Welcome back. Hope everyone had a nice Christmas/New Year holiday. Teachers and students are still enjoying holidays. School starts back Monday. The January school calendar is in this Star so you can keep up with school activities. I enjoyed the time off but glad to be back at work.
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You know by now we have increased some rates. If you buy the Star at Bi-Wize, Fast Stop, or Food Express in Bovina it will cost you $1.00. A one-year subscription in Parmer County is $30.00 and if you live out of the county a subscription is now $40.00 for a full year.
Our advertising rates will increase about 10%. If you need a rate quote give us a call. Announcements, i.e. birth, engagement, wedding, anniversaries will be $15. Charges for a Card of Thanks will depend on the size. And of course we do not charge for obituaries.
We appreciate your continued support as we begin the 89th year of the Friona Star. Send us your news and photos of local interest. We still publish a lot of free stuff. Our email is frionastar@wtrt.net. Or you can post photos and news items on our Friona Star Facebook page. See you around and have a great new year.
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Thinking about filing your income tax? The IRS says they will not accept any income tax filings until January 31. You can go ahead and have your return figured but they aren’t going to take it until Jan 31.
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Watched the high school football state playoff games. Congratulations to the Wellington Skyrockets for taking the Class 1A Division II trophy. Stamford won a Class 2A state title. When I was a sophomore in Hillsboro High School in 1955, the Hillsboro Eagles made it to the state finals and lost to Stamford. Denton Guyer won the state 4A championship for the second year in a row. Friona graduate Charlie Saiz is an assistant coach at Denton Guyer. Then Allen won the 5A state title. Friona grad Jeff Chaney is a coach at Allen and now manages their $60 million football stadium facility.
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Former Bovina resident Scooter Russell called to say hello. Scooter wrote Scooter’s Scoops for the Bovina Blade for a lot of years. When I came here in 1995 Scooter taught me a lot about small town newspapering. She and Jim moved to Spearman years ago and Jim passed away a few months back. Scooter celebrated her 80th birthday in October I believe. Happy birthday Scooter and always good to hear from you.
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Anniversaries: Lee and Elwanda Campbell 63 years on Dec 30 and Lee’s birthday was December 31; Bill and Carol Ellis 55 years; Daniel and Darla Hutchins 20 years; Sherry and Jim Atwell 47 years; Kirk and Annette Frye 29 years; and Jeff and Monica Procter 17 years. Happy anniversary and happy new year ro all of these nice folks.
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I attended the Friona Fire Department’s Christmas banquet Saturday night December 21. Thanks to the firefighters for inviting me. Joe Mann and Lee Campbell, retired firefighters with 106 years of total service to the department were honored by Fire Chief Jim Taylor and the firemen in attendance. Fireman Dwayne Procter was named Fireman of the Year. Terry Sharrock-25 years and Jim Taylor-30 years were recognized for their service to our volunteer fire department. We appreciate all of our firemen for their service to the community.
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Linda Knowles and the Daughters of the Republic of Texas gave me a Texas flag over a year ago along with a certificate that the flag flew over the Alamo September 11, 2011. My thanks to Danny, Holly and Stephen Campbell for framing the flag and certificate and hanging it in the Star office. Danny and Stephen made the 3’ x 5’ oak frame and mounted the flag in it. It looks very nice in the office. Thank you Campbells.
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Postage stamps will cost 49-cents as of January 26, 2014. I read the increase has been approved for only two years. Reckon they will go back to 46-cents in two years? Don’t count on it. Also, our postage software provider said our periodical rates for mailing the Friona Star every week will increase 6% at the end of January. We will wait and see.
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It appears that booze will be on the ballot in Bovina for the May election. Bovina city councilman Radford Venable presented a petition with enough signatures to get the measure on the ballot. If passed the measure would allow alcohol sales in the city limits of Bovina. Councilman Venable abstained when the city council voted on the issue.
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I’ve written before about the uncertainty and false information spread around on the “social media” and the internet. Someone in Los Angeles wrote that the Red Lobster Restaurants were closing. Naturally it spread across the country and was embellished along the way. The LA source later said the restaurants were not closing but the parent company was looking to sell Red Lobster. The parent company, Darden Restaurants, said Red Lobster was not closing. Who to believe? I don’t know but I do know one should be careful about believing everything you read on Facebook, Twitter, or one of the other thousand social media places.
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At the end of every year the national media make lists of the “Top 20” best or worst things that happened during the year. Television personalities like to look back on the Top 10 most or least exciting stories of the year, etc. I resist lists. I’m too impatient to sit through recalling events that I didn’t care much about as they happened. But if someone publishes the Top 100 Dumbest Things Democrats Said in 2013, I might be inclined to listen. Nah, probably not. I’ll just listen to what they say in 2014.
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I read this week that the last day without a traffic death in Texas was November 7, 2000. Each day since then a traffic death has occurred, more than 45,000 deaths. Records go back to 1940 and this is the longest streak since records have been kept. That is an amazing statistic. Be safe.
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Friday January 3 the Squaws and Chiefs will host Dimmitt for a district basketball game. Squaws at 6:30 and Chiefs at 8:00. Next week they go to Littlefield Tuesday and host Tulia on Friday. With the holidays behind us it will be nice to get back to a normal schedule.
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Thanks to Mack Heald, Parmer County Livestock Show superintendent, for the nice article about our county livestock show history. Mack came by the office and dug into some old Stars as research. His article is on the front page. Nicely done Mack. The Junior Livestock schedule is printed elsewhere in this Star. The steer show has been moved to Wednesday night along with the dairy heifer show. This change should make the Thursday show move along closer to schedule. The premium slae will be Saturday January 18.
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As 2014 begins we say thanks for your support in 2013 and with your continued help we look forward to providing a quality newspaper in 2014. Thanks and a very Happy New Year. Until then!
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