Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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PORTALES — Help is on the way. At Tuesday night’s Portales City Council meeting, a resolution was approved granting COVID-19 relief funds to local businesses hurt by the pandemic and the economic freefall resulting from it. Two dozen businesses applied for $180,800 of grant money, with 14 selected by two committees — one that reviewed the applications, and the Economic Development Finance Review Committee that reviewed the first committee’s findings and made recommendations accordingly. The 14 businesses selected to divide th...
PORTALES — Call it a silver lining for some involved in Eastern New Mexico University athletics. For others, it isn’t all that relevant. When the NCAA announced an extra year of eligibility for seniors who lost their final collegiate seasons due to COVID-19, it was big for some involved with Greyhound spring sports. The ENMU women’s basketball team plays of course in the winter, and even though the team had its scheduled Division II tournament appearance in mid-March canceled due to the coronavirus, the eligibility rule...
Editor's note: This is the final in a recurring series on local teachers trying to maintain normalcy during the COVID-19 pandemic. CLOVIS - The coronavirus' effect on teaching has shown how far the profession has come, with educators able to reach their students through the internet. In some cases, though, the best way to communicate can be old-fashioned. Take Elizabeth Hita-Ledezma, for instance. Before school ended for the summer, the Yucca Middle School math teacher was...
Court will soon be in session. An order issued by the New Mexico Supreme Court on Thursday lifted the suspension of jury trials in criminal and civil cases that had been in effect since March. Courts are permitted to resume jury trials between June 15 and July 15. “As our state gradually reopens, courts can safely resume jury trials as local conditions permit,” State Chief Justice Judith K. Nakamura stated. “Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, New Mexico courts have worked diligently to protect the health of people enter...
High school sports in New Mexico will start to re-surface this summer after grinding to a halt in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. And it appears athletics will initially look a lot different than when they were last permitted in late winter. Thursday, the New Mexico Activities Association released its guidance for a Phase 1 return to play, beginning June 15. “That gives us a couple of weeks to get ready for what we need to get ready for in regard to getting all the PPE (personal protection equipment) that we need and so f...
CLOVIS - The 2019-20 Clovis High School sports season was humming right along. The Wildcats' football team reached the 6A semifinals. Jerrick Maldonado finished second at the state cross country meet. The Clovis boys basketball team hosted a state playoff game for the first time since 2013. And then came the second week of March. Everything came to a screeching halt because of the coronavirus, ending Clovis' spring sports season just a couple of weeks in. So, when the top...
As New Mexico and states around the country gradually re-open, there’s been much talk of a “new normal.” People certainly miss the old normal, but that may be gone, if not forever, then at least for the foreseeable future. Plains Regional Medical Center Administrator Drew Dostal sees changes in routine medical visits that may last a while. “That’s a broad subject,” Dostal said. “I’m not sure that going forward it’ll be routine in the sense of what it used to look like. It was very clinical based. We really want to keep safe...
COVID-19 shut down just about every aspect of normal life. But good will in the community has continued on, under restrictions. The local not-for-profits, though being somewhat curtailed by social distancing guidelines, have kept providing meals, clothing, even essential bills. Neediness didn't take a COVID break. "For us it didn't slow down. In fact, it accelerated at a high rate of speed," said Sheila Savitz of Consigning Women-Angel Ministries in Portales. Savitz said her... Full story
As Phase 2 of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s re-opening plan looms, restaurants, bars, movie theaters and casinos may be allowed to unlock their doors Monday. There’s no doubt sanitation and social-distancing guidelines will be part of any reopening. And for the restaurants, part of those guidelines could be strict and might raise more than a few eyebrows. There is talk of a mandate requiring restaurant owners and managers to maintain a daily log of customers who patronize their establishments. The log would be for use in con... Full story
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...
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
MULESHOE — Talk of COVID-19 is everywhere. And seems to be impacting everything. Even more so across the state line in Texas than in New Mexico. While New Mexico — through Saturday morning — had remained among states reporting fewer than 100 coronavirus cases, Texas is well over that number. On Saturday morning, Texas was nearing 200 confirmed cases, with five deaths from the virus. So, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order limiting public gatherings to 10 peopl... Full story
A week ago, life was relatively normal. Now, not so much. Self-quarantining and social distancing have become things people are supposed to do. Bathroom tissue has become white gold. All thanks to the coronavirus. Troubled times indeed. Throughout the area, like the country and the world, people are experiencing shock and in some cases, panic - hence the run on toilet paper. But others, while dealing with the pandemic with caution, are taking a more measured approach. In...
MELROSE — There’s that saying, ‘You can’t keep a good man down.’ In Saturday morning’s case, you could have also included women, teenagers and children to the phrase. In the common section of the main Melrose Public School building, a group of 20-plus Melrose basketball fans gathered on Saturday to watch the second-seeded Lady Buffaloes defeat top-seeded Logan for the state Class 1A championship. The Pit in Albuquerque was off limits to fans and any non-essential personnel tha...
TEXICO — Maybe if enough people cross their fingers, there will be a 2020 high school baseball season. Texico’s baseball team, a four-time defending state champion, must wish it were just that easy, wish that simply crossing fingers could make the coronavirus go away, and get life — along with the Wolverines’ quest for a fifth straight title — back on schedule. It there is a season, head coach Ty Thatcher thinks his team is built to contend for a fifth consecutive state crown. “Oh yeah, I think we can be at least as good as...
PORTALES — There they were, the Eastern New Mexico University women’s basketball players and coaches, hanging out together on campus Thursday afternoon, a day before they were supposed to visit Lubbock for a game against Texas A&M-Commerce in the NCAA Division II tournament’s opening round. There they were, Eastern New Mexico head track & field coach Jeff Kavalunas and Greyhound athlete Ivar Moinat, in Birmingham, Alabama, preparing for Moinat to compete in the NCAA Division II 800-meter run. But then came the annou...
CLOVIS — Saturday night was the first Clovis boys basketball state playoff game at Rock Staubus Gymnasium since 2013. And the Wildcats’ last game there, period, for another nine months. Clovis marked the occasion with a solid tip-off-to-final-buzzer performance against La Cueva, as the eighth-seeded Wildcats beat the ninth-seeded Bears 71-60 in Saturday’s state 5A first-round clash. The ’Cats went ahead for good late in the second quarter and rolled on to earn a state quarterf...
The Clovis High softball team is off to a 3-1 start this season, but can’t get too comfortable. After all, last year’s Lady Wildcats began 3-0 but wound up 5-19. So, there’s still a long way to go this year. But 3-1 is 3-1, a good foundation for second-year head coach Emery Sierra to build upon, as Clovis looks to make its way toward a respectable season. “There’s quite a bit of potential there,” Sierra said. “As long as they work together and make plays and hit the ball I think they can compete. It’s just those little th...
PORTALES — It was truly a Super Tuesday for the Eastern New Mexico University women’s basketball team. Even with everything that transpired later in the Lone Star Conference tournament at Comerica Center in Frisco, Texas this weekend, Tuesday was historic for the Eastern women’s program, which hosted a conference tournament opening-round game for the first time since 2004. So, the atmosphere at Greyhound Arena Tuesday night was understandably electric, with an espec...
TEXICO — The Texico boys basketball team saved what may have been its best performance of the season for its last home game of the season. Playing sharp in the first half and looking poised in a suddenly iffy fourth quarter, the seventh-seeded Wolverines held off 10th-seeded Navajo Pine to win their state 2A first-round playoff game 64-54 Saturday afternoon at Texico Sports Arena. The Wolverines broke loose after a back-and-forth first quarter to gain some nice separation by halftime, separated some more in the third q...
TEXICO — Every basketball season comes to an end. The Texico girls basketball players were just hoping theirs didn’t end quite so soon. The sixth-seeded Lady Wolverines sure fought hard to avoid that happening in Friday night’s state 2A first-round game against 11th-seeded Clayton at Texico Sports Arena. Despite falling into a deep, deep first-quarter hole, Texico battled back and actually had a chance to win the game in the final minute. But key Texico turnovers in the wanin...
