Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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SANTA FE — Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Monday afternoon ordered a series of additional restrictions on business operations to further prevent spread of COVID-19 — and she warned of increased enforcement efforts. The new order, which took effect at 8 a.m. Tuesday, requires liquor stores and payday loan companies to close, saying they are no longer considered essential to the welfare of the state and its residents during the public health crisis. Auto dealers can only sell online. The order also extends a shutdown of all...
CLOVIS - The Food Bank of Eastern New Mexico has provided and supported food programs for 37 years, and continues to do so at its Brady Street building just north of the city's Public Works and Animal Shelter buildings. The current COVID-19 pandemic almost guarantees the food bank's 38th year will be one of its busiest and most vital. While the neighboring city buildings are closed to the public due to state public health orders, the food bank is seeing more traffic than...
CLOVIS - On a breezy mild Monday, members of the Clovis Fire Department were shooting baskets behind the station house, waiting for a call to go rescue citizens in distress. Seemed like a normal day, with department members in calm-before-the-storm mode. But everyone knows these are anything but normal times, and though the atmosphere at Clovis FD was calm Monday, the storm has long since been upon us. COVID-19 has altered life for everyone, everywhere. It has changed...
Immediately after being notified that she tested positive for COVID-19 last month, Jennifer Burrill began making a list of everywhere she’d been and everyone she’d come into contact with since March 3. That’s the date she first began experiencing a sickness, similar to seasonal allergies, that she now worries was actually the virus. The 48-year-old public defender came up with 74 names, which she provided to the New Mexico Department of Health. But the DOH epidemiologists conducted active contact tracing and monitoring only...
PORTALES — Eastern New Mexico University will have one more coaching search this offseason, as Tres Segler resigned his position to accept a non-coaching opportunity in Texas. The university news release did not indicate what opportunity Segler was pursuing, and efforts to contact him were unsuccessful. His official resignation date is April 20. “I would like to thank Eastern New Mexico University and the many families here in Portales that have kindly supported my vision to build Greyhound basketball into a stronger pro...
CLOVIS — The Curry County Commission dealt with three other Cs during its Tuesday morning meeting — COVID-19, cameras and control. When it comes to adult detention center renovations, the first is keeping the county from getting the second, and the third is difficult to find. The commission met for 2 1/2 hours over the phone, a result of a state public health order banning mass gatherings. Paul Farless and Colton Treharn of SDV Construction noted there has been substantial progress on detention center work with increases in...
Did you see the COVID-19 news conference the other day featuring a particularly noted, well-published, and often-quoted professor of epidemiology? Dr. Angus Jones-Brown has been studying virus transmission for many decades, and the data accumulated over those many years seems to rather clearly indicate, against all previous thought, that most of these viruses proliferate not by passing into our airways via our noses or by traveling through other mucous membranes. In fact, the...
I’ve spent a lot of time lately looking for rainbows. It’s a lesson I learned from my daughter when she was a toddler. While I love a good thunderstorm as much as the next person, we do have a rare storm through here that does more harm than good. You know the ones I mean, the kind that flatten crops and pastures with bruising hailstones, rip shingles from roofs and limbs from trees, send trampolines and lawn furniture tumbling toward Texas, pummel livestock and wildlife, or e...
Clovis has been home to movie theaters and/or vaudeville entertainment since Clovis began. The earliest theaters were less impressive than most living room entertainment centers today — small spaces, sometimes located in the second story of a commercial building, consisting of a screen, projector, wood benches or seats and a ticket booth. That’s according to the National Park Service and its National Register of Historic Places. Then in 1911, when Clovis was 4 years old, the industry began to thrive. The city’s first Lyceu...
I appreciate those who are making a heroic effort to keep the economy running; putting their health and lives on the line for our benefit. They are trying to make sure food and supplies are available when needed. This is important when everything is going well; it is absolutely essential in a crisis. They are life-savers and deserve our thanks, respect, and support. They provide a stark contrast to those who are working around the clock to shut down the economy and punish any...
If you’re at home listening to the national hyperbole, you might think the nation is closed down. It isn’t. Just take a look at the list of “essential” services here in New Mexico, the ones allowed to remain open during these “stay at home” times. There’s a long list of businesses, agencies and governmental operations that are allowed and encouraged to stay open. Basically, those businesses offering up the luxuries of our lives are the only ones forced to close. If no one has to have it for their health, safety or welfare, i...
Booked The following were booked into local jails (Friday - Tuesday): Clovis • Tracy Margiotta, 54, assault, battery • Patricia Messier, 33, disorderly conduct • David Merrill, 59, possession of a controlled substance, probation violation, parole violation • Sonia Venegas, 31, failure to appear on misdemeanor charge • Albert Daye, 33, aggravated assault • Belinda Trujillo-Turner, 43, trafficking controlled substances, receiving/transferring stolen motor vehicles, possession of drug paraphernalia • Miguel Martinez, 28, battery...
We are entering uncharted waters in the education field, here and across the entire state. New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has announced that all schools in the state will be closed for the rest of the school year. From this point forward, all learning will be done remotely. The sudden shift will force students and teachers alike to be creative in the approach they take. Nothing like this has ever happened before. As we enter this unprecedented time, we want everyone to be patient. That applies to both students and...
CLOVIS — On behalf of Plains Regional Medical Center, Drew Dostal says thank you. The administrator of Clovis’ hospital said Tuesday that inspirational cards and letters, meals and prayers from the community have been greatly appreciated in these days of pandemic. “We’ve had some nice cards that have been really encouraging and I try to get those to everybody and let them see those,” Dostal said. “We’ve had restaurants, individuals and churches send over meals and snacks ... “Those are the kinds of things we really are bene...
On this date ... 1960: A Democratic candidate for governor said if he’s elected he would close the port of entry in Texico and “remove this trade barrier once and for all.” Joseph Bursey said he had been informed that “a great many potential customers refuse to come across the (Texas) line to trade in Clovis because of the port.” Bursey instead proposed opening ports of entry near Melrose and Elida, which he said would “produce more revenue from truckers ... and these two ports would not offer a trade barrier to either Clov...
CLOVIS — Residents near downtown Clovis might have noticed some water on the streets Sunday night and Monday morning, but there was no rain. EPCOR Water, which provides the municipal supply for Clovis, reported a break was discovered about 6:15 p.m. Sunday on a 6-inch water main. Rebecca Stenholm, a spokesperson for EPCOR, said the leak was contained about 9:30 p.m., and the Citizens Bank branch on Commerce Way was the only customer affected. The company did temporarily turn off service to some other customers, Stenholm s...
Eight local residents have tested positive for COVID-19, hospital officials said early this week. At Plains Regional Medical Center in Clovis, officials said 191 people had been tested with eight positive — seven from Curry County, one from Roosevelt County. PRMC was still awaiting 18 test results on Tuesday morning. Officials said 165 tests were negative for the virus. At Roosevelt General Hospital in Portales, officials said 40 tests had been administered with 33 negative and seven pending as of Monday afternoon. No c...
PORTALES — The Eastern New Mexico University Board of Regents will tackle various budget items for all three campus branches during its Friday afternoon meeting. The 1 p.m. meeting will be held virtually due to state restrictions on mass gatherings. Anybody needing login information to attend can contact Karen Van Ruiten at: [email protected] Agenda items include: • Budget adjustment requests for the Portales and Roswell branches. • The proposed Roswell branch operating budget for the 2020-21 year. • A look at the Ros...
PORTALES — Roosevelt County is officially an emergency area. Commissioners on Tuesday unanimously approved the measure via teleconference. The resolution allows the county to accept federal and state funding related to COVID-19 and also authorized the county manager to modify the county personnel policy and establish policies in response to COVID-19. County Manager Amber Hamilton updated residents on ways the Roosevelt Commission has been dealing with the virus. “In terms of COVID-19, there is more going on obviously tha...
PORTALES — The learn-at-home era is under way at Portales Municipal Schools. School board members met virtually for about an hour Monday afternoon. They gave a positive review and a 4-0 approval of the plan Superintendent Johnnie Cain and the PMS staff created for the rest of the year with COVID-19 halting in-person instruction. “We started working on it, really, when we came back from spring break anticipating this,” Cain said. “It’s not perfect, but it’s going to be better than nothing and I hope we can keep the kiddos...
CLOVIS - The three biggest words one would expect to hear at area churches just days from now are "He is risen," the message of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. But most people will be hearing those messages not from wooden church benches but from home furniture and car seats. That's because of three other words - "stay at home," a new public health order from New Mexico in hopes to slow the spread of COVID-19. Churches have been exempted from the state orders, but most locat...
CLOVIS — Sandra Taylor-Sawyer rarely gets a break these days. The director of the Curry, Roosevelt and De Baca County Small Business Development Center has been answering more questions than usual. Not surprising. These are not normal times for the local counties, the state of New Mexico, the United States and the world because of the COVID-19 outbreak. Businesses are in trouble. And though New Mexico’s coronavirus cases are relatively low compared to the rest of the nation, even lower for the local counties, it is still a s...
