Saturday's Internet Edition, May 17, 2008.
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- Normally, we would take this first issue in the new year and glance back at stories and headlines that made news during the previous year. However, this year we’ve opted take a look ahead at the year just starting and talk about some needed resolutions.
The resolutions are, we hope, beneficial for our town and community but we have attempted to be straight forward and to the point.
2008 offers very real potential for our town and community to experience positive growth and economic development. To capitalize on this, our leaders need to think forward and positively on all fronts and in every position - City, County and School.
We resolve to make Van Horn a cleaner community in which to live and work. That means we have to do something about eyesores and junk vehicles within the community, and particularly on Broadway. Our ordinances must be enforced!
We resolve to do something about stray dogs in the community. Stray dogs and a health and safety problem which we cannot have if we are to grow and see our community move forward. We currently have an ordinance on the books which says that dogs must be kept in their fenced yards or on leashes. The city must enforce the ordinance.
We resolve to rid our community of unwanted junk tires. People that pile up junk tires on lots around the community must be made to dispose of them properly. They collect disposal fees when they sell the tires and they must be made to dispose of them properly, not wait on the community to come up with a grant to get rid of them
We resolve to do everything possible to attract and keep new businesses. That means our leaders must take advantage of every possible lead to get and keep these businesses wanting to locate here. Our leaders must help them with community information as well as where to find the type employees they might be seeking. We must assist them in finding adequate land resources if at all possible.
We resolve to make existing businesses more appealing and offering better service to customers. This means that each business owner maximizes their efforts to make their businesses better, cleaner places in which to shop for needed goods and services. It means that business owners will maximize their efforts to have their employees trained to provide maximum service and be able to tell visitors about the community and surrounding attractions.
We resolve to continue our efforts to attract and build rental property here. Despite what some may say, there is still a definite shortage of adequatye rental property in our community. The good places will rent if we have them. We must maximize our efforts to look for funding to get them built.
We resolve to make every effort possible to have proposed state services available. This means that we will maximize our efforts to insure that roadside rest area improvements and Highway 54 improvements are not put on a back burner. We’ll do whatever it takes to get them moving forward for the community.
We resolve to get these things accomplished while maintaining a positive attitude about ourselves and our community. In other words, we’ll think positive about everything we do. We’ll get more accomplished when we think the glass is half full rather than half empty.
And, we resolve to work together for this common good. Nothing will get accomplished as long as elements of the community pull against each other. We must all, everyone of us, pull in the same direction if we are to see positive things happen on Van Horn.
2008 will be a great year in Van Horn and Culberson County if we stick to our resolutions, continue to aim high, don’t accept anything less than the best for Van Horn, and don’t loose sight of our goals!
Sheriff's deputies keep busy over holidays, New Year's not so bad
Sheriff Oscar Carrillo and his deputies stayed pretty busy over the Christmas and New Year’s holiday. According to Sheriff Carrillo, the following incidents are reported.
Man shot while tending goats
A 62-year old man was shot in the stomach on December 24, 2007 while he was feeding goats in the desert outside of Van Horn according to Sheriff Carrillo.
Carrillo said investigators located several hunters in the area who may have been involved in the shooting which is believed to be accidental.
The wounded man was taken to Culberson Hospital and then flown to Thomason Hospital in El Paso.
He was treated for a .22 caliber gunshot wound which was not considered to be life threatening. Ballistic tests will be performed to determine which rifle fired the shot.
Man with drugs flees
A 47-year old San Elizario man was arrested by Culberson County Sheriff’s deputies on December 26, 2007 following a 35 mile high speed chase that started at the U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint in Sierra Blanca.
Sheriff Carrillo reported that Joaquin Medina was charged with felony evading and possession of a controlled substance, a small amount of cocaine.
Carrillo said the chase began about 10 p.m. and ended when officials forced his car off the road. No one was injured.
Juarez driver dies in tanker rollover
On Thursday, December 27, 2007, Sheriff Oscar Carrillo and other emergency rescue officials in the county faced a potentially explosive situation when a tanker truck with 15,000 gallons of propane rolled over on top of a 10-inch high pressure gas line. The driver of the tanker was killed.
Because of the danger, it took authorities hours to remove the body of the truck driver, a 23-year-old Juarez man. He was driving on a remote section of Texas Highway 652 about 20 miles southeast of Guadalupe Mountains National Park according to Sheriff Carrillo.
The truck remained on top of the gas line over night until a hazardous materials crew out of Carlsbad could arrive on the scene to assist with it’s removal.
Sheriff Carrillo noted, “Basically, I had a potential bomb sitting on a potential bomb.”
The information shown above was compiled from reports in the El Paso Times and was written by Daniel Borunda and others.