Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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Eastern New Mexico Rising is trying to bring anti-abortion ordinances passed in Clovis and Roosevelt County to a vote of the people. The group is circulating petitions in both communities calling for elections to decide the issue. If the voters say they want to make the decision on these ordinances instead of their elected officials, there would be a stay of the ordinances blocking them from taking effect until the vote is taken, said Laura Wight, co-founder of Eastern New Mexico Rising. Both ordinances are currently in...
Portales City Council voted at its meeting on Tuesday to replace an ordinance having to do with the placement of accessory buildings, such as carports, in the process of updating its planning code. City Manager Sarah Austin said the director of planning and zoning has been working on updating these ordinances and this was one of those. The new ordinance will minimize the setback requirements. The council approved a variance to allow a carport at 117 Colorado Drive, which would not have been required if the item had been...
Eastern New Mexico University started collecting food and other supplies this week to stock its first food pantry. The pantry will be located in the Campus Life Office in the Campus Union building and will serve ENMU's student population. Director of Campus Life at ENMU Rey Coss said faculty, staff and students have often talked about a need for a food pantry at the university. "Definitely there is a need for this," Coss said. "Many of us, university staff and faculty, know...
Boralex, Inc., a Quebec-based global renewable energy company, has purchased a 50% share in five wind farms located in New Mexico and Texas. The wind farms were owned by EDF Renewables. The sale on Dec. 28 was for about $249.8 million, officials said. Boralex produces renewable wind, solar, hydroelectric and thermal energy in Canada, France and the United States, according to its website. EDF Renewables North America, based in San Diego, is "the global renewable energy...
CLOVIS --- City Commissioner Juan Garza hopes to get a vote on an anti-abortion ordinance at Thursday’s commission meeting. Garza placed two items on Thursday’s agenda. The first item is a vote to un-table the ordinance and the second item is to vote on the ordinance, should it be un-tabled, the commissioner said in an interview on Monday. The ordinance basically requires any clinic coming into the community to comply with federal law, he said. This is an anti-abortion ordinance, which he favors because he is “pr...
One way the city of Portales is reducing its water demand is to mandate a watering schedule to reduce residents’ outdoor water use. At the meeting last week, the council heard its annual water report by consultant Charles R. Wilson. The city needs to reduce its water demand by 40 million gallons a year for the next eight or so years until the Ute Pipeline is operational and can bring water to the city, Wilson said in his presentation of the report. He said the thickness of the High Plains Aquifer, from which the city draws i...
Curry County submitted two applications to Xcel Energy this month to host public electric car charging stations. Xcel Energy is in the process of selecting four sites with two charging stations at each location, said Mike McLeod, regional manager of community relations for Xcel Energy, in an interview on Monday. County Manager Lance Pyle said the two locations they are submitting for approval are: The Honorable Judge Reuben E. Nieves Courtyard located on Main Street (between 8th and 9th Street) and the new parking lot on the...
The Portales City Council unanimously approved a water purchase contract with the Roosevelt County Water Cooperative (RCWC), which increases the rates the coop pays the city for water it then will provide to its customers at the rate the RCWC will set. The city recently instituted a water rate increase across the board for all its customers in an effort to conserve water: residential, commercial, industrial, and the Roosevelt County Water Cooperative. The reason for the rate...
The Curry County Commission, after discussing three possible sites to locate a proposed sports complex, came to a consensus without a vote Tuesday to go forward for now with the fairgrounds property near the Curry County Events Center as the site of choice. The two other sites under discussion at the meeting were Hillcrest Park and the former site of the Parkview Elementary School. Commissioner Seth Martin said it would be “reckless on our part” to consider a site that would require both purchasing the land and paying to con...
The Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority Board approved six more easement agreements for the Finished Water 3B (FW3B) pipeline on Thursday. “The purpose of the ENMWUA project is to provide potable water to four city and county member agencies and Cannon Air Force Base for municipal, commercial, and industrial use,” as stated on the ENMWUA website. “The project will replace current groundwater supplies from the Ogallala (or High Plains) Aquifer with a renewable surface water supply (Ute Reservoir).” To that end the ENM...
PORTALES -- The Portales City Council on Dec. 5 voted to postpone a vote to approve a water contract with the Roosevelt County Water Cooperative until the next meeting. On Nov. 1, the council voted to increase the rate it charges Roosevelt County Water Coop customers by 75%, starting in January. City Manager Sarah Austin in an email last Wednesday said the Coop “will start paying $5.85 per 1,000 gallons … and right now they currently pay $3.34 per 1,000 gallons.” This is the first increase since 2016, Austin said. City Counc...
PORTALES -- The Portales City Council on Dec. 5 voted to postpone a vote to approve a water contract with the Roosevelt County Water Cooperative until the next meeting. On Nov. 1, the council voted to increase the rate it charges Roosevelt County Water Coop customers by 75%, starting in January. City Manager Sarah Austin in an email last Wednesday said the Coop “will start paying $5.85 per 1,000 gallons … and right now they currently pay $3.34 per 1,000 gallons.” This is the first increase since 2016, Austin said. City Counc...
Several business owners in the Clovis area say they are having difficulty finding enough employees. The state of New Mexico’s unemployment rate currently stands at 4.3 percent for October and in the same month in 2021, that number was 6.1 percent, according to the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions. The unemployment rate in Roosevelt County for October was 3.3 percent compared to 5.2 percent the same month in 2021, the NMDWS website states. In Curry County, the unemployment rate for October was 3.0 percent c...
Roosevelt and Curry counties are in severe to extreme drought but these conditions have improved since summer, according to the National Weather Service. “It was really bad in the early part of the summer – it was in the worst category of exceptional drought,” said Brian Guyer, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Albuquerque. “Since 2011, we have seen more frequent to extreme drought and there have been periods when drought remained,” Guyer said. “More than half of that time, it’s been in drought.” He said drou...
Roosevelt County was recently awarded two grants to help pay for the problem they have with illegal dumping. The New Mexico Clean and Beautiful grant applied for by both the city of Portales and the county, awarded through the New Mexico Tourism Department, consists of $500 for tipping fees and $3,500 for advertising to educate the public about the problem, said Carol Acosta-Flores, special projects coordinator for Roosevelt County. "The City of Portales and Roosevelt County...
The inflation rate in rural areas is usually higher than in urban centers because of the lack of competition and that has real life consequences for local businesses in rural Roosevelt and Curry counties. Kayhan Koleyni, assistant professor of economics at Eastern New Mexico University, said after his comment that rural inflation rates are typically higher, he estimates the inflation rate in Roosevelt and Curry counties (October numbers) to be 8.5-8.7 percent, based on previous economic studies, because there are no official...
The New Mexico Legislature recently created a task force to study the feasibility of consolidating the state’s prison and county jail systems. Grace Philips, general counsel for New Mexico Counties, was scheduled to make a presentation on the findings Tuesday. The task force did not “recommend unification of New Mexico’s corrections systems, concluding that unifying New Mexico’s county detention and state prison systems, at this time, is not a responsive solution to the specific challenges faced by criminal justice partner...
For the first time since 2019, the Clovis Community Chorus will present its annual Christmas Concert, scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday. President of the chorus board of directors Wayne Anderson said the COVID-19 pandemic prevented them from holding the concert in the intervening years. The chorus will hold its concert at the First United Methodist Church located on 1501 North Sycamore Street in Clovis. Admission is free. Choir director Tami Martin said the community has been...
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced last week its decision to list two distinct population segments (DPS) of the lesser prairie-chicken under the Endangered Species Act, as stated in a service press release. “This decision was made after reviewing the best available scientific and commercial information regarding past, present and future threats, ongoing conservation efforts and more than 30,000 public comments received during the public comment period and two virtual public hearings,” the release states. Grant...
The Clovis City Commission adopted an economic development plan on Thursday that experts say is more comprehensive than any plan to date. TIP Strategies, Inc., an Austin-based consulting firm, wrote the plan. “We’re excited to see this plan,” said Tina Dziuk, executive director of Clovis Economic Development, in an interview on Monday. “Clovis Economic Development was rebranded this past year,” Dziuk said. She said the city’s economic development organization was formerly named the Clovis Industrial Development Corporation...
The Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority Board unanimously voted to approve the execution of a $14.51 million Water Project Fund loan/grant agreement between the New Mexico Finance Authority and the ENMWUA on Thursday. Ten percent of the total funds would be a loan in the amount of $1.451 million and 90 percent of the money would represent a grant for $13.059 million Orlando Ortega, administrator of the ENMWUA, said. “Funding was earmarked and budgeted for Finished Water 1 (FW1) pipeline construction,” Ortega said in an...
The Roosevelt County Commission voted 4-1 on Tuesday that they preferred a pavement structural design on North Roosevelt Road AV, a five mile stretch that is the main access to the Melrose Air Force Range, which would have a longer design life than the two other options the federal highway division had proposed. Ryan Mathis, project manager for the Federal Central Land Highway Division, presented the commission with three pavement options under consideration. The Air Force has $6 million in its budget to pay for a five-mile s...
The Roosevelt County Commission will hold a road planning workshop at 2 pm Thursday in the Commission Room at the county courthouse. Roosevelt County Road Superintendent Rick Lovato said the purpose of the workshop will be to review the list of priorities on the county’s 5-year 2023-2028 Road Plan. Lovato said he has “a few suggestions” and the commissioners will have their suggestions. Once the list is revised, the commissioners will vote on it at a subsequent meeting. Every year, the county revises its list. Then they will...
James Glenn "Bubba" Berry passed away on Oct. 3 at the age of 64, but he will be remembered by many in Clovis. One of his two sons, J.T. Berry, told The News on Thursday that he can't go anywhere in town and not meet somebody his father knew. "When we went to Lowes or Walmart, we met someone he knew and we would talk to them for about 10 minutes," J.T. said. "He was a very social person with people he knew," he said. During his father's passing, he heard a lot of comments...
The Curry County Commission voted 4-1 on Tuesday to keep Curry Road 11 between Curry Road R and Curry Road S open, despite the wishes of area residents. Commissioner Tom Martin voted against the motion. A county committee composed of three members went to look at the road, said Martin in a later interview. Rick Masters from Cannon Air Force Base and area farmer Doug Reid were on the committee, which recommended closing the road. Martin said the committee made its decision based on the fact that “it is not being used,” and...
