KCCC Eddy County Dispatch

This week’s In Memoriam segment honors those who lived or died in Carlsbad, New Mexico, with abridged obituary readings from West Funeral Home, LLC, broadcast October 18, 2026.

Join us as we remember: William Byard Brunt, Manuel “Melin” H. Garza, Frances Q. “Kika” Cerna, and James “Buzz” Norman Sexton Jr.

These recitations reflect the information available at the time of recording and may not be the most current. For detailed, unabridged obituaries, visit westfuneralhomellc.com.

Aired on KCCC 930 AM Radio and through our website (www.kccc930am.com).

This week’s In Memoriam segment honors those who lived or died in Carlsbad, New Mexico, with an abridged obituary reading from Denton-Wood Funeral Home, broadcast October 18, 2026.

Join us as we remember: Mario Serrano Ramos

These recitations reflect the information available at the time of recording and may not be the most current. For detailed, unabridged obituaries, visit Dentonwood.com.

Aired on KCCC 930 AM Radio and through our website (www.kccc930am.com).

Library directors Samantha Hardin of Southeast New Mexico College and Sarah Jones of the Carlsbad Public Library joined Johnny Chandler and Hattie Quinn on Community Forum to talk about General Obligation Bond 2, the statewide library bond that will be on the November 3 ballot. The bond authorizes up to $19,324,188 for library resources at academic, public, and tribal libraries, and every county votes on it.

Hardin described shared research databases that nursing programs need for accreditation, along with plans to digitize college archives dating back to 1950. Jones covered what public libraries offer beyond books, including laptops, hotspots, and test-prep resources that patrons borrow for free, and how rural libraries have become after-school care, food access points, and a place to get legal forms for custody cases or traffic court. Quinn asked whether the bond matters more in rural counties with fewer resources, which led to some of the most useful answers of the hour.

Read every question on the ballot, and read the constitutional amendments closely before you vote.

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Hattie is calling in from the City of Brotherly Love this week, and back home, Eddy County is in for a change of seasons. Temperatures in the high 80s give way to rain from Thursday night through Saturday, with highs dropping into the low 60s. If you’ve got outdoor plans this weekend, have a backup ready.

Voting deadlines are coming up fast. The absentee ballot deadline is Tuesday, October 20. Early voting in Eddy County runs through October 31, with expanded hours starting October 17, and Election Day is Tuesday, November 3. The Bureau of Land Management is also taking online comments on its proposed February 2027 oil and gas lease sale through October 30.

This week’s spotlight takes you to Southeast New Mexico College’s Constitution Day celebration. Students cast ballots in a mock election, and the NAACP ran voter registration on site. Podcasting student Joe Enriquez talked with organizers, staff and SENMC President Dr. Kevin Beardmore, who shared a piece of New Mexico election trivia almost no one in the room knew. Listen to hear what it is, along with a packed week of events, library happenings and Eddy County Quickies, including the latest on the WIPP hoist incident.

Aired on KCCC 930 AM Radio and available through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and through our website (www.kccc930am.com).

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Johnny Chandler has an ad stuck in his head: “Vote yes for Amendment 4 so more people that look like us can be in office.”

He’s not sure what it means. So he asked someone who does.

On this week’s Community Forum, Paul Gessing, president of the Rio Grande Foundation, breaks down the proposal that would put New Mexico legislators on a salary of about $68,000 a year, rising with inflation. Right now, lawmakers get a $247 per diem and a pension. Gessing says Amendment 4 adds the salary and changes nothing else. His take: it’s a cash grab, not reform. The Rio Grande Foundation is urging a no vote.

Would a paid legislature mean fewer lawmakers with side-career conflicts of interest? Or a legislature that suddenly needs to meet a lot more days to justify the paycheck? Johnny and Paul dig into both.

Also on the ballot:

* Amendment 1: requires the governor to explain a veto

* Amendment 2: lets school board elections happen in even years

* Amendment 3: changes how college regents are chosen

Then, the governor’s race. Paul walks through Greg Hull’s four-step plan to phase out the state income tax, starting with the lowest earners, and how it compares to what Deb Haaland has proposed.

And a deadline to watch. A new federal school choice tax credit could let you direct $1,700 (single) or $3,400 (married filing jointly) to a scholarship organization. Whether that money can stay in New Mexico depends on a decision from the governor in the coming months.

Early voting is already underway. Whichever way you’re leaning, the one thing both men agree on is that you should show up and VOTE.

The KCCC Eddy County Dispatch is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Already a subscriber? A one-time donation goes just as far.

This week’s In Memoriam segment honors those who lived or died in Carlsbad, New Mexico, with abridged obituary readings from West Funeral Home, LLC, broadcast on October 11, 2026.

Join us as we remember: Patricia Rose Matthews, Mary “Frances” Otts Merritt, Lorenzo Muñiz, Douglas Ray Brown, Thomas Lopez, and Nirel Esperanza Perez Ramirez.

These recitations reflect the information available at the time of recording and may not be the most current. For detailed, unabridged obituaries, visit westfuneralhomellc.com.

Aired on KCCC 930 AM Radio and through our website (www.kccc930am.com).

This week’s In Memoriam segment honors those who lived or died in Carlsbad, New Mexico, with abridged obituary readings from Denton-Wood Funeral Home, broadcast October 11, 2026.

Join us as we remember: Ida Ornelas Parraz, Frances Ann Barnes, Roger Wayne Whobrey, Diana Christine “Christy” Sadler, Roger D. Simmons, Darrell R. Harper, Martin Lee Fanning Jr., and Belia Morales.

These recitations reflect the information available at the time of recording and may not be the most current. For detailed, unabridged obituaries, visit Dentonwood.com.

Aired on KCCC 930 AM Radio and through our website (www.kccc930am.com).

Yesterday on Community Forum

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and Johnny Chandler sat down with Roy Thomas, Hailie Kessler, and Kush Ghadiali from Artesia General Hospital to talk about early detection and why screening matters. Thomas is Director of Operations in Carlsbad and Director of Radiology for the hospital system, Kessler is the Lead Mammographer, and Ghadiali is the Public Relations Director. Kessler explains how women can book their own mammogram without waiting on a referral, what the test feels like, and why men should be doing self-exams too. Her message is that breast cancer found early usually has a very good outcome.

Thomas also shares news for the whole county. New Fuji 3D mammography units, which use less radiation and less compression time, are headed to Artesia by the end of the year and to Carlsbad, hopefully by March. That means patients in the south end of the county can get screened without the drive starting next year.

To schedule a mammogram, visit artesiageneral.com/mammogram or call 575-748-3333 and ask for the mammography tech. Shuttle available.

Aired on KCCC 930 AM Radio and available through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and our website (www.kccc930am.com).

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ICYMI in this week’s episode of Mid-Week Matters on KCCC 930 AM, we walk Eddy County through the weather, this week’s events, and the news worth knowing from Carlsbad to Artesia.

Saturday brings The Feel Good Market, more Art in the Park, a Fire Prevention Parade, and a free Día de los Muertos mask class. The Eddy County Quickies include new leadership at United Way and Artesia’s next police chief, plus a spotlight on Hattie’s World News Day editorial, originally printed in Volume 1 of the October Carlsbad Local.

Aired on KCCC 930 AM Radio and available through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and through our website (www.kccc930am.com).

The KCCC Eddy County Dispatch is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Already a subscriber? A one-time donation goes just as far.

With oil prices pushed up by the war with Iran, New Mexico is sitting on nearly a billion dollars in unexpected oil and gas revenue, and Paul Gessing, president of the Rio Grande Foundation, predicts that pot will top $1 billion by the time the 2027 legislative session opens in January. He joins Johnny Chandler on this Community Forum to argue that the money should go back to New Mexicans, noting it’s roughly half of the $2.1 billion the personal income tax brings in each year.

Gessing lays out a phased, trigger-based plan to eliminate the income tax, explains why he thinks the state’s $75 billion permanent funds were built on a 1970s scarcity mindset, and shares the Legislative Finance Committee’s own description of an economy that is “tepid or maybe stuttering,” carried largely by oil and gas and data center construction. He and Johnny also talk about what the governor’s race could mean for southeast New Mexico’s energy industry, and about Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller’s new “abundance” message.

Follow Gessing’s work at riograndefoundation.org, on the Errors of Enchantment blog, and on the Tipping Point New Mexico podcast, which also airs on KCCC.

Aired on KCCC 930 AM Radio and available through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and our website (www.kccc930am.com).

The KCCC Eddy County Dispatch is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Already a subscriber? A one-time donation goes just as far.