Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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It is not many people who would start their own business to free themselves up for community service. One of these rare individuals is Kirsty Forrest, owner of the Dye Trying hair salon at 103 W. 4th St., in downtown Clovis, and the Blue Wave tanning salon at 1500 W. 21st St., Clovis Owning her own salon, she said, gives her the freedom for her community activities that won her a Big Heart award from the Clovis-Curry County Chamber of Commerce in 2019. Except for three years...
The president of the Rio Grande Foundation, a libertarian- and conservative-leaning think tank based in Albuquerque, delivered some sad news in statistics aboutNew Mexico’s economy but offered three steps that he said could start reversing New Mexico’s economic performance. Paul Gessing, the foundation president and an occasional columnist for The News on Thursday summarized for the Clovis Rotary Club New Mexico’s situation and the measures he thinks the state should take. He started by demonstrating with statistics just...
A former probation and parole officer in the Clovis office of the Probation and Parole Division of the New Mexico Corrections Department has filed a lawsuit in Ninth Judicial District Court challenging conditions that she alleges unfairly caused her to resign her position in December. The suit filed by Kenda Ferguson, a former probation and parole officer, names as defendants the corrections department, her manager and supervisor in the Probation and Parole Division, Clovis city police officers and city government officials....
Even if Clovis area residents don't wake up to Terri Chavez's cheery voice on KTQM Radio's morning show, they know her from her involvement in events like Aug. 19's Battle of the Bands and the Boo in the Zoo trick-or treating event at the Hillcrest Park Zoo, and through her other job as food and beverage coordinator for the Curry County Events Center. Chavez has been a part of KTQM Radio for 12 years, but only recently has become the "lead voice" on KTQM's morning drive-time...
When Dr. Stephen Haynes turned out the light and locked the doors to his office in Clovis on June 30, it ended 40 years of medical practice in the city. On July 1, however, Haynes returned in the morning to begin year 41 of his private practice in the city. Haynes has remained in Clovis because of the people, he said. "These are people who would give you the shirt off their backs and help you in any way they can," he said of the people of the Clovis area. "they're the best...
Music, photography and service have been Tres Morgan's driving passions for as long as he can remember. People in Clovis know Morgan as a professional photographer by trade, but they also know his powerful singing voice as a leader of praise music at the Legacy Church in Clovis and for several rock bands in town. Morgan has served on committees that organized music for Draggin' Main and the Clovis Music Festival in recent years. This year, he served on the Clovis Music...
Terry Moberly is remembered as putting the needs of others and the communities he served before his own and for having fun doing it. He led his family in the operation of Moberly Moving and Storage from 1976, when Moberly and his wife Mary Jo bought the company from Moberly's father, until his death on June 21. Family and those Moberly worked with in community affairs agreed Moberly was warm and friendly person who could get things done. "It was the joy of his life to be...
CLOVIS -- Jelayne Curtis was everything an executive assistant should be for the 25 years she worked in the superintendent's office of the Clovis Municipal School District, according to Renee Russ, the district's current superintendent, and others who have worked with her. "The scope and depth of Jelayne's knowledge of the last quarter century of the district's history is unmatched," Russ stated in an email. "Jelayne will be greatly missed, and she will always be remembered...
Jason Smith, now 18, was fined $107 and court costs, Thursday after pleading "no contest" to a charge of failing to exercise due care 10 months after the pickup truck he was driving on Aug. 29 struck and killed Martha Castillo, 68, as she was crossing Clovis' Thornton Street. Smith entered his plea and received the sentence in a hearing held in Curry County Magistrate Court before De Baca County Magistrate Judge Buddy Hall. Hall allowed members of Castillo's family to speak,...
PORTALES - About 100 people gathered Sunday evening in Portales City Park next to the Memorial Building for a rally in protest of the U.S. Supreme Court's nullification of Roe vs. Wade, a 50-year-old decision that established a constitutional right to abortion. On a sidewalk about 100 feet away, eight counter-protesters associated with the Grace Covenant Reformed Church of Clovis, held up signs favoring the Supreme Court's decision and opposing abortion on demand. Despite...
Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Ronchetti said his lack of experience in government is one of his greatest pluses. To think that experience in government should be a prerequisite for seeking office, he said last week during a visit to Clovis, is “arrogant.” President Joe Biden has had 50 years of experience and has left the country in a mess, he said, making a similar comment about New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s years of government experience. Ronchetti said he is a believer in small government. “Bigger gove...
About 20 people united by a mistrust in how voting machines record election results gathered Wednesday morning in a basement hallway of the Roosevelt County Courthouse in Portales. Their mission on Wednesday was to scan copies of all 6,627 ballots cast by Roosevelt County voters in the 2020 election to be used for an unofficial audit of the 2020 election results. The ballots, obtained through the state's Inspection of Public Records Act, were in plain cardboard boxes stacked...
A decision on whether to authorize negotiations that could result in the Portales Police Department providing law enforcement support to the town of Elida was delayed Tuesday by the Portales City Council. The council decided to delay the decision to negotiate after raising questions about whether the $45,000 a year for 12 hours a week of law enforcement aid that Elida offered would be sufficient, insurance for Portales police officers working in Elida, and how the move would affect police manpower in Portales. In addition,...
For Jay Fisher, cobbling together an analog recording studio is a labor of love, his own technical skills and nostalgia for the time when he could lay claim to being an extended member of the Norman and Vi Petty family, whose legendary studio became one of the birthplaces of rock 'n' roll. The Pettys had no children of their own, but since they were good friends with Jerry Fisher, Jay Fisher's dad, Jay Fisher and his twin sisters Lynne and Lynda were often entertained as kids...
In the first school year following COVID-19 restrictions like remote learning, Portales Municipal Schools students are regaining academic ground lost to pandemic restrictions at a pace that is about even with students in the rest of the state, Sara Hunton, the Portales schools’ coordinator of curriculum and instruction, on Tuesday told the district’s school board. In all grade levels for which she analyzed data, Hunton said, the gap between top-performing students and bottom-performing students shrunk in the 2022-23 school ye...
Students in Clovis and Portales public schools will not be charged for daily breakfast and lunch meals, regardless of school zone or family income as both districts take advantage of a Community Eligibility Provision of the National School Lunch Program. The Portales Municipal School Board adopted the CEP option Tuesday, and Clovis Schools announced in a press release on Tuesday that all students would receive meals free through the CEP. Officials at both school districts said the CEP is one option among others that...
The idea of a regional behavioral health facility for Curry, Roosevelt, Quay and De Baca counties seemed to have wide support among the public officials, public safety first-responders and health professionals who gathered Thursday in Portales to hear a report on the behavioral health facility's feasibility. James Corbett, principal of Initium Health, the Denver-based consulting firm that conducted the feasibility study, told Thursday's assembly in Portales' Yam Theater that...
Robert "Bobby" Johnson's son and daughter remember their father as a rancher, a writer about nature and history and a businessman, but mostly as a gentle soul. Johnson died in Clovis on May 4 at the age of 91. In his life, Robert Johnson was a farmer, a rancher, and a land use specialist for the New Mexico Land Office. At different points, he chaired the Republican parties of Curry and Roosevelt counties, as well as the party's district chairman, according to his obituary...
The interests of property values and rising housing prices amid a housing shortage clashed Tuesday among Portales City Council members, who ended up tabling a proposal to reduce standards in the Raven Wood Estates subdivision in southwest Portales. By ordinance, exteriors of homes in the subdivision must be brick and fencing must be block walls, but a home builder who said he is trying to build affordable homes, which could alleviate housing shortages in the city, in the face...
Eastern New Mexico University regents Saturday got a first look at a plan to increase enrollment at the university’s main campus in Portales, as well as campuses in Roswell and Ruidoso. ENMU Chancellor Patrice Caldwell presented a draft of the plan to address declining enrollments, which will be submitted to the New Mexico Higher Education Department (HED) by June 15. HED is seeking “enrollment management plans” from all state-sponsored schools as part of its efforts to reverse declining enrollments at all state colle...
Like colleges and universities all over the nation, Clovis Community College and Eastern New Mexico University have been facing declining enrollments. Between Fall 2014 and Fall 2021, CCC saw full-time equivalent student enrollment drop by nearly 37%, from 3,744 students to 2,362 in 2021, a chart on the New Mexico Higher Education Department (HED) website shows. The largest drop occurred between 2019 and 2020, the year in which the COVID-19 pandemic peaked, when CCC’s student enrollment dropped by 763 students. CCC’s stu...
Blue Cross Blue Shield will continue to be the provider of health insurance to Clovis Community College employees for the next five years, the community college’s board decided Wednesday . The college will pay more than $2.5 million for employee health care benefits that include a health savings account, a high-deductible option, Medicare supplemental insurance for retirees, life insurance and dental benefits, Steve Brooks, the college’s purchasing agent, told the board. A staff committee evaluated the Blue Cross Blue Shi...
Fuel cost increases for the Roosevelt County Road Department are budgeted to rise by more than 73%, or $275,000, over the next fiscal year, compared to the current fiscal year’s total of $360,000, in the county’s preliminary fiscal year 2023 budget approved Tuesday by the Roosevelt County Commission. Fuel costs for the county sheriff’s department are expected to rise by 64% from about $70,000 to $115,000, in fiscal 2023 in next fiscal year’s budget, according to figures presented to the commission by County Manager Amber H...
The good news in the city of Portales's preliminary budget for fiscal 2023 is that gross receipts tax revenue is expected to be $1.6 million higher, not counting cannabis business proceeds, and the city is expecting more than $1.4 million more in federal American Rescue Act funds. Marilyn Rapp, the city's finance director, relayed good and bad news as she walked the city council through the city's preliminary budget before the council unanimously approved it. The preliminary...
Two attorneys from an Albuquerque law firm will conduct an investigation into allegations filed by three Clovis Community College employee groups against CCC President Charles Nwankwo. The investigation is in connection with the employee groups’ resolutions claiming “no confidence” in Nwankwo. The CCC Board of Trustees on Wednesday approved a “letter of engagement” with Cuddy and McCarthy, the law firm whose attorneys will “interview the relevant employees and records, as necessary, and produce a report with findings of...
