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Dear Neil: My Gold Star esperanzas may have frozen this past winter. I have yet to see any green growth. I cut the tops back to the ground and still have them mulched in pecan leaves. Should I give up on them?

Grand champion Danny Luera (Inhognito) with Miss Fort Stockton Katie Salmon. Photos by Nathan Heuer Steak first place Joshua Simons (Placebo Effect).

The Fort Stockton City Council met in regular session on March 23, and voted to skip the city/county clean-up customarily scheduled for the last two weeks of March and the first week of April. Council members also approved the city’s final audit for the fiscal year ending Sept. 20, 2020, as well as numerous other routine agenda items.

On March 22 at approximately 2 p.m., a Pecos County EMS ambulance caught fire while transporting a patient to another EMS entity who was waiting for them at Ward County Hospital in Monahans. The medic driving the ambulance noticed the flames coming from the passenger front side of the vehicle after being alerted by a bystander Blake Heflin.

Former Pecos County Memorial Hospital CEO and current Rankin County Hospital District CEO Jim Horton is pictured with a bench seat that is honored after his late daughter Lindsey Horton on March 18 at the new built student plaza on the WRTTC/Midland College campus in Fort Stockton. Horton worked as an RN in Andrews but sadly passed away last year from a heart condition. The Fort Stockton Rotary Club dedicated a newly constructed student plaza last week for its community service project. The plaza includes a rock art piece with the club’s symbol and picnic tables. The unveiling event included a donation of $7,000 to student scholarships, including one in memory of Horton. Also pictured is Rotary President Pam Palileo speaking at the start of the ceremony. See the Pioneer’s Facebook page for a video of the ceremony. Photos by Nathan Heuer

The Fort Stockton ISD Board of Trustees met in regular session on March 22, 2021. The majority of discussion focused on updates on infrastructure projects within the district, including the teacher housing complex and changes to Apache Elementary School’s air conditioning system.

Just two years ago the first Richard Reeves Memorial Cook-Off took place at Historic Fort grounds site in Fort Stockton. The event raised $9,300 for the memorial in 2019 with over 50 cookers and after a cancellation due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the cook-off is set to take place on Friday, March 19 and Saturday, March 20 at Rooney Park.

Fort Stockton gas stations had a busy weekend of spring breakers fueling up for their ride home. Amid all the RVs and travel trailers pulling in, veteran Ivan Johnson found himself marooned here with his nine-week-old puppy “Pretty Girl”.