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Archive 2002

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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas

Top Stories

Friday, March 1, 2002

Chamber board names Gholson interim director

By ROSIE FLORES
Staff Writer
PECOS, Fri., March 1, 2002 -- A former Pecos Area Chamber of Commerce president will be filling in at the chamber office, while the group recruits a new executive director.

Longtime executive director Tom Rivera resigned from the position last month to take a job coordinating the Town of Pecos City's Main Street program, and on Thursday chamber members met and agreed to hire Linda Gholson as interim director.

Gholson will be in the chamber office, located at 111 S. Cedar St., from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Lupe Davis, office manager will also be on hand to help tourists and the community.

Gholson's duties will include to promote membership, all forms with companies and individuals; to create a positive public relations, address needs of members, promote/support vision and collaborate ideas; dues, collections and specific date; communications/advertisements, weekly newspaper announcements, radio, go on KIUN's Pecos Talking, information channel update, internet website update and civic center reader board.

Gholson has served on the board of directors for several years and was president of the organization twice, in 1992 and 1999.

"I'm very excited about this and am looking forward to serving as interim director," said Gholson. "I will do the best that this community helps me to be."

"I've really enjoyed serving on the board and with everyone's things will run smoothly," said Gholson.

Gholson also currently serves as president of the Reeves County Hospital District board, and is a former Pecos-Barstow-Toyah ISD board member.

Council approves bid for new jail's Phone service

By LEIA HOLLAND
Staff Writer
PECOS, Fri., March 1, 2002 -- The Town of Pecos City Council awarded a bid for an inmate phone system for the Pecos Municipal Law Enforcement Center during their regular meeting last night at City Hall.

The council went over six bids that were turned in for the system that allows inmates to make collect calls to their family and attorneys while at the local facility.

City Manager Carlos Yerena made his recommendation to the council after reviewing all the bids himself.

"We would recommend you go with Inmate Communications & Hospitality Inc., which is out of Midland," Yerena said.

Yerena explained that to determine the better bid he looked at the commission number that the company would be willing to offer.

"The magic number is the commission paid to the city," he said.

Yerena said that Inmate Communications & Hospitality had the highest commission, proposing to give the city 47 percent of the gross billable and 51 percent of the collected revenue.

City Attorney Scott Johnson said that the recommended company did provide all the items that the city requested including full recording capabilities.

The council asked Pecos Police Chief Clay McKinney how many phones the facility would need and if he had a preference as to which company to work with.

McKinney said that they would need 20 inmate phones. He also said that he did not have any preference.

Yerena also informed the council that the recommended company also offered a $20,000 signed bonus however that was not a factor in the decision.

The council understands that McKinney and his staff need the phones installed as soon as possible and asked McKinney what they are doing now to allow the inmates use the phones.

"We take them out one at a time and let them use our phone," McKinney said.

They only allow the inmates to use the phone for 10 minutes to make a collect call to a family member or their attorney, according to McKinney.

The council decided to award the bid to Inmate Communications & Hospitality Inc., and asked for the contracts to be drawn up as soon as possible in order to get the phones installed quickly.

The council discussed the financial report and the problems the city has been having with the financial software.

Certified Public Accountant Dan Painter informed the council that the city has had trouble with this year's W2 forms and the financial report because the software they use would not allow them to do either very easily.

Allcomm Long Distance owner Dick Alligood has been working with the city to iron out the problems workers have been having with their software, which is manufactured by United Systems Technology Inc., (USTI).

Alligood said that the city has been working with this software, called Assist, for quite some time but that it has not been upgraded.

"We've had this in place for a number of years," he said. "We just found out that we have had no upgrades of software. We are 43 revisions behind on software."

Alligood explained that he is not sure how the city had gotten so far behind but believes that the revisions stopped once former Finance Director Steve McCormick left.

Alligood said that McCormick had been updating the software when he was here and after he left no one realized what needed to be done.

"When Steve left here it just was never passed on," he said.

He also said that USTI had not been informing their customers that there were upgrades posted on the Internet therefore it was not certain that all their customers received it.

However, Alligood said that they had been able to update the system with all 43 revisions but found out that more revisions had been posted.

"We just found out (Thursday) that we have to have three more new updates," he said.

Alligood explained that updating the system is not easy because they have to shut down the city's network and install the new revisions.

Yerena said that he is confident that the system would work better for the city now that all the revisions have been loaded.

"I think it's safe to say that we're caught up," he said.

Utilities Director Octavio Garcia gave the council an update on the possibility of reopening 10th Street.

Since the Pecos-Barstow-Toyah ISD decided to close the Pecos Elementary campus, the council has been considering opening the portion of 10th Street that was closed down for use as a school bus stop.

Garcia explained that he went to the Tax Appraisal Office to try and find out the status of the street.

"As far as they're concerned they couldn't find any documentation that the street was ever closed," he said.

Garcia also talked with P-B-T Superintendent Don Love who would look into their documentation to try and find out when the school board voted to close the street.

However, Garcia said that Love was willing to allow the street to be opened again.

"He see no problem as far as the street being opened again," he said.

In other business the council approved the minutes of the previous meeting, the accounts payable and the Municipal Court report.

Remember the Alamo!

EDITOR'S NOTE: The Texas Declaration of Independence was signed, March 2, 1836 at Washington on the Brazos. Texans won their independence from Mexico less than two months later when the Texas Army under General Sam Houston routed Santa Anna's army at San Jacinto. Crucial to Houston's victory were the weeks before the battle when he organized and drilled his rag-tag army into a fighting force of merit. Texans bought these weeks with their blood at the Alamo. Col. William B. Travis dispatched the following letter on February 24th from the Alamo. Let it remind us all of the price paid for independence and freedom.

Commander of the Alamo
Bexar, February 24th, 1836
To the People of Texas and All Americans in the World:

Fellow citizens and compatriots _ I am besieged by a thousand or more of the enemy under Santa Anna. I have sustained a continual bombardment and cannonade for 24 hours and have not lost a man. The enemy has demanded a surrender at discretion; otherwise the garrison are to be put to the sword if the fort is taken.

I have answered the demand with a cannon shot, and our flag still waves proudly from the walls.

I shall never surrender or retreat.

Then, I call on you in the name of liberty, patriotism and everything dear to the American character, to come to our aid, with all dispatch.

The enemy is receiving reinforcements daily and will no doubt increase to three or four thousand in four or five days.

If this call is neglected, I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible and die like a soldier who never forgets what is due to his honor and that of his country.

Victory or death.

Colonel William Barrett Travis

Commissioners set Monday meeting on election plans

PECOS, Fri., March 1, 2002 -- A central counting resolution for the March 12 Primary Election will be the topic of discussion at an "emergency" meeting scheduled by the Reeves County Commissioners for Monday morning.

The group will meet at 9:30 a.m., in the third floor courtroom and the public is invited to attend.
 

Weather

PECOS, Fri., March 1, 2002 -- High Thursday 56. Low this morning 30. Forecast for tonight: Increasing cloudiness. Turning sharply colder and windy. Lows in the upper 20s. Southwest winds 10 to 20 mph early: Becoming north and increasing to 20 to 30 mph with gusts to 40 mph before midnight. Saturday: Mostly cloudy: Windy: And unseasonably cold with flurries possible. Highs in the upper 30s. Northeast winds 20 to 30 mph. Saturday night: Mostly cloudy and cold with flurries possible. Lows near 15. Sunday: Decreasing cloudiness and continued unseasonably cold. Highs in the mid 40s. Monday: Partly cloudy with a warming trend. Lows in the lower 20s. Highs in the mid 50s.

Obituaries

Bill Oden and Santos Valles



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