Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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PORTALES — Area residents on Tuesday asked county officials to preserve history. Roosevelt County commissioners listened, but an old house and dozens of windmills will be among items auctioned to the highest bidder on March 27 at the Roosevelt County Fairgrounds. The issues that produced residents’ emotional pleas had already been decided months ago. Roosevelt County Manager Amber Hamilton said the house and windmills were not on commissioners’ agenda to consider on Tuesday. That didn’t stop the preservation effort. Meredit...
When Andrew Shirey got to Palo Duro Canyon on Friday afternoon, he knew there was the possibility of high winds and severe weather throughout the weekend. But what occurred Saturday afternoon was not something he expected to happen during the first few days of his Spring Break. The Amarillo office of the National Weather Service estimated six tornadoes made their way through the Texas Panhandle on Saturday, affecting southern Randall County, including Happy and Palo Duro Canyon, as well as other Panhandle towns including...
The New Mexico Department of Agriculture’s Healthy Soil Program is hosting four virtual listening sessions to gather input, encourage soil health project ideas and discuss grant application steps. Eligible Entity leaders and representatives – as well as farmers and ranchers who are members of the Eligible Entities’ communities – are invited to participate. As defined in the 2019 Healthy Soil Act, Eligible Entities include tribes, nations and pueblos; land grants and acequias; Soil and Water Conservation Districts; and New...
Private employers in New Mexico may no longer get to decide whether paid sick leave is a benefit they want to offer their workers. A bill that would ensure employees in the state have access to paid time off when they’re sick cleared the Senate Tax, Business and Transportation Committee on a party-line 6-3 vote Sunday. “Access to paid sick leave protects workplaces, families, and communities statewide,” read a tweet sent from Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s account minutes after the vote. “I appreciate so many key stakehold...
Booked The following were booked into local jails (Friday-Tuesday): Clovis • Yesenia Anaya, 29, failure to appear on misdemeanor charge • Michael Espinoza, 30, failure to appear on a felony charge • Francisco Ortiz, 62, failure to appear on a felony charge • Bobby Owen, 36, failure to appear on a felony charge • David Merrill, 60, failure to appear on a felony charge • Hollie Merril, 86, failure to pay fines • Santiago Sena, 21, failure to pay fines • Sierra Lindley, 25, failure to appear on misdemeanor charge • Ruben...
PORTALES — A Portales man found dead six days after he was first reported missing last November died from “acute and chronic ethanol toxicity with hypothermia and blunt force injury of the head as significant contributing conditions.” Reports from the Roosevelt County Sheriff’s Office and the Office of the Medical Investigator — acquired by The News through a public records request — identified no criminal activity or suspects in the death of Jay Cole, 32, of Portales. Justin Cole, Jay’s brother, told The News the family wa...
Local COVID-19 infection numbers remain low, and halfway to the next data collection period Curry County is just on pace to join Roosevelt County in the state’s green designation. The state has, since Nov. 30, graded counties every two weeks on meeting gating criteria of 8 daily cases per 100,000 residents and test positivity at or below 5%. Green counties meet both, yellow counties meet one, red counties meet neither and turquoise counties make green for two consecutive data collection periods. A four-tier public health o...
New Mexico film industry educators highlighted both the challenges and the pleasant surprises of educating film students during a pandemic in the past year during the Virtual Film & TV Day on Monday. Film educators from several higher education institutes around New Mexico were present for the virtual event, which was sponsored by IATSE Local 480, the New Mexico Film Industry, and the New Mexico Film Office. “It was challenging, but I think we made lemonade by learning new ways of creating what we needed to create,” New Mexic...
Wendel Sloan, longtime columnist for The Eastern New Mexico News, was honored Sunday night by New Mexico Press Women. Sloan's book, "Kill a Moose for Jesus," placed second in the non-fiction book category of the NMPW communications contest. The 100 essays in the book originally appeared as columns in The News, but were "tweaked and updated" for publication in the book, Sloan said....
A Portales man died in a Sunday evening crash, according to a release from the New Mexico State Police. Abundio Najera, 65, died at the scene of the crash just after 8:20 p.m. on mile post 4 of N.M. 467, just north of Portales. According to the NMSP release: • A 30-year-old male driver, who was not identified in the release, was heading north on 467 in a Chevrolet pickup. For reasons still under investigation, the Chevrolet crossed over the center line and struck the driver's side of the southbound Ford pickup driven by N...
On this date … 1941: Fire gutted a Portales home at 1201 Ave. O. T.J. Frazier told officials he was hired to paint and clean up the house so it could be rented. He said he lit a cigar while painting, which ignited the paint. Frazier escaped through a window and was not injured. 1971: A man who escaped the Roosevelt County jail two days earlier was shot and killed as he fled the scene of an alleged attempted burglary in Slaton, Texas. Officials said Carl Davis, 33, and another inmate, William Jacobs, 29, had used a “short seg...
My mother was a lifelong fan of the Metropolitan Opera. Most Saturday mornings of the September-March opera season (I'll bet some of you didn't even know opera had a season), she wrestled the antenna on our portable radio into compliance, shushed my brothers and me into reluctant silence, and settled in for the live broadcast of the opera matinee from Lincoln Center in New York City. If it was one of her favorites and she wanted to be sure she wouldn't be interrupted, she...
We’re facing an epidemic of misinformation. The election was stolen; the pandemic is a hoax; and a secret society of Satan-worshipping cannibalistic pedophiles are running a child sex-trafficking ring and trying to take over our country — these and other conspiracy theories have taken center stage lately, despite having no basis in fact. They stay alive through opportunists and true believers who prefer their own misconceptions to real truths: Biden really did win the election, COVID-19 truly is a killer, and Q-Anon is a who...
It feels like supporters of New Mexico’s Healthy Workplaces Act are living in a different world, have no idea what it’s like to operate a small business in New Mexico and have tied rhetoric to perhaps big box store employee horror stories. The Act would force all employers to provide one hour of sick leave for every 30 hours an employee works, topping out at 64 hours annually. The House has approved it already and it’s likely to pass the Senate. Our experience is most employees use very little sick leave during the year...
Congress has begun another epic crime spree: it is passing new anti-gun legislation and plotting more in the near future. If any of this legislation passes, President Biden will sign it — he’s been bigoted against gun owners his whole political career. More dangerous than the legislation itself is how the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (BATFE) — a bureau that violates the Constitution by existing— may interpret and enforce it. One of the new proposa...
PORTALES — A pesticide disposal event is scheduled March 30 in Portales. It will be held 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the New Mexico Department of Agriculture Peanut Grading Station at 721 E. Lime St. The ag department stated in a news release that the event is free and available to all state residents. "Held periodically throughout the state, the pesticide disposal events provide the agricultural industry, pest control industry and the general public the opportunity to properly dispose of unwanted pesticides," the release stated. N...
SANTA FE — Three new regents have been approved for Eastern New Mexico University, with all three gubernatorial nominations receiving unanimous votes Monday afternoon. Phillip Arthur Bustos, a former vice president at Central New Mexico Community College, was confirmed on a 31-0 vote for a six-year term. Trish Ruiz, a former Public Education Committee member and a counselor with Hobbs Schools, was confirmed on a 33-0 vote for a six-year term. Chandlar Head was confirmed on a 32-0 vote to the two-year student regent p...
PORTALES — Eastern New Mexico University has been named one of six 2021–22 Military Friendly schools, and received the organization’s silver rating. Institutions earning the designation were evaluated using public data sources and responses from a proprietary survey. More than 1,200 schools participated in the 2021–22 survey, with 747 earning the designation. The list will be published in the May issue of G.I. Jobs magazine and can be found at militaryfriendly.com. Eastern New Mexico was listed as a small public school,...
PORTALES — The Eastern New Mexico Department of Music will present “Beauty and the Beast: A Radio Opera,” with its premiere set for Saturday morning. The one-act opera will be broadcast on KENW Radio and streamed on kenw.com at 11 a.m. The 35- to 40-minute opera was originally commissioned by the Columbia Workshop radio series and premiered on the Columbia Broadcast Radio Network on Nov. 24, 1938. Travis Sherwood, an associate professor of music at ENMU, is the play’s director. He said the idea for a radio opera came as a way...
CLOVIS — Blake’s Lotaburger is taking its first steps to opening a location in Clovis. According to a special warranty deed filed Monday with the Curry County Clerk’s office, Blake’s Lotaburger, LLC, has purchased the property at 4116 Prince Street. The property has changed hands twice in the last three years. Merritt Investments, Inc., which sold the property to Blake’s, purchased it in November 2018 from B&B Consultants, Inc. A representative at the Blake’s corporate office referred questions to its marketing department,...
ALBUQUERQUE — Rep. Deb Haaland was confirmed as the next secretary of the Department of the Interior on Monday, a vote praised by advocates for conservation and Native American issues. Senators voted 51-40 to confirm Haaland, a New Mexico Democrat who will become the first Native American cabinet secretary in the country’s history. She will be tasked with leading an agency critical to the Biden administration’s efforts to confront climate change. “Rep. Haaland’s confirmation represents a gigantic step forward in creating a go...
FORT SUMNER — The De Baca County Commission on March 8 gave final approval for a 1/16 of a cent hike in the gross receipts tax. The hike, expected to generate about $12,000 per year for the county, was approved on a 3-0 vote. The vote followed a public hearing on the issue, which drew no comments. The tax rate hike was approved through adoption of Ordinance 2021-01. Commission chairman Scot Stinnett said the commission felt the need to implement the increase as the county is faced with an impending increase in the minimum w...
FORT SUMNER — The village council, meeting in regular session March 8, approved a resolution for the De Baca County Sheriff’s Department to use Law Enforcement Protection Funds to purchase a new patrol unit through a program with the New Mexico Finance Authority. Lt. Mike Gauna said the DBSO seeks to purchase a fully-equipped Dodge Ram 1500 pickup at a cost of $49,622 on state contract. Base price for the truck is $29,695, with the additional $19,927 for equipment, including cameras and emergency lights. Under the Fin...
More than $11.5 million is slated to come to Curry and Roosevelt counties through capital outlay dollars, as outlined in House Bill 285. The $6.853 million for Curry County and $4.724 million for Roosevelt county are part of a statewide package of $517.742 million, created largely through oil and gas revenues and intended for shovel-ready projects that build, improve or equip physical property for government-owned facilities. The bill still requires a vote by both houses and a signature from Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. The...
CLOVIS - The Curry County Commission has its committee - well, 80% of it - and is ready to get to work establishing a water-focused land trust. The commission appointed four voting members and six non-voting members to its steering committee to establish the trust during its Tuesday meeting. The trust would be created to help local entities navigate through a Readiness and Environmental Protection Initiative effort at Cannon Air Force Base. The REPI program, offered by the...
