Saturday's Internet Edition, May 17, 2008.
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| School trustees honored.... Van Horn Junior High School Principal John Fabela (standing) and members of his staff, faculty and student council treated local school board trustees to a luncheon yesterday as a part of School Board Recognition Month. Trustees are (L to R) Andrea Ramirez, Angie Gonzales, Omar Ortega, Superintendet Fred Liner, Lisa Cottrell and Joe Morales. |
- The faculty, the staff, and the student council of Van Horn Junior High got together to show their appreciation to the school board yesterday. This month is School Board Appreciation Month and rightly so. We all wanted to thank them for all they do.
Principal John Fabela said, “Board Members come from all walks of life. They represent the community’s beliefs and values. They are the true volunteers for they are focused on continuous improvement for our students. Their actions and decisions affect the present and the future lives of children.”
Today we want everyone to be aware of some of the things these board members do. They attend an endless string of meetings every month, month after month. They meet to discuss school safety, diversity, dropout prevention, and property that the district has to take care of.
They have countless reports to read, agendas to discuss, proposals, contracts to go over, and improvements to be made. They hire administrators, they listen to staff and student concerns, they also recognize outstanding programs, attend seminars, and training sessions to keep up to date on what is necessary to keep the schools in compliance.
We all have to remember that they have to make decisions which sometimes are not popular but they are necessary for the district to survive. Sometimes it is easy to criticize the school board but we do not know all the facts, they have the facts and make decisions based on those facts.
If you see a board member, thank him or her for all they do, they have a hard job but they are willing to serve to help our children, and there lies the will to keep on doing it regardless of what comes.
Column One
By Dawn Simpson
Forty years ago this month was a very exciting time in Van Horn. If you were around here anytime then and into the early 70s, you well remember what the Elcor Corporation did for Van Horn’s growth at that time. In fact, in the January 18, 1968 issue of the Van Horn Advocate it was reported this way:
“Probably one of the most significant occasions in the history of Van Horn and Culberson County, since the coming of the railroad, will be held here next Thursday, Jan. 25, with the groundbreaking for Elcor Chemical Corp.’s sulphur plant. The formal groundbreaking ceremony at the $26 million plant site, will ‘kickoff’ a new industry, expected to be a tremendous boost to the economy and growth of Van Horn and Culberson County.”
Yes, the following few years were very good years for Van Horn. The schools were enlarged, new houses were built (Clark Heights), the hospital was built, retail businesses were opened, and civic involvement and leadership was at its best. This continued for about four years. Then, unfortunately, the price of sulphur on the world market bottomed and Elcor ceased operations.
Since that time Van Horn has been hoping and dreaming of something that would spur our economy in much the same way. We’ve had some growth in the tourist related areas, like truck stops, etc. but nothing that really brought in spin off businesses and growth. However, when Blue Origin announced that they would be locating their launch facility here in our county, it gave us an added amount of hope, but no immediate long-term growth. Now the possibility of oil & gas exploration bringing economic growth to our area has us again hopeful.
If you could look through the pages of the Advocate newspapers from 1968 through about 1974, you would not even believe that it was the same town that the 80s and 90s brought. But here’s hoping that we will experience that feeling of optimism and pride again very soon.
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Something I learned when looking in the January 1968 Advocate was that Van Horn had a special ‘local’ mailing rate of 4 cents. The national rate for first class was 5 cents. Since Van Horn did not have house-to-house delivery, local residents enjoyed a one cent less ‘drop’ rate of 4 cents on local mail. However, effective Jan. 8th, 1968, all first class mail, both local and out-of-town went up to 6 cents! Another big increase went into effect on second class mail, which includes mostly newspapers and magazines.
Which brings me to my next point. Some of you have commented about the raise in our subscription prices. Well, we too have had a huge increase in our second class mail rates. In fact it has jumped 58.83 percent since July 15, 2007. That, coupled with the printing cost increase and cost of gas to get it back from the printers has made it necessary for us to raise our subscription prices. Please believe me when I say that we did not do it in order to make more of a profit, but just to cut our losses
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Starting next week we plan to change the focus of our ‘Scenes on Broadway’. Our intention was to point out the fact that our city ordinances are not being enforced and as a result, far too many places on our main street were looking like ‘a third world country’ as one Letter to the Editor so bluntly put it. We weren’t even intentionally targeting business owners, but instead a city government that has grown far too lax in their enforcement of ordinances dealing with junk vehicles, old tires, overgrown weeds, trash, etc. It had nothing to do with the fact that buildings needed upgraded or painted. We understand that those things take money and sometimes that just isn’t available. But getting rid of junk, trash and weeds takes little if any money.
For us it was just about ‘junk’ and the way we would like our town to look to visitors . And we felt like we did a little good. If we offended anyone, we certainly didn’t mean to.
However, there are places on Main Street that, in spite of the fact that they may be older buildings, owners have made them look as good as possible and the grounds around them are free of weeds and trash. They are an asset to our town and deserve some positive recognition. We’ll point out a few of them over the next few weeks.
COMMUNITY CALENDAR
January 31st - The Harlem Starz perform tonight at the High School Gym at 7 p.m. (Doors open at 6 p.m.).
February 1st - The Van Horn Eagle girls and boys JV and varsity basketball teams are slated to play the Ozona Lions here this evening beginning at 5 p.m.
February 2nd - Nothing scheduled at press time.
February 3rd - Attend the church of your choice.
February 4th - Nothing scheduled at press time.
February 5th - Members of the Van Horn Rotary Club are slated to meet today at noon at Chuy’s Restaurant. The Van Horn Eagle girls and boys JV and varsity basketball teams are slated to play the Kermit Yellowjackets tonight in Kermmit beginning at 5 p.m. The Van Horn City Council is slated to meet tonight at 7 p.m. at City Hall.
February 6th - Ash Wednesday. Nothing scheduled at press time.