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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Thursday, April 1, 2004
Cut line in Lubbock area blocks long-distance calls
By BRENDEN BRIGGS
Staff Writer
Long distance phone service was interrupted to a large portion of West Texas today, when a fiber optic cable was cut in the South Plains area.
Updates have come into the local providers recently stating the affected area as “most of West Texas.”
Not all long distance service was disrupted by the morning incident, which involved a line being cut “somewhere around Lubbock.”
Representatives at Valor Telecomm and Allcomm, the area’s two phone companies, could not give an estimated time for the problem to be fixed. They did say that the 1-800 service to the area was still functioning, but that the 1+ numbers were temporarily out of service.
Calls to NTS, the long distance provider for the local phone service providers directed inquires back to Valor and Allcomm.
The disruptions also did not affect local service within the Pecos area, long distance service to towns within the immediate Trans-Pecos area, and local Internet services, which use direction connections out of the area using dedicated phone lines.
TxDOT’s annual Trash-Off-event Saturday
Volunteers are scheduled to meet in the Odessa College parking lot Saturday morning to participate in the annual Don’t Mess With Texas Spring Trash-Off.
The local effort will be one of 130 scheduled in 12 West Texas counties covering the Odessa District of the Texas Department of Transportation.
Statewide, more than a million pounds of trash was picked up by more than 70,000 Adopt-a-Highway and Keep Texas Beautiful volunteers all across Texas, making it one of the most successful years in Trash-Off history. The Trash-Off is the nation’s largest single-day cleanup.
The TxDOT trash-off effort focuses on sections of state-maintained highways around Texas communities that are part of the Adopt-a-Highway program. Locally, those highways include Business I-20, U.S. 285 and State Highway 17 in the Pecos area, along with Highway 17 and Business I-10 in the Balmorhea and Saragosa areas.
“The annual Don’t Mess With Texas Trash-Off brings people from every walk of life together to clean up our roadsides and take pride in Texas,” said Glen W. Larum, the Adopt-a-Highway Coordinator for the Odessa District. The District includes Andrews, Crane, Ector, Loving, Martin, Midland, Pecos, Reeves, Terrell, Ward, Winkler and Upton counties.
“The large number of volunteers who regularly turn out for the event shows that people in your community care about beautifying Texas,” said Larum.
Since 1994, volunteers have picked up more than 14 million tons of trash on Texas highways, according to Doris Howdeshell, who directs the state litter prevention campaign for the Texas Department of Transportation.
“This equals 1,417 pounds for every man, woman and child in Texas,” said Howdeshell.
Kyle Frazier, president of Keep Texas Beautiful, the grassroots arm of Don’t Mess With Texas, agreed. “Every organization in every community plays a vital role. The goal is to heighten the visibility of the event to make this year the biggest and best yet.”
PHS drama club now selling tickets to Monday show
The Pecos High School Drama Club will be putting on their interpretation of “Midnight Caller” on Monday, April 5 at 7 p.m. Tickets are being sold in advance for $1, now through Friday during lunch at the high school, and from 5-6 p.m. at Wal-Mart and 6-7 p.m. at La Tienda. Tickets will be available the night of the performance for $1.50.
Pecos Enterprise
York M. "Smokey" Briggs, Publisher
Division of Buckner News Alliance, Inc.
324 S. Cedar St., Pecos, TX 79772
Phone 432-445-5475, FAX 432-445-4321
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
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