Saturday's Internet Edition, July 31, 2010.
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| The Top 5 graduates of the Class of 2010 are pictured above. They are (L to R) aledictorian Julio Baeza, #5 Victoria Friel, #4 Desirae Brewster, Salutatorian Emiley McCoy, and #3 Rutesh Bhakta. They were named at Tuesday evening’s Awards of Excellence banquet. |
- Culberson County-Allamoore Independent School District hosted their 16th Annual Awards of Excellence banquet Tuesday evening. The event provides special recognition to students who have excelled in the classroom.
At Tuesday’s event, Superintendent Guillermo Mancha, Jr. served as the emcee and the attendees were served a wonderful meal prepared by the cafeteria staff.
Pam Young was called on to present the English/Language Arts Award of Excellence and the award went to senior Ryan Harper.
Joseph McBirnie was the next presenter to give out the Math Award of Excellence. That award went to senior Victoria Friel.
Science instructor Thomas Nelson was asked to present the Science Award of Excellence. He presented the award to senior Desirae Brewster.
Domingo Vento was the next presenter to hand out the Social Studies Award of Excellence. That award went to junior Alexander Gonzales.
The Business Award of Excellence, presented by Domingo Vento, was awarded to senior Maribel Lopez, who was not present to receive the award.
Luis Garcia was called upon to present the Spanish Award of Excellence. The award went to senior Rutesh Bhakta.
The Band Award of Excellence was presented by band director George Rangel. The award was presented to senior Rutesh Bhakta.
High School Principal John Fabela presented the Industrial Arts Award of Excellence to senior Ruben Martinez.
High School Counselor Sondra McCoy was called upon to recognize this year’s Distinguished Graduate winners of the Award of Excellence.
After explaining what qualifies a student to get the Distinguished Graduate award, she introduced this year’s recepients. They were: Julio Baeza, Rutesh Bhakta, Desirae Brewster, Jenna Flores, Victoria Friel, Ryan Harper, Lucinda Humphries, Eleno Mendez, Emiley McCoy and Jasmine Tarango.
Calculator coach B.O. Buchhorn was called upon to present Awards of Excellence to this year’s calculator team which were state qualifiers. Team members receiving the awards were: Julio Baeza, Rutesh Bhakta, Jacqueline Grado, Rebecca Mendias, and Ram Patel.
And Dr. Mancha and Principal John Fabela presented the Award of Excellence to this year’s Top 5 graduates. The placing is based on cumulative grade point averages of high school and college level courses taken. They are: Valedictorian Julio Baeza; Salutatorian Emiley McCoy; 3rd Rutesh Bhakta; 4th Desirae Brewster; and 5th Victoria Friel.
Arera Agency on the Aging reps meet with commissioners
Two representatives of the Area Agency on the Aging (AAA) were at Tuesday’s special commissioners court meeting.
The pair explained how the meal reimbursement system works and they answered some of commissioners former questions about the Center’s operation.
According to the two, the AAA looks at and approves clinets for an approved least of meal recepients. If a person is not on the approved list, the AAA does not reimburse the county for a meal even though a meal may have been served.
In the past, that has been the problem. The Center has been serving about twice as many meals as clients on the approved list. Hence, the county was going in the “red” as a result and for many years.
Commissioners, now that they are about to hire a new Center director, wanted to make sure that these problems are not repeated. The AAA reps noted that if the paperwork procedure is followed correctly, there should be no further problems.
And, they also noted that Medicaid clients may also be approved to receive meals with reimbursement. They offered to assist the county to become a Medicaid vendor so that these clients might be served.
Grant Administrator Becky Brewster appeared before commissioners to advise them that Badillo Construction would have to be terminated as the contractor on the Youth Activity Center/Food Bank grant and also the Fire Station grant. The reason was he apparently was having difficulty complying with some of the grant provisions.
Brewster then asked commissioners to appoint UEB Builders to be the contractor for the two grants. At the same time, she reported that the fire station grant is receiving approximately $95,000 more in stimulus money.
Commissioners approved naming UEB Builders as the contractor for the two grants.
And, Brewster reported, the TxDOT Border Colonias grant still has some issues with performance. In fact, Judge Manuel Molinar presented an e-mail he had received stating that the contractor will redo 9th Street and work on 3rd and 4th Streets.
As a result of a decision made at the last court meeting, County Attorney Steve Mitchell presented a Letter Directive which each county employee must sign and the letter maintained in the employee file. Simply put, the directive instructs all county employees not to work on private property or provide county materials and equipment for private party use.
And then commissioners directed their attention to the coming 2010-2011 fiscal budget. Commissioner McDonald reported, “Everything I hear and read indicates that next year will be ugly.” “Valuations on minerals are going down, while personal property is going up. That means more money will have to come from local taxpayers.”
With that said, commissioners then heard from various departments that were requesting more money in their budgets.
Basically, commissioners are looking at reduced revenues and increasing expenses. As budget time nears, commissioners will come to grips with this disparity.