Adrian Hedden
Artesia Daily Press
achedden@currentargus.com

Local volunteers take to the Pecos River for annual trash pick-up

Nine-year-old Leighton Franks said she’ll “probably” keep volunteering for the rest of her life.

That’s thanks to some early inspiration Franks received along the banks of the Pecos River as one of about 300 volunteers for the annual River Blitz trash pickup.

The event hosted by Keep Carlsbad Beautiful sees volunteers from throughout the community deploy to landmarks and key recreation areas along the Pecos for a morning of picking up trash and removing debris.

This year’s River Blitz was held Saturday, March 7, and was the third year in a row Leighton and her mom Stephanie Franks, a staffer at Salado Isolation Mining Contractors, took to the river.

They were at the Lower Tansill Dam where the waters of the Pecos accumulate on the south end of the Lake Carlsbad Beach area, pulling candy wrappers, bottles and dead fish out of the scenic river.

By about 8 a.m., Leighton found six fish – five dead and one living but tangled in a plastic bag.

“It just helps the community,” said the fourth grader at Monterey Elementary School. “There are so many people that don’t care about throwing garbage in the trash can.

Stephanie Franks said River Blitz helps get her daughter out of the house and teaches her the value of giving back.

“I just want her to understand the importance of helping your community,” Franks said. “It’s everybody’s responsibility to keep things clean. Hopefully it will give her a work ethic.”

That kind of shift in culture is what Carlsbad Mayor Rick Lopez hoped River Blitz could instill in the entire community.

The city of Carlsbad, through Keep Carlsbad Beautiful, leads the project. Keep Carlsbad Beautiful is a subsidiary of national organization Keep America Beautiful, which partners with local governments to establish local chapters.

For his town’s group, Lopez said, the focus is on combating the increase in trash around the city as Carlsbad’s population swells.

“As we grow, sometimes we grow too fast. We don’t stop to take care of our town,” Lopez said. “If everyone threw away one more piece of trash, it makes a huge difference.”

Keep Carlsbad Beautiful Coordinator Mary Garwood said River Blitz started in the 1990s as a “grassroots” initiative led by local residents. The city took on the event in 2015, and it is now funded through a combination of about $13,000 in state grants and city funds, she said.

About $3,000 of that comes from the New Mexico Clean and Beautiful program, which uses state funds to support local beautification efforts around New Mexico, and the New Mexico Department of Transportation’s $10,000 Que Linda grant program.

“We don’t want to be known as a trashy city,” Garwood said. “We want to show that we care about our town. We spend thousands of dollars to advertise our river, why would we want to trash it?”

Caroline Ibarra, 35, wanted to be part of the solution. She brought her son Mateo, 5, and daughter Bella, 14, to the Carlsbad veterans memorial near Lower Tansill to pick up trash, mostly plastic bags and cans concentrated along the riverbank.

She said the family brings its Doberman, Benny, for walks along the river and hopes to keep it clean for him.

“We hang out here a lot and we just hate seeing the trash,” Ibarra said. “We just want to have a clean place to go with the kids.”

Managing Editor Adrian Hedden can be reached at 575-628-5516, or @AdrianHedden on the social media platform X.

Rebecca Hauschild
For the Artesia Daily Press

A $2.9 million housing project supported by the city of Artesia took another step forward at last week’s city council meeting.

Councilors voted to hire Carlsbad-based Constructors Inc., allowing the company to begin work on the first phase of the Legends Subdivision on South 26th Street across from Jaycee Park.

When complete, the first phase will include 72 lots for homes to be built near the intersection of South 26th Street and Hermosa Drive. In total, the city planned for the subdivision to hold 240 lots when fully built out.

Acceptance of the contractor’s bid on the project is contingent on the city’s ability to close on the property for the development, located on undeveloped land on South 26th Street across from Jaycee Park. Closing is expected this week, according to Community Development/Infrastructure Director Byron Landfair.

The city was approved to receive $4 million for the overall project from Eddy County during the county commission’s Dec. 16 meeting as part of a countywide housing initiative that made $15.6 million available for local housing projects in the county’s four municipalities.

Getting power to the development will cost another $460,000, which will necessitate a budget change, according to Landfair. He said the city may seek additional funds from Eddy County for the rest of the work.

“We will go to the county and see if the county will help fill in some of the gap, but I will get direction from the mayor on that,” Landfair said.

Mayor Jon Henry said the city of Artesia could afford to foot the bill to add electricity to the subdivision.

“With $4 million funding and if we have to expend $460,000 for the power, the lots still pencil out to a good price that hopefully this project will work,” Henry said.

The Legends Subdivision will be further buoyed by a $10,000-per-rooftop housing incentive offered by the city of Artesia and funded by a separate county commission vote allocating $500,000 to the program.

The reimbursement is limited to $100,000 per development.

But to retain access to the county funds, the city must have a contract for the work in place within 90 days of the commission’s vote.

“The pressure to move at this speed is because of the timelines put on us from the county to spend the money that was given to us,” Henry said. “So we are trying to stay within those time frames, so we don’t lose the $4 million for this project. We knew it would be tight.”

Other business

During a report by the recreation committee, District 1 Councilor Raul Rodriguez said there are 333 girls on 27 teams signed up for the city’s youth softball league starting March 31. He also reported there are 23 youths participating in the after-school program with nine on the waiting list. Rodriguez said there are more than 250 participants in youth basketball.

Adrian Hedden
Artesia Daily Press
achedden@currentargus.com

Tim Keithley published his first newspaper column in 1979.

As a sophomore wide receiver for the Central High School Bulldogs in Springfield, Missouri, his football career abruptly ended not in the end zone but in front of a typewriter.

A third-stringer, Keithley was told by the coach he should try to catch a word or two instead of footballs. His writing career began.

“He said I could still be on the team, but he couldn’t guarantee I’d ever play. He didn’t want to tell me I was no good,” Keithley recalled with a chuckle nearly 47 years later. “He said, ‘Why don’t you be a sportswriter?’ It was the best advice I ever got.”

The first edition of the Keithley’s Korner column was published in 1979 in the student newspaper – and decades later Keithley can’t recall either the coach’s name or the name of the publication that carried his first byline.

But the feeling of seeing his name in print comes back quickly in recollection. It was the start of a long media career.

Still bearing the original title, “Keithley’s Korner” lives to this day and now runs weekly in the Ruidoso News. The column highlights local businesses, organizations and events in the community and most often shines a flattering light on local people.

Along with his newspaper column, of course, local residents know Keithley from his long association with Ruidoso Downs Racetrack and his popular radio shows: “Tim and Layle,” which airs from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. weekdays on Bear Country stations 94.7 FM and 1450 AM; and “KWES Saturday Morning” on 93.5 FM.

“I call him the voice of Lincoln County,” said Ruidoso resident Richard Connor, CEO and Editor and Publisher of El Rito Media.” Now I will add ‘Dash for Cash Keithley’ in honor of the legendary quarter horse.”

“He knows everyone here and beyond,” Connor said. “And everyone likes Tim Keithley.”

Keithley, 60, added yet another layer to his involvement in the community March 2 when he became El Rito Media’s general manager, overseeing sales and marketing for the company’s five local newspapers in Alamogordo, Artesia, Carlsbad and Española.

He’ll be focused on Ruidoso, which he’s called home since 1999, but Keithley also will drive revenue company-wide as El Rito rebuilds community journalism in multiple areas of rural New Mexico.

El Rito Media was formed in 2022 with the purchase of the Rio Grande Sun in Española, expanding to include the Artesia Daily Press in 2023 and acquiring the Carlsbad Current-Argus, Alamogordo News and Ruidoso News from Gannett in 2024.

To Keithley, the opportunity to reconnect each community with its local newspaper is both daunting and challenging. Local news, he says, is critical to an engaged public and should reflect the passions and people of the community.

“I just really have a strong passion for this community and that’s the kind of person that you want to help operate the newspaper,” Keithley said. “All El Rito media wants to do is to provide local news. The Girl Scout selling cookies, the basketball scores. That’s what a local newspaper does – puts local stories and local photos in your newspaper.”

‘It’s in your blood’

Keithley moved to Ruidoso from Kansas City, Missouri, to work at Ruidoso Downs Racetrack in October 1999, extending an association with then-track owner R.D. Hubbard that began a decade earlier when he was hired to work at a track Hubbard owned in Kansas City, The Woodlands.

Keithley took the job almost immediately after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in electronic media from Missouri State University. With the Kansas City track falling on hard times brought about by competition from riverboat gambling and other factors, Hubbard offered Keithley the opportunity to relocate amid the mountains of southeast New Mexico.

Tim started in ticket sales at Ruidoso Downs and over the years expanded his role to include advertising sales, hosting TV and radio shows each racing season, and eventually becoming the track’s spokesman and public face in the community.

He left the track temporarily in 2010 for a four-year stint in public service as district director for then-U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce. The former congressman is currently President Donald Trump’s nominee to serve as director of the federal Bureau of Land Management.

For those who make their living in horse racing, the track is more than just a place to work. Racing is a way of life and for Keithley, the racetrack tapped an innate affinity for the horses, the sport and the business. He was mesmerized by the powerful strides of quarter horses and thoroughbreds as they surged toward the finish line, and by the subculture of horse racing.

“A racetrack is different because it’s a whole world inside of itself,” Keithley said. “It’s in your blood. I was just infatuated with all of it.”

Keithley’s passion for an institution so quintessential to the community fostered his deep connection with Ruidoso and southeast New Mexico.

“It is such a big part of this town,” Keithley said of the track. “This is the Yankee Stadium of quarter horse racing.”

And when tragedy struck in 2024 with the South Fork and Salt fires, a ferocious duo of wildfires that burned about 20,000 acres, killed at least three people and eventually brought about the likely end of racing at Ruidoso Downs, Keithley said, he was inspired by the resolve of track owner Johnny Trotter and general manager Rick Baugh.

The fires led to a devastating series of floods as they burned away vegetation that would normally hold back monsoonal rainwaters, damaging the track and forcing officials to move its races to The Downs in Albuquerque each of the last two seasons. Track officials said in January that the 2026 season was canceled and that the track was closed indefinitely, due to flood damage.

But Keithley said Trotter and Baugh remained key figures in the community, despite their misfortune, and inspired him to continue supporting the needs of Ruidoso.

“They have just been through the ringer. They have tried so hard to keep horse racing vibrant,” Keithley said. “I’m just praying that someday we are going to see that back in Ruidoso. This is what this town is built on, this 80-year-old racetrack.”

It’s that same unrelenting passion for the community that Keithley intends to bring to his role at El Rito Media, both as general manager and the company’s most-enduring columnist.

“I do really enjoy getting people’s stories and telling that story,” he said. “If someone has something they’re passionate about, I like to get that out of them.”

Managing Editor Adrian Hedden can be reached at 575-628-5516, or @AdrianHedden on the social media platform X.

Ruidoso Rotary Club

Over four decades ago, Josefina Valencia saw a need for a facility to help children in her neighborhood of Juarez, Mexico. What began as a mission simply to feed and clothe those in her own area blossomed into what would become Bethel Orphanage.

The facility began by offering services for just a handful of children, but now serves more than 50. Anna Mishealle Franklin said many of those who live at the facility have been the victims of abuse, neglect, and other different situations. Some aren’t accustomed to receiving three meals a day.

Valencia’s daughter Sandra Flatow later joined the effort and her granddaughter Anna Franklin now serves as director of the facility. More than 30 years ago, the Rotary Club of Ruidoso found out about Valencia’s efforts and decided to help.

Since then, the club has donated heaters, paid the orphanage’s monthly gas bill, sent supplies, and offered other forms of support. Franklin recently spoke to Ruidoso Rotarians about the orphanage and how their efforts have made a difference for children who faced so many hardships.

“My grandmother always said, ‘It begins with your neighbor,’” Franklin said of Valencia’s mission. “For me, it’s about touching these kids, breaking the cycle.

“When police bring these kids (to the orphanage), they have nothing, just the clothes on their backs,” Franklin said at the Rotary meeting. “I want them to feel like this is their home, not just an orphanage or foster home they’re just passing through. They’re safe, they know they’re loved, and have a future. We get to speak life into these kids.”

The orphanage feeds, clothes, and offers children a safe place to stay. Staff try to instill a sense of character, self-respect, and the importance of making a difference in the community as they get older – with a major emphasis on education.

The goal is to pave a path for a new future, with older students even attending college. Some of those even return to work at Bethel and help other children who may have been in the same situation they were in.

Franklin said the Ruidoso Rotary Club was a major part of Bethel’s success, helping with operations and support for so many years and really making a difference.

“I have a special place in my heart for you guys,” she said. “I know when we need (help), you have provided for us. You may not know or even meet the kids, but I really do believe one day when we’re all in heaven, you’re going to have some kids come up to you and say thank you.”

As Franklin and other staff members left the meeting, Rotarians donated bags of new clothing and other needs. Rotarians also donated another $1,000 in cash. The club is now trying to organize a trip to visit the orphanage and seek out other ways to help.

Adrian Hedden
Artesia Daily Press
achedden@currentargus.com

A new pipeline will help dispose of byproduct fluid from a series of oil and gas wells extracting fossil fuels within Carlsbad’s city limits.

Select Water Solutions received approval for a permit to construct the pipeline via a 5-2 vote by Carlsbad city councilors at their Tuesday, Feb. 24, meeting.

The line will transport oilfield wastewater known as “produced water” from a drilling and storage site owned by Midland, Texas-based Permian Resources to a Select Water treatment facility on Hidalgo Road.

The 15-mile underground pipeline will begin at Permian Resources’ production facility on the western edge of the city limits and run mostly through unincorporated Eddy County, including a 3.5-mile stretch across an area called the Well Protection Zone where the city of Carlsbad pumps groundwater from a series of wells.

Oil and gas operations within the Well Protection Zone are subject to stiffer regulations, increasing requirements for the thickness and depth of pipelines intended to avoid impacts to the water table.

The produced water that will be transported through the new pipeline is fluid brought to the surface along with oil and natural gas from the same shale deposits that produce fossil fuels. The fluid, typically high in brine and toxic chemicals and unfit for human consumption, is either pumped back underground or treated and used in subsequent drilling operations.

An analysis by Carlsbad city staff provided to councilors ahead of the vote to approve the pipeline plan showed it complied with all local, state and federal regulations.

“My recommendation is for approval,” said Clayton Bradley, an attorney hired by the city to analyze the proposal.

Ward 4 City Councilor Mark Walterscheid said he worried about the pipeline’s potential impacts to local water supplies should there be a spill along the line. Walterscheid voted against the proposal along with Ward 1 Councilor Lisa Anaya-Flores. Ward 3 Councilor Mary Garwood did not attend the meeting and did not cast a vote.

“I am defiantly against anything that crosses our wellheads,” Walterscheid said. “I think that is so wrong because of the impacts it could have to our water. The produced water isn’t great stuff or else they would have cleaned it up. That just scares me to death.”

Bradley explained that should a spill occur, the operator of the line would notify the New Mexico Oil Conservation Commission, which would work to clean up the spill and remediate the land.

He said the commission would be notified within 24 hours of the spill. There is not a current requirement for city officials to be notified, Bradley said.

“They work with the OCD on a plan for reclamation. We are working on trying to put a process in place for the city of Carlsbad to be notified as well,” Bradley said. “There is not an obligation to report to the city of Carlsbad. The obligation is to notify the state authority.”

Carlsbad Mayor Rick Lopez said the state commission already approved Permian’s drilling project, including associated pipelines the mayor said were critical to the operation.

“They’ve already checked all the boxes,” Lopez said.

The drilling site, consisting of 10 oil wells and a tank battery for temporary storage, was approved by the council at a June 10, 2025 meeting, despite heavy opposition from residents of nearby Happy Valley, a rural Eddy County community of about 600 residents just outside the city limits off State Road 524.

Area resident Woods Houghton, a retired New Mexico State University professor, voiced concern during the June meeting that construction at the site could impact multiple water diversions in the area that he said prevent about 700 residents from “getting flooded out.”

“They talk about what happens when it goes right, but not when it goes wrong,” Houghton said.

Other business

Councilors approved a beer and wine liquor license for seafood restaurant Mei’s Foodie Hub on South Canal Street.

Milton’s Brewing was approved for a permit to host a food truck on city-owned property near the brewery on Mermod Street through the rest of the year.

Carlsbad MainStreet was approved to host three food trucks in the downtown area on Fridays through 2026. The trucks will be stationed at North Canyon and Mermod streets.

Councilors approved a proposal for city staff to apply for $57,750 in state funds through the Local Government Road Fund for rehabilitation efforts on Caesar Road. The total cost was estimated at about $77,000 and will entail laying new asphalt and replacing a speed bump.