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By PEGGY McCRACKEN
Staff Writer
PECOS, Feb. 28, 1996 - Despite almost missing the chance for mammography
services, Reeves County Hospital will host the grand opening of the West
Texas Cancer Prevention Partnership mobile unit March 20.
Iris Rives, assistant administrator, told the hospital board Tuesday
that mammograms will be offered on April 3 and during the health fair on
April 13.
"They will send people out here to go to doctors' offices and to the
hospital for in-service training," Rives said. "We will be the first
grand opening of the mobile unit. The next day it goes to Fort Stockton."
Chief Executive Officer Terry Andris said that Reeves County was four
months behind when he learned of the project and almost missed the
chance to participate.
Literature sent to the hospital never got to administrators or to the
board of directors, he said.
"This is a good quality service for the community and revenue for the
hospital," Andris said. "We were supposed to have a hospital member and
a community health advocate on the committee."
Jeannette Alligood asked for a report to the board on who from this area
was on the committee and "why we almost lost it."
"I don't think we appointed anyone," said board chairman Raul Garcia,
who had earlier told the board about the project. "I made contact
personally because this advertising was all over, except Reeves County
Hospital didn't know about it. So Terry and I made phone calls."
Andris said he sent Nancy Ontiveros and Rives to a meeting to learn
about the project.
The Texas Cancer Council and Texas Tech University Health Sciences
Center have teamed together to form the West Texas Cancer Prevention
Partnership, Andris said.
The Council provided state funds to Tech for the purchase and
administration of the mobile mammography clinic.
TTUHSC will operate the clinic and provide medical oversight of the
clinic services.
The two state agencies are teaming with the American Cancer Society,
local physicians, community hospitals and the West Texas Community Care
Consortium to provide breast cancer education and to help women with
abnormal mammogram results obtain diagnosis and treatment service.
Scheduling will be done from Lubbock for the first few visits.
Diagnostic mammograms will be available for symptomatic women as well as
basic screening mammograms.
Each patient is required to have a clinical breast exam prior to
receiving a mammogram. Interested patients can call 1-800-222-8388 to
schedule an appointment, Andris said.
"There will be other services offered through this," he said. "Dr.
(W.J.) Bang was happy because he was looking for a piece of equipment.
Dr. Bang had earlier recommended that the board purchase a mammography
unit for local use.
In other action, the board voted to contract with VHA to obtain bulk
purchase discounts on supplies; with TPA for a cardiac acute
intervention program, in which Activase will be available to dissolve
blood clots in heart attack victims; agreed to purchase a centrifuge for
the laboratory and a range for the kitchen; and approved a change in the
organization chart to include a trauma nurse coordinator.
They ordered an election for May 4 to elect three directors: Precincts 1
and 3 and at large. Early voting begins April 15 in the hospital lobby,
with Nadine Smith serving as early voting clerk.
Brenda Martinez McKinney was named judge of the early voting ballot
board and Linda Jones is alternate judge.
Members of the central counting committee are Iris Rives, Craig Hill,
Mary Ann Canon, Jodi Exum, Virginia Palomino, Ellen Friar, Frances
Garcia, Dora Villaneuva, Yvonne Abila, Belinda Chabarria, Rosa Granado,
Christina Vasquez and Esther Alvarez.
Dr. Kai-Wood Ma was appointed to the active staff, with clinical
privileges.
Andris recommended the board defer approval of a contract with John J.
Ingram & Associates for services to assist the hospital in qualifying
patients for payment through Supplemental Security Income.
"I need to investigate complaints on the way John J. Ingram does
business," Andris said.
Dr. James Cam said the medical staff wants to confer with attorney Scott
Johnson before making a recommendation on a request to approve Dr. Shun
Chon Lee as an indigent care health provider, since he is not on the
active staff.
Board member Chel Flores said the financial statement is "looking better
and better."
Andris said some collections have increased revenue, but that "the
census has fluctuated all over the board. We started with 11 this
morning and we down to six this evening. We had 16 at the beginning of
the week. It is up and down with the wind."
Finance officer John Lowery said that tax collections through January
were 77.89 percent of the levy, compared with 83.85 percent last year.
Tax assessor-collector Elfida Zuniga is depositing tax collections in
the hospital's account when they reach $1,000, he said, "So we are
getting money one month sooner into our interest-bearing account."
Sales tax receipts are $3,600 ahead of budgeted projections, with
$30,700 received in January.
Andris said the quality improvement programs for the business office
began on Feb. 13, and will be ongoing.
From Staff and Wire Reports
Property taxes levied by local government and school districts in Texas
rose 4.7 percent in 1994 to $15.44 billion, the state comptroller's
office reports.
That's in contrast to local rates, which remained stable for taxpayers
in Reeves County in 1994, and fell slightly last year.
For the first time since 1987, the comptroller said, school districts
reported raising taxes at a slower rate, less than 4 percent.
``For the preceding six years, school taxes have increased at annual
rates ranging from 6 (percent) to 14 percent,'' the report said.
The property tax remained the single largest levy, with the state sales
tax running No. 2 at $9.8 billion.
A total of $35 billion in taxes of all kinds was levied for 1994
government spending.
Pecos-Barstow-Toyah ISD, Reeves County and the Reeves County Hospital
District kept the same tax rate in 1995 as they had in 1994. The city of
Pecos lowered the rate 2 cents per $100 in 1995, after paying off bond
indebtedness.
As a group, Pecos' combined tax rate of $3.02 per $100 valuation remains
among the highest in the state, but it is offset in part by low property
values within Reeves County.
Citing rising property taxes, Gov. George W. Bush has been looking at
possible ways of replacing the school levy. The latest report shows that
need, Bush spokeswoman Karen Hughes said Monday.
``This underscores the governor's concern that the property tax burden
is too high and may be near the breaking point,'' Ms. Hughes said.
As for the slower growth in school taxes, she said, ``Even a modest
increase on top of an already big burden is overwhelming for some
people.''
In a preliminary analysis, a special tax study group outlined several
options to Bush, including: a gross receipts tax on business revenues; a
value-added tax, which is a form of indirect sales tax paid on products
and services at each stage of production or distribution; and increasing
or expanding the current 6.25 percent state sales tax.
Ms. Hughes said the study group should have a final report ready by
mid-March.
According to the comptroller's office, which looked at the most recent
data available, the largest portion of property taxes - $9 billion - was
levied by school districts.
Of all taxing units, counties reported the largest percentage increase
from 1993 to 1994 - 5.9 percent. Cities and special districts -
including junior colleges, hospitals, utilities and flood control -
showed a 5.5 percent increase.
School property taxes, levied by the 1,040 independent school districts,
accounted for 58 percent of all 1994 property taxes.
Taxes by 968 cities reached nearly $2.5 billion, or 16 percent of the
total, while county taxes were $2.3 billion, or 15 percent. Property
taxes by special districts in 1994 topped $1.6 billion, about 10 percent
of the total.
The report found that the average of school tax rates reported rose
about 3 cents in 1994 to just over $1.35 per $100 of value, the same
amount of increase as in 1993.
The P-B-T school tax rate has remained at $1.40 for the past four years.
The 1994 school rates ranged from 46 cents in Allamoore ISD in Hudspeth
County, the low, to $2.03 per $100 of value in Huffman ISD in Harris
County, the high.
Only 26 districts had rates of less than $1 per $100 of value. About 85
percent, or 879 districts, had tax rates ranging from $1 to $1.50.
Another 134 districts had rates ranging from $1.50 to $2.03.
``Taxpayers in about 516 districts, or 50 percent of all districts, saw
their tax rates rise in 1994,'' the report said. About 32 percent, 336
districts, didn't change rates, and another 187 reduced rates from the
preceding year.
In honor of Black History Month in February, the «MDUL»Enterprise«MDNM»
will be featuring profiles on famous black Americans and their
contributions to the nation between now and Feb. 29.
The profiles were provided by Louise Moore, and were gathered from
The Reference Library of Black Americans, Vol. V, compiled and edited by Harry A. Ploski, New York University and James Willows, Director of Public Relations, NAACP. The information is Copyright, 1990, Gale Research, Inc., and is distributed by Afro-American Press.
Black Firsts
The following contains excerpts from a list of firsts in a wide
spectrum of pioneering events in African-American history.
1783-James Derham becomes the first black physician in the United
States.
1786-Lemuel Haynes becomes the first black minister with a white
congregation.
1834-Henry Blair became the first black to obtain a patent from the
U.S. patent Office.
1845-Macom B. Allen became the first black lawyer to be formally
admitted to the bar after he passed the state bar exam in Worcester,
Mass.
1853-W.W. Brown, wrote the first novel written by a black American and
published.
1854-John Mercer Langston was admitted to the Ohio bar. He became the
dean of Howard University and the first black to win elective office in
the history of the United States.
1860-1st African-American baseball team to tour various parts of the
country. They were called the Brooklyn Excelsior's.
1861-1st black wounded in the Civil War was 65 year old Nicholas Diddle
of Pottsville, Penn.
1865-John Rock becomes the first black admitted to practice law before
the Supreme Court.
1870-Richard Greener was the first black to receive a degree from
Harvard.
1875-Oscar Lewis was the first black jockey to win the Kentucky Derby.
1879-Mary E. Mattoney was the first black woman to receive a diploma in
nursing from New England Hospital for Women and Children.
1890-Thomy Clafon, probably the first black millionaire in the U.S. He
was a real estate speculator and moneylender in Louisiana.
1902-Off Bloomingdale Asylum, a satirical comedy, was the first film to
use black actors.(Filmed in Paris)
1903-Lena Walker became the first black woman bank president.
1908-first black sorority, Aloha Kappa Alpha was founded at Howard
University in Washington, D.C.
1910-Alain Leroy Locke was the first black to receive a coveted Rhodes
Scholarship.
1918-Edward Thomas Demley became the first black Bishop of the
Episcopal Church.
1919-Fritz Pollard became the first black to play professional football
for a major team.
1933-The first transcontinental flight by black civilian pilots was
made by Charles Alfred Anderson and Albert Ernest Forsythe.
1940-Hattie Mcdonald was the first black to win an Oscar from the
Academy of Motion pictures for her performance in Gone With the Wind.
1940-Benjamin O. Davis Sr. was promoted to the rank of brigadier
general thus becoming the first black to hold this post in the U. S.
Army.
1940-The first postage stamp honoring a black, the Booker T. Washington
stamp went on sale at Tuskegee Institute.
1943-Dr. W.E.B. DuBois became the first black admitted to the National
Institute of Arts and Letters.
1944-The USS Harmon becomes the first fighting ship of the U.S. named
for a black man.
1944-Harry McAlpin became the first black accredited White House news
correspondent.
1946-Roy Campanella became the first African American to manage an
organized baseball team on the field.
1946-The first coin honoring a black was a 50 cents piece bearing a
relief bust of Booker T. Washington.
1949-Wesley A. Brown becomes the first black to graduate from the Naval
Academy at Annapolis.
1950-Gwendolyn Brooks became the first black women to win the Pulitzer
Prize.
1950-Arthur Dovington was the first black to play organized hockey. He
played for the Atlantic City Seagulls of the Eastern Amateur League.
1951-William L. Rowe became the first black Deputy Police Commissioner.
He was appointed to the position in New York.
1958-Ruth Carol Taylor became the first black airline stewardess. Miss
Taylor worked for Mohawk Airlines.
1951 -Janet Collins was the first black to dance for the Metropolitan
Opera in New York.
1959- John McLendon became the first black to coach an integrated
professional basketball team, the Cleveland Pipers of the National
Industrial Basketball League.
1961-James Benton Parsons was the first black appointed as a District
Court Judge. (Illinois)
1967-Bill Russell became the first black to direct a major league
sports team when he was named to succeed Red Auerbach as coach of the
Boston basketball franchise.
1979-John Glover was named the first black FBI field office chief in
charge. He was in charge of the office in Milwaukee, Wisconsin .
1979-Audrey Neal was the first women of any ethnic group to become a
longshoreman on the eastern seaboard.
1988-Eugene Antonio Marino became the first black Roman Catholic
archbishop of the Atlanta archdiocese.
1988-Lee Roy Young became the first black Texas Ranger in the 165 year
history of the famed state police force.
1989-Bill White became the first black to head a professional sports
league (baseball-National League).
By ALLAN TURNER
Houston Chronicle
ANTHONY, Texas - For decades, this hamlet on the Texas-New Mexico line
languished in obscurity beneath the cruel desert sun. It was a swell
place to raise onions. And the sand storms really weren't all that bad.
But as for fame, glory, respect?
Forget it.
An important state reference book mislocated the town by 20 miles.
Even die-hard Anthonians shrugged when asked how the town got its name.
Maybe it was named for the nearby mountain said to resemble St.
Anthony's nose; maybe for a former resident named Anthony.
Who really cared?
But all that - the sneers, the yawns, the produce jokes - was before
Anthony, Texas, population 3,328, crowned itself ``Leap-Year Capital of
the World.''
Now Anthony gets respect.
Thursday - Leap Year Day 1996 - will bring as many as 10,000 tourists to
town for a four-day party for those whose birthdays come once every four
years. And the celebration will have been worth the wait.
There will be a parade, carnival, hot-air balloon flight, baseball and
golf tournaments, marathons and an arts and crafts show. Savings bonds
will be presented the oldest leap year baby and the one who travels the
farthest to attend the festivities. And, of course, there will be a
giant cake.
In retrospect, the idea of Leap Year Capital of the World seems a
natural for this town 20 miles northwest of El Paso. But for years, Leap
Year Chairwoman Mary Ann Brown said, the chamber of commerce struggled
in vain to come up with a lively idea for a festival.
``They considered onions, cotton, pecans, chili - but all those already
had been claimed by someone else,'' she said. ``Things never got beyond
the talking stage. One member even said that Anthony isn't the capital
of anything.''
Then eight years ago, Brown - who will celebrate her 16th leap year
birthday Thursday - talked things over with her leap year neighbor,
Birdie Lewis, who will turn 19, and the grand party plan leaped to life.
No one else was doing it, the local auto parts store owner told chamber
members. ``I told them this was a guaranteed good thing,'' she said.
``And I told them one of the best things was that we'd have to gear up
for the festival only every four years. We'd have plenty of time to plan
things.''
The initial chamber response was mixed.
``Some just kind of looked blank,'' Brown recalled last week. ``But
there was one member, David Sell from the local Alpo dog food plant, who
had a broader vision. He really supported the idea and we got it
going.''
Key to the plan, Brown said, was creation of a World Wide Leap Year
Birthday Club - and, of course, a massive publicity campaign. Articles
in area newspapers quickly brought 23 memberships. But, as the idea was
broached at a Feb. 1 chamber meeting, there was little time to do more
than plan a very small birthday party in 1988.
By the end of 1991, though, the World Wide Leap Year Birthday Club
claimed 87 members. And the 1992 celebration, featuring a parade down
Main Street, brought visitors from throughout the United States.
Twenty-three leap year babies attended - the oldest born in 1920 - and
the local Sonic drive-in reported its best weekend in 17 years.
As Anthony's fame has grown - the festival has received national
television coverage - mail from leap year babies has poured in. Even a
leap year child from Saudi Arabia wrote to inquire about joining the
group. Club membership has approached 300, and chamber leaders can only
conclude they've tapped a previously neglected market - those who feel
slighted by a glitch in the Gregorian calendar.
Simply explained, the addition of an extra day to February every four
years is necessary because it takes 365-1/4 days for the earth to make
its annual orbit around the sun. The usual Gregorian year, of course,
officially contains only 365 days.
As a result, some leap year babies always feel slightly out of step with
the rest of the world. ``When it comes time to celebrate,'' said local
farmer Richard ``Buck'' Sommerville, himself not a leap year child,
``they really celebrate. They have three lost years to make up for.''
A lone leap year child in a family of 12 children, Birdie Lewis said she
grew up feeling birthday-deprived. ``I always felt cheated,'' the former
Houston resident said.
Lewis, who will be 76 in conventional years Thursday, preferred to
discuss only her leap year age. ``A woman who will tell her age will
tell anything,'' Lewis said. ``I always say I'm not as old as I look nor
as young as I feel.''
``You always have to celebrate your birthday on Feb. 28,'' Brown
groused. ``Or, you could move it up 'til March 1, but then you're not
even in the same month.''
Debbie Apodaca, an El Paso woman who will celebrate her ninth leap year
birthday in Anthony, joked that such once-in-four-years events are
``great for husbands.''
For some, the Anthony festival is a chance to dress up; to see and be
seen. In 1992, Brown dressed up as a clown and, equipped with broom and
pan, followed the horses to scoop up droppings.
Margarita Evaro of nearby La Mesa, N.M., who will celebrate her 12th
leap year birthday, this year will deck herself out in pink baby
bloomers and bonnet and ride on the local Veterans of Foreign Wars
float. ``I'm really excited about it,'' she said. Evaro, who once won a
Halloween contest dressed as a cow, is somewhat famous for the
inventiveness of her costumes.
``I'm planning to come some year dressed as a streaker,'' she said,
declining to specify the event she will so favor.
On a slightly more serious note, chamber president Ruth Ashby - Brown's
sister - said she thinks the true value of the festival is the way it
unites the town. ``We view this celebration as a kind of gift to the
community,'' she said. Numerous non-profit groups use festival events as
a way to raise money.
``The festival could mean one less bake sale, less knocking on doors for
these groups,'' she said. ``I don't think they'll come up with a great
big sum, but they'll have more than they had. And there will be a
tremendous sense of community in doing it.''
Even as the final touches are put on the 1996 leap year celebration,
plans are being discussed for the year 2000 - the first millenial leap
year since 1600. ``We're already getting excited about it,'' Brown said,
adding that the celebration will feature ``leaping events.''
``Oh, we'll have a long jump competition, a leapfrog game. Any leaping
thing will be given great emphasis.
``The year 2000 is going to be a really big shindig.''
Distributed by The Associated Press
PECOS, Feb. 28, 1996 - Precinct 3 representative on the Hospital
District Board, Jesse Prieto has filed his designation for re-election
in the upcoming elections slated for May 4.
Hiram Greg Luna signed up for the at-large position which is currently
held by Raul Garcia.
Precinct 1, a position currently held by Chel Flores is the other
position open on the hospital board.
The two-year terms held by Saul Roquemore and Danny Rodriguez are up in
the Town of Pecos City elections, as is the term of mayor, Dot Stafford.
Two full term and one-1 year unexpired term are up for re-election in
the Pecos-Barstow-Toyah school elections.
The two full terms include positions currently held by Oscar Saenz and
Alberto Alvarez. The unexpired one-year term is held by Daisy Roquemore.
No candidates have filed there, according to Jo Allgood.
Packets can be picked up at the Town of Pecos City Hall with City
Secretary Geneva Martinez.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Information contained in the Police Report is obtained
from reports filed by the Pecos Police Department, Reeves County
Sheriff's Office, Texas Department of Public Safety, or other agencies;
and from interviews with officers of those agencies.
On Feb. 5, David Mata reported to police that an unknown subject had
used a sharp object to scratch the right side and tailgate of his 1995
Chevrolet pickup while parked at a Pecos High School parking lot. Mata
did not give an exact time the incident occurred.
Amy Barbosa, 19, 911 W. Fourth St., was arrested Feb. 7 after police
conducted a warrant service at her residence. She was charged with
criminal mischief between $1,500 and $20,000.
Police arrested Dustin Wagoner, 18, of Oregon, on Feb. 9 after serving
him a warrant at the Reeves County Jail for presumption of theft of
check.
Olga M. Levario was cited for failing to yield right of way at a stop
intersection during an investigation by police of a two-vehicle accident
at the corner of Washington and Hackberry Streets. The police report
indicated that Norma R. Evaro was eastbound in a 1976 Oldsmobile Delta
'88 in the 1300 block of Washington when she was struck by Levario, who
was eastbound in the 800 block of Hackberry in a 1988 Ford Tempo.
Levario allegedly pulled into the intersection from a stopped position.
During the early morning hours of Feb. 12, Ezequiel Morales Arevalo was
arrested in the 900 block of Cypress Street for public intoxication.
Madge Kathryn Lindley, 87, died Monday, Feb. 26 at Reeves County
Hospital.
Services are scheduled for Friday, March 1 at 5 p.m. at St. Mark's
Episcopal Church with graveside services at Hillcrest Cemetery on North
Main Street in Temple, at 2 p.m on Monday, March 4.
She was born July 29, 1908 in Temple, was a graduate of Temple High
School and then the University of Texas in Austin. She organized the
first Cub Scout troupe in Pecos, and was chairwoman of the American Red
Cross in Pecos during World War II, was the first county president of
the Texas Medical Association Women's Auxiliary for six West Texas
Counties and was later Vice President of that organization for the
entire State of Texas.
She was appointed by John Ben Shepherd as director of the Presidential
Museum in Odesssa from 1974 until 1983. She was a board member of the
Midland-Odessa Symphony, and was president of the Merry Wives' Club from
1941 to 1942.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Dr. Harold Lindley on Nov. 26,
1978 and one grandson, Heath Lindley on Aug. 20, 1991.
Survivors include two sons, Lovick Clark Lindley of Pecos, Harold Norman
Lindley of Fort Worth.
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_
Copyright 1996 by Pecos Enterprise
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