News

In regular session on April 8, the For Stockton City Council hosted a celebratory reception and formally recognized the Fort Stockton Special Olympics members for a successful season and for taking home the gold medal against six other teams in Odessa on March 23. The team consisted of Israel Carrasco, Alexis Duarte, Steven Flores, Arnie Haro, Mario Figueroa, William Mehlberg, Elva Lujan, Jo-Jo Lopez, Anthony Rosa, Elvira Carrasco, Reynaldo Sanchez and Andrew Baiza. All were presented with certificates of recognition. Coaches were also recognized including Chel Duarte, Gabriel Hernandez, Robert Guinn and Orland Baiza. Coach Duarte thanked the council and added “It’s been a while since these kids have had any recognition… thank you so much for bringing us back up here. We try to be the best ambassadors that we can, representing Fort Stockton at the highest level. Whenever they ask us, where are you guys from, whether we’re in Amarillo, Abilene, San Angelo or those places we go to, we tell ‘em, it’s Fort Stockton. It’s Fort Stockton, Texas, with Comanche Springs flowing at times. Thank you so much, we appreciate this from the bottom of our hearts.”

CATCHING SOME AIR

The Pecos County Commissioners Court met in a regular session on Monday, April 8, with multiple agenda items. After the invocation and approving previous meeting minutes, the court proceeded to approve the following items.

The College of Agriculture, Life, and Physical Science at Sul Ross State University will host 114 regional members of 4-H and Future Farmers of America who will compete in six separate career development events on Thursday, April 4.

In many places throughout the world, we just celebrated Easter Sunday. For Christians, this is not only the day that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is celebrated, but the season of 50 days that special attention is paid to that resurrection that brings new life. Many symbols are associated with this holiday such as eggs for new life, and in the northern hemisphere, the green of the new life of spring. Rabbits are also associated with this season, for their ability to rapidly bring new life into the world, and if you are a Cadbury egg fan, the Easter Bunny is laying eggs for Pete’s sake, even as many other animal species such as a chicken and a lion compete to become the next Cadbury Bunny by putting on fake bunny ears. This is quite a humorous and strange sight.

It was lying on the ground, a beautiful metal cross over 77 feet long and 40 feet wide at the crossbar and weighed 70 tons. It took over two years to build by the largest art foundry in the United States. It will turn a reddish brown to emphasize the shed blood of Jesus Christ. It was to be placed in the Kerrville area near the interstate on a hill with 23 acres and includes prayer gardens and public restrooms. It was all done with private donations and was nondenominational. All kinds of lawsuits and permanent injunctions were filed objecting to the cross. But guess what? That beautiful cross was erected in 2010. We have choices in life and one of those choices is what will we do with the cross? Will we totally reject it and what was done there, or will we accept it? It was over 2000 years ago when the only Son of God, (Matthew 27:43) Jesus Christ hung there until he died and His innocent red blood ran down on it, (Isaiah 53:5-7). It was only then that our sins could ever be forgiven when God saw the blood shed for us or on our behalf, (Romans 5:8, 2 Corinthians 5:21, 1 Peter 3:18). We stand either rejecting the cross and the one who died there or acknowledging the cross and accepting to the one who died there, (Acts 2:35, John 20:27&28).

The stars at night are big and bright, but not every city on the globe can see them. However, within the guarded International Dark Sky Reserve, inhabitants, which includes all forms of life, can still enjoy the night sky and the benefits the darkness offers.

A seminar for West Texas landowners will be conducted on Saturday, April 13 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the conference room at Big Bend Telephone. This seminar is being offered by Texas A& M AgriLife Extension and lunch will be provided by Capital Farm Credit.

The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service will host a leasing workshop for ranchers on April 6 in San Angelo. The half-day workshop will be held from 9 a.m.1:30 p.m.

The Fort Stockton Prowlers softball team took to the road on Tuesday, March 26 to finish up round one of district play in Andrews. The Prowlers would strike first in the first inning by scoring two runs and lead 2-1 after the first inning. They added a solo run in the fourth and played strong defense until the bottom of the sixth when Andrews would plate three runs and prevail 5-3. Gabby Madrid pitched six solid innings and struck out nine Mustang batters, but the Prowler offense could not produce when opportunity arose to send their district record to 2-3 after the first round.