Front Page News

By Lynn Janes

On November 20, 2025, the board of regents held a virtual regular meeting at Western New Mexico University. The board consisted of Steven Neville, chair, Joseph "Dean" Reed, John Wertheim, Gregory Trujillo and WNMU student Keana Huerta. Dr. Chris Maples, interim president, also attended.

The board had a closed session before this meeting started and said they had only discussed the pending litigation concerning Dr. Shephard and no action had taken place.

The board approved the agenda and minutes.

Presidents report

By Lynn Janes

On November 20, 2025, the commission had a regular meeting at the city annex building.

New business

Raymond De la Vega, Stantec, spoke to the Hurley part of the project. He had some requests for Darlene McBride, Hurley city clerk, and asked her to let him know when she could provide that information.

De la Vega said they had not had any water operator subcommittee meetings and have not needed any. Now that they have started the design, they will have things come up and will have to have communication with the water operators but have not had much luck with meetings instead have been reaching out to them individually.

Bicycling Stage Race in Southwest New Mexico Set for April 29 Through May 3, 2026

Silver City, NM — The 39th Tour of the Gila is opening registration for the 2026 road bicycling stage race on New Years Day. The five-day race based out of Silver City is set for Wednesday, April 29, through Sunday, May 3, 2026. Registration opens on Thursday, January 1, 2026.

For amateur competitors, Tour of the Gila offers five USA Cycling-sanctioned races with expanded eligibility to include racers of all experience levels. The USA Cycling races will be three or four stages over as many days.

Photos by Mary Alice Murphy

The Silver City Museum this year for its annual holiday event, held on Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025, changed the former Victorian Christmas to A Tapestry of Traditions. The  change featured holiday foods from different cultures, including Italian, Israeli, French, Mexican and others. Some of the usual vendors showed and sold their handmade crafts, and traditional holiday music filled the air. 

Photos by Mary Alice Murphy

On a busy Saturday morning, Dec. 13, 2025, The Woman's Club held its annual holiday market, which featured as always lots of great baskets of goodies, lots of cookies and candies, and other delicious items.  Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus made an appearance, and the Silver Ring Tones, a female barbershop quartet provided holiday music.

Photos and article by Mary Alice Murphy

For the eighth year in a row, every grave, 5008 of them, at Fort Bayard National Cemetery received a wreath with a red bow on it, thanks to the generosity of the Grant County community and the hard work of the committee headed by Mary Cowan. She announced that she would be stepping down from the leadership of the effort this year.

Cowan, in 2009, learned of the Wreaths Across America and made it her mission to get wreaths to adorn the veteran gravesites at Fort Bayard. The first year, seven wreaths were placed.

Master of Ceremonies Tom Shelley, who serves on the committee, after welcoming everyone to the ceremony, said that after that first year the numbers of wreaths grew steadily until 2018, when enough wreaths had been purchased by community members to honor every fallen veteran in the cemetery.

Please visit the website below for the proposed changes to some of the highway 180 intersections within and outside of Silver City that were presented at a local meeting on Dec. 10, 2025, as prepared by Parametrix,  Inc. 

This link is to the NM DOT Hwy 180  projects website: https://www.dot.nm.gov/us180-projects/ 

Inside this website arePUBLIC RESOURCES, down toward the bottom on the left side of the page,  which feature the maps and  information boards that showed interested residents the proposals. The maps make clear the proposed changes. 

New Mexico Department of Transportation also seeks more public input through the above website, preferably prior to Jan. 12, 2025. 

New Mexico Securities Division unveils the top investor threats

SANTA FE — The New Mexico Securities Division warns New Mexicans about new, sophisticated schemes bad actors are using to steal money from investors.

Drawing on data from the North American Securities Administrators Association's (NASAA) 2025 Enforcement Report, which compiles investigations conducted in 2024, and its annual survey of top investor threats, the Securities Division has identified several frauds and threats to watch out for this holiday season.

"The rapid growth of technology and the rise of artificial intelligence gives scam artists new tools to steal your money," said Benjamin Schrope, acting director of the New Mexico Securities Division. "The first step to avoid becoming a victim is to understand what schemes criminals are using."