LOCAL ROUNDUP

Walmart store future unclear

One month after an accused arsonist destroyed Clovis’ Walmart, company officials were offering little information about the store’s future.

“We don’t have that information yet,” company spokesman Joe Pennington said in a telephone interview on Monday.

Pennington did say all the employees at the Clovis Walmart had either gone to work at the Walmart in Portales or “have chosen to work … at some nearby stores.”

“Broadly speaking everybody is still employed,” he said.

Court records show Walmart estimated damages at $42 million after the fire.

A mobile pharmacy continues to serve customers after being set up in the store’s parking lot Sept. 21.

Authorities have charged Jimmy Guillen, 59, who is believed to be transient, with arson in connection with the Walmart blaze. He is being held in a Lubbock jail awaiting extradition to Clovis. He was arrested Sept. 13 in Lubbock, a few days after seeking treatment for burns at a Lubbock hospital.

— The Staff of The News

Animal Services shelter closes

ROSWELL — Animal Services has stopped accepting new animals from the public because of an “unusually high presence of upper respiratory infections,” the city of Roswell and Best Friends Animal Society announced in a press release.

The Fur-Ever Friends Fair, an animal adoption scheduled at Melendez Park, was canceled as well.

Also playing a role in this decision for the shelter to stop taking in dogs and cats — at least temporarily — was a local veterinarian’s report that canine distemper virus was found in a dog being held there.

More testing is planned.

In the meantime, shelter staff will work with veterinary professionals to provide necessary care and treatment to the dogs that are affected.

The Roswell shelter will continue operating to assist in emergency situations, such as dog bites and cruelty investigations. Staff also “may impound dogs that pose a threat to the community or are in need of emergency intervention.”

— Roswell Daily Record

A week to ‘Let Freedom Read!’

The American Library Association has announced the theme for this year’s Banned Books Week, Oct. 1-7: “Let Freedom Read!”

Every year, a week is designated for advocacy, information and education around banned books. The week was launched in 1982 in response to a surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries.

Banned Books Week highlights the value of free and open access to information, and brings the book community together.

“As long as there are libraries, Americans’ right to read will not be overcome by censorship,” Lessa Kanani’opua Pelayo-Lozada, president of the American Library Association, said in a news release.

Themed “Let Freedom Read!” this year, organizers hope it captures what’s at stake for our democracy: “that the safety of our right to speak and think freely is directly in proportion to our right to read.”

Libraries are encouraged to mark Banned Books Week by working with their communities to take action to protect the freedom to read.

— Guadalupe County Communicator