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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Top Stories
Friday, October 26, 2001
Daylight time's end adds additional hour to sleep
WASHINGTON (AP) - Say goodbye to daylight-saving time this weekend.
Clocks shift back one hour at 2 a.m. Sunday, local time, giving an extra
hour of sleep to most people Saturday night - and an extra hour of work to
those who work the overnight shift.
And the change to Standard Time means it will be dark an hour earlier
on Halloween, calling for extra caution on the part of drivers and those
watching the children on their rounds.
Most people set their clocks back before retiring Saturday evening. Those
who don't need to remember to set them back Sunday - or they'll be an hour
out of sync with the rest of the country.
Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta, whose department is in charge
of the time change, issued a reminder that this is also a good time to change
the batteries in smoke detectors.
Daylight-saving time returns April 7.
Halloween parade, carnivals planned for Saturday
PECOS, Fri., Oct. 26, 2001 -- The annual Halloween/Mother Goose Parade
will be held along Oak Street in Downtown Pecos Saturday evening.
Line-up for the yearly event will be at 5 p.m. at the West Texas National
Bank drive-thru. The parade will start at 5:30 p.m., and travel north on
Oak Street to the Old Depot and West of the Pecos Museum.
Prizes will be awarded and the categories will be from birth through two
years of age; 3-5 years of age; 6-10 years of age; groups and bicycles.
A Halloween Carnival will be held from 5-9 p.m., Saturday, at the Reeves
County Civic Center, sponsored by Austin Elementary School.
Game booths, food and fun are all a part of the activities planned at
the civic center and there will no cover charge, while An enchilada plate
sale is set for 3-9 p.m. at the Civic Center, with plates costing $4 apiece
In Barstow, a Halloween Carnival will be from 7-10 p.m. at the Community
Center, and an enchilada plate sale will be from 4 to 9 p.m., with plates
cost $3.50 each.
Toyah will be having its Halloween Carnival on Saturday at the Toyah Senior
Center. The kitchen will open at 6:30 p.m. and the carnival will begin at
7 p.m.
Cable company says no way to get Cowboys on KPEJ
By LEIA HOLLAND
Staff Writer
PECOS, Fri., Oct. 26, 2001 -- Dallas Cowboy fans in Pecos will not be able
to watch their team's games on basic television on most weeks when
their games air on Fox, according to regional vice president of Classic
Cable Bill Flowers, who met with the Town of Pecos City Council Thursday
night at City Hall.
Flowers said that KPEJ, the Fox affiliate out of Midland-Odessa, has stopped
sending a signal to the Pecos area, which means that Classic Cable has no
signal that the company could pick up on and use for their customers.
"Unfortunately the loss of the Fox broadcast station was out of our hands,"
he said.
Flowers explained that KPEJ was using a low powered broadcast station,
position on Gomez Peak located at the Interstate 10 and Interstate 20 junction,
to broadcast the Fox signal to Pecos.
The station on Channel 18 went up in 1995, after Fox acquired rights to
the NFL and most of the Cowboys' telecasts. But last year, the Federal Communications
Commission granted an Odessa station the rights to broadcast the Univision
Spanish language network to the Midland-Odessa area over Ch. 18.
In order to avoid any signal interference, the FCC ordered KPEJ to shut
down their translator station.
"They (Univision) filed for a license by the FCC," he said. "The translator
had to be shut down at which time we could not get a signal."
Now, according to Flowers, KPEJ is operating under their main broadcast
station, which does not reach out to Pecos.
The council asked Flowers how Monahans is able to still receive the signal
allowing Classic Cable customers there to still get the Cowboy games.
Flowers explained that the residents of Monahans are able to receive the
games because they are 35 miles closer to Midland/Odessa. He also explained
that Monahans is on the very edge of the broadcast signal, which does not
give them a clear reception.
Since the KPEJ signal went down in June, Classic Cable has been using
the Fox Net satellite service out of New York City, which does broadcast
football games, but not exclusively the Cowboys games.
"Unfortunately for us here in Texas, it carries any game that is picked
for broadcast each week," Flowers said.
Because of Dallas' poor record the past two seasons and their 1-4 start
this year, Fox has selected fewer of their games for national broadcast.
This weekend, when the Cowboys host the Arizona Cardinals at 3:15 p.m., Pecos
cable customers are expected to get the Philadelphia-Oakland game over Fox
Net while KPEJ viewers watch the Dallas-Arizona game.
KPEJ officials said back in August they were attempting to re-establish
a translator station at Gomez Peak on Ch. 20, but had to await approval from
the FCC. Until then, Flowers said that there is no way that Classic Cable
can get the KPEJ signal to Pecos.
He said that they have even had an antenna study done to see if any kind
of antenna would help bring the signal to the area with unsatisfactory results.
The study proved to the company that yes a signal could reach Pecos with
an antenna but the reception of that signal is so bad that the customer would
not be able to clearly see the broadcast.
"Since it was so bad we weren't even going to try to offer it," he said.
Pecos Area Chamber of Commerce Director Tom Rivera said that he believes
that not receiving the Cowboys game is not the only problem that local citizens
have been having with Classic Cable.
"I think the problems with Classic Cable are deeper than not getting the
Cowboy games," he said.
Rivera said that one of the problems is that customers have a hard time
talking with a person when using the 800 number.
"That 800 number is just a joke," he said.
Rivera said that he has been trying to get a Classic Cable representative
to come check his service for seven months with no success.
"I've been waiting seven months to get somebody to come out and look at
my cable," he said. "You can't find anybody to talk to."
Flowers said that about 45 days ago, he and numerous other employees at
Classic Cable took a look at the customer service problems the company has
had and are now taking steps to correct those problems.
He said that an internal survey on the customer service gave them an idea
of what real customers were going through and admitted that the company was
falling short.
"Yes, we were falling flat on our face," he said.
Since then, however, Flowers said that the company has taken steps to
correct those problems by adding additional phone lines to combat busy signals
and over-staffing in order to have someone available to talk with customers.
"We made a drastic improvement," he said. "I think we've taken steps
so that we're getting on the right road."
City Manager Carlos Yerena asked Flowers to run an advertisement in the
Pecos Enterprise giving the citizens another number they could try in addition
to the 800 number, and Flowers agreed.
The council also asked City Attorney Scott Johnson to look into possible
breach of contract by Classic Cable and other possibilities for cable providers.
In other action, the council approved changing the Halloween Trick-or-Treat
night to Saturday.
The council agreed that since Oct. 31 falls on Wednesday this year that
it would be better for the community to change Trick-or-Treat celebrations
to Saturday.
The council also approved a resolution authorizing Mayor Ray Ortega, Yerena
and City Finance Director George Bejarano as signators for reimbursement
of funds dealing with the Texas Community Development Grant.
Also approved by the council was the Pecos Economic Development Cooperation
budget, the second reading of the rules for on site sewage facilities, the
errors and corrections for the 2000 tax rolls as well as the 2001 tax roles.
Local volunteers for the Greater West Texas Chapter of the Alzheimer's
Association Fariss Murphy and Beverly Thomas presented the council with a
proclamation designating November as National Alzheimer's Disease Month.
After Thomas read the proclamation to the council, the council approved
the proclamation.
Ward Co., Texas Rangers probe allegations
By LEIA HOLLAND
Staff Writer
PECOS, Fri., Oct. 26, 2001 -- Ward County Sheriff's Deputies have called
in the Texas Rangers this week to assist them in an investigation involving
Ward County Water Improvement District #1 in the Barstow area.
Ward County Deputy Ben Dieshler said that the investigation began earlier
this week with deputies meeting with Texas Ranger Gerry Villalobos of Fort
Stockton.
"There is an investigation going on to determine if there has been any
possible criminal acts done at the irrigation district," he said.
Dieshler said that it is uncertain how long the investigation will last
and as of this time no charges have been filed and no arrests have been made.
"No charges have been filed right now, it's still under investigation,"
he said.
Ward County Improvement District No. 1 is one of seven sub-districts to
the Red Bluff Water Power Control District, which regulates water releases
from the Pecos River to farmers between Red Bluff Dam and the Girvin area
in northeastern Pecos County. Red Bluff board members assign water allotments
each year to the seven districts, and the boards of those districts in turn
allot water to the farmers in their areas.
The water district board of directors requested an investigation into
several things at the water district office, according to Dieshler.
Dieshler could not say all that is involved in the investigation at this
time.
"As of this point right now we can't advise what is involved," he said.
"There are several things right now."
Gomez sued by bondsman over ban from county jail
By SMOKEY BRIGGS
Staff Writer
PECOS, Fri., Oct. 26, 2001 -- Pascual Olibas of Freedom Bail Bonds has filed
suit against Reeves County Sheriff Andy Gomez seeking an injunction
blocking Gomez' order that suspended Olibas' bond-writing privileges
at the Reeves County Jail as well as monetary damages.
The suit was filed on October 18, in United States District Court for
the Western District of Texas, El Paso Division.
Among other allegations contained in the suit Olibas contends that Gomez
suspended his bond writing privileges in retaliation for Olibas' comments
regarding former Pecos bondsmen Joey Herrera and Olibas' complaints that
other area bondsmen were being held to lesser standards than Olibas.
All of the alleged reasons for the suspension that are listed in the suit
regard comments and complaints Olibas says he made regarding the sheriff
and bond writing procedures at the jail.
Olibas contends that his comments were constitutionally protected speech
and that Gomez' suspension is retaliation by Gomez.
Olibas contends that the alleged comments are constitutionally protected
free speech.
Gomez said that he would prefer not to comment on the suit but that he
was confident that there was no basis for the charges leveled by Olibas.
Gomez did confirm that he had suspended Olibas' bond writing privileges
but declined to give a reason.
"This was not done in retaliation for anything Mr. Olibas said," Gomez
said. "I'm confident that the truth will come out in court and that these
allegations will be proven untrue."
Olibas asked the court for an injunction that would effectively reinstate
his bond writing privileges at the jail and also for monetary damages based
on: loss of past and future earnings, reduction in the value of his business,
injury to his professional reputation, mental anguish, and punitive damages.
Weather
PECOS, Fri., Oct. 26, 2001 -- High Thursday 84. Low this morning 49. Forecast
for tonight: Mostly clear. Lows around
50. East winds 5 to 15 mph. Saturday:
Partly cloudy. Highs in the mid
70s. Southeast winds 5 to 15 mph. Saturday
night: Clear. Lows around 50. Sunday: Partly
cloudy. Highs 75 to 80. Monday: Partly
cloudy. Lows around 50. Highs 75 to 80.
Obituary
Viva Funderburk
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 newsdesk@nwol.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 2001 by Pecos Enterprise
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