Saturday's Internet Edition, May 17, 2008.
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| A Winter Wonderland.... Van Horn residents awoke to “A Winter Wonderland” last Sunday morning. A strong cold fornt moved through our area on Saturday and dumped nearly 6” of snow on the landscape by Sunday morning. However, as is usual with our snows, by Monday, there were few signs of it having snowed here. On the bright side, it was just what the doctor ordered for area mule deer hunters. |
- With the approach of December, the girls at the Van Horn Convention Center and Visitors Bureau are making plans for this year’s 14th Annual Lighted Christmas Parade. This year’s event will be held on December 8th.
Currently, the staff is working to attract entries for the parade. Entries must be lighted, they must be preregistered by 5 p.m. on December 7th, and there can only be one float with a Santa Claus.
Plans call for the parade to start at 6:30 p.m. on December 8th. The parade route will be along Broadway from the Convention Center to G & M Video. Entries are asked to be at the Convention Center by 5:30 p.m.
As in years past, the Van Horn Chamber of Commerce is providing the prize money for the top entries in the parade. The Chamber of Commerce is providing $200 for the 1st place float entry; $150 for the 2nd place float entry; $100 for the 3rd place float entry; and $50 for the 4th place float entry.
An entry form is printed on page 4 of this issue for your convenience in registering.
Float entries will be judged by a panel of impartial visitors to our community. The judges stand will be in front of the Clark Hotel Historical Museum.
And, the Convention Center staff is also planning to hold a Residential Christmas Decoration Contest. Details on this will be announced in a later issue of the Advocate.
In conjunction with the December 8th Lighted Christmas Parade, Main Street Van Horn will be hosting their annual “Show and Sell” event downtown. The event will be held at the Clark Hotel Historical Museum, the former United Building, across from the Museum, and at the downtown parking lot.
Main Street Van Horn is offering booth spaces for $25 each and you may reserve your space by contacting the Convention Center staff at (432) 283-2683 or (432) 283-7494. A booth registration form is printed on page 5 of this issue to make it easy for you to register for a booth.
The Christmas Show and Sell event will be held from 5 p.m. until 9 p.m. on December 8th. Early indications are that there will be food, crafts, arts, baked goods, and other products being offered in time for Christmas.
Mark your calendars now for December 8th at 6:30 p.m. and then plan on being downtown for Van Horn’s Christmas Show and Sell event and the 14th Annual Lighted Christmas Parade. You don’t want to miss this holiday event which traditionally heralds the Christmas season in Van Horn.
Unemployment for October '07 in the county is 2.3%
The October 2007 unemployment rates in Texas were released recently by the Texas Workforce Commission in Austin.
The unemployment rate in Texas dropped to 3.9% for the month of October. The is 1/2% below the October 2006 rate of 4.4%.
Nationally, the October unemployment rate stands at 4.4%.
Here in Culberson County, the reported unemployment rate for October stands at 2.3%.
Other area counties report the following unemployment rates: Brewster County - 2.6%; El Paso County - 5.2%; Hudspeth County - 4.6%; Jeff Davis County - 3.3%; and Presidio County - 7.7%.
Park plans prescribed burn in next 2 weeks
PINE SPRINGS, TX – Fire personnel at Guadalupe Mountains National Park will begin boundary treatments for a prescribed fire to be carried out in the eastern foothills of the park, beginning Tuesday, November 27, 2007.
These treatments will consist of hand-ignition or cutting and removal of fire fuels in a swath up to 66’ wide along the park boundary and along US highway 62/180 within the southeast portion of the park.
Motorists, park visitors and local residents can expect to see smoke or fire personnel anywhere between the mouth of McKittrick Canyon and Pine Springs over the next couple of weeks during this preparatory work.
The ultimate plan, as conditions permit later this winter, will be to treat approximately 7,100 acres with prescribed fire to reduce catastrophic fire risk within the park. The prescribed fire requirements will include having the appropriate weather conditions and forecast, the required personnel and equipment on hand, and identified contingency resources available.
This project is part of a restoration effort to improve wildlife benefits and reduce hazardous fuels and will be carried out with assistance of crews from the Big Bend region and local land management agency staff. The dominant vegetation in the area is oak brush and juniper with moderate grass cover.
Trail detour needed due to construction
One of the most popular trails in Guadalupe Mountains National Park to one of the most popular destinations in Texas, Guadalupe Peak, will take a little longer to hike this winter.
One of the steepest segments of trail toward the base of the mountain reserved for hiker use only is temporarily closed until mid-January while it undergoes major reconstruction. “It is never desirable to close a trail in a national park,” said Superintendent John Lujan, “however, visitor safety is of utmost importance during this period of time when large amounts of rock and earth are being moved along the trail, sometimes in areas that would be directly above where hikers are below.”
The trail closure and detour will be posted to exclude hikers from the area so that workers will not need to worry about injuring hikers who wander into the construction area. Violators will be subject to fines. Hikers are fortunate to have an alternate route to Guadalupe Peak during this construction period by using the less steep, albeit slightly longer trail that horse-riders and hikers can use to reach the summit.
This detour will completely avoid the construction area, will not interfere with recreation opportunities, yet provide for that margin of safety for hikers and trail crew. “The construction crew will be using rubber track equipment that is no wider than the trail to haul rocks and finer trail materials along the work site,” said Darren Bryant, Chief of Maintenance.
“Although this area of the park is outside the current wilderness boundary, we weighed the options of using mechanized equipment in keeping with the minimum-tool concept of the Wilderness Act,” said Bryant. This type of equipment produces less impact and less erosion to trail surfaces than the hoof action from using a pack string of mules to haul materials.
In fact, some of the first problems with this stretch of trail began while the upper reaches of the current Guadalupe Peak Trail were being constructed in 1980. The continuous mule trains loosened the trail tread in this area which later became severely eroded after a series of heavy rains. In some places the trail has washed out deeper than 2 feet below the original trail surface. “It may have been the quickest way up and down, but it was also the most likely place to take a fall due to the condition of the trail,” said Lujan.
“Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in Texas, is a year-round Mecca for hikers, but we selected this time of year to work on the trail to impact the fewest visitors. It is impossible to know exactly how many hikers use this trail because the trail counter and hiker register keep track of hikers for four major park trails and not all hikers sign the trail register. It is estimated that Guadalupe Peak sees about 15,000 hikers per year,” reported Lujan.
The temporary detour will add 0.9 miles, increasing the one-way distance to or from Guadalupe Peak to 5 miles. Visitors with questions about this construction detour or about any other park trail are encouraged to contact any park ranger.