Community dedicates The Hartley House

More than 100 people attended the dedication of The Hartley House Wednesday, the new administrative offices of the area’s shelter for domestic violence.

The Hartley House, at 900 N. Main St., was renamed in honor of Mary Carol Hartley, a community leader who died Oct. 16 after a 15-year on-and-off battle with cancer. Hartley was the wife of 9th Judicial District Judge Ted Hartley.

Ted Hartley said his wife would probably be surprised at the honor — “and she might have said ‘you shouldn’t do this,’” he said.

But, he added later, “This is for all the nights Mary Carol would wake me up and we’d drive south of here to a little dark house and I’d say, ‘What are you doing here?’ and she’d say, ‘I can’t tell you — but, I want you to remember this. This is important, but I can’t tell you what I’m doing here.’”

The shelter maintains a safe house for victims of domestic violence at an undisclosed location near Clovis and Portales, as well as another safe house near Tucumcari, Hartley House board members said.

Mayor David Lansford said when he thinks about Mary Carol Hartley he thinks of her primarily as a mother.

“I think of her as someone who embodies everything good about mothers, a mother who sees potential, a mother who loves without reserve,” he said.

Jan Bradburn, president of the board of The Hartley House, said Pat Maes, senior resident supervisor at the domestic violence shelter, had the idea to name the building in honor of Hartley while the staff was brainstorming for a name for the shelter’s new administrative building. The shelter’s administrative offices formerly were called The Shelter for Victims of Domestic Violence.

The new building had been the offices of magistrate court before the court moved to its new home at 221 Pile St.

For those seeking help, The Hartley House is open from Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. However, there also is a 24-hour hotline at 769-0305, or 1-800-401-0305 for the rest of New Mexico.

Board member Traci Harris said the shelter now offers an increased list of services, including classes and services for victims of sexual assault, classes on parenting skills and child care, groups for survivors of abuse, batterers intervention, a Spanish-speaking advocate on-call 24 hours a day and legal services for clients on Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF).

The shelter has hired a sexual assault coordinator and domestic violence advocate, Terrie Davis, who can be reached at 1-877-867-2966, Harris said.