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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Top Stories
Monday, October 16, 2000
T-storms provide brief break from ongoing drought
From Staff and Wire Reports
PECOS, October 16, 2000 - Rain, which has been scarce for a long time
in the Trans-Pecos and absent from most of Texas this past summer, returned
to the state over the weekend, with the city receiving rainfall for three
straight days on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Rainfall provided relief to area farmers and ranchers this past weekend,
after Pecos received about three-quarters of an inch.
The Texas A&M Agricultural Experiment Station west of Pecos reported
.04 inch of rain on Sunday, while the total for the weekend recorded at
the Experiment Station was .74 inch.
Rain fell early Friday morning and once again overnight on both Saturday
and Sunday in Pecos, with the strongest storms passing through the area
between 10 p.m. Saturday and 2 a.m. Sunday. More rain is possible later
this week, according to the National Weather Service.
Even with the rains, Pecos remains well below normal for the year in
rainfall. The .74 inch total raised the amount for the year to just over
two inches, after the city received only 4.02 inches in 1999 and 6½
inches in 1998. The National Weather Service says 11 inches is the normal
average rainfall total for the Pecos Valley.
Saragosa reported a smaller amount of rainfall with about one-quarter
to one-half of an inch reported for the entire weekend.
Texas-New Mexico Power Company had several power outages connected with
the storms Saturday night and early Sunday that affected parts of the city,
according to West Texas Business Unit Manager Angela Romero.
Severe thunderstorm warnings were issued for southern Reeves County
on Saturday evening, and for Winkler and Ector counties later that night.
Rains continued in the area through Sunday morning, before skies cleared
out as the storms moved off towards the east.
The storms also caused problems in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, where
A teen-ager was critically injured in a lightning strike at the Texas Motor
Speedway.
The lightning victim, identified by a relative as Preston Pruett of
Decatur, was struck Sunday at the motor speedway's parking lot shortly
after the IRL season championship, the Excite 500, ended.
Pruett, a 17-year-old junior at Decatur High School, was in critical
condition at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas early Monday, according
to officials.
The teen was transferred to Parkland's burn unit.
Some TXU Electric & Gas customers were left without power in Flower
Mound, Lewisville and Southlake as high winds and lightning moved through
the areas, company spokesman Rand LaVonn told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram
in Monday's editions.
At least 60 American Airlines flights were canceled Sunday at Dallas-Fort
Worth International Airport as a frontal system moved through North Texas,
accompanied by storms dumping the region's most significant rainfall in
the last four months.
American officials also diverted 51 incoming flights from DFW to other
airports, airline spokesman Tim Kincaid told The Dallas Morning News.
"We're trying to start up normal (Monday morning) and get back on schedule,"
he said late Sunday. "Those folks on those flights that we can't get on
other flights will spend the night here, and we're trying to get hotel
accommodations for them."
At Dallas Love Field, flights also were delayed for about two hours.
Several incoming Southwest Airlines flights were diverted to other airports
and an Austin-bound flight was canceled, an airline spokeswoman said.
"We'll accommodate them on the next possible flight," Kristin Nelson,
a Southwest spokeswoman, said. "It's starting to look better."
Normal operations were expected as the weather cleared. More rain was
forecast for Monday.
Fryer questions Turner's stance on dump
By LEIA HOLLAND
Staff Writer
PECOS, October 16, 2000 - Republican nominee for State Legislature Steve
Fryer said he would support the efforts by community members in Pecos and
Ward County to block a proposed low-level radioactive waste dump in the
Barstow area.
Fryer made the comments during a public meeting on Saturday in the second
in as many weeks at the Barstow Community Center. He and a representative
for Congressman Henry Bonilla were in Barstow on Saturday to discuss the
plan by Envirocare of Texas to place an aboveground radioactive waste storage
facility on land eight miles northeast of Barstow in Ward County.
"Steve Fryer understands the interest that the Pecos community has because
of its proximity to the sight and would support a binding referendum that
gives the Pecos community the right to vote on this issue," said Clark
Lindley, one of the local fighters against the Envirocare facility.
Fryer is running for the District 73 Representative against Democrat
Bob Turner of Odessa. Turner and Isidro Garza, who is running against Bonilla
for the District 23 Congressional seat, spoke to many of the same area
residents on Oct. 7 at the Barstow Community Center.
Tony Carrillo, Constituent Liaison for Bonilla's office, gave a brief
statement from the four-term congressman, stating that he supports the
people opposed to the waste site, according to Lindley.
"Congressman Bonilla will do everything he can to help us with the effort,"
he said.
In response to Turner's statement last week that he backed referendums
that would allow citizens of Ward County and people in the surrounding
area to vote on Envirocare's plan, Fryer passed out documents stating that
Turner supported past action in the Texas Legislature that supported the
exact opposite.
The documents were a vote record showing that Turner voted in favor
of allowing a private company to be licensed to manage low-level radioactive
waste as well as a contract with the Department of Energy for any company
to bring radioactive waste to West Texas from any location in the United
States.
That would be an expansion of the previous plan, which would have allowed
only radioactive waste from Texas, Maine and Vermont to use the planned
state-run side southeast of Sierra Blanca in Hudspeth County.
Following a recommendation from the Texas Natural Resources Conservation
Commission, Gov. George W. Bush rejected the Sierra Blanca site in December
1998. The TNRCC review found the location was too close to earthquake fault
lines in the area.
The Sierra Blanca site was selected in 1992 under then-governor Ann
Richards, after El Paso County successfully filed suit to block the original
location, north of Fort Hancock in western Hudspeth County.
After it was rejected, Envirocare and Waste Control Specialists both
sought to use land they owned in Andrews County, near Eunice, N.M., as
the site to store the state's low-level waste, but a geology report by
the University of Texas in May of 1999 indicated the land might be above
the Ogallala Aquifer, which stretches from the Andrews area north into
the Texas Panhandle, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska.
Envirocare said the Ward County site was chosen because there was no
underground aquifer, and said water at the site would run off towards Soda
Lake, a dry lake north of Barstow, instead of towards the Pecos River.
Also, because the site would be above ground, it is not regulated by the
TNRCC, but instead it is being overseen by the Texas Department of Health's
Bureau of Radiation Control, which has yet to announce its final decision.
Although Fryer made statements against Turner, he sounded the same themes
as Turner had a week ago, stating he supported of the citizens against
the Envirocare site.
"It's encouraging that the people who will be making decisions about
these issues are willing to talk to and listen to the local people who
will be effected by this," Lindley said.
Eagle Band gets marching orders for this Saturday
PECOS, October 16, 2000 - The Pecos Eagle Band will march twice this coming
Saturday, in El Paso and Las Cruces, N.M., as part of area band competitions.
Pecos High School Band Director William Goff said the Eagles would march
at 10 a.m. MDT on Saturday (11 a.m. Pecos time) at the Socorro Special
Events Complex on Loop 375 in the University Interscholastic League's Area
Marching Contest.
The band will then travel north to Las Cruces, N.M., where they will
compete in a Battle of the Bands competition at New Mexico State University.
The band is scheduled to march at 12:30 p.m. (1:30 p.m. Pecos time) at
the NMSU stadium, located off Interstate 25 on the south side of Las Cruces.
The Eagle Band will also march Friday night during halftime of the Pecos
game in Fabens against the Wildcats.
Obituaries
Beverly Fabrygel
Beverly Fabrygel, 84, of Pecos, died Friday, Oct. 31, 2000, at the Pecos
Nursing Home.
Graveside services were held at 11 a.m., Saturday, Oct. 14, at Fairview
Cemetery with Rev. Ernest Waggoner officiating.
She was born Nov. 15, 1915, in Pecos, was music teacher, a lifelong
Pecos resident and a member of the First Christian Church.
After graduating from high school, Fabrygel, received a degree from
TCU and did graduate study at the University of Texas and the Juilliard
School of Music in New York. She had worn many hats in the music business.
During the war all the men band directors were drafted, so she was band
director for the Pecos schools and later in Lubbock, where she also had
the orchestras in the schools. During that time she was on the piano and
violin faculty at Texas Tech. She had served as choir director and church
organist for various churches during a period of over 30 years. By profession
she was a piano teacher. She was also adjudicator for the National Guild
of Piano teachers and for nearby area contests.
Survivors include her husband, R.L. Fabrygel of Pecos and numerous friends.
The family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations may be made to
the Alzheimer's Foundation or their favorite charity.
Pecos Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements.
David Leonard
David Melvin Leonard, 86, of Crew, Virginia, died Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2000.
Services were held Friday, Oct. 13.
Survivors include two sons, Joe Leonard of Richmond, Va. and James Leonard
of Pecos; two daughters, Becky Mallory of Ashland, Va. and June Nicholas
of Bumpass, Va., and numerous children and grandchildren.
Jenning-McMillian Funeral Home of Crew, Va., were in charge of arrangements.
Seberiano Olibas
Seberiano Olibas, 93, of Barstow, died Thursday, Oct. 12, 2000, at the
Pecos Nursing Home.
Mass was held at 10 a.m., today, at Our Lady of Refuge Catholic Church
with Father Mike Alcuino officiating. Burial was in Barstow Cemetery.
He was born Feb. 21, 1906, in Paloma, Mexico, was a retired laborer
and a Catholic.
Survivors include one son, Raymond Ferralez of Phoenix, Ariz.; one brother,
Jesus Quiroz of Odessa; one sister, Petronila Palomino of Barstow; four
grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
Pecos Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
Lucy Tejada
Lucy "China" Flores Tejada, 68, of Phoenix, Ariz., died Thursday, Oct.
12, 2000.
Funeral services were held today in Phoenix, Ariz.
She was born on Feb. 18, 1932, in Toyah.
She was preceded in death by a brother, Francisco Martinez and a sister,
Cruz Ortega.
Survivors include her husband, Arturo Tejada; two sons, Artie and Danny
Tejada; one daughter, Cindy Tejada; three brothers, Chel Flores of Pecos,
Alfredo Martinez of El Paso and Silverio Flores of Los Angeles, Calif.;
one sister, Flora Lara of Pico Rivera, Calif.; numerous grandchildren and
nieces and nephews.
Weather
PECOS, October 16, 2000 - High Sunday 82. Low this morning 53. Weekend
rainfall at the Texas A&M Experiment Station .74 inch. Forecast for
tonight: Mostly cloudy. A 20 percent chance of showers or thunderstorms.
Low 50-55. East wind 5-10 mph. Tuesday: Partly cloudy. A 20 percent chance
of showers or thunderstorms. High 70-75. East wind 5-15 mph. Tuesday night:
Mostly cloudy. Low 50-55. Wednesday: Partly cloudy. Low in the mid 40s
to lower 50s. High 65-75.
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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