Carlsbad has some of the best historical documentation of any community in the country, and that’s largely thanks to decades of effort by local historian Jed Howard, who passed away in 2017. Jed was the first inductee into the Carlsbad Hall of Fame. He was also a teacher fondly remembered by generations of students for his class exploring democracy. One of Jed’s finest accomplishments was the creation of the “Near Lovings Bend” web page, available at www.nearlovingsbend.net.Thousands of captioned photos present an incredible documentation of life in Carlsbad, from decade to decade.
Up until recently, the search engine for the Near Lovings Bend webpage didn’t work – this meant that it was very difficult to access this incredible treasure trove of information. We understand that Jameson Lucas with the Carlsbad Historical Society was able to fix this, making the web page much more accessible. The Historical Society is making more improvements to make the information even more accessible online and adding access for more recent photos and community submissions. They are also looking for a location to put Mr. Howard’s photos on display for public use. The City of Carlsbad supports their efforts, and we look forward to helping make this vision becoming a reality. Thank you to Jameson for volunteering his time helping improve Jed Howard’s legacy.
Our library is also working on a digital archive, including Carlsbad High School Yearbooks. You can view their work at https://library.biblioboard.com/module/carlsbad-public-library-community-collections. They are also planning a COVID collection to show what life was like during the pandemic. We often brag about all of Carlsbad’s natural beauty, but we also have an incredible amount of interesting history here.
College Update: Representative Brown’s House Bill 212, which would make Carlsbad’s college independent, passed with a vote of 62-7 on Thursday night at around 10:30 p.m. It was a long night for our representatives, but thank you to the overwhelming majority of our state’s representative body who felt local governance is the best way to run a college. A vote on the Senate version of the bill is expected to occur within the next few days.
We’ve received some excellent nominations for our “Spirit of Carlsbad” awards, but we would still like to see more. As a reminder, we are seeking nominations in five categories: Nonprofit Agency of the Year, Humanitarian of the Year, Outstanding Citizen of the Year, Student Humanitarian of the Year and Student Citizen of the Year. Please get us your nominations by March 15. You can email them to mayor.office@cityofcarlsbadnm.com or drop them off at city hall.
Sincerely,
Carlsbad Mayor Dale Janway