Friday's Internet Edition, July 04, 2008.
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- The pilot seminar of the Rural Economic and Tourism Development Seminar series will be held March 26-27, in Van Horn, Texas. The seminar series was developed by the Texas Engineering Extension Service (TEEX) in collaboration with AdventGX Corporation as part of the agency’s efforts to provide economic development support to rural and underserved communities.
The seminars will provide a venue for rural leaders from within a region to learn about best practices in rural economic development and collaborate with peers to discuss new models and generate ideas and opportunities for enhancing regional cooperation. Community and business leaders interested in attending the Van Horn seminar can register and get additional information at www.ED-Central.com/RETDS.
At the seminar will feature presentations by noted community, economic and tourism development professionals, as well as an update on rural development from the Office of the Governor, Economic and Tourism. In addition to TEEX, AdventGX and Van Horn, the seminar is being sponsored by a number of entities, including El Paso Electric, Capital Farm Credit, First Ag Credit, Luz de Estrella Winery, and the Texas Commission on the Arts.
TEEX is a state agency that fosters community economic development through workforce analysis, technical assistance and economic development training, helping cities establish a targeted plan for recruitment and business growth. TEEX supports communities throughout Texas, the nation and internationally seeking to broaden their economic base through development and implementation of strong tourism strategies and enterprises. As a member of The Texas A&M University System, TEEX also offers training and technical assistance programs in fire services, homeland security, public works, public safety and security, safety and health, and search and rescue.
AdventGX is a private corporation specializing in economic and tourism development for communities and businesses. AdventGX serves clients throughout North America, including a number of West Texas projects, most notably Van Horn Economic Development Corporation and the Big Bend Texas Mountain Travel Association, for whom AdventGX produced the 2007-2008 Big Bend Texas Mountain Travel Guide.
The Town of Van Horn is currently embarking on a seven year economic development initiative, also known as Project7. Some of the projects currently underway as part of the Van Horn Economic Development Initiative include Texas Mountain Apartments, a local retail incubator, Texas Mountain Mercantile, establishing a local community foundation, and various Main Street renovation projects.
Column One
By Dawn Simpson
Week before last we had a picture in the Advocate of the young girls who are Queen Candidates for Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church. The decision for who is named queen is based on who raises the most money, which all goes for various projects for the church. You have probably seen flyers around town and ads in the Advocate for fund raisers they are now involved in. The girls, with a lot of help from family I’m sure, work real hard to raise the most money for their church. So be generous and help them out. I’m interested in seeing how much money is raised for the church, and will try to find that out when it all ends the beginning of May. Good Luck to each of these girls.
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Even though the designated ‘Clean-Up’ week for our town is not until April 23rd through April 28th, it’s not too early to begin to plan what all you can do in regards to making our town a cleaner, neater place to live. One thing you can do for sure is to encourage our city council members as they do what is necessary to enforce ordinances effecting the appearance and safety of our town. Some of the decisions they must make are not popular with those who would rather not abide by such restraints and without concern with the way our city looks.
Look for more information in the Advocate as the designated Clean-Up time approaches.
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Thanks for the positive response to my new “Guess Who’ feature each week. I hope it is having it’s intended purpose - just getting to know each other a little better. I realize that it is sometimes real easy to guess if you know the person well, but others may not and this is a fun way of accomplishing that. I’m not real good at continuing things like this for very long, but I’ll try to keep doing it since you seem to enjoy it.
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Track season is here and from the results brought in by Coach Garcia, it looks like B.J. Fuentes is at it again this year - just smoking all of the competition in the hurdles. I’ll bet he’s ‘state-bound’ again. If you remember, last year B.J. won 4th at the state meet in our division in hurdles. It looks like there are several new promising runners coming on. We’ll be watching them as well. Hope they all have a great season.
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Mary Lynch, long-time resident of Dell City and publisher of the Hudspeth County Herald for 40 years, passed away on March 1st. Much like many of the pioneer women many years earlier, Mary left the luxuries of southern California to follow the endless opportunities in West Texas with her husband, James Lynch. In spite of the primitive nature of Dell Valley at the time, which included no modern services and only a handful of residents, Mary and Jim worked together to help establish the new agricultural community. Her devotion was evident in her work with the Chamber of Commerce, local school, Hudspeth County Fair Association, Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Dell Telephone Cooperative and Lyn-Mar Gardens. Through the pages of the Hudspeth County Herald she strived to show Hudspeth County at its best.
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Ever wonder about the abbreviation A.S.A.P.? Generally we think of it in terms of even more hurry and stress in our lives. Maybe if we think of this abbreviation in a different manner, we will begin to find a new way to deal with those rough days along the way. A.S.A.P. - ALWAYS SAY A PRAYER.
God knows how stressful life is;
He wants to ease our cares,
And He’ll respond to all your needs
A.S.A.P. - ALWAYS SAY A PRAYER
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Enjoy the rest of Spring Break, or if you weren’t fortunate enough to be on Spring Break, have a great weekend.
COMMUNITY CALENDAR
March 15th - Members of the Van Horn Volunteer Fire Department are slated to meet this evening at 7 p.m. at the firehouse.
March 16th - Van Horn Eagle girls softball team plays Ozona in Ozona today at 5 p.m.
March 17th - St. Patrick’s Day. Van Horn Eagle boys and girls varsity track teams compete in the Iraan Invitational today in Iraan.
March 18th - Attend the church of your choice.
March 19th - Van Horn Eagle girls varsity golf team compets in the Iraan Invitational today beginning at 9 a.m. Trustees of the Culberson County-Allamoore I.S.D. are scheduled to meet tonight at 6 p.m. in the District Administration Building.
March 20th - The Van Horn Rotary Club is slated to meet today at noon at Chuy’s Restaurant. Van Horn Eagle girls varsity softballl team plays Alpine here today beginning at 5 p.m. The Van Horn Eagle varsity boys baseball team plays Alpine here today at 7 p.m. The Van Horn City Council is slated to meet tonight at 7 p.m. at City Hall.
March 21st - Nothing scheduled at press time.