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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Top Stories
Thursday, June 29, 2000
Top cowboys will be earning young silversmith's spurs
By LEIA HOLLAND
Staff Writer
PECOS, June 29, 2000 - A young silversmith is getting his first chance
to show off his work at a big rodeo.
Wilson Caprom of Salt Flat is the artist who designed and constructed
the spurs and buckles for this year's West of the Pecos Rodeo.
"This is my first big rodeo I've done them for," said Caprom, who is
only in his 20s. "The West of the Pecos has helped me out."
The nine sets of spurs and five buckles he made will be given to the
winners of each event at the rodeo.
Caprom has been making spurs and buckles on his own for about a year
and a half in Salt Flat, located 125 miles northwest of Pecos in Hudspeth
County. Before that he worked with Greg Darnall from Lone Oak for three
years. Darnall is the man who introduced Caprom into silversmithing.
Caprom constructed the spurs and buckles out of mild steel, solid sterling
silver, solid 10K gold and 10K gold fill. Caprom's father carved wax figurines
of cowboys for the buckles and spurs and sent them to cast by a jeweler
in solid 10K gold. Caprom said the figurines were worth about a $100 each.
Caprom estimated that for retail price each set of spurs were worth
$1,000 and each buckle was worth $750.
Brenda McKinney, treasurer and chairman for the buckles and spurs committee,
said her committee was thankful to receive the recommendation to use Caprom.
"Jim Kenney was the one who recommended him to the committee," McKinney
said.
She said that the committee plans to negotiate with Caprom in the coming
years.
"We're real excited to have him make them for us," McKinney said. "We
always try to get someone from the area to do the work for us."
Caprom wanted to say thank you for the chance to work for such a big
rodeo.
"We're real pleased with the product," McKinney said. "Without the help
from the spur and buckle donors we wouldn't have been able to have them."
The West of the Pecos Rodeo 2000 spur and buckle donors were Anchor
West Foods, First National Bank, Valley Motor Co., Inc. and Pecos Cantaloupe.
Winkles Truck, Inc., Card and Company, Rediger's Pharmacy, Trans-Pecos
Dairy, Security State Bank, Pecos Insurance Co., Texas New Mexico Power
Company, Fred Armstrong and Cole Armstrong.
Royce and Barbara Creager, Randy Graham, C.P.A., McDonalds, Pecos Nursing
Home, Pecos Farmers Produce, Inc., Pecos Animal Clinic and Jim Pattee.
The spurs and buckles will be on display first at First National Bank
and then Security State Bank.
They will be given out the last night of rodeo. The West of the Pecos
Rodeo will be on July 5-8 at 8:30 p.m. in Buck Jackson Arena.
TxDOT crews open `safer' I-20 ramps
By ROSIE FLORES
Staff Writer
PECOS, June 29, 2000 - New entrance and exit ramps westbound on Interstate
20 were opened this week, a move Texas Department of Transportation officials
say will help ease the traffic flow and hopefully prevent accidents.
The new ramps were opened to motorists late Tuesday afternoon and TxDOT
employees have been working diligently to make the transition go as smooth
as possible.
The on ramp from U.S. 285 to I-20 and a new exit ramp from I-20 to Country
Club Drive ramps were relocated west of their former location due to traffic
congestion at the U.S. 285 interchange. "There was just a lot of congestion
in that area, with the truckers going to Flying J," said TxDOT engineer
specialist John Salcido.
Flying J Travel Plaza is a popular stop for truckers and motorists,
with a convenience store and a restaurant attached to the facility. The
store also has showers to accommodate the truckers, which is something
not all truck stops have.
But the slow-moving trucks were blamed for numerous accidents at that
location, and were also cited as a reason the ramps were relocated, according
to Salcido. The new ramp allows trucks to pick up speed faster as they
enter in the Interstate.
Workers on Wednesday were busy tearing up the asphalt from the former
I-20 entrance ramp. The closing of the ramp also allowed Flying J to reopen
one of the entrances to the travel plaza, located directly across from
the former ramp. TxDOT ordered that ramp closed in the mid-1990s because
of the danger from trucks crossing the I-20 service road directly onto
the entrance ramp.
Moving the entrance ramp to the west forced TxDOT to also move the Country
Club Drive ramp to the west. The new exit ramp is built onto a curve on
I-20, and the new exit signs for the highway have yet to be unveiled.
The relocation of the I-20 westbound ramps began in January, and is
just one of several projects TxDOT has been working on in the area.
TxDOT employees had been working hard or replacing the curbs along South
Cedar Street and Third Street.
Crews began work in mid-November on the original job of replacing the
curbs along Cedar Street (U.S. 285), along with adding wheelchair accessible
ramps at several street corners. That work is almost complete.
Area receives needed showers
By LEIA HOLLAND
Staff Writer
PECOS, June 29, 2000 - Pecos saw some more rain with strong lightning
Wednesday night, and light showed continued in the area through mid-morning.
KIUN studios reported two-tenths of an inch was received in the downtown
area, while the rain was a little heavier just to the west, with the Texas
A&M Agricultural Experiment Station reporting three-tenths of an inch.
Since 6 a.m. this morning there has been a trace of rain with a 40 percent
chance of rain tonight.
That brings the year-to-date total up to 1.65 inches, still below average
for the first six months of the year, though over half that total has fallen
in the past month.
National Weather Service meteorologist Brad McGavock reported that their
radar estimated three to four inches of rain northwest of Pecos.
"The radar tends to over estimate so probably the majority of the area
around Pecos received less than an inch," McGavock said.
He said Pecos has a 20 percent chance of rain tomorrow and will be partly
cloudy with a slight chance of rain Saturday through Wednesday.
The strongest storms stayed away from the Coyanosa area, which has seen
onion fields ruined by more than a foot of rain that has fallen in the
past 30 days.
A flash flood warning was issued overnight for areas of the northern
Permian Basin and Southeast New Mexico, though the strongest storms were
expected to move east today.
Showers and thunderstorms will continue across portions of Central Texas,
especially between Eastland and Killeen. Precipitation was also a possibility
in West Texas, with high temperatures on Thursday in the lower 90s.
The rain was expected to taper off in some portions of West Texas by
the weekend.
Only a chance of showers and thunderstorms were forecast for South Texas
on Thursday, with partly sunny conditions in some parts during the afternoon.
Highs will be in the lower to mid-80s.
The chance of rain across the south will continue through Friday.
Weather
PECOS, June 29, 2000 - High Wednesday 100. Low this morning 66. Rainfall
past 24 hours at Texas A&M Experiment Station .3 inch. Forecast for
tonight: Partly cloudy with a 20 percent chance of showers or thunderstorms.
Low in the 60s. Southeast wind 10-20 mph. Friday: Partly cloudy with a
20 percent chance of thunderstorms. High in the mid 90s. Southeast wind
10-20 mph. Friday night: Partly cloudy with a slight chance of thunderstorms.
Low in the mid 60s. Saturday: Partly cloudy with a slight chance of showers
or thunderstorms. Low in the 60s. High in the 90s.
Pecos Enterprise
York M. "Smokey" Briggs, Publisher
Division of Buckner News Alliance, Inc.
324 S. Cedar St., Pecos, TX 79772
Phone 915-445-5475, FAX 915-445-4321
e-mail news@pecos.net
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Copyright 2000 by Pecos Enterprise
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