke and his family: They’ve been invited to bring the Volkswagen bug to Roswell this weekend for the fifth annual Roswell 2K (Beetle) car show. There, Burke’s car will act as the backdrop for an autograph session with Dean Jones, the actor who drove the Herbie mobile in the 19...
Zack Gillooly and several modern-day dictionaries had something in common Wednesday morning: None of them recognized the word “reresupper.” Zack, representing the eastern New Mexico region in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., lost in the first speaking round after misspelling the word by one letter, using an “o” instead of an “e” on the fourth letter. “I thought it was the ‘e’ or the ‘o’ and I went with the ‘o,’” Zack said. The word isn’t listed in “Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Editi...
