On this date ...
1973: Carlos Paiz and Curtis Breshears won the two available seats in a Portales school board election that drew 1,135 voters, a number that Portales School Superintendent L.C. Cozzens described as average.
Paiz, an incumbent who had been appointed to fill out a vacancy created by the resignation of Bob Wood, was easily elected to another four-year term with 796 votes, more than four times the total of either of his opponents.
Breshears won a six-year term, taking the seat previously held by Herman Wallace, who opted to not run for re-election. Breshears had 397 votes, enough to defeat seven opponents in a lively race. His closest opponents were Georgia Blackaby with 198, and Gloria Ortega with 188.
1968: The Board of Trustees for Clovis' Memorial Hospital voted to increase patient room rates to help offset expenses after the national minimum wage was raised to $1.60 an hour.
New rates at Memorial, set to go into effect in March, were raised $2 per day.
With the rates, the cheapest semi-private room went from $17 to $19 a day, and the most expensive private room went from $25 to $27 per day.
Hospital administrator Monroe Owens said that even with the rate increases, Memorial Hospital was still "25 to 40 percent cheaper than any other hospital in the state."
Pages Past is compiled by Betty Williamson. Contact her at: [email protected]