By the time this column goes to print, we will know who the first members of our Southeast New Mexico College are. Two of the five positions are uncontested – so congratulations already to Bill Murrill and Sarah Jo Bowman. You’ve got a lot of very important work ahead of you. We will know who wins the other three positions by late Tuesday night. There will certainly be plenty of room for the candidates who don’t win to stay involved in the college, and we hope they will do so. Thank you again to Ned Elkins, Frances McCarthy, Norbert Rempe, Tiffany Frintz, David Rogers, Mark Cage and Doris Carleton for running for this important board. Comments were very optimistic about the future during all of the college’s candidate forums. Both our Higher Education Task Force and the college’s own transition team have been working for months on handling the thousands of details needed to go independent.
We also have another announcement for Veteran’s Day. The Carlsbad Elks Lodge will be serving a free breakfast to all U.S. Military Veterans and their spouses that attend from 6 a.m. until 9 a.m. Elks Lodge 1558 is located at 1558 Elks Drive. Thank you for this wonderful display of appreciation.
Also, this Wednesday, the Columbus Club Hall will be celebrating their one year anniversary of Bingo. Bingo is held at the Columbus Club Hall every Wednesday and Friday at 6:30 p.m. at 606 W. Shaw. Congratulations on a busy year.
We are pleased to hear that the Hidalgo Road construction project began earlier this week and is now moving forward. This project is expected to be completed in 30 days. Many residents have been very understandably expressing their concerns with the construction on Cherry Lane. There are actually two Cherry Lane projects going on at the same time – roads and sewer. Most recently, Cherry was closed to thru traffic between Sandy Lane and North Mesa. We know this is an extremely frustrating closure, since it cuts a very rapidly growing neighborhood in half. We will do everything we can to both speed up this project and re-open routes as quickly as possible.
COVID-19 update: There were 162 vaccinations administered at the civic center clinic on Monday. We will continue to provide COVID-19 vaccinations and boosters every Monday for the near future. COVID-19 tests are also being offered on Monday at the front of the civic center.
COVID-19 tests are now being offered at New Mexico State University-Carlsbad. This will be a self-administered shallow nasal test offered in Room 150. Testing is available from 10 a.m. to noon on Tuesday and noon to 2 p.m. on Thursday. Please register at https://curative.com/sites/33384/walkup.
Sincerely,
Carlsbad Mayor Dale Janway