Sunday's Internet Edition, July 20, 2008.
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| Talks to TxDOT.... Jeff McCoy, executive director of Van Horn’s Economic Development Corporation and president of the Texas Mountain Trail board of directors, addresses a TxDOT committee hearing TxDOT Enhancement funding input last Thursday in Austin. (Photo by AdventGX) |
- Three Van Horn residents and representatives of the Texas Mountain Trail attended the Transportation Commission Meeting in Austin last Thursday, December 14, to urge reinstatement of a funding source previously available to rural communities, the Statewide Transportation Enhancement Program. Jeff McCoy, Van Horn’s Economic Development Director and Texas Mountain Trail Board President and Andrea Ramirez, Van Horn Convention Center Events Coordinator and Texas Mountain Trail Board Secretary, attended the meeting with the approval of the Van Horn City Council. They accompanied Beth Nobles, Texas Mountain Trail Regional Coordinator.
Four regional projects were under consideration for funding, including the Texas Mountain Visitor Center, proposed by the Town of Van Horn; the Texas Mountain Trail, part of a state-wide program of heritage tourism organizations proposed by the Texas Historical Commission; the Alpine Creek Multi-Use Trail, proposed by the City of Alpine; and the Brewster County Self-Guided Visitor Interpretation and Information Project, proposed by Brewster County. Three projects proposed by the City of El Paso were also under consideration for funding. All received letters last month from Ric Williamson, Chair of the Texas Transportation Commission, notifying them of the indefinite suspension of this grant category, citing the pressure of federal rescissions and the need to redirect funding to congestion relief projects across the state. Previous funding through this program awarded $466 million to 505 projects statewide.
More than 15 supporters of the statewide Heritage Trails program attended the meeting, many of them speaking in favor of this tourism-based economic development program for rural communities, and urging reinstatement of funding.
In his remarks to the TxDOT Commissioners, Jeff McCoy said, “the transportation enhancement program has meant a priceless amount to local communities and [rural] regions [and] has created more hope and real progress for rural regions than any program that I’ve ever seen.”
The Transportation Commission does not officially respond to comments made by the public at their meetings.
Van Horn’s proposed Texas Mountain Visitor Center, if funded, would have enhanced Van Horn’s position as ‘Crossroads of the Texas Mountain Trail.’ Located in the empty building next to the Blue Quail Coffee Shop, it was planned to draw visitors off the freeway and into the town’s business district, provide enhanced travel information and interpretation about the region, and promote Van Horn as a central point for numerous day trips.
The relatively new non-profit Texas Mountain Trail organization plans to find alternative funding to continue its work promoting heritage tourism and economic development in Far West Texas. Established in 2005, it is based in Van Horn, and has a board of directors representing the Presidio, Brewster, Jeff Davis, Culberson, Hudspeth, and El Paso counties. For more information, call the Texas Mountain Trail office in Van Horn, 432-284-0002 or email info@texasmountaintrail.org or visit www.texasmountaintrail.com.
Column One
By Dawn Simpson
Can you believe this year is drawing to a close so soon? It’s been a good year for our town and one that gives a positive feeling going into 2007. Who knows what good things the coming year will bring for us?
I wish for each of you a wonderful Christmas holiday. I hope it will be one spent with loved ones and filled with memory-making moments. I also hope it will offer time for rest and reflection.
I want to share a ‘recipe’ with you. This isn’t something to eat, but something to give your home that wonderful holiday smell. We enjoy it each year at this time and others visiting our home notice it.
1 orange peel, cut up
1 lemon peel, cut up
2 sticks cinnamon
6 whole cloves
1 bay leaf
2 cups water
Simmer, adding water as needed.
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I was given a wonderful little book this week by a sweet friend. It contained short Christmas writings by three of my favorite writers, Max Lucado, Charles Colson and Charles Swindoll. The following is by Max Lucado.......... “There is one word that describes the night He came - Ordinary.
The sky was ordinary. An occasional gust stirred the leaves and chilled the air. The stars were diamonds sparkling on black velvet. Fleets of clouds floated in front of the moon.
It was a beautiful night - a night worth peeking out your bedroom window to admire - but not really an unusual one. No reason to expect a surprise. Nothing to keep a person awake. An ordinary night with an ordinary sky.
The sheep were ordinary. Some fat. Some scrawny. Some with barrel bellies. Some with twig legs. Common animals. No fleece made of gold. No history makers. No blue-ribbon winners. They were simple sheep - lumpy, sleeping silhoueetes on a hillside.
And the shepherds. Peasants they were. Probably wearing all the clothes they owned. Smelling like sheep and looking just as woolly. They were conscientious, willing to spend the night with their flocks. But you won’t find their staffs in a museum nor their writings in a library. No one asked their opinion on social justice or the application of the Torah. They were nameless and simple.
An ordinary night with ordinary sheep and ordinary shepherds. And were it not for a God who loves to hook an “extra” on the front of the ordinary, the night would have gone unnoticed. The sheep would have been forgotten, and the shepherds would have slept the night away.
But God dances amidst the common. And that night he did a waltz.
The black sky exploded with brightness. Trees that had been shadows jumped into clarity. Sheep that had been silent became a chorus of curiosity. One minute the shepherd was dead asleep, the next he was rubbing his eyes and staring into the face of an alien.
The night was ordinary no more.
The angel came in the night because that is when lights are best seen and that is when they are most needed. God comes into the common for the same reason.
His most powerful tools are the simplest.”
“There is no way our little minds can comprehend the love of God, but that didn’t keep him from coming. From the cradle in Bethlehem to the cross in Jerusalem we’ve pondered the love of our Father. What can you say to that kind of emotion? Upon learning that God would rather die than live without you, how do you react? How can you begin to explain such passion?”
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Have a Merry Christmas and a Joyous New Year!