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In the Heart of the Blackland Divide

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Charles Ratliff Honored in Press Box Dedication at Plowboy Field

Charles Ratliff poses with family following press box ceremony.
No one could have ever guessed on Wednesday evening—when the temperature dropped to 22° and blowing sleet iced up windshields and roads—just how nice the weather would be less than two days later for the press box dedication preceding the Blackland Divide Relays. But on a beautiful, sunny Friday afternoon seemingly made for the occasion, the Roscoe School’s longtime football and track announcer, Charles Ratliff, was honored with a plaque and the permanent placement of his name on the press box at Plowboy Field.

Before a large crowd of adults and students in the stands, the Plowboy cheerleaders led an original cheer in honor of Mr. Ratliff.  Then Roscoe School Superintendent Kim Alexander and former coach Wes Williams addressed the crowd, both praising his longtime service as an announcer and his unswerving loyalty as a Plowboy fan.  He began announcing football games and track meets in 1967 and with only a couple of short breaks since then has continued all the way up to the present.

After presenting him with a plaque, Coach Williams handed Mr. Ratliff the microphone.  Admitting that he’d never been at a loss for words, Mr. Ratliff then thanked everyone, telling them he was honored to have been able to do the work that he’s done for so long, saying however that he doesn’t consider it work when he enjoys it as much as he has.

After a well-deserved round of applause, Coach Williams told him it was time to make an announcement and so he did, saying into the mike, “Second call for varsity girls’ 800 meter run; second call for varsity girls’ 800 meter run.” The show was over, the track meet had begun, and it was back to business for Mr. Ratliff.

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CITY COUNCIL HEARS UPDATES, PASSES ACTION ITEMS

City Accountant Ricky Bowman presents annual audit report to City Council.
At its monthly meeting in City Hall yesterday evening, the City Council had a full agenda, hearing several updates and passing several action items.

City Manager Cody Thompson informed the Council of recent and planned City activities.  Once things dry up enough to do some dirt work, the City, possibly along with the County, will work on finally closing up the old sanitary sewer plant just east of town.  This needs to be to done soon to conform with TCEQ (Texas Commission on Environmental Quality) requirements.

Starting this morning City workers will attend a start-up and training meeting at the Water Treatment Plant.  Recent tests indicate that City water is significantly harder than the contractors first thought, and some adjustments will have to be made in light of the fact.  Reverse-osmosis water should be back online within the next week or so.

The City will sponsor an Easter Egg Hunt for the third year in a row.  It will be on Saturday, April 4, at 2pm in Old Town Park, across from City Hall.  The hunt is for toddlers up to 13-year-olds.

Thompson and Carl Childers have been to two Big Country Home Builders Association meetings in Abilene, and there is growing interest in building homes on the Young Farm Estates.  The recent wet weather has delayed construction on curbs and gutters at the Young Farm Estates, and it will now likely be late April before the sale of lots begins.

New fencing around the park by the City swimming pool is underway and should be done by the end of this month.  So should Emrick Wilson’s landscaping project behind City Hall.

The City received two complaints this past month, one concerning stray cats and the other about underage curfew.

Police Chief Felix Pantoja then gave the Council the Police Department’s Racial Profile Report for 2014.  During the year, Roscoe Police issued 40 citations, 21 to Caucasians, 13 to Hispanics, 5 to African-Americans, 1 to Asians, and 0 to Middle-Eastern and Native Americans.

The Council then passed several action items.  City Accountant Ricky Bowman presented the annual audit report for the City, and after some discussion the Council approved it.

The Council also decided to open bids for residential and commercial waste disposal.  Advertisements for the bid will run in the Sweetwater Reporter on Saturday, March 14, and Saturday, March 21.  The current contract with Knox Waste Services will be used as the bid document with a notation and an area for additional services that may be offered to the City.  Bids will be accepted until Tuesday, March 24, at which time the sealed bids will be opened and reviewed.  The bid will be awarded at the next Council meeting on Tuesday, April 14.

The Council approved advertising for cemetery bids for 2015, as the current custodian, Harold Gruden, is giving up the position.  The City will also advertise for bids for running the City Pool this summer.  Both these advertisements will run in the Sweetwater Reporter at the same time as the waste disposal bids do, i.e., March 14 and 21.

The Council also set the dates and times for this year’s Spring Clean-up.  It will run from 7am to 7pm starting on Monday, April 13, and concluding on Saturday, April 18.

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BLACKLAND DIVIDE RELAYS SHOWCASE AREA TRACK TALENT

Kevin Lavalais (second from left) anchors the 4 x 200 relay for the Plowboys.
Athletes from seventeen area schools were at Plowboy Field on Friday to compete in the first big track event of the year, the Blackland Divide Relays.  Besides Roscoe, the other schools participating were Anson, Baird, Bronte, Coahoma, Colorado City, Hamlin, Haskell, Hawley, Highland, Miles, Loraine, Roby, Snyder, Stamford, Sterling City, and Tuscola Jim Ned.

The field events were not held because of soggy field conditions and anticipated bad weather, which never made it to Friday.  In fact, the weather was surprisingly beautiful with sunshine, clear skies, little wind, and a temperature of around fifty-five degrees.

The only event won by the Plowboys was Kevin Lavalais’s victory in the 400 meter dash, while Max Nemir came in second in the 300 meter hurdles.  The highlight for the Plowgirls was Lyndi Wilkinson’s second-place finish in the girls’ 400 meter dash.  In the JV competition, Jet Hobdy finished second in the 3200 meter run.

Here are the results for the events in which Plowboys or Plowgirls scored points:

Plowboys

Event                             Place      Athlete (Team)               Best Time
400 meter dash               1             Kevin Lavalais                  52.35
300 meter hurdles          2             Max Nemir                       43.39
4 x 100 m. relay               4             Roscoe “A”                        45.09
      (Eric Huidobro, Max Nemir, Javier Leanos, Kevin Lavalais)
4 x 200 m. relay               5            Roscoe “A”                     1:41.04
      (Eric Huidobro, Ryland Madrid, Pablo Huidobro, Javier Leanos)
4 x 400 m. relay               3            Roscoe “A”                     3:42.00
      (Pablo Huidobro, Max Nemir, Eric Huidobro, Kevin Lavalais)

Plowgirls

400 meter dash               2          Lyndi Wilkinson              1:02.71
4 x 400 relay                    5           Roscoe “A”                       4:17.40
     (Murissa Horton, Alejandra Solis, Karina Cisneros, Lyndi Wilkinson)

Plowboy JV Boys

800 meter run                3            Juan Solis                         2:22.53
                                           5           Isaiah Gonzales                 2:24.24
                                           6           Clemente Aguayo             2:26.02
1600 meter run              3            Jet Hobdy                           5:43.13
                                           4            Juan Solis                          5:46.03
3200 meter run              2            Jet Hobdy                         12:41.72
110 meter hurdles          5            Johnathon Cuellar               20.75
4 x 100 m. relay              3            Roscoe “A”                         3:59.91
    (Vincent Pantoja, Diego Garza, Brayden Beal, Isaiah Gonzales)

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RCISD SCHOOL BOARD ELECTION CANCELLED

There will be no School Board election for Roscoe Collegiate ISD this year.  Five people applied for the three open four-year terms, but two of those, Dan Pulattie and Tessa Kirkland, were disqualified for not filling out the applications entirely as required.

Both applicants filed on the final day before the deadline, Friday, February 27, and the Board Secretary then had five days after the deadline to review and certify the applications as complete.  When he reviewed them on the following Monday, he discovered that Pullatie’s and Kirkland’s were incomplete.  Since there is a state rule that no amendments may be made to applications after the filing deadline, the school’s attorney advised the Board that the incomplete applications would have to be disqualified.

This left only three applicants for the three four-year terms, namely the incumbents Wes Williams, Frankie Santiago, and Jason Freeman.  Therefore, no election is necessary, and they will join the other board members—Steve Anthony, Bryan Heaps, Cheyenne Smith, James Arnwine, and David Pantoja—to comprise the full Board.

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PLOWGIRLS NAMED TO ALL-DISTRICT TEAMS IN BASKETBALL

Several Plowgirls have been named to District 6-2A II’s All-District basketball teams:

First Team – Olivia Saddler
Second Team – Samantha Ortega
Honorable Mention – Mia Herrera, Danielle Dean, Selena Perez

Academic All-District – Danielle Dean, Samantha Ortega

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RCHS ROBOTICS TEAM IN SAN ANTIONIO FOR FIRST REGIONAL ROBOTICS COMPETITION

Starting today, several RCHS students are spending the second half of their Spring Break in San Antonio at the Alamo Regional FIRST Robotics Competition.  The meet begins today and will conclude on Saturday.

The FIRST Robotics Competition is an annual competition that challenges high school students—working alongside professional mentors—to design and build a robot of their own and compete in a “Sport for the Mind” that measures the effectiveness of each robot, the power of teamwork and collaboration, and “Gracious Professionalism.”  Students build and program their own robots against a field of competitors and experience the excitement of science, engineering, technology and innovation.

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RCISD TO SPONSOR ELEMENTARY BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

Roscoe Schools are sponsoring an Elementary Basketball Tournament to take place on Saturday, April 18th.  There will be three grade divisions: K-2 Boys and K-2 Girls; 3-4 Boys and 3-4 Girls; and 5-6 Boys and 5-6 Girls.  The fee for each team is $100 with three games guaranteed. The first six teams in each division will be accepted.  Entry fees and signed released forms may be turned in April 18 before the first game.  Registration deadline is Friday, April 3.

For registration and release forms and more information, contact Tamara Alexander at talexander@roscoe.esc14.net or 325-766-3327.

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NOLAN COUNTY SKYWARN STORM SPOTTER TRAINING SESSION ANNOUNCED

With the approach of spring and tornado season, the Nolan County Skywarn Storm Spotters will hold a training session on Monday, March 23, at 6:00pm in Room 120 of the Temple Dickson Engineering Building at Texas State Technical College.  The public, law enforcement, fire departments, and amateur radio operators are all invited to attend.

The session is being hosted by the NCARA Radio Association.  For more information, contact Roscoe Fire Chief Gary Armstrong at 325-235-4110.

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WEATHER REPORT: A TURN TOWARD SPRING

After some seriously bad winter weather last Wednesday, winter seemed to suddenly disappear, and it now appears we may have finally turned the corner with nothing but spring before us.

The winter weather advisory given for last Wednesday and Thursday turned out to be 100% accurate.  On Wednesday afternoon a cold front blew in with sustained high winds of 25mph and gusts up to 32mph that dropped  temperatures from a high of 56°F down to 22° in just a couple of hours.  With the cold came sleet that was almost horizontal and stung your face when it hit it.  Anybody outside was hurrying to do whatever they had to do so they could get back inside as quickly as possible.  Then on Friday, less than two days later, there couldn’t have been a nicer day for the Blackland Divide Relays at Plowboy Field—sunny skies, light south breezes, and temperatures in the mid-fifties.

Since then, it’s been very springlike with lows in the forties and highs in the fifties or sixties.  There was a light rain yesterday morning of about a quarter of an inch.  Roscoe weatherman Kenny Landfried recorded a total of .28”, and that amount combined with last Wednesday’s .08” and Thursday’s .27” brings the total for the week to .63”.

The nice weather we’ve been having should continue almost unchanged for the rest of this week and into the first part of next. Skies should be partly cloudy with afternoon highs in the mid-sixties to lower seventies and lows in the mid-forties.  There’s no forecast of a chance for precipitation until the middle of next week.  It’s rare that west Texas gets a forecast this consistent, especially in the spring.  We’ll just have to see how it plays out.

So enjoy the nice weather.  After what we’ve been through for the past few weeks, it’s about time.

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† ROBERT RAY SOSEBEE

Robert Ray Sosebee, 86, died on Monday, March 9, at his home in Roscoe. No services are planned at this time. McCoy Funeral Home of Sweetwater is in charge of cremation arrangements.

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