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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Thursday, July 3, 2003
Second chance rides payoff on rodeo's opening night
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
PECOS, Thursday, July 3, 2003 -- The 2003 West of the Pecos Rodeo got off
to a fast start Wednesday night at the Buck Jackson Rodeo Arena - as it
turned out, a little too fast for bareback rider Phil Smith.
The rodeo, first held in 1883 and marking its 120th anniversary on July
4, switched up its line-up a bit for this year, and began the first of its
four performances with bareback riding competition. But the opening ceremonies
for Wednesday's show were shorter than expected, and the competition got
underway at 8:27 p.m., three minutes before a U.S. Air Force B-1B bomber
was scheduled to fly over the arena.
The B-1 flyover, announced for 8:30 p.m., was right on time, which meant
it zoomed in low over the west end of the area and out over the east end
just as Smith was taking his ride on the horse "Carpet Burn." Smith failed
to last the eight seconds, but the noise of the B-1 passing about 500 feet
above the arena was enough for judges to award him a re-ride, and the Louisiana
cowboy took advantage of it to score 75 points on board "Baby's Bein Bad"
to put him in second place overall through one day of competition.
Rough stock began for the bareback, saddle bronc and bull riders on Wednesday,
while the second go-round continued for most other events and the third
go-round for steer roping also was held during the show's two-hour performance.
Trey Fisher of Madisonville, had the best ride of the night in bareback,
scoring 78 points on board "Ironsides 2." Buddy Gulley of Macedonia, Ill.,
was the only other rider to score points, picking up 70 on board "Cactus."
This year's rodeo moved all bull riding to the end of the night's competition,
after it had been split into two sections, at the start and finish of each
show, in recent years. There were over a dozen competitors on Wednesday
night, but only three managed to stay on the full eight second to score
points.
Casey Decker of Brush, Colo., held on just long enough to take the early
lead in the event, as he scored 81 points riding "Tracks." Brian Herman was
next, scoring 74 points on board "Temper Tantrum," and former West of the
Pecos bull riding champ Howdy Cloud scored 70 points with his ride on "Hard
Eight."
The other cowboy who received a re-ride on Thursday also took advantage
of his second opportunity, this time in saddle bronc competition.
Bradley Harter's horse "Pumpjack" was slow out of the chute on his first
attempt, and he was given a second ride later in the show on board "Baked
Apple," which earned the Aledo cowboy 79 points and a one-point lead over
Rance Bray of Dumas in the event. Bray picked up 78 points for his ride
on "Crossroads," and Sam Spreadborough was one point behind Bray in third
place, following his ride on "Smkls Red to Win."
In the roping events, there was one new leader in the average after Wednesday's
show. Andrews cowboy Vin Fisher took over first in the average at 20.1 seconds
for two rides in tie-down calf roping, after a 10.3 second effort. Moving
into second place on the average was Giovanni Davis, who isn't among the
leaders in either the first or second go-rounds, but whose combined 21.2
second time is one-tenth of a second better than the leader prior to last
night's show, J.D. Kibbe.
Neal Felton of Mountain Home maintained his lead in the second go-round,
at 9.4 seconds.
In steer roping, defending National Finals Rodeo All-Around champion,
and three-time West of the Pecos Rodeo All-Around Cowboy
Second chance rides pay off on rodeo's opening night
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
PECOS, Thursday, July 3, 2003 -- The 2003 West of the Pecos Rodeo got off
to a fast start Wednesday night at the Buck Jackson Rodeo Arena - as it turned
out, a little too fast for bareback rider Phil Smith.
The rodeo, first held in 1883 and marking its 120th anniversary on July
4, switched up its line-up a bit for this year, and began the first of its
four performances with bareback riding competition. But the opening ceremonies
for Wednesday's show were shorter than expected, and the competition got
underway at 8:27 p.m., three minutes before a U.S. Air Force B-1B bomber
was scheduled to fly over the arena.
The B-1 flyover, announced for 8:30 p.m., was right on time, which meant
it zoomed in low over the west end of the area and out over the east end
just as Smith was taking his ride on the horse "Carpet Burn." Smith failed
to last the eight seconds, but the noise of the B-1 passing about 500 feet
above the arena was enough for judges to award him a re-ride, and the Louisiana
cowboy took advantage of it to score 75 points on board "Baby's Bein Bad"
to put him in second place overall through one day of competition.
Rough stock began for the bareback, saddle bronc and bull riders on Wednesday,
while the second go-round continued for most other events and the third
go-round for steer roping also was held during the show's two-hour performance.
Trey Fisher of Madisonville, had the best ride of the night in bareback,
scoring 78 points on board "Ironsides 2." Buddy Gulley of Macedonia, Ill.,
was the only other rider to score points, picking up 70 on board "Cactus."
This year's rodeo moved all bull riding to the end of the night's competition,
after it had been split into two sections, at the start and finish of each
show, in recent years. There were over a dozen competitors on Wednesday night,
but only three managed to stay on the full eight second to score points.
Casey Decker of Brush, Colo., held on just long enough to take the early
lead in the event, as he scored 81 points riding "Tracks." Brian Herman
was next, scoring 74 points on board "Temper Tantrum," and former West of
the Pecos bull riding champ Howdy Cloud scored 70 points with his ride on
"Hard Eight."
The other cowboy who received a re-ride on Thursday also took advantage
of his second opportunity, this time in saddle bronc competition.
Bradley Harter's horse "Pumpjack" was slow out of the chute on his first
attempt, and he was given a second ride later in the show on board "Baked
Apple," which earned the Aledo cowboy 79 points and a one-point lead over
Rance Bray of Dumas in the event. Bray picked up 78 points for his ride
on "Crossroads," and Sam Spreadborough was one point behind Bray in third
place, following his ride on "Smkls Red to Win."
In the roping events, there was one new leader in the average after Wednesday's
show. Andrews cowboy Vin Fisher took over first in the average at 20.1 seconds
for two rides in tie-down calf roping, after a 10.3 second effort. Moving
into second place on the average was Giovanni Davis, who isn't among the
leaders in either the first or second go-rounds, but whose combined 21.2
second time is one-tenth of a second better than the leader prior to last
night's show, J.D. Kibbe.
Neal Felton of Mountain Home maintained his lead in the second go-round,
at 9.4 seconds.
In steer roping, defending National Finals Rodeo All-Around champion,
and three-time West of the Pecos Rodeo All-Around Cowboy Trevor Brazile
of Anson maintained first place in the average after three attempts, with
a 46.6 combined time. Roy Angermiller of Uvalde and Dan Fisher of Andrews
also held onto the No. 2 and 3 spots in the average, with 53.1 and 54.7
times.
The only change among the leaders in the third go-round was Rooster Brown,
who took over sixth place with a 16.1 time, the best of the night on Wednesday.
Brazile and Wayne Forner of El Paso also remained on top in the average
in team roping, at 13.3 seconds on two tries. All of the leaders in the
second go-round remained unchanged on Wednesday, but in the average Vin and
Dan Fisher did move into ninth place overall, with an 18.2 second combined
time. The Top 12 finishers in the average will return for Saturday's finals.
In steer wrestling, Mickey Gee of Wichita Falls remained first in the
average at 9.0 seconds, and held onto the top spot in the second go-round,
at 4.1 seconds. Chad Weaver of Stephenville had the best effort on Wednesday,
a 5.3 second time, to move into third place in the second go-round, and
Marty McFall of Brownwood had a 5.7 second time to tie Jarrod Pilans of
Streetman for third place.
McFall's time also moved him into a tie for fifth place in the average,
at 15.6 seconds, with Joey Ball of Salem, N.J. Monty Eakin of Amarillo also
moved into the Top 12 in the average, at 16.8 seconds, and Jeff Underwood
of Cleburne also is among the Top 12, with a 24.3 second time.
In the ladies' barrel race, Jackie Bob Cox of Del Rio leads with a 17.85
second time, while Cindy Smith of Hobbs, N.M. is next at 17.90 seconds.
Robin Baver of Athens, Tx., is the other barrel racer to break 18 seconds
so far, and is in third place with a 17.99 second time.
Tonight's second show will start at 8 p.m. with the grand entry, as will
the final two nights of this year's rodeo, on Friday and
Boy scheduled for release today from RCH
By JENNIFER GALVAN
Staff Writer
PECOS, Thursday, July 3, 2003 -- The young boy who fell off a float during
Wednesday's West of the Pecos Parade was kept over night at Reeves County
Hospital and was scheduled to be released sometime today.
Pecos Police Chief Clay McKinney said that hospital officials had told
him the child was in stable condition with no broken bones.
The young boy was transported to Reeves County Hospital after falling
off a float he was riding on, and then getting dragged a short distance by
the float.
The accident occurred towards the rear of the parade as it was going
through the intersection of Third and Cedar streets. The small boy, about
the age of seven, had fallen off the float, landing on his left side as the
float continued to go over him. A spectator then alerted the driver of the
float about the incident.
Pecos Police Sergeant Armando Garcia who was directing traffic at Third
and Cedar then took the child from underneath the float, while other parade
participants, spectators and law enforcement agents offered their assistance.
Though the call was dispatched as a small child being run over by a float,
the child was actually dragged for several feet. After being told the child
had fallen off the vehicle, the driver of the float was able to stop before
one of the float's small tires ran over the young boy.
Task force officially notified of grant's approval
By JENNIFER GALVAN
Staff Writer
PECOS, Thursday, July 3, 2003 -- After a little over two weeks from receiving
a letter by mistake saying their funding would be cut off, the Trans Pecos
Drug Task Force has received notfication that they would be fully funded
by the State of Texas for the 2003-04 fiscal year.
The Task Force received its third letter from Texas Gov. Rick Perry's
office on Tuesday, notifying them the multi-county agency was granted an
award of $503,106, which was the amount officials had requested from the
state.
"The grant will be used for drug interdiction," Reeves County Sheriff
Andy Gomez said.
Gomez added that the grant was good through the end of May of 2004 under
the Edward Byrne Memorial Fund Program.
The grant provides the Task Force with only 75 percent of the funding.
The agency must come up with the remaining 25 percent on its own.
"The total project cost will be $670,808," Gomez said. "We then have
to come up with 25 percent of that, which is $167,702."
In a previous interview with Gomez, he said that the county had not had
to pay one cent of the 25 percent matching cost in previous years, because
they had come up with that percentage through seizures the Task Force had
made.
The first letter sent out by the Criminal Justice Division of the Texas
Governor's Office was received Friday, June 6 informing Gomez that the Trans
Pecos Drug Task Force would not receive funding for the 2003-04 fiscal year.
"CJD appreciates your endeavors in narcotics law enforcement but declines
funding of the application for the 2003-2004 grant period," that letter stated.
The second letter came almost a week after the first one stating that
they had nothing to worry about, and that the letter had been sent to the
Trans-Pecos Drug Task Force and nearly a dozen other task forces by mistake.
"Last Friday my office sent you a letter notifying you that your drug
task force was not being funded," Criminal Justice Division Executive Director
Ken Nicolas wrote in that letter. "That letter should have told you that
funding was contingent on certification of the budget, a process that is
likely to take longer than usual because of the state's economy."
Gomez said in June that out of the 46 Texas Drug Task Forces only five
would be cut, the Trans Pecos Drug Task Force not being one of them.
According to the Houston Chronicle, the five drug task forces that would
not receive funding and identified them as North Central Narcotics Force
in Denton County, Galveston County Narcotics Task Force, 25th Judicial Task
Force in Guadalupe County, South Texas Specialized Crime and Narcotics Task
Force in Kleberg County and Tri-County Narcotics Task Force in San Patricio
County.
County seeking advice on bonds in RCDC crisis
By SMOKEY BRIGGS
and ROSIE FLORES
Staff Writer
PECOS, Thursday, July 3, 2003 -- Reeves County has retained the services
of a bond attorney out of Waco to advise the county of its options regarding
the county's lease of the Reeves County Detention Center (RCDC) complex,
Reeves County Judge Jimmy Galindo said this morning.
Over the past two weeks a few key issues have come to the forefront as
the financial crisis at the RCDC has unfolded.
In short, the first payment on the newly built wing of RCDC has come
due and RCDC does not have the cash in the bank to make the payment, due
to a lack of U.S. Bureau of Prison inmates at the new 960-bed RCDC III facility.
A second day of negotiations on Thursday failed to produce any agreement
between the county and federal officials on either setting a new man/day
rate for the 2,000 BOP inmates already at the RCDC I and II facilities,
or in getting new inmates for the just-completed RCDC III prison.
"We met again in another teleconference and the negotiation session
failed," said Galindo.
The Reeves County Detention is currently the largest single employer
in Reeves County. However, despite the problems with the BOP, Galindo said,
"Those 500 jobs that are already out there are not in jeopardy."
Galindo was talking to the Director of the Bureau of Prisons today in
an effort to reach an amicable agreement, and added that payroll out at
the facility had been met today.
Last week Reeves County loaned the prison approximately $450,000 to make
today's payroll.
Key to the cash flow at RCDC are two issues: The rate that BOP pays to
house a prisoner at the prison each day or per diem, and whether or not
BOP has a need for the 960 new beds at RCDC III.
RCDC needs a higher per diem and a flow of prisoners into RCDC III to
make the bills Galindo said. One without the other will not put the prison
complex in the black.
Attorney Dan Pleats of Waco received the approximately 1,500-page lease
agreement yesterday and was reviewing it, Galindo said.
According to the lease Reeves County was scheduled to make its first
monthly payment for the new, third wing of RCDC this past Tuesday. The deadline
was missed, but Galindo said today that the first certificate payments to
the actual bondholders are not due until September 1, 2003.
"Under the lease schedule we are supposed to deposit a monthly amount
into a trustee account. The trustee then disburses to the bond holders,"
he said.
The monthly payments start at about $450,000 and gradually increase to
over $600,000 before the bond is satisfied in 2010. The actual payments
made to bond holders occur on a quarterly basis, according to the lease
schedule provided to the Enterprise by Reeves County under an open records
request.
"We are exploring our options for both the long-term and the short-term,"
Galindo said when asked if the county was actually in default according
to the lease/bond agreements.
Galindo also said that he was in continuing discussions with Carlyle
Capital Markets - the company that has engineered the private bond financing
for all three wings of RCDC through broker Barry Friedman.
Galindo said that during the two days of teleconference calls with federal
officials, "So far, BOP negotiators continue to refuse to discuss the subject
of new prisoners to populate RCDC III."
According to BOP spokesperson Traci Billingsley, the negotiations only
concern the rate BOP will pay to RCDC to house prisoners at RCDC I and II.
Galindo said that the one positive for RCDC to emerge from yesterday's
round of talks was the concession by BOP to begin the process of determining
what the Department of Labor wages for this region should be.
One of the complaints given to the county during a recent BOP evaluation
was that salaries for some executive positions at the RCDC were too high,
based on the agency's assessment of wage rates for similar facilities in
the Midland-Odessa area.
According to the Service Contract Act of 1965 BOP is bound to abide by
Department of Labor wage standards and has not in figuring the cost of housing
prisoners at RCDC, Galindo said.
Galindo said that BOP told him that the process could take four to eight
weeks and that until the determination is made that negotiations regarding
the rate paid by BOP were essentially at a standstill.
"We cannot negotiate a per diem until the Department of Labor costs are
determined." he said.
Galindo did say that according to a contract modification between Reeves
County and BOP that put the present, temporary per diem rate into effect
that if the final per diem to be agreed upon is $47.48 per day or more,
then BOP would owe an estimated $2.5 million in back payments.
"Yesterday BOP offered $45 per day and a payment of $1.5 million. That
is not a solution," Galindo said. Reeves County had been seeking a per diem
rate increase to $54.74 per day.
Galindo said that the original plan for RCDC III called for a flow of
prisoners at the rate of 40 per month beginning in March of this year.
"There are prisoners in our region (South Central Region) that are eligible
to be housed at RCDC III who are currently housed in overcrowded federal
facilities," Galindo said.
Billingsley said that BOP was currently in the process of assessing
its needs in the region and would know in the coming weeks if there was
a need.
Billingsley said that if there was a need and if the price was right BOP
would use bed space at RCDC III.
Cantaloupe crop rated good as harvest gets started
By KRISTEN CARREON
Staff Writer
PECOS, Thursday, July 3, 2003 -- The harvest season for Pecos Cantaloupe
has already begun.
The sweet cantaloupe can already be found at the Pecos Cantaloupe Shed,
with the first batch arriving in time for visitors to the West of the Pecos
Rodeo to take some home with them this week.
Clay Taylor with Pecos Cantaloupe Co. said that, although they have not
gotten started with a great volume, he is expecting to bring in a lot beginning
next week.
"We should be bringing in a large volume Monday or Tuesday of next week,"
Taylor said.
He added that there are a few cantaloupes at the shed right now, and
there will be enough for everyone, including out-of-towners.
"We definitely have plenty for the crowds coming into town," Taylor said.
They are also expecting to be running for the entire month of July, Taylor
said. They will also soon begin sending shipments of cantaloupe to Texas
chain stores.
Over all, Taylor said that things are looking good for this year's crop.
"Things are going to be good. We're expecting a lot if the weather holds
up," Taylor.
The stand, located next to Pecos Cantaloupe on the Balmorhea Highway,
is selling the sweet cantaloupe for a dollar each.
Banks, government, Enterprise to close for holiday
PECOS, Thursday, July 3, 2003 -- Many local businesses and all state and
federal buildings will close their doors Friday in observance of the Fourth
of July holiday.
The Pecos Post Office will be closed and no mail will be delivered on
that day; the Lucius Bunton Courthouse will close its doors along with the
Reeves County Courthouse.
City Hall and most Town of Pecos City workers will also take a break
and all the local utility companies will be closed.
The Pecos Enterprise will not publish a newspaper on Friday. The Enterprise
and other local businesses closing will resume regular hours on Monday,
July 7.
Weather
PECOS, Thursday, July 3, 2003 -- High Wednesday 104. Low this morning
71. Forecast for tonight: Clear. Lows near 70. Southeast winds 5 to 15 mph.
Independence day: Sunny. Highs in the upper 90s. East winds 5 to 15 mph.
Friday night: Mostly clear. Lows in the upper 60s. Saturday: Partly cloudy.
Highs in the upper 90s. Sunday: Partly cloudy. Lows in the upper 60s. Highs
in the upper 90s. Monday: Partly cloudy. Lows in the lower 70s. Highs in
the upper 90s.
Obituaries
Maria Munoz and Charlotte H. Waight
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 2003 by Pecos Enterprise
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