|
Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Monday, December 8, 2003
Commissioners seek Wackenhut approval on bids
By ROSIE FLORES
Staff Writer
PECOS, Mon., Dec. 8, 2003 -- Reeves County Commissioners tabled a
series of items this morning during their regular meeting at the Reeves
County Courthouse, until the county can discuss them with Wackenhut
Corrections Corporation, the firm that assumed management of the Reeves
County Detention Center in late November.
Reeves County had sought bids for several services for both Reeves
County and the Reeves County Detention Center. However, several of
those items were tabled, to give the county an opportunity to discuss
them with Wackenhut, which signed a 10-year management deal with the
county on Nov. 25.
Wackenhut assumed management duties and is also helping the county
in its attempt to find inmates for the $40 million RCDC III unit. It
opened in March but has not attracted the inmates needed to pay the
prison's construction bonds. Wackenhut has agreed to make bond payments
on the facility for up to a year while efforts are made to sign a
contract to house inmates there.
"I don't know if Wackenhut will want to bring in their own vendors,"
said Reeves County Judge Jimmy B. Galindo. "I think we need to discuss
these items with Wackenhut before we approve them."
Bids were requested for several services and items including
janitorial supplies; inmate food and kitchen supplies; law enforcement
insurance and inmate clothing/linen supply.
All these items were tabled and Galindo said that he would contact
Wackenhut to discuss how they want to handle purchase of those items.
"The new bids don't start until Jan 1, so we still have time," said
county auditor Lynn Owens. "I did send a complete list out to the
prison."
Owens said that they would still need to go through the competitive
bids.
"There may be some vendors that they want to bring to the table or
they may want to award the bids quarterly and not yearly the way we
do," said Galindo. "I think it would be wise to take these up with
them, because there might be some saving areas."
"We were discussing the janitorial supplies and prices and now
they're out in the open and the other vendors will know what they bid,"
said commissioner precinct 4 Hivi Rayos.
Owens said that if the group was going to table any of the items,
they should not discuss them.
The employee uniforms bid for the RCDC was awarded to Unitech. which
is the current supplier. Galindo said that this item had been a big
problem in the past and that they should go ahead and award the bid.
Galindo said that they could not afford to delay a decision on this
particular item. "I don't see any problem in awarding this bid, without
first consulting Wackenhut," he said.
Vanessa Simmons, RCDC Employee, was on hand to discuss the employee
uniforms and provided a sample from Unitech. "Unifirst was the other
bidder, but they did not provide a sample," she said.
Owens said that the vendors were required to send a sample and
Unifirst did not.
"What do you do with the employee uniforms, when an employee
leaves?" asked commissioner precinct 3 Herman Tarin.
Simmons said that if the uniforms were in good condition, they were
then re-issued. "But there are some that are turned in, that are torn,
all dirty and just not usable at all. We need to decide how we want to
dispose of these," she said.
Other items were awarded to the lowest bidders during the meeting
held this morning, including motor fuel/oil/antifreeze bid items, which
were awarded to Desert Distributors.
"We had two bidders, Desert Distributors and West Texas Gas, both
bid," said Owens. "In all three cases, Desert Distributors was the
lowest bidder."
Surface aggregates bid went to both Trans Pecos Materials and
Salcido Sand and Gravel.
"Trans Pecos had the best bid for the aggregates and Salcido for the
pre-mix," said Owens.
Physician services bid was awarded to Dr. Haithim Jifi, who was the
only bidder and pharmaceutical services to Professional Pharmacy, which
also was the only bidder and has the current contract.
The inmate lab and x-ray services bid was awarded to Trans Pecos
Labs, but this bid does not cover the detention center.
"This bid is for the sheriff's office only and not the prison," said
Owens.
Slash Ranch pecan entries claim firsts at show
PECOS, Mon., Dec. 8, 2003 -- The Slash Ranch in Loving County picked up
three first place awards on Friday at the annual Reeves-Loving County
Pecan Show, held this year in the lobby of West Texas National Bank.
The ranch took top honors for its pecans in the Wichita, Western and
Choctaw varities, which were among the 10 varieties of pecans judged
this year, according to Reeves-Loving Extension Agent Tommy Dominguez.
The ranch also took second and third place for its entries in the
Western variety division.
The Mark Wilks Farm was also a multiple winner in this year's show.
They won first place in the Mohawk and Mahan varieties. The other
winners in this year's show were the Pecos-Barstow-Toyah ISD in the
Cheyenne variety; Bill Oglesby in the Stuart variety; the Texas
Department of Transportation in the Burkett variety; Carmela Gomez in
the Apache variety and the Teal Family in the variety seedling.
Dominguez said there were a total of 30 entries in this year's show,
which was up sharply from a year ago.
Second and third place finishers in each division are listed below:
Wichita Variety: Ronald Box, 2nd; Mark Wilks Farms, 3rd.
Stuart Variety: Lupe Davis, 2nd; Carmela Gomez, 3rd
Burkett Variety: Texas Dept. of Transportation, 2nd; Harry Reddick,
3rd.
Choctaw Variety: Bill Oglesby 2nd.
Apache Variety: Teal Family, 2nd
Kindergarten hosts holiday book fair
PECOS, Mon., Dec. 8, 2003 -- Everyone is invited to shop for
Christmas at the Pecos Kindergarten "Hats Off to Reading" Scholastic
Book Fair, being held today through Friday.
The Scholastic Book Fair will be open every day from 8:15 to 10:45
a.m. and again from 1-3:15 p.m.
On Thursday, Dec. 11 from 7-8, the Book Fair will feature a Family
Night Event.
Visitors can check the teacher's Classroom Wish List, then purchase
and donate a requested book to help the teacher develop a rich array of
learning resources for their classroom.
Funding almost in place to finish park work
By BRENDEN BRIGGS
Staff Writer
PECOS, Mon., Dec. 8, 2003 -- The fund raising for an in-town skate
park nears completion, and has planners eyeing a final construction
schedule.
The park, the brainchild of Pecos Police Community Involvement
Officer Mike Balog, has been in the fund raising stage for a year and a
half now. Initial dirt work already has been done at the corner of
Seventh and Alamo streets.
"One of the first calls I received when I got to Pecos was to stop
some local kids from skate boarding in front of City Hall. I told them
they had to leave, and they told me they had nowhere to go. It was then
I decided then to start this project to give the kids a place where
they could skate in peace, safely," Balog said.
"We have received excellent community support for the park, with the
recent donations bringing us up to the $8,000 estimated to cover the
cost of materials," Balog added. "The blueprints have been donated by
Eduardo Madrid of Frank Spencer and Associates and Jeff Lindsay,
Manager of Lindsay Western Construction, has pledged to do the
earthwork for free as well."
Rearranging the dirt into the shape needed to provide a substructure
for the concrete will take around 15 working days, according to
Lindsay.
"We are planning on starting the work as soon as the contracted jobs
we are currently on are complete. There is typically a slow down around
the middle of December as the oil fields close for Christmas, and we
are hoping to start around then," Lindsay said.
"The job will require bulldozers, loaders, moto-graders, dump
trucks, compactors, surveyors and plenty of shovels. A job of this size
would typically run in the range of $12,000-$15,000, but we are glad to
donate our services to such a worth cause," he said.
Unforeseen problems aside, Lindsay estimates the total completion of
the job sometime in March.
The park is planned to have bathrooms on site and to have additional
lighting, other than ambient street light, to allow for kids to use the
park after dark. However, Balog said the park will close in accordance
with Town of Pecos ordinances that place curfew at 10 p.m. weekdays and
12:01 a.m. on the weekend.
According to Balog, Eduardo Madrid is designing the park to be
usable for all of the 'X-sports,' in-line skating, BMX and
skateboarding.
"We are still looking for some help with some of the welding aspects
of the park, though. The steel for the grinding rails has yet to come
through and we still need someone to weld them together before the
concrete pouring can begin," Balog said.
Weather
PECOS, Mon., Dec. 8, 2003 -- High Sun. 83. Low this morning 42.
Forecast for tonight: Increasing cloudiness. Lows near 40. West winds
10 to 20 mph. Tues.: Partly cloudy in the morning then clearing.
Colder. Highs in the lower 50s. North winds 15 to 20 mph. Tues. night:
Mostly clear. Lows in the mid 20s. East winds 5 to 15 mph. Wed.y:
Mostly sunny. Highs near 60. Light and variable winds becoming south
near 10 mph in the afternoon. Wed. night: Mostly clear. Lows in the mid
30s.
Obituaries
Willie B. Hall and Cresencio Anchondo
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 2003 by Pecos Enterprise
|
