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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Top Stories
Thursday, November 9, 2000
City manager applicants are reviewed
By LEIA HOLLAND
Staff Writer
PECOS, November 9, 2000 - The Town of Pecos City Council went into executive
session to discuss the applicants for the position of City Manager during
their regular meeting this morning at City Hall.
City Secretary Geneva Martinez said the Council looked through the 16
applications and chose a few to look into further and run background checks.
The City Manager's position opened at the end of August when Kenneth
Neal resigned to take another City Manager's position in the Dallas area.
City Utilities Director Octavio Garcia has been filling in as interim
city manager since Neal left and is one of the six applicants from Pecos.
The others are Emilio Chavez, Sr.; James Dutchover; Steve McCormick; Tom
Rivera and Oscar Saenz.
Until December 1999 Chavez worked with the Grayson County Sheriff's
office as a correction officer at the low risk detention center in Dension.
Dutchover is the currant administrator for the Alternative Education
Program for the Pecos-Barstow-Toyah Independent School District and also
is a grant writer.
McCormick is currently the Finance Director of the city.
Rivera has been the Executive Director for the Pecos Chamber of Commerce
for the past nine years.
Saenz recently retired as Director of Operations for Anchor West's plant
in Pecos.
Other applicants include Donald Chittenden of Horizon City; Manuel Fierro
of Kermit; Aref Hassan of Winters; David Hougham of El Paso; Mark Mills
of Euless; James Minor of Cleburne; Jaime Perez of El Paso; Darrel Rhyne
of Toyahvale; Richard Sida of El Paso; Carlos Yerena of El Paso.
Chittenden has taught undergraduate classes at the University of Texas
at El Paso since 1998. He has also served on the El Paso County Water Authority
Board of Directors and on the first City Council of Horizon City.
Fierro has worked for the police department in Santa Barbara, CA, 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.
Hougham is currently the owner and manager for I.D. Graphics Professional
Engraving in Visalia, Calif.
Mills is the contractor for the City of Euless.
Minor has worked for five years as City Manager, public works director
and airport administrator for Cleburne.
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.
Rhyne is currently the co-owner of Toyahvale Desert Oasis.
Sida is a self-employed investigator-mediator of labor disputes for
federal agencies.
Yerena is the executive director for the El Paso Empowerment Zone Corporation.
Martinez said the council would have specials meeting at 8 a.m., on
November 20 and 21 to conduct interviews.
In other action today, the council approved the recommendation from
the state to lower the speed limit on the access roads beside Interstate
20 during the regular meeting today at City Hall.
Councilman Larry Levario explained to the Council that a few citizens
who live on the access road have requested the speed limit be lowered from
55 mph to 45 mph.
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.
The Council also discussed adding a member of the Pecos Economic Development
Corporation to the city insurance.
McCormick informed the Council that if they bill the PEDC member, he
would only have to pay $225 as opposed to $700 he currently pays.
The Council decided that it would be better to bill the PEDC member
since he is not "an actual city employee."
Mayor Pro Tem Danny Rodriguez requested the council to consider moving
one of the council meetings to an afternoon time.
Rodriguez said having the second monthly meeting in the afternoon would
allow all the councilmen to be able to attend the whole meeting.
The council agreed and approved moving the second monthly meeting to
5:30 p.m.
While discussing moving the meeting time, the council decided to move
the second meeting in November to 5:30 p.m., on Tuesday, Nov. 21, instead
of Thursday, Nov. 23, due to the Thanksgiving holiday.
The council discussed with City Attorney Scott Johnson the claim of
John Clark for cattle loss.
Johnson said a link in the city waterline in Clark's pasture caused
five cows to be killed in the water.
He said interim City Manager and Utilities Director Octavio Garcia needed
to meet with Clark to get more information about the deaths.
Garcia said he knows for sure that one of the cows died by sinking into
the ground and not being able to get out.
"We were the ones who caught that one," he said.
The Council tabled the item until Garcia is able to meet with Clark
to gain more information.
Museum uncorks antique bottle exhibit
By ROSIE FLORES
Staff Writer
PECOS, November 9, 2000 - An old display has taken on a new look at
the West of the Pecos Museum and the public is invited to come see it.
"We had this glass bottle collection upstairs in a little room and decided
to move down here, to accommodate it better," said West of the Pecos Museum
Curator Dorinda Millan.
She said the collection of "old" bottles was placed in different glass
cases after being moved downstairs, to make it look more attractive.
"We just thought it was such a great collection of old bottles we wanted
everyone to enjoy it," said Millan.
The collection includes items such as old Coke bottles, medicine, mason
jars and even opium bottles dating back to turn of the century.
Unique facts about glass bottles are available at the museum. Glass
can be produced in all colors of the spectrum. Early glassmakers knew this
could be accomplished by adding certain compounds to the basic glass mixture.
The kinds of materials frequently used and the colors obtained included
gold, which were used to create reds; nickel or manganese used in purples;
chromium or copper for greens; cobalt or copper for blues; carbon or nickel
for browns; iron for greens and yellows; selenium for yellows and pinks;
tin or zinc for opal or milkglass and iron slag to create "black glass."
Some of the compounds are expensive oxides. For example it takes one
ounce of gold to create 60 pounds of ruby-red glass. Compounds used in
various combinations produce a wide range of colors.
The most common of all colors in which glass bottles are found are varying
hues of green and blue, often called aqua. For thousands of years most
of the cheap glasses used in the manufacture of bottles were these colors
because of iron in the raw materials, mostly in the sand. Glassmakers did
know, however, that pure ingredients would produce clear glass; in many
cases where clear glass was demanded attempts were made to purify the raw
ingredients.
Glassmakers even went so far as to crush iron-free quartz crystals to
obtain pure silica. Early glasshouses were established with much consideration
given to the nearest supply of the purest sand possible, as well as to
an abundant fuel supply.
"Bottles that had ridges, such as medicine bottles indicated that they
were poisonous," said museum volunteer Freda Blahosky.
A number of variables can affect the actual color produced, including
the amount of the compounds used, the degree to which the basic glass mixture
is impure, the temperature and the time-temperature relationship, and the
reheating necessary to complete a piece of glass. These and other conditions
combine to make the coloring of glass a very difficult task for the glassmaker.
Until approximately the mid-1800's it was believed that dark glass "black
glass" was the best glass. This belief probably stemmed from the demand
for dark glass containers by merchants of wine and spirits after they discovered
their products would keep better in dark containers. Glassmakers catered
to the demand by making a very cheap "black glass," adding iron slag to
achieve the extremely dark greenish-amber color.
This glass was so dark that at first glance it appeared to be black.
Interestingly enough black glass is a very durable, and therefore better,
glass. It can withstand a great deal more exposure to the natural elements
than can other colors.
To the bottle collector colored glass has special meaning. Since bottles
made before the turn of the century were predominantly greens and aquas,
to find 19th century bottles of unusual colors is quite a challenge, and
these bottles command fairly higher prices.
A careful examination of individual bottles will often reveal color
variations within the container itself. Where the glass is thin, possibly
throughout the body, the color will be lighter; and where the glass is
thick, possibly in the base and/or neck, the color will be darker.
The West of the Pecos Museum is open to the public 9 a.m. through 5
p.m., Tuesday through Saturday.
Weather doesn't get blame for wrecks near Balmorhea
From Staff and Wire Reports
PECOS, November 9, 2000 - Weather conditions improved on Wednesday in
the Trans-Pecos region, and were not considered factors in two nighttime
accidents on Interstate 10 near Balmorhea, though more bad weather could
arrive in the area tonight.
The first accident occurred when a truck trailer became detached from
its tractor rig on I-10 at the 216-mile marker, east of Balmorhea. The
trailer, containing orange juice overturned and was broken open slightly
in the accident. The right lane of the highway was closed from about 7
p.m. until 4 a.m. today while the contents were removed and the truck was
righted.
The second accident occurred about an hour later west of Balmorhea,
at the 191-mile marker on I-10, and involved a one-vehicle rollover. There
was no report of any possible injuries as of late this morning.
Ice and snow along I-10 and to the south in the Alpine-Marfa-Fort Davis
area was blamed for a number of accidents on Tuesday, including one involving
five cars on I-10 at the 180-mile marker. Pecos escaped Tuesday's snow
and ice due to its lower elevation, but snow was reported all across other
sections of West Texas.
In San Angelo, up to five inches of snow tied the earliest snowfall
on record. The National Weather Service said 5.8 inches were recorded on
Nov. 8, 1968, also establishing a record snowfall for the month of November.
The white stuff had worked its way to the Dallas-Fort Worth area by
today. Road crews were sanding icy bridges and highways in Decatur, northwest
of Dallas, where an inch or more of snow fell.
In Abilene on Wednesday, three to five inches fell, causing a delay
in classes and several minor traffic accidents. Power outages across the
city left up to 7,500 residents without electricity for part of the morning.
Power lines either snapped under the weight of accumulated snow or were
broken by falling tree limbs, Linda Caton, a spokeswoman for AEP-West Texas
Utilities, told the Abilene Reporter-News.
Up to 10 inches of the white stuff fell in Sweetwater Wednesday, as
the front moved eastward.
A winter storm warning posted for the South Plains and a heavy snow
warning for the Panhandle was likely to be followed Thursday by a storm
watch for the Trans Pecos, Davis Mountains and Marfa Plateau.
Snow that fell in the Permian Basin accumulated to about five inches
in Seminole.
"We've had several accidents caused by the ice on the road," Gaines
County sheriff's dispatcher Tommy Gonzalez told the Odessa American.
P-B-T board to discuss roofing projects
PECOS, November 9, 2000 - Roofing proposals for Pecos High School's cafeteria
and field house will be discussed and approved during tonight's regular
meeting of the Pecos-Barstow-Toyah ISD board.
The board will meet at 6 p.m. at 1304 S. Park St. The public is invited
to attend.
Board members will discuss roof repairs for the two buildings, while
in other action they will recognize the PHS district championship volleyball
team, which completed its season last week.
Also to be discussed are several letters, including one from the Texas
Education Association: P-B-T ISD named to 1999-2000 All State Team for
ID&R of migrant students; letter from Ector County ISD Special Ed.
Dept. expressing appreciation to Donna Davis; letter from TEA approving
Quitclaim Deed to sell Block 47, Lot 2, Barstow Orig. Town to the City
of Barstow for use by Barstow Volunteer Fire Department; letter from Texas
Association of School Boards acknowledging receipt of nomination and corresponding
forms for Billie Sadler's nomination for the 18A position on the TASB Board
and letter from TEA and the Dept. of Accountability and School Accreditation.
Under old business school board members will discuss/approve amendment
to existing Reeves County Recreation Department Interlocal Agreement between
Pecos-Barstow-Toyah ISD and Reeves County and guidelines for foreclosed
property bid stop date/time and location for sealed bids to be submitted,
along with a report on Crockett Middle School Lab Addition project.
Board members will discuss and approve, proposals for HVAC replacement
at Pecos High School, Building B; enrollment trends for Region 18 area
schools/attendance report for second six weeks-P-B-T ISD; block scheduling;
spring band trip sponsored by Band Boosters; offers to purchase foreclosed
properties: 824 S. Elm St., 814 S. Cypress St. and 609 S. Almond St.
Also on the agenda will be to review investment policy CDA (Legal and
Local); first reading of Policy CDA (Local); discuss/approve resolution
approving independent sources of instructions relating to the investment
responsibilities; attendance committees; District Improvement Plan; 2000-2001
budget amendments; first reading of amendment to Policy DEC (Local); first
reading of amendment to Policy FDD (Local); discuss/approve model resolution
supporting a uniform statewide group health insurance plan for retired
and active employees; discuss/approve assistant band director's salary
for 2001-2002 and early release for Nov. 17 for football playoff game,
if needed.
The group will meet in closed session to discuss personnel or hear complaints
against personnel, us authorized by the Texas Open Meetings Act, Texas
Government Code, Section 551.101 et. Seq., Section 51.074 and Section 551.071,
private consultation with the board's attorney.
Under regular agenda items:
· Tax report.
· Depository securities report.
· Cafeteria report and commodities received.
· Investment transactions report.
· Current bills and financial report.
· Reconciled bank balance report.
· Reeves County Community Recreation Department report.
· Date and time for next meeting.
· Calendar of events.
· Request for items for next agenda.
Veteran's Day flag raising set at Nursing Home
PECOS, November 9, 2000 - A Veteran's Day Flag Raising Ceremony will be
held at 2 p.m., Saturday at the Pecos Nursing Home, weather permitting.
All Veterans and the public are invited to attend.
Obituaries
Raymond Carrasco
Services for Raymond Carrasco, 49, of Balmorhea, died Wednesday, Nov. 8,
2000, at Reeves County Hospital.
Pecos Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
Marian Morelan
Marian Maxine Morelan, 71, of Pecos, died Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2000, at her
residence.
Graveside services will be held at 2 p.m., Friday, Nov. 10, at Mt. Evergreen
Cemetery with Rev. James Sain officiating.
She was born Aug. 4, 1929, in Oakley, Ind., was a bookkeeper for Pecos
Air Conditioning, had lived in Pecos since 1953 and was a Baptist.
Survivors include her husband, Dickie Morelan of Pecos; two sons, Dale
Bryan Morelan of Odessa and John Thomas Morelan of Corpus Christi; one
daughter, Paula Kay Morelan of Garland; one sister, Juanita Sheets of Del
Phi, Ind., and four grandchildren.
Pecos Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
Weather
PECOS, November 9, 2000 - High Wednesday 45. Low this morning 32. Forecast
for tonight: Clear. Low in the lower 30s. South wind 5-15 mph. Friday:
Partly cloudy. High in the mid 60s. South wind 10-20 mph. Friday night:
Partly cloudy. Low in the mid 30s. Saturday: Partly cloudy with a slight
chance of showers or morning snow. Low from the upper 20s to the mid 30s.
High in the 50s and lower 60s.
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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