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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas

Top Stories

April 20, 2001

Moore named by board to juvenile probation job

By ROSIE FLORES
Staff Writer

PECOS, April 20, 2001 - Louise Moore, who had been serving as the Interim Chief Juvenile Probation Officer for Reeves County following the resignation of longtime probation officer Alberto Alvarez earlier this year, was named to head the office fulltime during a meeting of the county's Juvenile Probation Board on Thursday.

"We selected the new Juvenile Probation Officer in a public meeting held yesterday by the board," said County Court-at-law Judge Lee Green. "We discussed in closed session and took a vote and she was approved unanimously," he said.

The new officer was announced during the open session of the meeting, according to Green.

"I'm just very excited and happy that I was chosen for the position," said Moore, who has been handling the job on an interim basis since January, when Alvarez resigned in order to move to El Paso.

"I was very blessed to have worked with Mr. Alvarez, he was not only my boss, but my mentor and my friend," said Moore.

Moore said suppressing gang activity in the community is her main goal as the Chief Juvenile Probation Officer. She has been an employee with the office since June of 1982, serving as an assistant juvenile probation officer to Alvarez.

Providing good quality service to the youth and the Reeves County Community are also among Moore's top priorities.

"We're just here providing the best service we can," she said.

She attended junior college at West Texas College in Snyder and later earned her bachelor degree in sociology with emphasis in criminology from East Texas State in Commerce.

"I was majoring in journalism and then as a junior in college took a course in juvenile delinquency and that convinced me that that is what I wanted to do for a living," said Moore.

"I feel like I enjoy Pecos, it's my home and this is where I want to be," said Moore.

Moore said that Alvarez always encouraged them to try new things all these years, which has made her come to enjoy her job even more. "Our day is never the same, he was always encouraging us to do different things and all these years I've always enjoyed my job," she said.

She said that the main goal of all the employees in the facility is to suppress gang activity in the community and the group has already taken steps toward it. The group hosted a gang seminar in March and invited all area officers, school principals and other individuals that deal with juveniles to attend the special session.

Moore credits their success to a great staff, which includes Mary Ann Acosta, Jon Cook, Alma Garcia, Ralph Florez and Simona Villalobos.

"We have a wonderful staff and we all work well together," said Moore.

When she's not busy with her hectic job, Moore enjoys spending time with her family consisting of her husband, Emmit, who is a Department of Public Safety Officer and her two daughters, Susan, a 14-year-old eighth grader and Catherine, 9, a fourth grade student.

Smokey helps with bare facts on Arbor Day

By SMOKEY BRIGGS
Staff Writer

PECOS, April 20, 2001 - Fourth and fifth graders at Bessie Haynes Elementary School celebrated Arbor Day today with the help of the Texas Forest Service, the Pecos Tree Board and Smokey the Bear.

During the festivities Oscar Mestas, one of ten Urban Foresters employed by the Texas Forest Service, and Smokey the Bear spoke to the children about the benefits and uses of trees and the history of Arbor Day.

Mestas explained that the official Arbor Day would be next week but that the school was marking the day early since the TASS tests are scheduled for next week.

Members of the Pecos Tree Board were on hand as well. The Board donated a Western Soapberry tree that was planted on the school grounds.

Mestas said the soapberry was a native tree suited to the Pecos climate and soil.

Mestas also explained that Pecos was the only town west of the Pecos River to qualify as a Tree City, U.S.A.

To qualify a city must celebrate Arbor Day, must have a tree preservation ordinance, must have a governing body like the Pecos Tree Board, and must spend at least $2 per resident on tree planting and maintenance, he said.

Mestas said that the Texas Forrest Service was a separate entity from the United States Forrest Service and served all Texas lands and cities.

Urban foresters, he said, help cities create and sustain forests within city limits.

Brookshire seeking cause of Wednesday's house fire

By LEIA HOLLAND
Staff Writer

PECOS, April 20, 2001 - The cause of a house fire Wednesday afternoon is still under investigation according to Pecos Fire Marshal Jack Brookshire.

Fire personnel responded to the fire at approximately 3:30 p.m., yesterday afternoon in the 200 block of Alamo Street.

Brookshire said that all seven local fire trucks responded to the fire.

"We had a good response from all the firefighters," said Pecos Fire Chief Roy Pena, adding that it took the firefighters about 45 minutes to put out the fire.

"We needed some extra water so we hooked up to a hydrant and took care of it," he said.

Brookshire said that although the exact cause of the fire is undetermined at this time, it is apparent that it started in one of the bedrooms on the southeast side of the home.

"It started around the bed and clothes hamper," he said.

Wednesday's fire has been the only call the fire department has received lately with the exception of a stand-by call for a vehicle rollover on April 17, according to Pena.

"It's been real quiet," he said.

The extra time has given department members a chance to practice for the fire race competition, scheduled for Saturday at the Spring Convention for the Permian Basin District Fire Association in Seminole.

Approximately 45 people, including firefighters and their families, will be representing the Pecos Fire Department, and Pena said that both the local men's and women's racing team will be competing against 12 to 14 teams from the 44 towns in the district.

The Pecos department hosted the Fall Convention last year and was able to walk away with four trophies, including two first place awards.

Pena said the department has a very fast racing team and this weekend they hope to bring home just as many trophies as they received at the Fall Convention.

"They're anticipating bringing at least two first places and two to three second places," he said.

"We have a good racing team," he said. "They are very competitive."

Commissioners get new RCDC expansion plan

PECOS, April 20, 2001 - An architectural design by Lorraine Dailey for another expansion of the Reeves County Detention Center, and the underwriting and financing resolution will be the topic at the regular meeting of the Reeves County Commissioners Court.

The group will meet at 10:15 a.m., Monday, in the third floor courtroom and the public is invited to attend.

Dailey will present plans for the project, designated RCDC III, at the meeting. The county just recently took possession of the 1,000-bed addition to the prison, which doubled the RCDC's capacity to 2,000 inmates, most of whom are provided by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.

Also on the agenda, commissioners will discuss and take action on Interstate 20 improvement project agreement between Reeves County and the Texas Department of Transportation; go into executive session to discuss RCDC security operations and discuss other items in open session.

In open session commissioners will discuss and take action on a contract between Reeves County and Onfre Fernandez for associate warden of programs positions; construction management at risk presentation by Carothers; remodeling of the county clerk's office; Xerox copy machine lease for county clerk's office; Upper Pecos Soil and Water Conservation District No. 213 request for donation; RCDC inmate transportation crew compensation reimbursement; request for classification of additional staff for RCDC; property deed for Balmorhea Community Center; approve property bids; selection of salary grievance committee and declare salvage items-Reeves County Clerk's Office.

Under regular agenda items the group will discuss and take action on:

· Reports from various departments.

· Budget amendments and line-item transfers.

· Personnel and salary changes (RCDC, County Clerk's office).

· Minutes from previous meetings.

· Semi-monthly bills.

· Spread on the minutes: notice of over axle-over gross weight permits and BOP Intergovernmental agreement modifications-U.S. Marshals.

WIPP shipments from Los Alamos resumed by feds

PECOS, April 20, 2001 - The U.S. Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory resumed shipments of transuranic waste to the DOE's Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M. on Thursday.

WIPP is the federal government's designated site to store transuranic waste, which includes clothing, tools, rags, debris, residues and other disposable items contaminated with radioactive elements, mostly plutonium. The first shipments from Los Alamos to WIPP began in March, 1999, but were halted seven months later after the State of New Mexico issued the hazardous waste facility permit for WIPP in October 1999. The delay allowed Los Alamos to comply with the new state requirements.

All waste shipments to WIPP so far have come from sites in the Western United States. Shipments from sites in the Eastern United States are scheduled to begin later this year and will travel through Pecos along Interstate 20 and U.S. 285. WIPP eventually expects to receive 17 shipments per week from 10 sites across the country over the site's expected 35-year lifespan.

Obituaries

Ruby Cunningham and Jack Rodriguez

Weather

PECOS, April 20, 2001 - High Thursday 99. Low this morning 59. Forecast for tonight: Partly cloudy. Low in the upper 50s. Southwest wind 10 o 20 mph. Saturday: Increasing cloudiness and breezy. High in the upper 80s. West wind 15 to 25 mph and gusty. Saturday night: Mostly cloudy with a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms. Low around 60. Chance of precipitation 20 percent. Sunday: Partly cloudy with a chance of showers and thunderstorms. High in the mid 80s. Monday: Partly cloudy. Lows in the upper 40s and lower 50s. Highs from the upper 70s to mid 80s.



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Pecos Enterprise
York M. "Smokey" Briggs, Publisher
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324 S. Cedar St., Pecos, TX 79772
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e-mail news@pecos.net

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