Thursday's Internet Edition, September 09, 2010.
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| Everything's not as it would seem at our Volunteer Fire Department. |
- Van Horn is truly blessed to have it’s Van Horn Volunteer Fire Department. These dedicated men are always ready to respond wherever the need may arise in town or in the county.
But, looks sometimes are deceiving. All is not well that appears well within the walls of our local fire department.
Tuesday evening, appearing before Van Horn City Council, fireman Jacob King painted a sad picture of our fire department.
King noted that equipment is not current and it is not certified as required. There is a definite shortage of breathing equipment to enable firemen to enter burning structures.
The five or six dedicated firemen cannot possibly respond to every fire or emergency expected of them. They need more dedicated local folks to come on board and give them a much needed hand.
They don’t have the capability to fill out and report to anyone, let alone the State, to whom reports are due in order for the local department to even qualify for grant monies.
The fire department is hamstrung because it has such a limited operating budget. In fact, the only money the department receives is that collected by the city on utility bills.
With the potential for additional motels coming to Van Horn, and the possibility that they will be 3 floors high, the departments equipment and training is sorely inadequate to meet the challenges.
Our firemen are dedicated and are doing a magnificent job of keeping their equipment up and running so that they can respond, but they need our help!
In fact, King told council members Tuesday night that they need a board of directors to oversee the departments operation, budgeting, money raising, and recruitment efforts.
They also, according to King, need a chain of command within the department that can and will be the point of contact within the community for all things relating to the department.
And, they need more fire fighters to come forward and say count me in!
Our fire department is a valuable asset for our community and we must have it. Because of it’s volunteer nature, we as citizens must come forward and assist them.
Won’t you consider what you can do to help out? The Van Horn Volunteer Fire Department will certainly thank you and so will everyone in the community!
Council designates April as Clean-up month
Van Horn City Council members met Tuesday evening and set the month of April as Community Cleanup Month. They, additionally, set Saturday, April 25th as Community Cleanup Day.
Council asked Jeff McCoy, Keep Van Horn Beautiful coordinator, to head up the cleanup effort for this year.
McCoy asked council for some direction so that he can implement a “Community wide Cleanup Campaign.”
Council approved up to $2,000 to be used as incentive to cleanup and McCoy will come up with a workable plan of attack.
Look for more information on this community wide effort next week.
Also at Tuesday’s council meeting, Lois Flanagan appeared before council to talk about needed repairs and upgrades at Van Horn’s City Pool.
Flanagan told council, that with few exceptions, the town has spent little to upgrade the pool since it was built back in 1971 or 1972.
In fact, she said, “This facility is a great one for the community and in particular our kids and it deserves some attention from council after all these years.”
Flanagan then proceeded to detail some of the repairs and remodeling jobs she would like to see. They include: Enlarging the entrance; Construction of new bath rooms; Construction of a party/training room; Revamp the pump room; and put new decking all around the pool.
The estimate to do all this is around $286,000. Mayor Flanagan remarked, “We need to do something here. Something for our kids. It’s long overdue!”
Council indicated that even if they have to do it a step at a time, they’d work on getting the money together.
With regard to other agenda items considered by council during the Tuesday meeting, the following actions were taken:
* Approved payment of bills amounting to $87,917.14. According to Jodi Corralez, these are the final bills for the just ended fiscal year.
* Learned that the Sanchez Water Well is down. The cost estimate to repair is $1,200 to pull it and whatever parts and labor is needed.
* Council talked about extending gas service to the El Grande/Mucho Grande Estates and agreed that city men would assist whenever possible to get the lines in before cold weather hits next year.
* Council received an update from Municipal Code Corporation owner Dale Barstow regarding what his firm is doing and can do for the city.
* Mayor Flanagan told council members that he would discuss a delinquent water bill with a customer and see what could be done. The customer is John Elder and the service address is 309 East 9th Street.
* Council voted unanimously to get the access line rates with the Public Utility Commission the same as they were.
* After hearing a tax report from Mayor Flanagan, council approved waiving the fees for In Kind Match under the HOME program grant.
* Council discussed the need for a Complete Count Committee for the 2010 Census. This committee is needed to make certain that every citizen in Van Horn is counted during the 2010 census. “The importance of being counted cannot be stressed enough,” said Mayor Flanagan.
* Council talked about the Transportation Program and voted unanimously to raise the driver compensation to $125 per day. At the same time, they approved of the 5310 policies and guidelines as outlined by Texas Department of Transportation. At the same time, Mayor Flanagan reported that the town should be getting it’s 15 passenger bus back soon.
* And the discussed needs at the Convention Center before this writer had to leave to go to the airport.
Holy Week Services....
Thursday, April 9th:
1st United Methodist Church service that includes the Last Supper and the protestant version of the Stations of the Cross at 6:30 p.m.
Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church will celebrate te Lord’s Supper Mass at 9 p.m.
Friday, April 10th:
Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church will celebrate Estaacion de la Cruz at 12 noon.
Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church will hold the Celebration of the Lord’s Passion, Veneratiion of the Cross and Communion at 7 p.m.
1st Baptist Church will be showing the movie, “The Passion of the Christ” beginning at 7 p.m.
Saturday, April 11th:
The 7th Day Adventist Church will hold their Easter Services with Bible Study beginning at 10:30 a.m. and the Easter Service beginning at 11:30 a.m. with Pastor Ruben Rodriguez bringing the message.
Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church will hold an Easter Vigil at 9 p.m.
Sunday, April 12th:
1st Baptist Church will hold an Easter Sunrise Service at 7:30 a.m. at Ann Thomas’ (1107 Houston St.). The service will be followed by a joint Sunday School breakfast at 9:45 a.m. in the Church Fellowship Hall.
1st United Methodist Church will hold an Easter Sunrise Service in the church courtyard at 7:30 a.m. This service will be followed by a pancake breakfast in the church Fellowship Hall.
Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church will hold Easter Sunday Mass at 9 a.m. this morning.
1st Baptist Church will hold Easter Sunday Services beginning at 11 a.m.
1st United Methodist Church will hold Easter Sunday Services beginning at 10:30 a.m.