Virginia Cunningham/News-Sun TATUM — A special election will be held in Tatum to decide if a fifth council member should be added, after a resident-led petition received more than the required amount of signatures. The petition required 5 percent of registered Tatum voters to sign the petition in order for it to be validated and adopted. The petition gathered approximately …

Dorothy N. Fowler/News-Sun Joseph Cotton and his wife, Melva, were on their way to Louisiana when they stopped to visit her family in Hobbs in 1981. “Two days later, I went to work for Kirkmeyer Electric,” Cotton said. “We had planned to go back to where my family lived, in Louisiana, but when we got to Hobbs, we just stopped …

Dorothy N. Fowler/News-Sun Joseph Cotton and his wife, Melva, were on their way to Louisiana when they stopped to visit her family in Hobbs in 1981. “Two days later, I went to work for Kirkmeyer Electric,” Cotton said. “We had planned to go back to where my family lived, in Louisiana, but when we got to Hobbs, we just stopped …

Curtis C. Wynne/News-Sun LOVINGTON – Charging a federal agency with making “the narrative fit the desired outcome,” the Lea County Commission on Thursday took issue with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The FWS recently issued a final rule listing the lesser prairie chicken as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act, effective on March 27. After hearing former …

Andy Brosig/News-Sun More than a year in the making, the Blakely family of Hobbs is winging their way toward the Walt Disney World Resorts in Florida to give 13-year-old Rylee her first experience of the beach, courtesy Make-A-Wish New Mexico and Crosswinds Community Church. Rylee, a special-needs student at Houston Middle School, in Hobbs, lives with what her family described …

Curtis C. Wynne/News-Sun LOVINGTON — While the Lea County Board of Registration met to clean up voter registration rolls this week, the New Mexico State Legislature took up bills designed to pad those same rolls. According to Lea County Clerk Keith Manes, the board approved purging 1,932 names out of the 37,356 registered voters in the county following a process …

Curtis C. Wynne/News-Sun EUNICE — A desalination plant for the City of Eunice appears less realistic than hoped, according to engineering experts asked to study the issue. Planning a final report in June, Hobbs-based Pettigrew and Associates project manager David Roybal offered a preliminary review to the Eunice city council Monday. Roybal explained the absence of a large reservoir of …

Gabrielle Arsiaga/News-Sun Many businesses, churches, and other buildings found themselves “tagged”last weekend. Hobbs Police and the Lea County Sheriff’s Office are working towards finding the vandals who are responsible for thousands of dollars worth of damages the weekend of Feb. 17-19. Around 6:48 a.m., Feb. 19, at St. Helena Catholic Church, at 100 East Bender Boulevard, a call came in …

Dorothy N. Fowler/News-Sun New Mexico Junior College will be the site of a new medical clinic next year with a three-year contract of about $1.643 million. Joe Mike Gomez, NMJC purchasing agent, said beginning next fall, the mid-level clinic will see students and employees — without cost to either students or employees. Complicated medical conditions will be referred elsewhere, Gomez …

Gabrielle Arsiaga/News-Sun The fate of one of Hobbs’ outdoor swimming pools is in limbo. Hobbs City commissioners met for a work session regarding Hobbs’ aquatic facilities Tuesday night, before a regularly schedule commission meeting. City of Hobbs’ Recreational Director Doug McDaniels told commisioners the majority of Hobbs’ aquatic facilities are aged and the repairs needed are expensive. As a result, …