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Archive 2003

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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas

Tuesday, December 16, 2003

'Christmas' volunteers plan delivery of gifts

By ROSIE FLORES
Staff Writer

PECOS, Tues., Dec. 16, 2003 -- Elves are ready to make their trek through the area on Wednesday, delivering gifts to children in the community that would otherwise not experience a joyful holiday.

Gifts will be delivered to families and children in the community tomorrow, after 5 p.m., according to Christmas For Kids organizer Sofia Baeza.

"We'll be loading the trailer up at 5 p.m. and start delivering the gifts," said Baeza.

Baeza said that the group has been working diligently on buying and wrapping the gifts for the 512 children on the list this year. "The number is up a little from last year," said Baeza. "Last year we had 492 children on the list and 167 families and this year it's 512 kids and 171 families," she said.

The group is comprised of volunteers who raise funds to provide the essentials for children in the community, who would otherwise lose out on having a Merry Christmas.

"Our main goal is to provide a happy Christmas for as many children in the community as we can," said Baeza. "We don't just provide toys, but the essentials, such as coats and shoes."

Baeza said that about 17 children did not qualify for the program, either because they did not live in the Pecos-Barstow-Toyah ISD or didn't meet the financial criteria outlined in the application.

"We had some applicants from other towns, but we can only provide for the ones in the Pecos-Barstow-Toyah ISD area," she said.

Deliveries of the gifts will be made on Wednesday, Baeza said, "But we will help in an emergency situation. If anybody knows of a family that is in dire need, we will help them up until the 24th."

"We always have a lot of good help and a lot of volunteers," said elf Linda Clark. "We want them to know that we really do appreciate all their help."

Clark said that anyone who wanted to help out with the deliveries could do so at the sheriff's department office on Wednesday, beginning about 4 p.m.

Baeza said that she wanted to thank everyone in the community, the businesses, organizations and especially the volunteers.

"We had a lot of volunteers this year. Some of the volunteers commented on how much work it was and that they didn't realize how much it took to provide all this for the community," she said.

Baeza said that this year and next year the group would be screening the applications more closely, after using a computer for the second year in a row to match up all the names submitted to the program and finding some duplicate names.

Only one application is allowed per household. If three adults live in a household, only one adult is allowed to complete and turn in an application. The applications will also be screened to see if the children really do exist and that the names are not fictitious, and family household income will also be taken into consideration.

Baeza said that a lot of their applications come from the schools, but that they are available in some city and county offices, as well as the sheriff's department.

Donations are still being accepted for the program. "We like to have a little saved up in the bank for emergencies," said Baeza. "This year we also helped four families that had their homes burn."

Baeza said that if more emergency situations like this arose, they wanted to be prepared to help. She said anyone wanting more information on Christmas for the Kids could call the Reeves County Sheriff's Department, at 445-4901.

Police investigators promoted by council

By BRENDEN BRIGGS
Staff Writer

PECOS, Tues., Dec. 16, 2003 -- The Pecos Police Department's criminal investigation division recently received promotions, approved by the city council and involving all four of its investigators.

Kelly Davis, Paul Deishler, Olga Lopez, and Armando Granado have all been promoted one rank higher in the department. Davis has moved from lieutenant to captain, Deishler from sergeant to lieutenant and both Lopez and Granado from investigator to sergeant.

The city council has opted to provide all of the promotions include a pay raise that will be accounted for on next year's budget, according to Police Chief Clay McKinney.

These promotions provide additional responsibility for the criminal investigation division (CID) officers and the city council felt that additional workload called for compensation, McKinney said.

The CID takes care of all of the follow up investigations that stem from the reports filed by the patrol officers. This includes most felony charges and certain misdemeanors that require additional scrutiny.

Individuals on the CID team have their own areas of expertise, according to McKinney. Davis is the department's forensic specialist, including fingerprinting evidence, handwriting analysis, and any type of DNA recovery; Granado is the team's gang specialist; Deishler is the Narcotics specialist; and Lopez shares the forensic burden with Davis.

"We have all four on the same team, that way when a major crime takes place, we have four very qualified investigators to work the case from the same department," McKinney said.

"Last quarter the CID department had 77 new cases filed in, on top of the 24 old but active cases carried over from the previous quarter. The team as a whole processed over 300 items of evidence during that three-month period," McKinney added.

In the department as a whole, the patrol and CID teams make up 16 of the 20 possible actual police positions that McKinney has authority over. Combined the jail and PD have 61 employees, with 12 patrol officers, the four CID officers, Community Officer Mike Balog, a Trans-Pecos Task Force position that is currently vacant, police administrative assistant Raymond Ornelas, with the jail's officers and staff making up the difference.

Cable company adds, changes channel line-up

By BRENDEN BRIGGS
Staff Writer

PECOS, Tues., Dec. 16, 2003 -- Pecos residents are already seeing the first of several new channels on their local cable system, as part of an expanded package and channel changes announced earlier this month by Cebridge Connections.

Cebridge announced plans to add 10 more channels to the Expanded Basic service that the customers currently receive. The channels include WGN out of Chicago, BET, Bravo, Speed Channel, Golf Channel, Court TV, Trinity Broadcasting Network, E! Entertainment, Outdoor Channel, Hallmark Channel, and the NBC Shop at Home channel

BET, Bravo, Court TV, E!, The Golf Channel and NBC Shopping were added to the local system on Channels 61 through 70 on Monday, while the remaining channels are scheduled to be added by Wednesday. WGN and Trinity Broadcasting have been part of the local cable package in the past, but were removed by former system operator Classic Cable. The other channels are all new to the Pecos system.

Along with added channels, Cebridge said several current channels on the system will be moving to new locations this week. They include the National Geographic Channel, which will move to Ch. 60, while WGN returns to its former spot on Ch. 4; USA Network, which will move from Ch. 18 to Ch. 23; ESPN 2, which will move from Ch. 58 to Ch. 18; CNBC, which will move from Ch. 23 to Ch. 47; VH-1, which will move from Ch. 47 to Ch. 58; and Toon Disney, which will move from the expanded basic package on Ch. 98 to the digital-only Ch. 202.

That move is part of the company's addition of multiple tiers to the digital service that, according to the Cebridge press release, will allow customers to customize their package to suit their tastes.

The digital service previously cost $14 per month for the added benefits of digital service and the extra channels that accompany the upgrade. Now, however customers can choose what channels they would like to add, by selecting which package best suits their needs.

According to the press release the tiers offered to area residents include: the Family tier, which includes Toon Disney, Discovery Kids, Discovery Health and other Discovery channels, The Science Channel, Fuse, Style, and more. The Games and Sports tier, including ESPN Classic, ESPNews, Outdoor Life Channel, Fox Sports World, and the Game Show Network, among others. The Movie tier that features WE women's entertainment, Trio, Independent Film Channel, Sundance, and Fox Movie Network. And the Spanish Language tier that includes Cine Latino, TVE International, Utillisima, CNN en Espanol, Fox Sports World in Espanol and MTV en Espanol among others.

Each tier will cost the subscriber $3.99 per month on top of the normal charges for the basic cable package, plus the $3.99 per month for the digital converter box.

Task force jails trio in Andrews after drug sting

PECOS, Tues., Dec. 16, 2003 -- An undercover operation by the Trans-Pecos Drug Task Force resulted in the arrest of three people in Andrews last Friday.

According to a task force official, officers with the agency, along with the Andrews County Sheriff's Department, Andrews Police Department of Texas Department of Public Safety made the arrest at 12:10 p.m. on Friday at a home at 1112 S. Main St. in Andrews, at which time 74.5 grams of methamphetamine was seized.

Those arrested were identified as Zachary Curry, 26, of Austin; Victor Manuel Garcia, 21, of Amarillo; and Crystal Dawn Wollis, 20, of Midland. The three were transported to the Andrews County Jail, where they were charged with possession of a controlled substance.

In addition, Garcia was also charged on a warrant out of Potter County with delivery of a controlled substance. Value of the methamphetamine seized in the Andrews drug bust was put at $9,000.

Weather

PECOS, Tues., Dec. 16, 2003 -- High Monday 71. Low this morning 28. Forecast for tonight: Mostly clear. Lows near 25. Light and variable winds. Wednesday: Mostly sunny. Highs near 65. Southwest winds near 10 mph. Wednesday night: Mostly clear. Lows near 30. Southwest winds near 10 mph shifting to the northwest 10 to 15 mph after midnight. Thursday: Mostly sunny. Highs near 60. Northeast winds 10 to 15 mph. Thursday night: Mostly clear. Lows near 30. Friday: Partly cloudy. Highs in the mid 60s to the lower 70s. Friday night: Partly cloudy. Lows in the lower to mid 30s.



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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

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Copyright 2003 by Pecos Enterprise