Kudos to Kendrick Oil Co. for saving Friona taxpayers money. Work has started on a portion of Virginia Street to concrete about 140” south from Highway 60. The paving by Kendrick will stop the wear and tear caused by trucks accessing the Kendrick Truck Wash. Repaving that strip of Virginia would have cost the city about $250,000 according to city manager Patricia Phipps. Kendrick Oil is estimated to spend about $150,000 to fix the street and it will be returned to the city once work is complete.
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The school board election May 7 results: Ricky Barnett 440. Becky Riethmayer 399, Maria Monreal Garcia 207. Close to 400 people chose early voting. Barnett and Riethmayer were incumbents. I’m told 533 people voted. Big thanks to Kathy Sandoval at the school administration office for serving those 400 early voters.
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Congrats to Chieftain baseball. For the first time in school history a baseball team won a playoff game, beating Childress 2 out of 3 to win the bi-district Golden Glove. Check out the team photo and info on the front page. The team has two brothers, Matthew Mireles, a freshman and Mason Mireles a senior. They also have twin brothers, sophomores Ivan and Isaac Duran. Good luck coaches and players.
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Andrews is 168 miles from Friona. It is tough to figure out the logistics for parents and fans to attend the Chiefs playoff games with Alpine. First game is 6:00 p.m. Thursday, then the second/third games start at 3:00 p.m. Saturday. To drive roundtrip in one day is tough. Alpine has some athletes in the state track meet Friday so I’m told they will fly them to Austin for track then back to Andrews for baseball Saturday. The Chieftain team will stay in a hotel from Thursday to Saturday. On Friday they will have study hall and batting practice and some relax time before Saturday’s game.
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To help with volleyball camp this summer, volleyball moms Britny Pope and Casey Sharrock are taking orders for smoked pork ribs available for pick up Saturday May 28 from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Interbank parking lot. Graduation is May 27 and Memorial Day is Monday May 30. A long weekend with visitors in town for graduation mean you can let them help with cooking.
The ribs are $35 per rack. The volleyball girls will have a car wash that day and sell sausage wraps for $2.00. All the proceeds help fund volleyball camps for the high school volleyball girls. To order you can call or text Britny at 806-346-3001 or order on the Friona Trading Post Facebook page.
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It was nice to see Paige Tyler in the Friona post office this week. Paige has been carrying a walking postal route in Hereford for some time but is now back home with us. Yay.
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No JV cheerleaders for next school year. Amber Drake, cheerleader sponsor, says tryouts were held and not enough girls tried out or made the squad. Two girls that tried out for JV were moved up so there will be 10 varsity cheerleaders. The tryouts were judged by three Texas Tech students/cheerleaders.
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Matthew Samarron, son of Jose and Marie, was seriously injured when a car hit his motorcycle. Matthew is in the military and the accident occurred in Fayetteville, North Carolina. He suffered many broken bones and I think a fractured back. Let’s keep Matthew and family in our thoughts for a full recovery.
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The annual all-sports banquet Monday May 16 will be catered by Canna Ray. I’m told she will be serving brisket, pulled pork, baked potatoes, etc. Dana Jameson will be covering the awards for the newspaper but I think I will go pay the $10 just to eat some Canna cooking. Everyone is invited to attend. No advance tickets were sold so it is $10 at the door.
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The Friona Noon Lions met last Thursday with 12 members and club sweetheart Courtney Bunker present. The club will put out the U.S. flags around town on Armed Forces Day Saturday May 21 and Memorial Day Monday May 30. The next blood drive is Thursday June 2 during National Dairy Month. Donors will no doubt receive some dairy products and the club discussed cooking corn dogs. The club will also be selling our world famous French fries at the July 19 Cheeseburger Festival & Cookoff. The next Noon Lions meeting will be Thursday May 19 at Headquarters Restaurant. Come visit or join.
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Kiewit is the name of the company subcontracting with TxDOT to repave Highway 60. You may have seen some of their trucks around. I spoke with a couple of Kiewit workers one morning this week at Fast Stop. They are going to begin next week I think and will be re-paving Highway 60 starting west of town at the country club bridge and go 5.6 miles west then back east. I asked why just five miles and they did not know. They said that is what TxDOT ordered. They said if should take until the first part of August to complete. See the TxDOT press release on the front page.
That particular stretch of Hwy 60 is heavily traveled by truck traffic. Starting at the Case House, J.D. Heiskell, CHS, and Cargill there is constant truck traffic. Maybe it will be some improvement. I hope so.
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Choir Follies Tuesday May 17 at 7:00 p.m. in the high school cafeteria. Admission is $5.00 and there will be plenty of desserts and coffee and stuff. John Bonner is choir director. Ya’ll come.
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Another accident at the Cargill plant during shift change Tuesday afternoon about 2:45 p.m. A Chevy Malibu trying to beat traffic to enter the plant was struck by an eastbound Mustang. The Mustang ended up in the median. See the photos on page one. Over the years we have covered many accidents at the Cargill entrance. Everyone says “they need to do something out there” but in reality there is not much that can be done short of a stop light. Mostly it is just dumb driving and not paying attention.
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They had a Texas license plate auction. Someone paid $5250.00 for a plate with 1836 on it. Another paid $1600.00 for 1234. Then 5678 went for $950.00. The auction resulted in $29,500 in sales. Who knew?
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After 29 years Erma Brownd will retire from the Friona Co-Op Gin in June. She said they hired her part time until they could find somebody. Erma has been a fixture at the gin and we wish her well in her retirement years. They are looking for a replacement. See the classified ad in this Star.
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The next two Friona Stars will be counting down to graduation. We’ve been busy but that is a good thing. See you next week. Until then!
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