April 11, 2008
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MARATHON – The Marathon Chamber of Commerce Monday approved a resolution requesting that a “scientific study” be conducted on the “resources and impact” of a plan to drill for water in Marathon. The
Brewster County Water District retro-actively approved the drilling permit
for the Cavness water well at a special hearing earlier Monday. President and
third cousin of Kristin Cavness, Tom Beard, recused himself from voting. Buddy and Kristin Cavness drilled the
300-foot-deep well in February without a permit. The
permit to allow the export of water into another district has not yet been
approved. Buddy
and Kirstin Cavness hope to obtain a water export license in order to provide
drilling mud to an oil exploration company operating east of Marathon. They
are seeking a non-exempt water export permit from the Water District. A
non-exempt permit means that the well is capable of producing more than
25,000 gallons per day. If
issue, the permit can be interpreted to allow unlimited amounts of water to
be exported. “The
board could cap the amount by making an agreement with him [Cavness] and he
would then be limited to the amount of water he can sell, Water District
General Manager Conrad Jon Arriola said. The
layer of water bearing permeable rock known as the Marathon Aquifer runs in a
stratified pattern from northeast to southwest but lies mainly south of town,
Arriola said. The
Bolson Aquifer, which supplies water for the city of El Paso, is said to
reach the western part of Brewster County. The
amount of water held in the aquifers and the recharge rates are now known. “The
state doesn’t have hard data on this,” Arriola said. move
up
Audrey Galindo and
Capri Garlick GRANDFALLS
– Marathon ISD was well represented in the track meet here when junior high
students Krystal Aguilar and Christopher Stephens aced several events. Krystal
scored a first in the triple jump, first in the long jump, first in the
100-meter dash and second in the 200- meter dash. Christopher
had a first in the triple, second in the long jump and fourth in the hurdles. High
schoolers Celestine Garcia and Crystal Ybarra were in Wink Tuesday for the
track area meet, competing in the meter dashes. ace
events SANDERSON
– Two of five Mustangs who turned out for the District track meet here last
weekend advanced to the Area meet in Wink on Tuesday. In
a District meet, places one through four advance. Celestine
Garcia ran the 200-meter dash in 29.61, placing her in fourth place. Crystal
Ybarra, who said she didn’t feel well that day, also came in fourth, running
the 400-meter dash in 1:08.96. The
girls placed ninth overall, scoring a total of eight points. Also
attending the District meet were Prissy Hernandez, Cito Hernandez and Devin
Kolesar. The
kids are coached by Gene Peña and Gracie Galindo. MARATHON
– The Marathon Primary Health Care Clinic will celebrate 10 years with an ice
cream social next week. It
will be at the clinic on Thursday, April 17 from 3-5 p.m. everyone is
welcome. The
Clinic Board expressed its thanks to clinic workers Jo Ann Lister, Isabel
Shackelford and Ruth Spitzer for their hard work and dedication. The
clinic is open Mondays and Thursdays from 8:30 a.m. to 12 noon and from 2
p.m. to 5 p.m. Dr.
James Luecke of Alpine comes every other week to see patients. There
will also be sugar-free sherbet for those who are diabetic and still want to
enjoy a cold cone on a warm day. ALPINE – The GFWC Woman’s Club of Alpine is host to the
first Annual GO TEXAN Spring Festival from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday, April
15, at the Kokernot Lodge here. “Everyone is invited to see what Texas has to offer
especially in Big Bend area,” a club release said. “Admission is free.” The GO TEXAN program, launched by the Texas Department of
Agriculture in 1999, promotes the products, culture and communities of Texas.
“The logo – a glowing brand in the shape of Texas – taps
into Lone Star loyalty, working to persuade the 22 million Texans who shop,
dine and travel to choose the state’s bounty,” GFWC said. The club will have a raffle of a Queen country quilt,
serve Alpine Best Cuisine lunch and have a silent auction of gift
certificates and other items. Lunch choices include a shrimp plate, barbecue plate and
chicken plate. Reservations for lunch plate tickets are accepted on a
first- come, first-served basis. Eat in or to go area available from 11:30 a.m.
to 1:30 p.m. Music will be provided by local musicians. All Proceeds
will benefit club projects and scholarships. |
”One
of the functions at the water district is ground water management,” he said.
“We want to look at the desired future conditions, get a grasp on what our
numbers look like and see where we’ll be in 50 years.” Presently,
the six-member Brewster County Water Conservation District, operating one
member short of a full board, is mulling over the Cavness permit request. No
deadline has been set. “We
need to put together a water equation,” said Marathon resident Rawls
Williams. “We need to determine the recharge rate of the aquifer and its
historical uses. There’s a lot of information yet to assimilate.” There
is little or no precedent available for the Brewster County Water District to
base its decisions. “People
are getting frustrated and so is the board,” Williams said. “I don’t think we
should rush this process. We need to work toward a holistic solution.” ALPINE
– Jesse Gonzales, Jr., is the apparent winner of the March 4 election for
83rd District Attorney. A
recount of the votes cast in the hotly contested Brewster County race between
Gonzales and incumbent Frank Brown was conducted in the District Court Room
here Friday, under the direction of Alpine City Secretary Molly Taylor. A
technician from the manufacturer of the electronic voting machines was on
hand to help read the tape that had produced fuzzy numbers for Precinct 4 on
the initial vote count. “One
of the machines was counted five times Jesse Gonzales, said. “It wasn’t
intentional. These machines are complicated and the election personnel were
not adequately trained.” Although
final tally and canvassing of all votes in the district have not yet been
officially completed, Gonzales supporters say he beat Brown by 38 votes. The
83rd District includes Brewster as well as Pecos, Presidio and Jeff Davis
Counties. The
recount included the three ballot boxes from Terlingua and the electronic
votes cast in Precinct 4 in Alpine. These
ballots were earlier omitted from the initial vote count because they were not
available. The
Terlingua ballot boxes were discovered three days after the election. The
tape containing electronically cast votes in Precinct 4 did not appear until
two weeks after the election. A
dispute emerged as to whether these votes could be considered official. Texas
Secretary of State Phil Wilson ruled that all the votes, regardless of their
availability at the time of the first count, must be counted and accordingly
he instructed Brewster County Democratic Chairman Dr Dale Christopherson to include
those votes in last week’s recount. “At
this point, I am comfortable that we do have all of the actual votes cast in
the election correct,” Christopherson said. to
BP waivers Opposition
has arisen to a plan by the US Department of Homeland Security to get waivers
to avoid funding issues that were slowing down the Bush Administration’s
border security fence plan. US
Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi and seven other members of the House of
Representatives have challenged the waiver mandate sought by Homeland
Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. “This
waiver by the secretary of Homeland Security is a direct challenge to
Congress’s Constitutional role.” Thompson said. “The American people entrust
Congress to ensure that the laws of this land are faithfully executed, not excused
by the Executive Branch.” He
said while protection of the nation “is a paramount concern to all of us, DHS
must act prudently and respect the laws that Congress has written. The
far-reaching effects that this waiver will have on the institution of Congress,
as well as the border, demands that we act swiftly.” The
Defenders of Wildlife and the Sierra Club have filed suit this week against
Chertoff to stop the waiver process. The
local activist group ReViva Collective invited all those against the border
wall to join them at Baines Park in Alpine yesterday to share ideas in
preparation for the Big Bend Border Wall Conference sche-duled for next
month. Approximately
267 miles of fencing in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas including
six miles of levee barriers in Presidio, were deemed important enough for
Chertoff to trigger the waivers “a measure of last resort,” he said. The
waivers will allow DHS to begin construction of the border walls without
having legal and environmental assessments completed. Residents
and property owners, especially in south Texas, having fought to keep their
homes along the river from being razed to make room for the fence. The
government has sued more than 50 property owners, mainly in South Texas, to
gain access to their property. Environmentalists,
meantime, have sought completion of impact studies to determine the damage to
nature of not only the multi-billion dollar construction process but also the
wall’s long-term effect. Two
wildcats, the ocelot and the jaguarondi, have been identified as animals that
will have trouble reproducing under the conditions envisioned by the Bush
Administration. Chertoff
has said that the environment will actually be improved by the border wall
because it will keep out illegal aliens who trash the border lands with
feces, old shoes, tin cans and plastic water jugs. |
“It’s
the first case like this that we’ve dealt with,” Arriola said. “I don’t think
we should rush this process. We need to work toward a holistic solution.” The
well and holding tank are located on the end of Airport Road east. The
next Water District hearing has been set for 8:30 a.m. Monday, April 21. A town meeting to discuss the issue will be at 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 16, at the Marathon Community Center. MARATHON
– Bennett Jones of Marathon, president of the Alpine Sustainability Project,
will chair the next “Living with Nature, Sustainable Living and Green
Building Festival” here August 1 to 3. The
chamber board Monday appointed Clyde Curry, Kate Thayer and Hal Henthorne to
serve on a committee with him. The
Chamber of Commerce will provide tactical support and financial assistance
and Brewster County Commissioner Ruben Ortega will lead an auction fundraiser
to benefit Marathon’s Community Center and Library. “We’ll
have a trade show on Saturday,” Jones said. “We’ll also have speakers and workshops.
We want to promote anything to do with sustainability including organic
gardening, raw water harvesting, energy-efficient products, green building
materials and designs for better living. “The
price to attend will be much lower this year and we want to make it
kid-friendly, too,” Jones said. There will be “food, music and games along
with an exchange of ideas. There’s a lot going on out here in the Big Bend in
the way of sustainability and we want to celebrate it.” The
annual festival, now in its fourth year, will start with a reception Friday
night, Aug. 1, at Eve’s Garden. The
trade shows and workshops will be Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 2 and 3, likely
at the Marathon Community center. “We
want to promote local providers of these goods and services, although the
whole world is invited to attend,” Jones said. Lecture
and workshop leaders and well as merchants and service providers are being
sought. Jones
told the Chamber that high gas prices could cut into attendance from outside
the area so the event should cater primarily to local residents. “We
want to encourage local businesses to keep the money here,” he said. “This is
primarily for the local, three-county area.”
He
said traditional jobs in the past were “white collar,” or office jobs, and
“blue collar,” workers who toiled with their hands. “But
there is a new worker out there,” he said. “Green collar jobs do things you
can’t outsource like installation of solar panels.” “There
are a lot of solar resources out here,” outgoing Chamber President Neil
Chavigny said. Jones
answered concerns about the cost saying he intends to make the event profitable. He
said he has already pledged the profits from the event to the public library. to
address frosh ALPINE – Molly Hazlett, the
reigning Miss Texas, will be the featured speaker at the annual “We’re On Our
Way” banquet, Wednesday, April 16 at Sul Ross State University. Sponsored by the Sul Ross Student
Ambassadors, the freshman-honoring event will be from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in
the Espino Conference Center at the University Center. All new Sul Ross freshmen enrolled
from summer 2007 through spring semester 2008 are invited to a free Italian
buffet. Class
schedules will be modified to accommodate the banquet. Theme
of this year’s event is “Hustle for Success!” Awards
for outstanding freshman will be presented along with other special presentations. Hazlett, of Centerville, represented
Longview in the 2007 Miss Texas pageant. Her platform is drug and alcohol
awareness and, during her reign, she will speak to more than 100,000 students
through the “Texas Cares for Children” Program. She is a mass communication major
at Sam Houston State University at Huntsville. Hazlett began dancing at the age
of four and has taught dance in her own studio since she was 15. |