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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Top Stories
Wednesday, November 22, 2000
Thanksgiving store closings are scheduled
PECOS, November 22, 2000 - Local banks, grocery stores, Town of Pecos City,
Reeves County and the Enterprise will be taking some time off tomorrow
to celebrate Thanksgiving Day.
West Texas National Bank closed today at 12 noon and will be closed
all day Thursday. The bank will reopen Friday morning but will close again
at 12 noon and resume regular business hours on Monday.
Security State Bank will close today at 3 p.m. and will be closed all
day Thursday. The bank will be open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday but
will not reopen from 5 to 6 p.m. as it usually does and will resume regular
hours on Monday.
Both Bobs Thriftway and La Tienda will maintain regular hours today.
On Thanksgiving both stores will open at 7 a.m. and close at 2 p.m. Both
will resume regular hours on Friday.
The Town of Pecos City and Reeves County offices will close today at
5 p.m. and will be closed Thursday and Friday.
Federal offices in Pecos will be closed Thursday and will be open from
8 a.m. to 12 noon on Friday.
The Post Office will be closed Thursday and open for business as usual
on Friday and Saturday.
The Pecos Enterprise will be closed on Thursday as well and there will
not be an edition printed on Thanksgiving Day. The paper will resume its
normal printing schedule on Friday.
Council continues city manager interviews
By LEIA HOLLAND
Staff Writer
PECOS, November 22, 2000 - The Town of Pecos City Council interviews
two more candidates Tuesday evening, but took no action on selecting a
City Manager during their regular meeting.
Council members interviewed Pecos Chamber of Commerce Executive Director
Tom Rivera and City Utilities Manager Octavio Garcia for the vacant City
Manager's position in executive session of the meeting. Garcia is currently
serving as acting city manager for Pecos.
Earlier in the day the council interviewed James Dutchover, Pecos-Barstow-Toyah
Alternative Education Program Administrator, and City Finance Director
Steve McCormick.
Five of the 16 candidates were interviewed on Monday. They include Manuel
Fierro of Kermit, Aref Hassan of Winters, Jaime Perez of El Paso, Oscar
Saenz of Pecos and Carlos Yerena of El Paso.
Saenz recently retired as Director of Operations for Anchor West's plant
in Pecos.
Fierro has worked for the police department in Santa Barbara, Calif.,
Odessa and Crane as well as interning for the former City Manager in Alpine.
Hassan is the currant City Manager for Winters and a former Willow Park
City Manager.
Perez has been a consultant various companies including Aliviane, Inc.,
Sun Circle, Inc., Life Management Center, Inc., Southern Union Gas Company,
Rio Bravo, Inc. and Fort Bliss and Ysleta Independent School District.
Yerena is the executive director for the El Paso Empowerment Zone Corporation.
The council does plan to have a special meeting at 7:30 a.m. on Monday
to discuss the applicants of the City Manager's position in executive session.
Before the Council moved into executive session they had a brief meeting
to discuss several items on the agenda.
During public comments, McCormick informed the council that several
complaints have come into City Hall about the recent rise in sewer rates.
McCormick said the commercial (business) accounts have been hit especially
hard by the rate increase.
"The commercial accounts are billed on water usage," he said. "It really
hit them hard."
The sewer rates were recently changed from 30 cents per 1,000 gallons
to $1.32 per 1,000 gallons. There was only a small raise in the water rates.
McCormick said the rate increase was necessary for the city.
"It's just that we were too low for too long," he said.
Garcia said that Pecos is not the only city to increase the sewer rates.
He said many citys surrounding Pecos raised the water and sewer rates.
McCormick said the residential bills are based on the average sewer
usage of the months of November, December and January. Once the average
of those months is determined that rate is the rate "set for the whole
year."
For commercial accounts the bills are based on water usage each month,
according to McCormick.
So the bills for commercial customers may vary month-to-month depending
on the usage.
City Attorney Scott Johnson delivered the second reading of the proposal
to lower the speed limit on the north and south access roads on Interstate
20 from 55 to 45 mph.
In a previous meeting when the first reading of the ordinance was approved,
Councilman Larry Levario explained that a few citizens who live on the
access road have requested the speed limit to be lowered.
Levario said that with the traffic from Anchor West's plant and the
park the community members believed that the families who live on that
road and the children are unsafe.
He said the road is especially dangerous because the curbs could turn
into ramps for vehicles driving to fast.
Levario, who works for The Texas Department of Transportation's Pecos
office, abstained from the vote. TxDOT maintains the service roads along
I-20 in Pecos.
In other action, Garcia informed the council that he had met with John
Clark about his claim for cattle loss.
Clark told the council in previous meeting that a leak in the city waterline
going through his property caused the death of three cows and two bulls.
Garcia told the council in that meeting that he and a few city employees
found one of the cows dead in April and reported it to Clark, who said
the other cows died earlier this year before the cow was found by the city
in April.
"He just told me that he doesn't have any proof and we don't have any
proof," Garcia said.
Johnson said Clark's wife informed him that Clark brought documentation
to former City Manager Kenneth Neal but did not keep a copy for himself.
The council decided to table this item until the next meeting in order
to look for the documentation of the cattle loss in Neal's office.
Council members also tabled the item for consideration of areas for
annexation in the city limits.
Garcia said Carol King Markham, Chief Appraiser for Reeves County Carol
Markham is working on the areas for annexation but is not finished.
Mayor Ray Ortega said the preparation for annexation needs to be done
by the end of the year.
Holiday travelers cautioned roads
By LEIA HOLLAND
Staff Writer
PECOS, November 22, 2000 - Holiday travelers need to look out for wet
roads with a few icy patches in areas of Texas, as well as road construction
on highways around the state during the Thanksgiving weekend.
A meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Midland said that
citizens of Pecos have a slight chance of rain on Thanksgiving Day with
partly cloudy skies all weekend.
Highs for Pecos for the rest of the week and weekend would be in the
mid to upper 50s, according to the NWS forecast.
Those who are traveling to the Dallas/Fort Worth, San Antonio and Houston
areas have a very good chance of running into rain for the holiday break.
The meteorologist said there is a system moving across Texas with rain
and scattered thunderstorms that would continue into the early part of
next week.
But he said the temperatures in those areas would be in the high 50s
so there is no chance of ice and snow.
"It's going to be a wet Thanksgiving over there," he said.
However, people traveling north toward Lubbock and Amarillo have a greater
chance of coming across rain mixed with ice and snow.
He said rain showers are expected today and tomorrow that "could possibly
change into snow on Friday."
The greatest chance of snow is in Amarillo where people there could
see flurries continue into early next week, according to the NWS, though
the exact amount of snow and ice is unknown and the Midland office is waiting
"see how this develops."
Travelers also need to be on the lookout for road construction and lane
reductions.
Road construction is slowing down traffic all over Texas including several
sites in West Texas, according to the Texas Department of Transportation.
That includes resurfacing work on Interstate 20 in the Barstow area of
western Ward County, and the continuing construction of the Ross Avenue
overpass on I-20 just west of Odessa that has the highway reduced to one
lane in each direction.
For travelers headed west for the holiday, there is lane reduction on
Interstate 10 in both directions in Hudspeth County near Fort Hancock and
also on Loop 375 in El Paso south of the I-10 interchange.
Other lane reductions are on U.S. 83 near Abilene, U.S. 87 near Big
Spring and FM 1605 near Snyder.
A record 38.9 million Americans plan to trek at least 100 miles from
home this Thanksgiving, according to the American Automobile Association.
That's up 4 percent from last year.
Four out of five people - 31.6 million travelers - will journey by car,
the AAA said, based on a survey of 1,300 people. Another 7.3 million will
travel by airplane, train or bus.
The increase in travel plans comes though the average cost of gasoline
is up by more than 25 cents a gallon from a year ago, and airfares are
up an average of 13 percent.
For more information of road conditions call TxDOT at 800-452-9292.
For information of the holiday forecast call the National Weather Service
in Midland at 915-563-5006.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Youth group, FD deliver turkeys to needy
By LEIA HOLLAND
Staff Writer
PECOS, November 22, 2000 - Members of the Pecos Youth Advisory Council
and members of the Pecos Volunteer Fire Department delivered turkeys and
desserts this morning to needy families all over Pecos for Thanksgiving.
Youth Advisory Council Sponsor Geneva Martinez said the Advisory Council
has been delivering turkeys to needy families for Thanksgiving and Christmas
for five years.
This year the Advisory Council was able to deliver 21 turkeys to the
needy families. Along with the birds, each member brings along one baked
good to be given away.
The Advisory Council goes all over town in a few of the firetrucks to
deliver the turkeys.
"The Volunteer Fire Department helps us every year deliver the turkeys,"
Martinez said.
She added that they receive the names of the needy families through
the students themselves and the Reeves County Sheriff's Department.
"Some kids bring in name of needy families that they know of," she said.
Martinez said the kids enjoy delivering the turkeys to the families
and seeing their reactions.
"It's fun because the people get excited," she said. "Some even get
teary-eyed."
Martinez said she believes delivering the turkeys is good for the kids.
"It's good for them, they get to see and appreciate what they have,"
she said. "They get to see the true meaning of Thanksgiving."
Martinez said the Advisory Council would deliver turkeys for Christmas
also and would be accepting family names for delivery.
All she needs is the name and address of the families and can be submitted
to Martinez' office at City Hall, at 445-2421.
Church schedules Living Nativity, concert Dec. 2
PECOS, November 22, 2000 - A Living Nativity Scene, presented by the youth
group of West Park Baptist Church, 7th and Eddy Streets, along
with a Christian Concert, by Kristen Carreon are part of the plans for
a Christmas Special at the church.
The special event will be held at 6:30 p.m., on Saturday, Dec. 2, and
the public is invited to attend.
Weather
PECOS, November 22, 2000 - High Tuesday 59. Low this morning 40. Forecast
for tonight: Mostly cloudy. Low in the lower to mid 40s. South wind 5 to
15 mph. Thanksgiving day: Cloudy with a 40 percent chance of rain. High
in the lower 50s. Southwest wind 5 to 15 mph: Becoming northwest 10 to
20 mph in the afternoon. Thursday night: Mostly cloudy. Low in the mid
30s. Friday: Partly cloudy. High in the mid to upper 50s.
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
Associated Press text, photo, graphic, audio and/or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium.
Copyright 2000 by Pecos Enterprise
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