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September 10, 1997

Storm knocks out San Antonio power


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SAN ANTONIO (AP) September 10, 1997 - The cool front that rolled through
Texas on Tuesday triggered severe storms in San Antonio that uprooted
trees and knocked out power to thousands.

No major injuries were reported, but the power outages affected more
than 20,000 customers, many in the central San Antonio area that was hit
with nearly an inch of rain.

Afternoon temperatures in San Antonio topped 100, but they plummeted at
least 20 degrees within minutes as the front moved in.

Between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m., firefighters, paramedics, police and electric
utility crews were swamped with calls for assistance.

High winds knocked down power lines, tossed trees over cars and into the
streets, and knocked out dozens of traffic signals. Residents called in
lightning-ignited fires, people stranded in high water and a rash of car
crashes.

City Public Service spokeswoman Barbara Stover said wind and lightning
knocked out seven power circuits in their system throughout the city,
affecting about 10,000 people.

The seven power circuits were restored by 10 p.m., but about 10,000
other customers were out of power due to downed lines, damaged
transformers or other reasons.

CPS crews were expected to work throughout the night restoring power, Stover said.

Chamber, boosters club may form
"purple posse" to boost school spirt


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By ROSIE FLORES
Staff Writer

PECOS, September 10, 1997 - You may get fined for not showing enough
school spirit on game days. Members of the Pecos High School Boosters
Club and the Chamber of Commerce recently discussed forming a "purple
posse" that would fine those not wearing purple to support the Eagles on
Fridays.

Special guest at the Pecos Chamber of Commerce meeting yesterday, PBT
Athletic Director Mike Belew, gave a short speech on the importance of
supporting all our athletic teams.

"I invited Belew today and I just wanted to talk a little about what he
and I have been discussing," said Kevin Duke.

Duke explained that the athletic booster club is open to everyone and is
need of new members.

"We need everyone to participate and we need a winning attitude," he
said.

Duke stated that the group is talking about forming a "purple posse."

"We would go around to all the businesses on Fridays, and those
individuals who are not wearing a purple shirt would be fined," said
Duke.

This is just one of the ideas the athletic booster club has been
discussing to boost school spirit.

"I know it's only one game that we have won, but it's a positive start
and it's the attitude that counts," said Belew. "Attitude with
determination and you'll get altitude," he said.

Belew stated that it's attitude that will make a winning team.

"We need everyone to get involved, we can't be successful without your
support," said Belew.

Chamber member Linda Ornelas said she has formed a Pep Squad at Crockett
Middle School that will be on hand at all the games to boost the Eagles.

"We will be adopting your bleacher creatures and right now in our pep
squad have over 62 kids," said Ornelas.

Hinojos stated that he would like to see something done down Walthall
Street which is used the most to get to the high school.

"Maybe decorate during home games with streamers and balloons, purple
and gold and really show them we have spirit," said Hinojos.

In other business, Pecos Chamber of Commerce officials have raised a
little more than $7,000 for new Christmas lights that will be placed in
the downtown area on Eddy and Third streets during the holiday season.

This report came during the regular Chamber of Commerce Director's
meeting held at noon, at the Pecos Senior Center.

"Tom (Rivera) is going to contact the city and let them know how much we
have," said chamber president Paul Hinojos.

"Our goal was to raise from $10-$12,000," said Hinojos.

Hinojos stated that new lights will be bought with the money they have
raised and others will be refurbished.

This is an ongoing project and something Hinojos has worked hard to
accomplish to help beautify the city of Pecos.

Problems at the Reeves County Civic Center regarding cleanup following
an event have been resolved, according to Hinojos.

"We were having problems at the center, after someone had used it, they
didn't always do the cleanup, which meant that a lot of times we ended
up with their deposit," said Hinojos.

Still, the center needed to be cleaned up and Rivera and Hinojos spoke
to County Judge Jimmy Galindo who agreed to provide services of 20 hours
per week for the cleanup.

"It's somebody that's already employed with the county that will take
care of cleaning up after events," said Hinojos.

Hinojos thanked Galindo for helping out in this manner.

"He was very cooperative, and I know we agreed to take care of the
center and we are, we just needed some help in this area and got it,"
said Hinojos.

Hinojos stated that the chamber is still in charge of booking the
facility.

In other business, Hinojos told the group that volunteers are still
needed for the local Meals on Wheels Program which delivers meals to the
elderly, handicapped and home-bound in Balmorhea, Saragosa and Pecos.

"Donny (Dominguez) has helped numerous times and I plan to do so in the
future and encourage others to help out too," said Hinojos.

Dominguez told the group that he is volunteering twice a week and has
found it very rewarding.

"I was never big on this program until I saw for myself how good it is,"
said Dominguez.

These people really rely on this program and it's a great thing to do,
according to Dominguez.

Dominguez recommends that others help out this vital program in the
community.

Things are coming together well for the fall fair, concert and barbecue
cook-off, according to Rivera.

Several volunteers are still needed to sell tickets at the gate during
the last hours of the concert, according to Ornelas.

"We want to work it out to where everybody just works an hour and a half
and no longer," said Ornelas.

Hinojos suggested she speak to the school chamber member and see if she
could round up some volunteers to help out.

"This will give them a chance to go in free and listen to some music for
a while," said Hinojos.

"I'm really excited about this year's events," said Rivera.

Rivera told the group that they are still under-budgeted $6,000 in
regards to the band. Also this year, three stages will be set up for the
bands, according to Rivera.

In other business, chamber members discussed having surveys made up and
volunteers at different stores such as Wal-Mart and the supermarkets to
find out more about the shopping habits of the community.

"We would like to know if maybe it's the prices, the quality, or the
selection," said Linday Gholson who is head of the merchants committee.

Our concern is the lack of shoppers in Pecos and we would like to stress
that individuals need to shop Pecos first, according to Hinojos.

Hinojos suggested also placing the surveys in the stores and maybe offering some free gifts.

Council looks at street closures for Diez y Seis


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PECOS, September 10, 1997 - The City Council of the Town of Pecos City
convenes tomorrow morning at 7:30 a.m.

On the agenda is discussion of requested street closures for Diez y Seis
fiestas, engineering services on Trench 1, Area B Landfill, and
Ordinance #97-8-11 from Texas-New Mexico Power which supports the
transition to competition plan.

The council is also scheduled to vote on adoption of the Annual Budget
of the Town of Pecos City, consider Ordinance #97-9-13 for levying taxes
and apportioning these levies, and consider a proposal to lease a
building located at 1104 S. Cedar.

The August Police Report and Juvenile Monthly Report are set to be reviewed.

Housing board meets Friday


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PECOS, September 10, 1997 - Pecos Housing Authority board members will
meet at 5 p.m., Friday, Sept. 12, to hear an update on CIAP 96.

The group will discuss the proposed termination of lease agreement for
one PHA resident.

They will discuss a resolution to change Abby Baeza's job title to
Office Manager Trainee and to increase her wage rate.

Also on the agenda is the PHA Audit scheduled for Sept. 18.

Other items on the agenda include:

* A resolution to contract Enrique Lujan to clean out/inventory the
airbase building (interior and exterior) in preparation for renovations.

* A resolution to approve the Lindsey (HUD program computer) training
for two administration employees.

* Monthly income and expense report.

* Monthly accounts payable for August 1997.

* Monthly occupancy report for September 1997.

The same board will meet for the Farm Labor Housing meeting and will listen to an update on the Farm Labor Housing Investigation.

Pecos native plays active
roll with Border Patrol


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By PEGGY McCRACKEN
Staff Writer

PECOS, September 10, 1997 - Pecos native Rodney Hall has testified in
numerous drug and immigration cases since donning a Border Patrol
uniform, but now he will get a six-month break to teach driving in the
patrol's academy.

Hall, who lives with his wife and children in Marfa, testified Monday in
a motion to suppress evidence against Pauline Honesto Sanchez, 27, of
Morton. Hall arrested Sanchez on July 8 in Marfa and charged her with
possession with intent to distribute marijuana.

While patrolling U.S. Highway 67 south of Marfa just before midnight on
July 7, Hall said he saw two vehicles traveling north and followed. He
stopped Sanchez's vehicle in Marfa and questioned her about her
citizenship.

Sanchez said she was a U.S. citizen, but her nervousness made Hall
suspicious, so he obtained her permission to search the vehicle. Finding
nothing, he asked Sanchez for permission to call in a drug-sniffing dog.

Agent J.D. Bates arrived about 20 minutes later with his K-9 partner,
who alerted to the smell of contraband at the right rear and left front
tires of the car.

Sanchez agreed to drive the car back to the Border Patrol checkpoint,
where Hall and Bates let the air out of the tires and discovered
compartments inside filled with marijuana.

"We found four complete rings inside each of the tires," Hall said.
"Marijuana was inside the rings of solid metal with trap doors to load
marijuana inside the rings."

The 24 bundles weighed 32 pounds, Hall said.

U.S. Customs records showed the car had crossed the Rio Grande at
Presidio the previous day.

Sanchez said she had not been in Mexico, but that her boyfriend had been
using the car.

Despite her testimony and arguments by her attorney, Mike Barclay of
Alpine, that Hall had no probable cause to stop the car, Senior Judge
Lucius Bunton denied the motion to suppress.

Bunton then held a bench trial and found Sanchez guilty. She is to be
sentenced Nov. 3, as are others who pleaded guilty:

Jaime Alejandro Adame, Tocho Luna Davila (two separate charges), Jesus
Antonio Montes-Montes, Oscar Hernandez Morales and Joseph Justice.

Justice admitted possession of cocaine. Others admitted importing and/or possessing with intent to distribute marijuana.|

El Paso woman may have helped
smuggle up to 500 illegals a month


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DALLAS (AP) September 10, 1997 - An El Paso woman known to neighbors as
a part-time cosmetics saleswoman has been accused of heading an
extensive network that smuggled up to 500 illegal immigrants a month
from Mexico.

Lidia Diaz-DeLeon, 42, and five others appeared Tuesday before a federal
magistrate in El Paso after they were indicted last week on immigrant
smuggling charges.

Ms. Diaz-DeLeon denied having any knowledge of why she had been charged
with conspiring to smuggle undocumented immigrants and transport them
across state lines.

Others appearing in court Tuesday were Juan Garcia-Pacheco, 33, of
Dallas; Bonifacio Garcia, 22, of Dallas; Juan Jose Ceja, 33, of El Paso;
Valeria Imelda Carrasco, 22, of El Paso; and Ms. Diaz-DeLeon's son,
Jorge, 20, of Dallas.

Convictions on each count is punishable by up to 10 years in prison and
a $250,000 fine.

Bail for Ms. Diaz-DeLeon was set at $15,000; at $20,000 for Ceja, and
$10,000 for Ms. Carrasco, who is pregnant. The other three were denied
bail.

The six are accused of taking undocumented immigrants from 12 countries-
mostly Mexico, but also Russia, Ethiopia and Morocco - and shipping them
to 20 states, including California, Florida, Illinois, New York and
Maine.

"I do understand what I'm being charged with, but I would like proof to
be presented about this," she said. "Because I don't know what this is
about."

Ms. Diaz-DeLeon threatened "bodily harm" to an associate, Ruben Rivera,
"if he were to talk to law enforcement officers about the facts
surrounding his arrest in February 1997," according to the indictment
returned by a federal grand jury in El Paso. Rivera was arrested by
Border Patrol agents in New Mexico after he was found transporting 41
undocumented immigrants in a rented truck, authorities said.

Immigrants were moved like cargo, packed in the trailers and 18-wheelers
with nothing but a jug of water to drink. Others were given one-way
tickets on commercial airlines for a flight out of El Paso, law
enforcement officials told The Dallas Morning News.

The alleged ring has been under investigation from February to August.
One investigators said the operation was one of the most well-developed
they have seen.

"I did 10 years in San Diego, which has the most crime on the border,
but this has been the biggest case I have handled in either San Diego or
here," U.S. Border Patrol Senior Agent Norma Housler told the News.

Dallas became a key part of the organization as a "big central location
that's easy to get to and easy to get out of," Ms. Housler said.

After crossing the border near El Paso, some immigrants were kept at
downtown motels until money was paid for their delivery, while others
were kept in two Dallas apartments, according to the indictment.

"If you look at the time involved and the number of people allegedly
involved, it appears to be extensive," said Assistant U.S. Attorney
Thomas Roepke told the newspaper.

Ms. Housler said authorities believe the organization has taken in well
over $100,000 in the past six months, mainly from relatives in the
United States trying to reunite with family members, she said.

According to law enforcement sources, the immigrants were sent to
Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois,
Indiana, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York,
North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas
and Virginia.

Copyright 1997 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Reception to honor Hispanic pioneers


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PECOS, September 10, 1997 - A reception honoring a Reeves County
Hispanic Pioneer family will be held Saturday, Sept. 13, beginning at 7
p.m. at the West of the Pecos Museum, as part of the annual Diez y Seis
celebration in Pecos.

The descendants of Francisco Juan Alvarez and his wife, Maria Saenz de
Alvarez of Brogado are being honored as the 1997 Mexican-American
Pioneer Family for Reeves County.

The surname Alvarez is the 15th most popular surname in the United
States according to the Institute Genealogico and Historico Latino -
Americano (Latin American Institute of Genealogical and Historical Studies).

OBITUARY

September 10, 1997


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Jack W. Harrison



Jack W. Harrison, 75, died Tuesday, Sept. 9, 1997, at his residence.

Services will be held at 2 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 11, at the Pecos
Funeral Home Chapel with Les Woodard officiating. Burial will be in
Mount Evergreen Cemetery.

He was born May 14, 1922, in Wichita Falls, Tx., was in the U.S. Coast
Guard during World War II and was a member of the Church of Christ.

Survivors include his wife, Helen Harrison of Pecos; three sons, Roger
Harrison of Pecos, Jerry Harrison of Wink, Glenn Harrison of Sweetwater;
two daugthers, Jackie Davis of Kerrville, Jimmie Kemp of Andrews; one
brother, Bob Harrison of St. Charles Mo.; two sisters, Jean Krause of
Milwaukee, Wisc., Bille McGill of Oklahoma City, Okla. and 10
grandchildren.
Pecos Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

WEATHER


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PECOS, September 10, 1997 - High Tuesday, 98, low this morning, 66.
Precipitation in the past 24 hours, 0.31 of an inch, for the
month-to-date, 1.41 inches, and for the year-to-date, 7.89 inches.
Slightly cooler temperatures are expected across most of Texas tonight
and Thursday. The cold front that moved into North Texas Tuesday morning
extended southward early today from the southern Piney Woods through the
southern area of the Hill Country and westward into extreme West Texas.
There is a chance of some showers and thunderstorms over West Texas
tonight and over the mountains of West Texas on Thursday. It will be
partly to mostly cloudy. Lows tonight will be in the 50s and 60s except
in South Texas where readings will be in the 60s. Highs Thursday will be
in the 70s and 80s over West Texas, ranging upward into the 90s in the
Big Bend area and in the 80s and 90s elsewhere across the state. A few
scattered showers and thunderstorms lingered over portions of the
Permian Basin before dawn today. A few showers and thunderstorms
dampened areas of South Texas from the middle Texas coast westward into
the Big Bend area.

24-hour weather info available - See the Pecos Enterprise Website on the
Internet at http://www.pecos.net/news for continual radar coverage of
area weather. Click on the "News" page and look for the "Weather" link.
|

State News
San Angelo Standard Times
Abilene Reporter News
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Dallas Morning News
Texas Press Association
Weather

National News
USA Today
York (Pa.) Daily Record, Sister Paper to Pecos Enterprise

Pecos Enterprise
Mac McKinnon, 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. Neither these AP Materials nor any portion thereof may be stored in a computer except for personal and non-commercial use. The AP will not be held liable for any delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissions therefrom or in the transmission or delivery of all or any part thereof or for any damages arising from any of the foregoing.

Copyright 1997 by Pecos Enterprise
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