Here’s a look at some of today’s local news:

Grant County 4-H Council President, Justin Billings, will be attending the New Mexico Youth Ranch Management Camp held at the CS Ranch in Cimarron in June. The camp is an intensive five-day hands-on experience that focuses on cattle ranching. Youth from around the state and the nation compete for limited positions to learn about the cattle industry from cattle reproduction, genetics, nutrition, animal welfare as well as getting practice on preparing and presenting a loan to a banker. Justin will be receiving three credit hours upon his completion of the camp toward a degree in agriculture from NMSU.

The Deming Intermediate School has been named a “Capturing Kids’ Hearts” National Showcase School” for the 2018-19 school year. This national leadership program created by the Flippen Group, encourages processes to increase students’ connectedness with both peers and adults at school. Administrators at Deming Intermediate began the initiative two years ago in order to create an emotionally safe and connected place for students, staff, and parents. Schools from across the nation were considered for the award.

Ballots for the Public Schools Capital Improvements Tax election for Silver Consolidated Schools, also known as SB-9, were mailed out this week to local residents. The two-mill levy if passed, will give the Silver District $1.1 million for maintenance, technology improvements and other projects. The school district asks voters to renew the mill levy every six years, so if passed, the renewal will not raise taxes. The levy is comprised of two tax dollars for every $1000 of value of property tax. Ballots need to be received by the Grant County clerk’s office by the end of the day on May 14th.

Today is “National Lineman Appreciation Day” and PNM is encouraging residents to take a moment to recognize and thank the line crews who work so diligently to keep the lights on for customers in New Mexico, and across the country. Line work is among the top 10 most dangerous professions in America, according to T&D World, and this national holiday is an opportunity to educate the public about the dangerous and challenging work that linemen do. According to a release from PNM, it takes four years and over 8,000 hours of training and classwork for linemen to reach journeyman status. PNM is offering the community the ability to express their gratitude for line crews by sending a personalized thank you card to the linemen during the month of April. Visit PNM dot com slash thank a lineman, complete the form, and PNM will print the cards out to share with crews across the service area.