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I have been here in Portales about a year, I can totally understand where your coming from. We were in England befor we moved here, tons to do there. I really miss all the green grass and trees. I have a horse here, she keeps me busy. What sort of things do you like to do? My mother and father in-law came out for a visit and we went to Santa Fe, it was great, about a
4 hour drive but worth it. I want to goto Ruidoso someday when the wind isn't so bad and the weather warms up. I am not fond of the weather here, so I am waiting out better days to get back outside and do stuff. Are you with the AF, just wondering cause you said you came from FL? Well take care.
thank you for all of this information. I started going to ccc helps a little. And yeah my husband is in the AF I would love to get into voulteering. Ill have to find a local news paper. I am suposed to get one on Cannon every friday , but for some reason i never get mine. Rare occasions i do. Well i will write back more later.. i have to clean for now. My family has been sick for the last three weeks. Time to air out the house... Little bit of sun today .
I was raised in a small south plains tx town similar in many ways to Portales. It was a great place to be in the 70's / 80's. Things change.
It's no longer a place I would raise my kids. Lots of violence in the schools, lots of drugs, terrible school performance indicators.
The move would provide better income and closer proximity to our extended families....but I can't pull the trigger on this one without providing a soft landing for the kids. They don't need entertainment, but I don't want them returning from school with bloody noses either.....
My first / only impression of Portales was very positive.....but it was about 12 years ago.
Thanks again for the reply.
We are happy to say that Portales seems to have escaped a lot of the "rural decay" you speak of. There is a large university in town, many active churches and social clubs, and the service and agricultural businesses seem to be booming, so we don't see the issues you speak of. There is almost no crime in Portales compared to neighboring cities, and the Portales Public Schools schools are very well-rated. Great Schools.com has a good summary of all the schools in the area.
One thing to note about Portales Public Schools, Portales is a fully integrated school district, so there are no "rich" and "poor" schools. Every kid in the same grade goes to the same school. One result of this is that almost all the Portales schools are new, and the people seem to get along well, whatever their background. This adds to the general unity of the community and low crime rate. The cops seem to be doing a great job.
Take a closer look at other small cities with separated "rich" and "poor" areas and school districts you will see a quite different picture...
Last edited by New West 2020; 02-18-2008 at 08:53 AM..
Hi! I'm from outside New Orleans, LA and I will be moving to Portales in mid July to attend ENMU's graduate program. I'll be looking for an off campus apartment because I plan to move my dog and cat with me. Any suggestions on safe areas where I should look would be much appreciated. Also, I'm concerned about cell phone providers in the area. I have AT&T, but the online coverage map doesn't seem to cover that area. Should I switch to another provider? Thanks in advance for any help !!!
I grew up in Portales and honestly if you are from a big city, there are no 'bad parts' of Portales. Particularly if you stay pretty close to campus. I would suggest looking at the apartments close, but many duplexes and such will only be listed in the local paper or the thrifty nickel.
Portales is a nice town with a small town charm to it. Apartments in general will not be what you may be used to New Orleans...most are older and the area as a whole (Clovis included) has not see corporate (national firms) type apartment complexes come in.
As to cell service, you will have to switch from AT&T as they don't cover the area. You will probably have to choose between Sprint, Altell, and Plateau (the local/regional cell company).
I noted with some amusement your move from the NOLA area to Portales when almost thirty years ago I essentially reversed that move having finished graduate school (biology) at ENMU and I moved to New Orleans. I'm sorry that I cannot tell you more about Portales but it has been almost thirty years since I spent any time in the town and too, while I was in school, I lived in Clovis,NM and commuted to the campus each day. Back then there certainly were no dangerous areas around town but time does have a way of changing things.
My Sprint cell works well at Clovis and east along Highway 84 to Lubbock but becomes non-functional about 20 miles west of the City (around Melrose). Heading west and north back toward Albuquerque, my signal is not reestablished until I get to Santa Rosa, NM on I-40. I don't know how far Sprint extends south out of Clovis toward Portales.
Best of luck with your studies. BTW, ENMU was a great school when I attended both as an undergraduate and a graduate.
there is a newer bunch of apartments they built accross the street from ENMU and from Rotary Park,but I heard that apartments in Portales are getting expensive.
You will be pleased with Sprint, Quest, or Yucca Telecom wireless in Portales. Also note that Portales is now completely wired with CAT6 cable so there are competing low-cost broadband Internet deals, including Qwest and Comcast. Sprint wireless has served us well, even in the mountains of Ruidoso or up near Santa Fe. The Sprint store is 20 minutes away in Clovis. There are also a number of WiFi sites in Portales, including most of the Historic Town Square and ENMU.
My parents live south of Portales about 30 miles (Pep, NM) and were dropped by ATT because they had too many "roaming" minutes on their cell phones. So much for unlimited romaning. They switched to Sprint and that worked well until this analog-digital switch. In Portales, they have coverage with their Sprint phones. We and other family members, always have good luck with ATT while we visit.
Good luck.
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I would love to get into voulteering. Ill have to find a local news paper. I am suposed to get one on Cannon every friday , but for some reason i never get mine. Rare occasions i do. Well i will write back more later.. i have to clean for now. My family has been sick for the last three weeks. Time to air out the house... Little bit of sun today 
Portales is still OK
