Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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Cousins of mine visited last month, and on one evening we engaged in a time-honored family tradition. We hauled out our ancient slide projector, set up the wobbly screen, and gathered together for a journey into our collective childhood. In our family, our mother was the designated photographer. Her medium of choice was Kodak film. It came in rolls of 24 or 36 exposures. With rare exception, ours was a 36-exposure family. It might be hard for a smart-phone generation to...
We don’t often editorialize strongly on behalf of green grass, sunshine or happy faces. Everybody loves those things, so there’s no reason to start a discussion on such topics in hopes of exchanging ideas that might lead to greater understanding and resolution. But here’s some good news we feel strongly about that might not be obvious to everyone unless they take the time to consider our position: October is the best month of the year. We know some will argue December is better because of Christmas, or June is better becau...
The cliché is, we’re a litigious society. Two clearly frivolous lawsuits were in the news recently. Both should remind everyone that we learn to walk about age 2. As a child, surely your parents admonished you, “Watch where you’re going.” Yet there are adults still stumbling around who either didn’t learn that toddler lesson or they’re just after a small payday. We suspect the latter. The first suit stems from an incident outside the Kimo Theater in Albuquerque where a couple was leaving a play and walking to their car. I...
It will shock no one to hear that the topic of gambling is a hot item in this region. What does the Bible say about gambling? Is it a sin? If it’s a sin, should it be criminalized? At the beginning, we should define our terms. Let’s agree that gambling is playing at a game of chance by risking your own money for the opportunity to win more money back. Further, the biblical definition of “sin” is the transgression of God’s commandments (1 John 3:4). If the Bible doesn’t say that Activity A is a sin, then we don’t get t...
I love the church. Not just (just?) the church universal, that marvelous, amazing, and miraculous Body of Christ composed of all of God’s children, everyone who ever has or ever will wear Christ’s name, all the sons and daughters of God. Oh, I love “that” church, too. But I also love the smaller local expressions of that Body, the little bands of disciples — all of them small indeed, whatever their size, compared to the grand Body from which they spring — working in thousand...
Visiting Cameo Elementary recently, I found myself in conversation with veteran kindergarten teacher Deanna Cole. Among the many wonderful things she’s doing with her young students, a couple of items jumped out. Cole, now in her 25th year of teaching, originally came to Clovis with her military family and graduated from Clovis High School, followed by bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Eastern New Mexico University. When Cole’s daughter was very young and she was volunte...
SANTA ROSA — The other day I overheard an argument between friends over two particular candidates for the same office. One is the incumbent, so the question was posed, “What’s he done for us?” I’ll leave out the particulars — which candidates and which race — because I don’t want to water down my larger point. I’ve heard that sort of question a hundred times through the years when talking politics, and I’ll bet you have too. It speaks to the self-interests that always swirl around elections. What can this particular candidat...
A badge doesn’t grant extra rights. When the law acts as though it does by treating people differently based on whether or not they wear a badge, the law undermines its appearance of legitimacy. No job can grant extra rights because there’s no such thing as an “extra right.” All humans have equal and identical rights, whether or not the local law respects those rights equally and identically for all people. If one person is given a pass because of his job, then everyon...
Clovis’ Harold Gilman never really planned to put his life on the line for the American way of life. Neither did his dad. But looking back over the past 80 years, you’d be hard pressed to find a New Mexico family that gave more for the freedoms we enjoy today. “My dad (also Harold Gilman) was waiting for the draft. He wasn’t in any hurry to join,” his son said. That was around World War II. Gilman himself was just looking for a job when he joined the National Guard in the la...
He’s the New Mexico basketball coach who never was. When you look at the long basketball journey of Dick Hunsaker — from his family’s ties to sugar beet farming in Clovis and playing for the likes of Brooks Jennings, Jimmy Joe Robinson and Steve White to playing for Don Haskins at UTEP and coaching with the likes of Neil McCarthy, Rick Majerus through the years to his ties with former Lobo coaches Bob King, Norm Ellenberger, Steve Alford and Craig Neal — it’s hard to imagin...
CLOVIS — An art show three years in the making debuted last week with the first "Celebrate the Art, Celebrate the Artist" event held at the Recreation Education Development Building across from ENMRSH offices in Clovis. Several ENMRSH (Eastern New Mexico Rehabilitation Services for the Handicapped) clients had their work featured as a part of the program, which was bursting with color. Local artist Patsy Delk said for three years she has been leading classes with the a...
CLOVIS — The Clovis High marching band entered the school year with a goal of once again being the best band in the state. A few weeks ago, it found out it would also have the challenge of giving the state's best "Dia de los Muertos" performance. Check, and check. The Wildcat band eked by Onate - which had the same Day of the Dead theme as Clovis - Saturday at the University of New Mexico to claim another Zia Marching Fiesta title. Zia is generally regarded as the state's m... Full story
CLOVIS — Police Officer Brent Aguilar told investigators that Aaron Chavez threatened him with what looked to be a knife just after midnight on Oct. 8. In response, Aguilar “discharged his duty weapon, firing four rounds fatally striking Chavez,” according to a news release Monday from New Mexico State Police. Clovis City Manager Justin Howalt said Aguilar, a 12-year veteran officer, was placed on paid administrative leave, as is routine with an officer-involved shooting, following the incident that occurred south of the P... Full story
If you use a private well within a few miles southeast of Cannon Air Force Base, the state’s Environment Department recommends you use bottled water until further notice. That’s following word from the U.S. Air Force that potentially carcinogenic chemicals “have been detected in groundwater on and off-base,” according to a health department news release. The culprit chemicals, known as “Per- and Poly-Fluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS),” are “associated with fire-fighting foams — used by Cannon Air Force Base personnel” and “may be... Full story
CLOVIS — This year’s Curry County Fair brought in more money than a year ago and saw more people in attendance. The information came from Keller Taylor, the district general manager for Spectra, the company that manages the county’s events center. Curry County commissioners heard the update during Tuesday’s meeting. Keller said the 2018 fair had a net income of about $77,000 — a 9 percent increase over last year — and had an attendance just shy of 35,000 — an 8 percent increase from 2017. Keller also provided a report on gen...
On this date ... 1968: A 13-year-old girl had written newspaper columnist Dear Abby with a concern. "I am worried," she wrote. "I read somewhere that a girl can get cancer from kissing a boy who smokes a lot if the boy happens to have an open cut on his tongue or lip. Is this true?" Abby responded: "No, it's not true, although there are other diseases which are transmitted ... "You are old enough to read, but you're hardly old enough to go in for the kind of kissing you...
Today • City of Clovis Finance Committee — 2 p.m., Small Conference Room, City Hall, 321 N. Connelly St., Clovis Information: 575-763-9654 Thursday • New Mexico Water Utility Authority board — 1 p.m., Memorial Building, 200 E. 7th St., Portales. Information: 575-935-4262 • Clovis City Commission — 4:30 p.m., North Annex, Clovis-Carver Public Library, 701 N. Main. Information: 575-763-9654 Monday • Clovis Parks, Recreation & Beautification Committee — 5:30 p.m., Assembly Room, City Hall, 321 N. Connelly St., Clovis. Informa...
PORTALES — Board members of the Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority will meet Thursday afternoon in Portales, when they are slated to vote to finalize a Water Project Fund loan/grant agreement as well as member contributions toward its Fixed Water 2 pipeline construction. FW2 will establish an interim pipeline between Cannon Air Force Base and an EPCOR water storage system in Clovis; the board last month voted to award that construction contract to Oscar Renda Contracting, Inc, and the finalization of WPF monies w...
The weekend is closing in already and that means it’s almost time for more high school football games, with every local team in action. Friday Gateway Christian at Melrose, 7 p.m. Winning their opener followed five straight losses for the Buffaloes, as the four-time defending Eight-Man state championship program was decimated by injuries. But the team got healthy and got back to winning last weekend at Dora, routing the Coyotes 56-8. Now comes the challenge of keeping their momentum going against powerhouse Gateway C...
PORTALES — Eastern New Mexico’s 45th annual celebration of all things peanut is back. The Roosevelt County Fairgrounds in Portales this weekend hosts the Peanut Valley Craft & Music Festival. Organizers are touting some new features — and of course a whole lot of peanuts — at this year’s event. Karl Terry, executive director of the Roosevelt County Chamber of Commerce, said one of the biggest changes to the festival, which runs from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday, is coming to the health fa...
PORTALES — A team’s defense can often be a shot of adrenaline for its offense. And Saturday, Eastern New Mexico’s defense had just the prescription against Western New Mexico at Greyhound Stadium. The ENMU defensive unit continually made big plays, big stops, then watched as a pumped-up offense came out and did its thing in the other direction. The result was a 55-9 Eastern blowout that reeled in a big haul for the Greyhounds — their first home victory of the season, their s...
RUIDOSO — There are a few things outside of Portales’ control when it comes to the Class 4A football playoffs. Playoff positioning, for example, does depend on how well Dexter, St. Michael’s and West Las Vegas do in district play, since wins over district champions score points in the selection process. For the other factors — overall record and district finish — how the Nov. 3 seeding goes depends on what Portales has already done and what it will do in District 3/4-4A play,...
CLOVIS — The Clovis City Commission will recognize a pair of local boxers set for induction into the New Mexico Boxing Hall of Fame during Thursday’s meeting. Tony Romero and Brooks Byrd are to be inducted the final weekend of October, with a banquet scheduled for Oct. 27 in Albuquerque. Romero was a five-time participant in the Golden Gloves national competition, and had a professional boxing career interrupted by the Vietnam draft. As a member of the U.S. Marines, he received both the Commendation Medal for Valor and a Pur...
Thursday • Flock-Tober Flock Talk (seminar on raising chickens) — 6-8 p.m., Creighton’s Town and Country meeting room, 1704 S. Ave. D, Portales. RSVPs encouraged. Information: 575-356-3665 • Clovis Community College Cultural Arts Series presents Orkesta Mendoza — 7 p.m., Marshall Auditorium, 100 Commerce Way, Clovis. $20 general admission, $15 senior/student/military. Information: 575-769-4031 Friday • 35th Anniversary of Food Bank of Eastern New Mexico — 4-5 p.m., FBENM, 2217 E. Brady, Clovis. Information: 575-763-6130...
Racino will only make Clovis poorer My father and four friends went to Kentucky buying thoroughbred mares and a stud to breed racehorses. I loved the races as a child and still do. I taught school in areas of the state that had racing and loved going. I lived in Pojoaque when Indian gaming started. The out-of-state company promised millions would be made and for the reservation; paved roads, medical centers, and jobs. Not! They bring their own management, high-wage jobs, to run casinos. Promised jobs were waitresses,...
