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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Top Stories
Thursday, December 16, 1999
New hopefuls file for sheriff, commissioner
By ROSIE FLORES
Staff Writer
PECOS, Dec. 16, 1999 - Races are heating up for March's Democratic
Party primary elections, with several more individuals signing up to run
for election for various county offices.
Tony Aguilar has filed his treasurer's designation with Reeves County
Clerk Dianne Florez to run for the office of Reeves County Sheriff. Aguilar
has designated Becky Chabarria as his treasurer.
Aguilar will join incumbent Arnulfo "Andy" Gomez, who had filed earlier.
Gomez is seeking his third four-year term and has designated Grace Morales
as his treasurer.
Candidates still have to file their petitions or filing fee with Reeves
County Democratic Party chairman Bobby Dean, and the signatures on the
petitions must be verified before the candidates can officially be placed
on the March 7 election ballot.
Joining the race for Reeves County Commissioner in Precinct 1 is Roy
Pena, who has designated Albeza Pena Lozano as his treasurer. Pena, who
currently serves as chief of the Reeves County Volunteer Fire Department,
will be joining incumbent Felipe Arredondo and Jesse Baeza in that race.
Arredondo is seeking his second consecutive term, and third overall, as
Precinct 1 commissioner.
David H. Patillo designated Jan Patillo as his treasurer, when he filed
his designation with the county clerk. Patillo will be running for Reeves
County Commissioner Precinct 3, joining Herman Tarin and Jimmy Gallego.
Tarin will also be seeking his third four-year term in office neat year.
Current Reeves County Attorney Walter Holcombe has also filed with the
county clerk to retain his seat. His treasurer is Rafael Hernandez. Holcombe
is being challenged by Louis Urquidez Carrasco.
Thomas Martinez wants to remain as Precinct 3 Constable, while Reeves
County Tax-Assessor Collector Elfida Zuniga also has filed for re-election.
"This is the first step in filing for office," said Reeves County Clerk
Dianne Florez.
Candidates can submit their filing petitions or their filing fees with
Dean, at his home at 523 S. Hackberry St.
The filing period for the office of precinct chairman is also open and
will also continue until Jan. 3. There are 12 precincts in Reeves County.
If you are interested in becoming precinct chair contact Dean, at 915-445-3071
or 915-528-7447, for the forms necessary to have your name placed on the
ballot.
Reeves County remains one of the counties in Texas where most elections
are decided in the Democratic primary. Candidates can also file to run
in the Republican primary on March 7, or can filed later to run as a write-in
candidate in the November general election.
Races for president, the U.S. Senate, the House of Representatives and
the Texas Legislature will also be on the March 7 ballot. Incumbents in
the Senate, House and State House races are Kay Bailey Hutchison, Henry
Bonilla and Gary Walker. The three Republicans all are planning to seek
new terms in office.
Republican Party Chairman is Lou Lewis who can be contacted at Desert
Distributors, 2323 Toliver St., or call 447-9078.
`Elves' making early deliveries for Christmas
By ROSIE FLORES
Staff Writer
PECOS, Dec. 16, 1999 - Elves will be out tomorrow delivering gifts
to children in the community, thanks to a special group of individuals.
Christmas for the Kids volunteers will begin making the deliveries at
3 p.m. and will continue until all are delivered.
"If we miss somebody, if they're not home at the time we deliver the
gifts, they can come pick them up here at the Sheriff's Department," said
Sofia Baeza, one of the group's organizers. "We will leave them a note
and let them know we were there, but they can still pick up their presents."
Members have been busy wrapping gifts for children in the community
who would otherwise not be receiving gifts this holiday season, due to
hardships or other problems.
"We want to make sure that all children in the community receive at
least one gift," said Baeza.
About 181 families are on the list, and presents have already been wrapped
up and are ready to be delivered for about 521 boys and girls.
"That's the most we have had," said Baeza.
Baeza said that the group is working hard to accommodate all the families
on the list, but due to the economy, have been having some trouble.
"We are still accepting donations, if anybody can help us, we would
really appreciate it," said Baeza.
Cash donations are accepted, along with good used coats. Baeza added
that if someone or group wants to adopt a family, there are still some
on the list that have not been assisted.
"We still have families and children that we have not been able to get
to, but we want to," she said.
The group not only provides toys for the children, but the essentials,
such as shoes and jackets.
"We want to make this a good holiday for all," she said.
Many of the families have four or five members. "New families got on
the list and we accepted applications after the deadline, because we just
couldn't say no," said Baeza.
Reeves County Sheriff's Deputies will be assisting in delivering the
"goodies" tomorrow.
"We want to make sure every child has a warm and safe Christmas and
New Year," said Baeza.
Baeza also thanks the community for their generosity over the past few
years. "The community always seems to come through for us, and we really
do appreciate it," she said.
Members of the group have been digging into their own accounts to provide
for the children and families. "And we don't mind, because we know it's
for a good cause," said Baeza.
Bulsterbaum wins Enterprise writing contest
By PEGGY McCRACKEN
Staff Writer
PECOS, Dec. 16, 1999 - Patsy Bulsterbaum's feature story about her
grandmother's love won the Pecos Enterprise writing contest with a near-perfect
score from three independent judges.
Two judges gave Bulsterbaum a perfect 10 in six categories, and the
third dropped only one point in the category for generally accepted principles
of good writing for the genre. She earned 179 points out of a possible
180 to win $100.
Second place went to Paula Barbour for her self-help article addressed
to abuse victims. Her score of 164 earns her a $50 prize.
Nichi Dannelley wrote of her African brother's tragedies and trophies
in overcoming polio to star as an All American Wheelchair basketball player.
Her prize is a personalized T-shirt crafted by the Enterprise staff.
Other entries in order of placement are Erin Paz, Rebecca Wein, Julian
G. Castro of Austin, Israel Matta and Susan Gahr, Orla Postmaster.
Managing Editor Jon Fulbright may publish any or all of the entries
as space permits.
"We want to thank the judges for their diligence in scoring these entries,"
said Editor/Publisher Smokey Briggs. "Their unselfish service to the community
is the type of volunteerism that will move Pecos forward."
In scoring, the judges used the same form provided to judges of new
books for the Benjamin Franklin Awards. Categories include overall reaction,
title, mechanics (grammar, spelling, punctuation), organization, interest
and writing (generally accepted principles).
Briggs said that the contest is one means of pulling the community together,
and he hopes to continually involve the newspaper's readers in this type
of activity.
Bulsterbaum's feature article appears in today's Enterprise, and the
second and third place winners will follow on Thursday and Friday.
Great-grandmother gave love to family
By PATSY BULSTERBAUM
My great-grandmother was always old, or at least so it seemed to us
as children. She was tall and gaunt with wrinkles and shriveled-looking
skin. Her hair was gray. She wore it in braids wound around her head by
day and long and loose at night. We would sit in amazed silence while she
unwound the braids and brushed the long gray strands into a flowing cascade
that reached below her waist. She wore long cotton dresses that reached
almost to her ankles and she wore high-topped black shoes fastened with
rows of tiny black buttons
All of us children called her Grandma Hedrick. She was a solemn, quiet
woman. I cannot ever remember her saying "I love you" to any of us children,
but we knew she loved us. She listened to our childish prattle and answered
our endless questions in ways we could comprehend. She understood that
children needed time to be alone and to dream. She might not agree with
all our plans and opinions, but she never ridiculed them.
Grandma Hedrick lived in a large, one-story house across the road from
my grandparents. The house looked like it had never seen a coat of paint
- the boards were weathered and cracked and had long ago turned variegated
shades of gray. Most folks today would say it was a neglected, dilapidated
dwelling. We never saw it that way.
The roof on that house was high and steep. It was made for throwing
rubber balls onto and trying to catch them as they came down. The front
lawn was large and green and shaded by enormous trees. It was a perfect
yard for laying the deep green grass and watching the clouds float across
the sky. It was a good place to play tag by day. Sometimes in the long
warm summer evenings my great grandmother gave us each a glass jar with
a lid and we chased lightning bugs through the trees. We put the captured
ones in the jars and watched the jars come alive with light. And then,
when it was time to go inside, we turned them loose and watched them soar
flickering off into the dark night.
Grandma Hedrick spent these evenings sitting in her rocking chair on
the very large front porch of her house. Sometimes we went and sat on the
porch to rest and if we were very fortunate, she would talk to us about
days long past and happenings that were hard for us to imagine.
The most fascinating room inside Grandma Hedrick's house was the parlor.
It was a formal room filled with stiff uncomfortable furniture. The door
to the parlor was kept closed and we children were denied access except
on the most special of occasions. The Christmas tree was always erected
in the parlor. On Christmas Eve the parlor doors were opened and we were
allowed inside to view the newly-decorated tree, which was adorned with
strings of popcorn, pine cones, candy canes and dozens of lighted candles.
We sat on the floor in front of the tree and listened to stories of Christmas
when Grandma Hedrick was a child. Santa Claus never came to the parlor.
We never expected him to be there. But, we would never have missed the
first sight of that Christmas tree or the feeling of love and unity that
existed there every Christmas Eve.
Our great grandmother was a very stubborn woman. She often said it was
her stubborn nature that helped her to survive the difficulties of much
of her early life. She told us that events which seemed exciting to us
"in the olden days" were not exciting at all.... they were just plain hard.
Grandma Hedrick was born in 1872. She lived her childhood in circumstances
that would have defeated most of us. In her home there was no indoor bathroom
and no running water. Lighting was by candles or coal oil lamps. Heat in
the winter was from the fireplace or the old cast iron cookstove in the
kitchen. There was no air conditioning in the summer.
Grandma Hedrick was married in 1892; her family eventually grew to include
five children. She raised them on the farm without the benefit of many
of the "necessities" of our world today. There were no convenience stores,
no Dairy Queen, no McDonalds, no Wal-Mart. On the farm there were no telephones,
no TV, no radio. Grandma Hedrick did laundry in a big kettle hung over
an open fire in the back yard. The clothes were often hung on bushes and
tree branches to dry.
Grandma Hedrick became a widow in 1925. She never married again. Eventually
she left the farm and moved to town to the house we all remembered as children.
She became involved in the lives of her children and grandchildren. She
watched the world she knew change in dozens of exciting (and sometimes
frightening ways).
She saw the railroad come of age; she witnessed the invention of the
automobile and the airplane. She saw the beginning of the space age, but
did not live quite long enough to see man land on the moon.
Grandma Hedrick lived to see electricity and telephones in virtually
all homes. She saw paved roads come to town and later to the country. She
came to enjoy radio but never quite understood that "infernal TV contraption."
When she died, Grandma Hedrick had few material possessions to leave
us. What she did leave us was far more important. She gave us herself and
the memories she helped us create through the years have been passed down
to our children and grandchildren. She gave us tranquility and security,
self-confidence and the ability to dream. And most of all, she gave us
love.
Planning board sees irrigation water shortfall
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
PECOS, Dec. 16, 1999 - The water needs for the section of West Texas
stretching from Reeves County to the Brownwood area will fall about 200,000
acre/feet short of demands annually over the course of the next 50 years,
local farmers and ranchers were told Wednesday, during a public hearing
at the Reeves County Civic Center.
But how much water there is available in the western sections of the
area and how good the water quality is are items still to be determined
by the Region F Water Planning Group, several of whose 21 voting members
attended Wednesday meeting.
"We're not out there to regulate or tell you what to do. We're just
out there for the planning," said John Grant, Chairman of the Region F
Water Planning Group and general manager of the Upper Colorado River Water
District in Big Spring
Region F is one of 16 regional water planning groups set up in 1997
by Senate Bill 1 in the Texas Legislature. The groups are charged with
developing water usage and drought management plans and estimate water
needs over the next 50 years. Region F basically covers the counties between
Interstates 10 and 20 stretching from Reeves County to Brown County (Brownwood),
100 miles east of San Angelo.
"One of the things the legislature wanted done was they wanted a new
water plan, but wanted it at a local level," said Grant. He added that
Group F and its engineers "have done population and water use projections,
and they've just completed the final step of projecting water use with
final supply."
He used slides to show those at the meeting that Region F contains about
700,000 acre/feet of available water annually, but needs about 900,000
acre/feet. Of the 700,000 total, 75 percent comes from groundwater from
three major and eight minor aquifers and 25 percent from surface water,
stored in 15 reservoirs.
Out of that, Grant said the reservoirs provide 75 percent of the water
used for human consumption. However, in Reeves County and the surrounding
areas, human consumption comes mainly from underground sources, while the
area's one major reservoir, Red Bluff Lake, has salt levels too high for
human use.
The salt content _ and the content of water available from Red Bluff
Lake _ were two sources of questions during the two-hour meeting.
Projections by Ron Lemons of Freese-Nichols Engineering and John Ashworth
and Alan Standich of LRG Guyten Engineering indicated that 74 percent of
the water used in Region F was for agriculture, and that while the amount
of water used has risen sharply in the past five years, they expected annual
use to remain around the 650,000 acre/feet level.
That estimate was questioned first by Red Bluff Water Power District
board member Lloyd Goodrich.
"Did you take into account the water quality?" he asked. "There's a
direct relationship. As the quality of water deteriorates, you need more
water," Goodrich said.
He pointed out Pecos River water contained 9,000 parts per million of
salt, far above that found in the Colorado River basin. "If you put that
(water) on land in Brownwood it would sterilize it."
"We will be looking at water quality needs in the next six months,"
Lemons said, while Sherry Codry with the Texas Water Development Board
added, "The next step is to identify currently available supplies. Water
quality analysis will be brought in at this point.
Clark Lindley questioned Lemons about the irrigation use projections,
which show a slight decrease by 2050. Others pointed out agriculture in
the Reeves-Ward-Pecos County area is 100 percent dependant on irrigation
water, and land that was irrigated back in the 1950s could be put back
into cultivation in the future.
"Ever though the population increase (from 600,000 to 900,000) is built
in, we have come up with an approximate per capita water use," which will
decline, Lemons said. "The theory is we're going to get more efficient
with water consumption."
Standich used charts to show the gravel-based aquifers in the area surrender
their water easier than those where water is trapped in sand, allowing
water to be recovered at about six times more efficient levels. But he
added that increasing pumping levels or the amount of irrigated land could
outstrip the aquifers' recharge rate.
"It's up to you to decide whether that's worth doing," he said "I know
up in the Panhandle they've made the decision that a slight loss in the
aquifer is worth it to the businesses there."
"The bulk of the shortages are for irrigation purposes," said Lemons.
"Some counties in the 32-county region there is available water, and in
some there are great shortages."
As for the reservoirs, a graph shown by Lemons indicated Lake O.H. Ivie
near Ballinger contained the largest water reserves in Region F, followed
by Lake Brownwood. Lake J.B. Thomas near Snyder was the fifth largest on
the list, at 20,000 available acre/feet per year, while the remaining 10
reservoirs were grouped together and the overall total was put at 250,000
acre/feet annually.
However, Goodrich said Red Bluff had 96,500 available acre/feet of water
annually, and numbers released by the district this week showed 45,791
acre/feet was released downstream this year for agricultural use.
"That's what the purpose of these meetings are for" Grant said today.
"This is the only way to find out that kind of information."
Grant said the next bi-monthly meeting of the Region F Water Planning
Group would be in January, and public hearings would be held again sometime
this spring.
Christian Home hoping to locate Santa for holiday
By ROSIE FLORES
Staff Writer
PECOS, Dec. 16, 1999 - Does anybody have a Santa Claus suit? That's
one of the requests made by the Pecos Christian Home, which will be providing
Christmas Dinner for those in the community without a place to go during
the holy holiday.
"We'll also have some gifts to hand out to the children and are in need
of a Santa Claus suit," said Christian Home Director Bruce Dury.
The annual Christmas dinner sponsored by the Christian Home will be
held from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. on Christmas Day at the Reeves County Civic
Center.
Plans are already underway, but there are a few items that are still
needed to complete the dinner.
"We are still in need of desserts, pies, cakes, or any kind of dessert,"
said Dury. "And of course, we still need volunteers."
The group will also deliver meals to the homebound, on the Meals on
Wheels Program.
"We fed about 305 at Thanksgiving and plan to feed about the same number
for Christmas," said Dury.
Dury said that last year they fed only 210 during the Thanksgiving holiday
compared with this year's 305 total. "That's almost 100 more than last
year," he said.
If anyone has a Santa Claus suit they would like to lend the group,
they can contact the Christian Home at 445-2049.
Volunteers are always welcome and are very much appreciated, according
to Dury.
Rec Department starts sign-ups for youth hoops
PECOS, Dec. 16, 1999 - The Reeves County Community Recreation Department
has begun registration for PeeWee Basketball Leagues, which will begin
in February.
The leagues are open to boys and girls ages 5 through 10 with a deadline
to sign up of Jan. 28. Recreation Department director Nora Geron said anyone
who signs up before Jan. 7 will receive five weeks of ball handling and
basic fundamentals before they start playing in regular games.
Registration can be done between 5 and 9 p.m. weekdays and from 10 a.m.
to 6 p.m. on Saturdays at the RCCRD office in the old Pecos High School
gym. For further information, call 447-9776.
Lotto
AUSTIN (AP) - No ticket correctly matched all six numbers drawn Wednesday
night for the twice-weekly Lotto Texas game, state lottery officials said.
The numbers drawn Wednesday night from a field of 50 were: 11-13-22-24-25-44.
Saturday night's drawing will be worth an estimated $7 million.
***
AUSTIN (AP) - The winning Pick 3 numbers drawn Wednesday by the Texas
Lottery, in order: 5-3-7 (five, three, seven)
Weather
High Wednesday 62. Low this morning 22. Forecast for tonight: Fair. Low
around 30. Southwest wind 5-10 mph. Friday: Partly cloudy. High 60-65.
Northwest wind 10-15 mph. Friday night: Partly cloudy. Low 25-30.
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 1999 by Pecos Enterprise
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