Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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A regular customer of The Happy Place & Courthouse Café in Portales was likely speaking for a lot of people when describing a brief respite from her quarantine. "'I went into the out today,'" Julie Rooney, owner of the Happy Place gift shop quoted the customer as saying after getting to venture outside recently. Most people would probably like to go "into the out" more after being quarantined for so long due to COVID-19. With talk of a gradual re-opening of New Mexico...
CLOVIS - To be essential, or not to be essential, that was the question. At least it was the question for scores of businesses statewide during the first six weeks of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's stay-at-home order, announced March 23. Essential businesses were allowed to remain open, some with restrictions. Businesses deemed non-essential had to close, lay off employees, leave their customers without the services previously provided. Lujan Grisham's amended order, taking...
CLOVIS - Elizabeth Hita-Ledezma spent her autumns in the late 1990s and early 2000s playing soccer for Clovis High, not running cross country. And yet she seems a natural fit to replace the retiring Mark Bussen as Clovis' varsity cross country head coach, a personnel move that was recently made official. Hita-Ledezma did train with Clovis' cross country team in the offseason during high school and did compete on Clovis' track team in the spring. More recently she served as...
PORTALES — It’s been a rough spring for everyone, with life almost drawing to a halt due to the coronavirus and restrictions put in place to contain it. New Mexico has been under a stay-at-home order from Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham since March 24. And now, murder hornets? Really? All hornets aside, with regard to the coronavirus at least, businesses in Roosevelt County are looking to this Friday as a possible glimmer of light poking through the clouds, hoping the governor announces some kind of re-opening process. Cau...
The countdown is on to Friday when New Mexico residents and businesses hope that Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham will start easing the state from COVID-19 restrictions into some early form of re-opening. Curry County isn't just sitting in bated-breath mode. The county Chamber of Commerce, in fact, is preparing for a possible re-opening to begin Friday. "We're just following what the governor has come up with as far as her direction," Clovis Economic Development Director Chase...
Brent Owen's drive from the basketball game on Jan. 14, 2010, was different than any before. Owen was in his first year as a graduate assistant for the Southern Indiana men's basketball team, which had just beaten Kentucky Wesleyan on the road, 74-69, and improved to 16-0 overall, 7-0 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference. Those numbers, though, were immaterial on that Thursday night. Southern Indiana center Jeron Lewis, a 21-year-old senior and captain, had collapsed during...
MELROSE — You might say Kevin Lackey has always rooted for the underdog. Growing up, Lackey’s next-door neighbor was a girl with Down Syndrome. “I think I’ve always kind of had a heart for some of those kids who have had things stacked against them,” Lackey said. “I always had a soft spot in my heart for her, helping her. So it’s the route I took.” “The route” was to a career as a special education teacher at Melrose Municipal Schools, and he’s now director of the department there. “It’s a good field,” he said. “I’ve en...
PORTALES — With COVID-19 disrupting normal life as much as it has, people might need a reminder that elections are continuing through the crisis. Though the New Mexico primary elections are June 2, early voting began Tuesday morning and was a topic of discussion at Tuesday’s regular Roosevelt County Commission meeting, the second in a row held remotely. “Early voting started today (Tuesday) at 8 o’clock (a.m.),” said Stephanie Hicks of the Roosevelt County clerk’s office. “It’ll run ... through Saturday, May the 30th, in ou...
TEXICO — Sports have been among the events most missed while New Mexico is under stay-at-home orders due to COVID-19. But there may be some hope on the horizon. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s most recent order runs until May 15, and after that the first phase of re-opening could occur, like Texas began last Friday. Clovis Softball Association and Zia Little League are looking to get out there and start playing, perhaps in early June. Clovis American Little League, however, decided in late April to cancel its season ent...
CLOVIS - Sergio Sanchez has been playing golf for about a year. His buddy, Adrian Romero, has been playing for 23 years, since he was 5. Both are equally avid golfers, though, and both had been denied the opportunity to play in Clovis due to restrictions put in place to combat the coronavirus. Thursday brought good news for Sanchez, Romero and anyone else who likes golfing in Clovis and throughout the state. In a remote news conference, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham amended her...
Texas is open again, to a degree at least. And how noticeable the difference is seems to depend on where you go. Gov. Greg Abbott let Texas' stay-at-home order expire on Thursday, so the state began what was considered Phase 1 of re-opening on Friday. Restaurants, retail stores, malls, libraries, state or locally run museums, golf courses with restrictions, and outdoor sports with fewer than four participants were allowed to return. National museums, bars, breweries and...
CLOVIS - The sign on the front door of Traci's Greenhouse is good news. Sort of. Though in mid-April the sign informed Traci's customers that the business had set up shop just off Highway 60 in Farwell, the current sign on the main Mabry Drive location front door tells the greenhouse's faithful to just come around back. One of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's orders to help contain COVID-19 had forced Traci's Greenhouse to close and seek a temporary home across the state line in...
Many of us remember carrying that tray in the school cafeteria, the one that had the food and the little half-pint cardboard container of milk. Plenty of adults use milk in their coffee, and some even like a cold creamy glass every once in a while. COVID-19 is shaping up like bad news for those milk drinkers and dairy farmers countrywide, specifically in New Mexico. Among the establishments closed since March by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham are schools and restaurants, two of the biggest customers for dairy farmers, leading... Full story
Business owners’ opinions on the COVID-19 pandemic and the shutdowns resulting from it have been fairly consistent — they’re losing their livelihoods and they’re not happy. But what about the employees of businesses, essential and non-essential? How do those in the former category feel about risking their health, possibly their lives, by going to work? How do those in the latter category feel about staying at home, or in some cases, the money they’re losing? How do they feel about the prospect of returning to work? Recently,...
CLOVIS — Lisa Holt just wants to cut hair. She has made her living at it for 25 years and has owned Main Street Barber Shop for almost 20. But Holt, like every barber shop and salon owner in New Mexico, was ordered to close last month under the stay-at-home order by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. While Holt waits to re-open, which won’t happen until at least May 15, she is trying to get money that is supposed to be available to small-business owners through the CARES Act. The government program allocated trillions of dol...
PORTALES — Wade Fraze knows history. It’s the reason he teaches social studies at Portales High School. “I’ve always loved history,” Fraze said. “I’m a history nerd, I guess. So I was just drawn to it.” Now he has the opportunity of putting these historic coronavirus times into context for his students. “As a matter of fact, the next thing that we were going to teach right after state basketball tournament was the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl,” said Fraze, who is also head coach of Portales’ girls basketball team, whic...
CLOVIS - If you were ever inside High Plains Harley-Davidson in Clovis you could probably imagine it: See the Old Chicago brick, then picture the bar that once stood in front of it. See the hardwood floor tucked away back near today's bike service entrance, then picture the dance floor it used to be when the Harley dealership was a bar called Boot Hill. You now have less than a week to experience it again. High Plains Harley-Davidson Owner Jimmy Allison, after doing business...
It wasn't exactly Network's Peter Finch yelling out the window, "We're mad as hell and we're not going to take this anymore!" But New Mexico Chamber of Commerce members did get to express their concerns and frustrations about coronavirus-related shutdowns and restrictions Monday morning - not Network style, but civilly and with the help of Zoom. Curry and Roosevelt counties were among 40 chambers throughout the state that participated in Monday's Zoom meeting with Lt. Gov....
PORTALES — Roosevelt County Chamber of Commerce Director Karl Terry had a good word last week when describing the new normal county residents have been dealing with for just over a month now. “It’s kind of settling into a grind,” Terry said. “We’re adapting and doing things that we normally do at home. I’m about to do a committee meeting online, and we’ve got a board meeting online next week. So we’re adapting.” Adapting is what everyone is doing in these unprecedented times. As the country moves into its second month of qua...
TEXICO — Kristen Scanlan will take cabin fever over coronavirus any day. But that doesn’t mean Scanlan, a Texico elementary school physical education teacher and high school volleyball and golf coach, isn’t frustrated with how this spring is transpiring. “Yeah, it’s horrible,” she said. “You just get used to a routine throughout the year. You try to equip (the students) with some things during the summer because you know you’re not going to see them. But it’s strange to not be able to see them in April.” Distance learning h...
Surely you've seen it, the neon sign just below the sign for Traci's Greenhouse, flashing the date and time as well as other nuggets of information for those making their way along Clovis' Mabry Drive. That neon sign is now dark, kind of a metaphor for these strange and scary times. But Traci's Greenhouse is still trying to brighten things up for its customers, just not at its usual location. New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's order of April 7 forced small businesses...
Think spending time in isolation is frustrating? Think of how spring coaches feel. These were supposed to be the days they were teaching and leading their teams. These were the weeks and months when some high school seniors were supposed to get their last chances to be noticed by colleges, when college seniors were getting their last chances to compete, period. Now these are the days, weeks and months of social distancing, of Skyping and Zooming, of thinking about wearing surg... Full story
Who doesn’t like making their way around the car lot, checking out all the car models and their shiny new paint? Who doesn’t like the smell of the showroom, and of course that new-car scent when you climb inside one? In recent weeks, though, all of the above is just part of what the COVID-19 pandemic has taken away. No more lots and showrooms for a while, at least until the end of the month, as people stay socially distant to contain the coronavirus. But car dealerships are working it out, just like other businesses. No sho... Full story
CLOVIS - Augustine Martinez never thought he would be teaching from long distance when he entered the profession. To be fair, there was no Skype, no Zoom, no Google Classroom, when Martinez became a teacher 35 years ago. Now there are all of those online forms of communication, along with a desperate need for them. COVID-19 has forced schools to close throughout the country. Here in New Mexico, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham ordered that the schools remain closed for the rest of... Full story
CLOVIS — It probably seems peaceful, relaxing, if you close your eyes and picture the White Sands near Alamogordo. It will be easier to picture for those who purchase Clovis High School’s 2020 yearbook, The Plainsman, because the White Sands and other scenery from the Land of Enchantment will be on the cover. The yearbook staff of 20-plus has worked hard on what will be The Plainsman’s 100th anniversary installment. Yes, the Clovis High yearbook has been around almost as lo... Full story
