Officials holding 'roadeo' poster contest

CLOVIS - With the Curry County Fair now on the back burner, the county can set its sights on preparing for the next big event - the 2019 New Mexico Association of Counties' (NMAC) 83rd annual conference to be hosted by Curry County in June.

First up is the design for a poster promoting the equipment "roadeo," a competition between road department employees from across the state that has been held at the past 10 NMAC conferences.

Officials said $300 is up for grabs for the local artist whose design is selected to be included on T-shirts, posters and other items promoting the event.

Harold Garcia, event coordinator and co-founder of the equipment roadeo, said the designs should be representative of Curry County in a way that's recognizable to all New Mexicans.

"It is open to the artist," Curry County Manager Lance Pyle said regarding the content of the poster. "We would like to see an emphasis on our community and to make it unique to Curry County."

Pyle said submissions will be accepted until Sept. 4 and later in the month a committee will review and select a design. He said submissions can be computer designs or freehand designs that the artist can Photoshop.

Pyle said the county has received several phone calls and emails from people interested, but nobody has actually submitted a poster design yet. To do so, contact Pyle via email at:

[email protected]

Garcia said previous posters have included road equipment and caricatures of some of the event's sponsors, though he said they are possibly open to the idea of including caricatures of local people from Curry County for this year's poster.

The roadeo itself usually consists of competitions involving road equipment like back hoes and road graders, according to Garcia. He said one example is a softball or volleyball will be placed on top of a cone and competitors have to pick up the ball with a back hoe and drop it in a five-gallon bucket as quickly as possible.

Garcia said in the past a truck and trailer back-up competition has been held for women and they are considering doing a similar event with county officials this year.

He said the county with the best performance takes home the traveling trophy, currently held by Santa Fe County.

Garcia said the roadeo was conceptualized as a way to get blue-collar workers involved with the conference and last year it was used to raise $5,000 for the Children's Cancer Fund of New Mexico.

"We want the competitors to look at each other throughout the day and learn from each other, take their skill they learned and take it back to their jobs," he said.

According to Pyle and Garcia, the equipment roadeo will be held June 19 at the Curry County Fairgrounds and the public will be invited.