Thursday's Internet Edition, September 09, 2010.
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| Bank building going up.... The Van Horn State Bank’s new facility is beginning to take shape across from City Hall on the west end of town. Currently, they plan to move into the facility by the end of December or early next year. The present Van Horn State Bank location was sold last year and the new owner is in the process of converting it back to the El Capitan Hotel. |
- Barack Obama carried Culberson County in his sweep of the nation to become the president elect.
Locally, he received some 510 votes compared to only 267 for challenger John McCain.
The president-elect will take office in January, 2009.
Local voters also gave the nod for U.S. Senator to Democrat Richard Noriega by a wide margin, 415 to 250. However, statewide, Republican John Cornyn won the contest.
In the battle for our U.S. Representative from the 23rd District, local voters gave the nod to Democrat Ciro D. Rodriguez, 512 to 182. Rodriguez also carried the election in the District.
In every other race on the ballot, local voters gave the nod to the Democrat.
In the race for State Representative of District 74, local voters gave the nod to Democrat Pete Gallego over his challenger by a 549 to 175 margin.
Voters also gave the nod the Kenneth D. DeHart to be the 394th Judicial District Judge and to Jaime Esparza to be the 34th Judicial District District Attorney.
All the local races for local offices were decided in the primary election and they were automatically declared winners.
The local winners will take office on January 1st.
CCAISD to honor veterans with program next Tuesday morning
The Culberson County-Allamoore Independent School District will honor all local veterans next Tuesday morning with a program to be held at 9 a.m. in the Karen Young Memorial Auditorium.
This special program, put on by all grades, will also feature a special power point presentation for veterans.
All veterans, who attend this program, will be treated to a special brunch immediately following the program.
The district has requested that all local veterans provide them with pictures which will be used in the power point presentation. The district has asked that veterans who provide pictures also provide the following information: the branch of service, years of service, and any combat tours served by the veteran.
Take the pictures to the High School not later than tomorrow, November 7th. The pictures will be returned provided the veteran include a self-addressed envelope to mail them back.
Council learns there will be no TPBBT this year.....unless
Members of the Van Horn City Council met Tuesday evening and right off the bat learned that the Convention Center staff has been informed that there will be no Trans Pecos Big Buck Tournament here this year.
Brenda Hinojos reported that she had been advised by Gary Fuentes that the workload has increased in his office, and coupled with a move to new facilities, both he and Chanley Turner will not have the time to devote 8 or 10 hours a day to the tournament event.
Council members were surprised to learn of this, especially since the annual deer season begins here in a little over 4 weeks. Council members learned that the only way the Tournament could be resurrected this year is for others in the community to step up to the plate and help.
Mayor Ben Flanagan told council that he would talk to Fuentes and see what could be done to keep the event ongoing.
And, while Brenda Hinojos had the floor, she reported that the community’s annual Lighted Christmas Parade is set for Saturday, December 13th. She further reported that the affair will be sponsored by the Convention Center and Main Street Van Horn and will feature vendors downtown before and after the featured parade.
At the same time, council approved allocating $500 for the Residential Christmas Lighting Contest again.
Bob Kinford, a local cowboy poet, came before council to ask them to consider sponsorship for a Texas Crossroads Cowboy Gathering.
Kinford noted that the time frame would be the same as for the big Gathering at Sul Ross in late February. He further added that, “only the big name performers get to perform at the Alpine Gathering and it would be ideal for us to have a venue where the lesser know performers could perform.”
He suggested that there could be several different venues in town for them to perform, such as the K.O.A., the Red Rock Ranch Tour headquarters and the Convention Center.
He asked council to consider setting aside some of the Convention Center’s advertising funds for such an event and council seemed to like the idea. They are expected to consider setting aside some funding at their next meeting.
In the meantime, Kinford will attempt to get more details for his plan and get them polished.
Next, council members heard from Jerry Carvajal of GrantWorks, a grants administration firm with offices in Alpine, San Angelo and Austin.
Carvajal told council that his firm was the premier firm for administering Community Development Block Grants in Texas. Additionally, he told council that his firm also does Texas Parks and Wildlife grants as well as HOME grants.
Council will meet again with Carvajal as they attempt to come up with a plan for assisting the town get more grant opportunities.
With regard to other agenda items which council considered during the Tuesday meeting, the following actions were taken:
* Heard that the firm of Parkhill, Smith and Cooper had been in town this week to survey work which the council plans to have them do. They will get back to council with their proposals.
* Council approved a change in the hours that the landfill is open. With daylight savings time being over, it now gets too dark to remain open the old hours. Council amended the hours for the period when daylight savings time is not in effect.
* Israel Borrego reported that the odorant injection system at the purchase point for our natural gas was operating as a manual system. Regulations require that the system be automated and Borrego asked for permission to order the automated odorant injection system.
* Council members, at the recommendation of Mayor Flanagan, approved the Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions as presented by the Huntington Group. They are the developers of a new 4 block housing project in the city.
* Council discussed a big water bill a customer had received and pledged to find out particulars and get back with the customer with some course of action.
* Council opted, for the time being, not to get a DirecTV subscription for the golf course.
* Council members voted to pay some $600 of overtime to Brenda Hinojos and Patricia Golden for their time spent working at the State Fair in Dallas last month.
* They agreed to write off some old golf course membership accounts and approved the upgrade of the city’s accounting software from Hill Country Software. Cost is estimated at about $1650.
* Council discussed converting the transportation bus from propane to gasoline but they took no action at the meeting.
* And, they approved the purchase of new tires for the trash truck at a cost of $264 each.
* And, after receiving a grant update on various grant projects, council went behind closed doors for an executive session.