There’s a beautiful picture hanging up at City Hall taken of a local train track that local resident Claudia Phillips took and gave as a gift.
This week, we learned the tragic news that Claudia has passed away. She will be deeply missed.
Claudia was an extremely upbeat, active member of the community, known to many for her bike trips around town and the free snow cones she gave out in front of her downtown office during the summer. She supported numerous law enforcement projects and loved decorating the front of her office. She was also a member of our Arbor Day Tree Board. She was an excellent photographer. Everyone who knew Claudia had only positive things to say about her, and in turn, she only had positive things to say about Carlsbad and its community. Her final comment online was a video of her riding her bike through town in which she praised the beauty of the “Cotton Candy Skies” she spotted during the trip.
Claudia has so many wonderful friends around the community who are grieving right now, and we offer our deepest condolences.
Marathon Oil, Truckers Against Trafficking and the NM Attorney General’s Office sponsored a Virtual Coalition Build working to end human trafficking on Wednesday. Truckers Against Trafficking has existed for many years and the group is now working to increase its presence in the oilfield to protect more people and expand their “mobile army.”
Wednesday’s meeting included an overview from the Attorney General’s Office and law enforcement personnel about what signs to look for indicating someone might need your help. Annika Huff, who was herself a victim of human trafficking, described the horrible experience she went through. She also talked about the police officers who saved her life and who helped let her restart her life.
How can we help? We were told that New Mexico has the lowest penalties for human traffickers in the country and asked to support efforts to increase tougher penalties. Anyone wishing to report something suspicious should call the National Human Trafficking Resource Center hotline at 1-888-3737-888 or any local law enforcement agency. Thank you to Marathon for supporting this event.
Our restaurants are doing the best they can to survive this year. They can be shut down or fined if they don’t follow policies that they often don’t even agree with or think are fair. We’re received multiple reports recently about some people cursing at restaurant employees and even throwing objects at them. This is only a small group of people, but it is not acceptable. Our small business owners are not to blame for any of what is going on right now. They would like nothing better than to have everything be back to normal. These are our friends and neighbors and don’t deserve this treatment.
Just a reminder that many local churches are also adding COVID-safe events this Saturday. First Baptist Church is holding a “Rocktober Drive Thru Trick or Treat” from 5-7 p.m. Oct. 31 at their church at 112 N. Alameda Street. Thank you to Kevin Pence for letting us know about this event. Please call the church at 887-1158 if you have any questions. If you have any other events this weekend you’d like us to include in tomorrow’s update, please let us know!
Sincerely,
Carlsbad Mayor Dale Janway