The Friona Chamber of Commerce & Agriculture held a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Monday at the new Library Book Shop adjacent to the southwest side of the Friona Public Library. In attendance at the event were: (l-r) Greg Lewellen, Mayor Ricky White, Lee Davila, Anahi Gomez, Tonia Abarca, Connie Slagle, Jeri Lynn White, Mary Stone, Katie Gilley, Esmeralda Mills, Patsy Vazquez, and Becky Upton.
Spring has arrived. This red bud tree across the street from Heritage Estates shows its colors despite the great Texas freeze-out and the ongoing drought.
School Board Election
The FISD Board of Trustees has three positions open for election this year. The terms of Andy Montana, Jason Rector, and Antonio Rocha are expiring. School board members serve three year terms.
There will be five candidates running for the three positions. Incumbents Andy Montana, Jason Rector, and Antonio Rocha will be joined on the ballot by Kody Kimbrough and Dustin Thompson. The candidates will appear on the ballot in the following order: Antonio Rocha, Jason Rector, Kody Kimbrough, Dustin Thompson, and Andy Montana.
The Early Voting location will be at the FISD Administration Building at 909 E. 11th. You can vote from 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. beginning Monday, April 19th through Friday, April 23rd. The final two days of early voting are 7:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m. on Monday, April 26th and Tuesday, April 27th.
The General Election will be held on Saturday, May 1st. The Election Day polling location is the Friona City Council Board Room at 619 Main Street. Voting takes place from 7:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m. on that day.
Rosa Mendez will be the the Elections Administrator. Claudia Castillo will serve as the Early Voting Clerk and Lee Davila will be the Deputy Clerk. Wendy Samarron is the Early Voting Ballot Board Judge and Pam Mercado is the Alternate Judge.
Wendy Samarron will also serve as the Central County Station Manager and Tabulations Supervisor, and the Central County Judge. She will also serve as Election Judge on Election Day and Pam Mercado will be the Alternate Election Day Judge.
Presentations will cover restoration and recharge efforts
A new season of presentations and training on the vital nature of the playas of the Southern High Plains gets underway on Tuesday, April 20th as Ogallala Commons hosts a Playa Field Day at Friona, in Parmer County, where playa restoration efforts have been underway.
The field day will cover general information about playa ecosystems as well as the restoration program known as the Texas Playa Conservation Initiative (TxPCI) involving a coalition of groups including Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Texan by Nature, Ogallala Commons, Natural Resource Conservation Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Ducks Unlimited, and the Playa Lakes Joint Venture.
The goal of the Texas Playa Conservation Initiative is to create an abundance of healthy playa wetlands across the Texas Panhandle in order to benefit current and future residents and concerns reliant on the Ogallala Aquifer.
Efforts also support resident and migrating wildlife dependent on playa wetland habitat and the surrounding upland grasslands that encompass fully functioning playas. Work includes educating locals about playas and their link to a healthy ecosystem and to the sustainability and integrity of the Ogallala Aquifer. Currently, TxPCI is completing projects with private landowners to restore, conserve, and protect as many fully functioning playas as possible to help sustain residents and wildlife in the High Plains of Texas.
Presenters in Friona will include officials with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Pheasants Forever, and a contractor transferring conservation plans to work on the ground.
The field day is open to farmers, ranchers, agency personnel, educators, and the interested public. It will be held at St .Teresa's Parish Hall located at 401 W. 17th Street on the north side of Friona, just east of Highway 214. The event will run from 9:30 a.m. until 1 p.m. with doors opening at 9 a.m. for registration. Prior to lunch participants will take a tour of a playa restored through TxPCI in the Friona vicinity.
Registration for the Friona Field Day is $15 per person, which covers the cost of lunch, drinks, and snacks.
To register, email or call Darryl Birkenfeld, Ogallala Commons Director
(darryl@ogallalacommons.org or by phone at 806-945-2255).
The opening presentation will be an overview of the Texas Playa Conservation Initiative by Dr. Rachel Fern, Statewide Wetland Program Leader, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. She joined TPWD last November as the new Statewide Wetland Program Leader and is responsible for administration of a wide range of wetland habitat projects benefiting migratory birds. In her own words, she "recognizes the centrality and importance of healthy wetland systems to migratory game bird populations."
Jordan Menge, Range and Wildlife Coordinator, Pheasants Forever, will also comment from the perspective of a biologist.
After a short break, Terry Boedeker, owner of Boedeker, Inc. Memphis, Texas, will talk on work he has done in playas. As the contractor who has carried out the pit reclamation work on all the playa restorations in the Panhandle, he will focus on considerations for landowners before a restoration project.
At 11 a.m. the group will depart on a field trip to a restored playa property near Friona. The tour will be led by Jordan Menge and Terry Boedeker.
At 12:15 the tour will return to St. Teresa's Parish Hall for a sandwich lunch.
Jim Steiert, outdoor writer, playa author and writer on playas and water issues from Hereford, will provide wrapup remarks after lunch. Copies of the book Playas: Jewels of the Plains (Texas Tech University Press, 1995) can be purchased at the event for $40.
Friona Playa Field Day is sponsored by Ogallala Commons and its partners, the High Plains Underground Water Conservation District, the Dixon Water Foundation, and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
TO ADDRESS INITIATIVE - The opening presentation of the Playa Field Day event will be an overview of the Texas Playa Conservation Initiative by Dr. Rachel Fern, Statewide Wetland Program Leader, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. She joined TPWD last November and is responsible for administration of a wide range of wetland habitat projects benefiting migratory birds.
TOUCHING ON RESTORATION - Jordan Menge, Range and Wildlife Coordinator with Pheasants Forever, who has also worked extensively with prairie chickens, will comment from the perspective of a biologist in addressing playa restoration efforts during the Playa Field Day event in Friona which will also include a tour of a restored playa.
Thank you to everyone who donated at the Friona Community Blood Drive last Thursday. Thirty-one people were able to donate. Twenty-three were whole blood donations and eight were via the doubles machine. Special thanks to Subway of Friona providing the meal. Please support our local Subway by dining there at least once this week. The next Friona blood drive is scheduled for June 10th.
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Do not forget to drop by the Friona Public Library this month and purchase tickets for a chance to win one (or more) of the 10 awesome Gift Baskets in the annual fundraiser raffle by the Friends of the Library. See more on back page. The Friends Annual Meeting is May 2, 2021 at 2 p.m. in the Friona Public Library. Drawings for the Gift Baskets will be held then.
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Tickets are on sale for the 2021 FHS All Sports Banquet. The event will be held on Friday, April 30th at the Friona Community Center. The meal begins at 7:00 p.m. and the ticket price for non-athletes/parents is $10 per plate. The menu is Steak & Fries with the Noon Lions Club cooking the "world famous" fries. All non-athletes/Parents who plan to attend are asked to purchase tickets in advance. Contact Mayra Olmos at 250-2900 for tickets. The Booster Club will be accepting memberships for 2021-22 and the banquet.
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With the potential for severe weather approaching, Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar reminds Texans they can purchase certain items tax-free during the state's sales tax holiday for emergency preparation supplies, which begins at 12:01 a.m. on Saturday, April 24, and ends at midnight on Monday, April 26. Go to comptroller.texas.gov for more information.
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Its seems like half of the students in high school are involved in some sort of UIL competition this week. Good luck to everyone and Go Big Red!!!
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April 15th is National Titanic Remembrance Day when the Titanic sank into the North Atlantic's icy waters in 1912. We remember the more than 1,500 people who died that day. Known as the "the unsinkable ship," the Titanic hit an iceberg at 11:40 pm on April 14, 1912, on her maiden voyage from England to New York City. Later, in the icy waters of the Atlantic Ocean, on April 15, the Titanic sank. Those who perished did so mainly due to an insufficient number of lifeboats on board the ship.
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National Kindergarten Day honors the birthday of the man who started the first Kindergarten. Friedrich Wilhelm August Frobel (April 21, 1782 - June 21, 1852) is credited with starting the very first Kindergarten in Germany in 1837. Frobel was a German teacher and a student of Johann Pestalozzi. Frobel laid a foundation for modern education, recognizing that children learn through play and experience.
The first kindergarten (which means garden for the children) was developed in Blankenburg, Germany, in 1837. The kindergarten fostered Frobel's social experience for children, which would allow them to transition from home to school more smoothly.
In 1856, Watertown, Wisconsin, opened the first kindergarten in the United States. Founded by Margarethe Schurz, this kindergarten was a German-language class, as were many in this region. Kindergarten found its way into private English speaking institutions across the country, but it wasn't until 1873 that it became part of any public school system.
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National Days
April 15:
Titanic Remembrance Day
April 16:
Clean Out Your Medicine Cabinet Day
April 17:
Auctioneers Day
April 18:
Animal Crackers Day
April 19:
OK City Bombing
Commemoration Day
April 20:
Pineapple Upside Down Cake Day
April 21:
Kindergarten Day
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