Rio Grande Herald (Rio Grande City, Tex.), Vol. 38, No. 18, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 1, 1984 Page: 1 of 8
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VOL XXXVIII
No. 18
March 1,1984
FIFTEEN CENTS
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Western Dance To
Kick Off Weekend
What better way to "kick off" a Starr
County Fair weekend than with a Western
Dance?
The Starr County 4-H Adult Leaders will
be sponsoring a Western Dance on Friday
night for youth and adults alike to get into
the swing of things.
The public is invited to attend the dance,
to be held at the VFW Hall East of Rio
Grande City from 9 to 1. Kicker music will
be provided by a local group, Los Artistas.
Admission will be $5.00 per person.
Senior Class Parents
To Meet
There will be a Senior Class parents
meeting Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Rio
Grande City High School Homemaking
Department in Room 409
It will be a very important meeting of
parents attending the Senior trip. The
senior class of 1984 will be making their
senior trip to Florida. They will be visiting
Orlando, in which Disney World and
EPCOT Center are located. Also, they will
be visiting Cape Kennedy.
All parents are invited and encouraged
to attend
Church To Host
Covenant Players
The Covenant Players, an international
Christian Drama organization, will present
a program on Ash Wednesday, March 7, at
the St. John United Methodist Church in
Rio Grande City.
The program will begin at 7 p.m. and
will be both entertaining and inspiring.
There is no charge but an offering will be
taken. The public is invited and en-
couraged to attend the concert at the 3t.
John Church, which is located at 500 East
Main St. in Rio Grande City.
The Covenant Players is an ecumenical,
non-denominational organization.
Sheriff's Dept
Financial Situation
On Feb. 22, the Starr County Sheriff's
Department received $5368.50 from the
U.S. Marshal's Office for safekeeping of
federal prisoners for the month of
December 1983.
With this check, it brought the total
amount of money turned in by the Sheriff's
Department into the county coffers to
$119,299 for 1983 According to Sheriff Gene
Falcon, the above amount is the most
turned in by his Department in the past
three years
Sheriff Falcon also stated that he is
looking into the possibility of getting a
federal grant to increase the size of the
county jail to generate more money for the
county. During this past year, the Stan-
County jail handled 1360 local or state
prisoners and 682 federal prisoners
Sheriff's Report
The Starr County Sheriff's Department
kept law and order this past weekend by
arresting 18 persons for various infrac-
tions.
The Starr County Sheriff's Department
recorded six arrests, with five of them
coming for the offense of public intoxica-
tion, and one other person was cherged
with assault by contact.
Local Department of Public Safety
troopers arrested nine persons; seven of
them for drunken driving and one more
each for the offenses of public intoxication
and driving without a license.
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Depart-
ment arrested three individuals for hunt-
ing deer out of season
Vidal Assigned
To Fort Riley
Army Spec 4 Hector C. Vidal, son of
Taurine Vidal of Roma, has arrived for
duty at Fort Riley, Kansas
Vidal, a vehicle mechanic with the 121st
Signal Battalion, was previously assigned
at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii
His wife, Earlene, is the daughter of
Virgil and Carrie Martin of Farmersville,
California
He is a 1980 graduate of Kaweah High
School, Exeter California
Nilda Sepulveda Crowned Fair Queen
Over 20 young ladies, and countless
other individuals, have been looking
forward to the County Youth Fair Queen
Pageant for a long time, and Nilda
Sepulveda was the young lady whose
dreams came true Sunday night
Miss Sepulveda, who is a senior at Rio
Grande City High School, is the daughter
of Mr and Mrs Napoleon Sepulveda of Rio
Grande City who was sponsored by Elvia's
Beauty Shop. She wore a 2-piece western
ensemble in green satin, with her blouse
trimmed in pearl and sequences at the
yolk and fringed at the sleeves.
Nilda is a member of the Student Council
and playes the clarinet in the Rattler
Bamd. She is a three-year 4-H member
with projects in Foods and Nutrition. Her
entry last year won second place category
winner. Her hobbies are baking, horseback
riding, skating, and dancing.
She won out over Judy Laurel, 16, who
achieved the position of first runner-up.
Judy is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Juan
Laurel, and she was sponsored by the Rio
Grande City High School Science Club. Her
hobbies include dancing, ballet, jazz, and
Rattlers Play Valiantly
In Playoff Loss
By KENNETH ROBERTS
An aggressive, turnover-forcing defense
and sizzling shooting enabled the Flour
Bluff Hornets to defeat the Rio Grande
City Rattlers 71-54 in a Class 4-A state
playoff battle Friday night in Falfurrias.
But the Hornets, who won their 26th
consecutive game to extend their record to
29-3, learned that the Rattle.rs play a solid
and aggressive brand of basketball.
Rattler coach Ricardo Lopez said of Flour
Bluff, "They must have shot at least 60
percent." If the Hornets had not gone on
such a hot shooting streak in the first half,
the game could have turned out altogether
differently as the Rattlers played an
inspired game.
Lcpez said, " If it hadn't been for so
many first half turnovers, we could have
stayed even,' in noting that Rio had 16
first half turnovers. He added that
"Overall, I was impressed with the way
the kids played, especially in the second
half." He expressed pride at Rio's effort
against a team whose average victory
margin had been around 35 points.
The Hornets hit the first five shots they
took in the game, but Jaime Solis cut the
lead to 14-10 by hitting a jumper with less
than 2 minutes to go in the first quarter.
But Flour Bluff then ran off eight straight
points to build their lead to 22-10.
Guard Armando Zarate cut the margin
to 10 at 29-19 after the Hornets had moved
out to a 22-12 advantage. But the Corpus
Christi team's hot shooting continued to
take its toll as the halftime bulge swelled
to 41-25.
Center Jaime Solis, who was superb all
evening, scored on a layup for the third
quarter's first points after 2 minutes Solis
hit a bank shot off the glass, was fouled
and hit the free throw, and John Garcia
laid the ball in to cut the deficit to 46-34. At
that point, it looked like the Rattlers were
ready to storm back into contention.
But the Hornets, triggered when
Forward Andy Westerkom hit a long
jumper, regained their shooting touch, and
Rio needed a long jumper by guard
Armando Zarate to cut the lead to 52-36
with seconds left in the third period
Guard Lee Vela hit a couple of nifty
jumpers to cut the advantage to 53-40, but
the Hornets went on an 8-2 spurt to build a
19-point lead with 2 40 left and the game
was over for all practical purposes
Flour Bluff earned the victory with a
balanced attack that featured all five
starters in double figures. Forward
Westerkom led the Hornets with 18, many
coming on long range jumpers, guard Ray
Canales added 14, and guard Bud Lewis
scored 13, Center Frank Fichtel added 11,
and forward Roger Durden, who averaged
in the mid-teens during the season, wound
up with 10 after doing terrible damage to
the Rattlers with early outside
marksmanship
Center Jaime Solis carried the Rattler
attack by scoring 17 points and hauling
down seven rebounds It was one of his
best offensive performances of the season
The Hornets held high scoring forward
John Garcia to only nine points, but he did
garner eight rebounds Damacio Borrego
scored 8 points, and his outside shooting
stirred hopes of a miracle comeback in the
hearts of Rattler fans
Rio shot the ball well until the last few
minutes of the game, winding up with a
field goal percentage of 40 The Rattlers
hit 8 of 13 from the foul line, and the
Hornets hit 17 of 15 from the charity stripe
The Rattlers wound up the 1983 1984
season with a 16-12 record, and Lopez
proudly noted that few people expected the
Rattlers to have such a successful season
Lopez, in noting that standouts iike Jaime
Solis and Armando Zarate will return next
season, said, "This season will provide
winning momentum for future seasons.
The kids are eager to get ready for next
year."
hopes to attend the
Mary's and major in
#•1; i/*\
Nilda Sepulveda
Board Okays Five-
Y ear Priority Plan
The decision to approve a five-year
priority plan designed to improve student
achievement, furnish a good learning
environment, and help teachers develop
improved methods of instruction was the
most significant item of business trans-
acted at Thursday night's special meeting
of the Rio Grande City School Board.
Trustee 'Bobby" Gutierrez moved and
"Tony" Falcon seconded that this plan be
accepted and submitted to the Texas
Education Agency by March 1. Assistant
Superintendent Efrain Garcia gave a
detailed explanation of the plan. He said it
would be divided into four components
Program Development, Staff/Curriculum
Development, College Courses, and Stu-
dent Achievement.
Program Development means identify-
ing problem areas and remedying those
shortcomings, and Staff/Curriculum Dev-
elopment means developing and improving
teacher strategies, particularly in the
preparation of curriculum. College courses
will be paid for from district funds for the
first time.
Garcia said that all elementary school
teachers plus all language, math, and
computer science and social studies
teachers at the secondary level would
benefit by taking such college courses as
offered by Pan American and Texas A&I
locally. The courses are designed to
develop teacher competencies in reading,
math, and computer science He said the
courses would mainly help with methodol-
ogy and not content.
The Student Achievement aspect con-
cerns boosting the basic skills of students
in a significant way. Garcia said it is
hoped that by 1989, 20 percent of second
graders, 28 percent of fourth graders, 30 of
seventh, and 28 of 10th graders will
demonstrate mastery of basic skills in
reading by being at or above the 50
percentile on national tests. Garcia em-
phasized strongly that these were
estimates at this time and subject to
change from year to year.
He said that any student scoring below
the 40 percentile was one year below grade
level, and Texas House Bill 246 required
such students in secondary grades to take
a remedial reading course. He stressed
that many students would be scoring
between the 40 and 50 percentiles, which is
a passable standing.
Garcia said it is hoped that 49 percent of
second graders, 44 percent of fourth, and
36 and 34 percent of seventh and tenth
graders would achieve mastery of basic
math skills He said that similar estimates
for mastery of social studies are 26 5
percent for fourth graders, and 35 5 and
41.5 for seventh and tenth graders.
Garcia said that the ideas of Student
Goals, the emphasis of basic skills in
reading, math, and social studies; and
Accreditation and Standards, which means
meeting the state requirements to provide
a good education for each student's
individual needs; would be integrated into
the plan. The same holds true for
improving achievement, which stresses
curriculum betterment and improved
teaching strategies
Garcia said that in 1986-1987, the plan
would be reviewed and probably revised in
some way, and that the plan would
continue to be implemented and, if
necessary, revised in 1987 1988 Then the
plan would be evaluated at the end of five
years in 1989
In other business, Rafael Carrera moved
and Ruben Solis seconded that 95 Ringgold
Junior High students be allowed to take a
field trip to San Antonio at a cost of $27 per
student to visit the Alamo, Institute of
Texas Cultures, and Witte Museum.
painting. Judy
Universtiy of St.
prelaw.
Susie Castillo, a senior at Rio High
School, and the daughter of Mr and Mrs.
Pedro Castillo of Alto Bonito, was
sponsored by the DECA chapter. Her
participation in various activities have
won her top honors for Honor Roll, perfect
attendance, U.I.L. solo and ensemble &
quartets, and fashion apparal. Judy Kay
Gabert, sponsored by the Rio Grande City
FFA Chapter, and Carolina Jurado,
sponsored by Valley Mart, were the other
two finalists.
The more than 20 contestants were
judged on poise, personality, beauty, and
appropriateness of costume. But a key
moment came when the five finalists were
handed an envelope and asked to answer
the question inside.
Judy Gabert was asked her favorite
subject in school, and she answered with
chemistry because her teacher makes it so
interesting and informative. Miss Jurado
said that her career goals call for her to go
to New York to enter professional
modeling. Judy Laurel said if she could be
one person other than herself, she would to
be Sandra Day O'Connor, the nation's first
female Supreme Court Justice.
Susie Castillo was asked why she wanted
to win the contest, and she said the
experience would help her in future life.
Nelda Sepulveda said that if any wish of
hers could come true, it would be to
become an accomplished nurse where she
would be in a position to help people who
needed it most. The five girls were then
interviewed individually in private by the
three judges.
Earlier the judges narrowed the contes-
tants down to teii young ladies. The girls
chosen were the five ultimate finalists and
Barbara Guerra, Delma Garcia, Debra
Ear hart, Yvonne Michelle Salinas, and
Cynthia Palacios.
Other girls who gave their best in the
contest were Leticia Cortez, Rachal
Alaniz, Rosa Pena, Araceli Alvarez,
Rebecca Munoz, Dina Garza, Ma. Elena
Briones, Celia de la Cruz and Elda
Montalvo. All the contestants appeared in
a wide variety of western attires, and the
judges asked the ten young ladies to whom
they had narrowed the field down to
present themselves again.
Willie Rodriguez, a newscaster for
Channel 4 in Harlingen and a former Starr
County 4-H'er, was the Master of Ceremo-
nies. Maria Ramirez and Herbie Villarreal
were the Chairmen of the Queen's Contest
Committee, and County Extension Agent
Home Economist Elva Yolanda Scrivner
played a decisive part in all aspects of
planning for the pageant and making it a
success.
The three judges included Miss Dorothy
Brown, who works for KIWW Radio in
Harlingen. and Elda Chapa Cinder, who
has helped organize many beauty pag-
eants, and Kaye Briseno. Melissa Hino-
josa, the 1983 Youth Fair Queen, was also
featured prominently in this contest.
The program also featured the pres-
entation of the Sweethearts and Beaus of
the Starr Grande 4-H, Ysa Gonzalez and
David Lopez, and of the San Isidro 4-H,
Celinda Ramirez and Jaime Pena. Gracie
Naranjo also thrilled the crowd by singing
and playing a couple of songs on the
guitar
Court Pavs Adjustments, Bank Note
The special meeting of the Starr Count\
Commissioners' Court Tuesday was
highlighted by the decisions to pay for
utility adjustments on El Sauz Road, and
pay a large note to First National Bank of
Rio Grande City.
Commissioner "Chema" Alvarez moved
and Amando Pena seconded that that the
County pay Medina Electric Company
$3102 for the relocation of five utility poles
near El Sauz Road. The motion also called
for Intrastate Gathering Company and
Valero Transmission to b<> paid for the
relocation of gas lines adjacent to that
road whenever they asked for payment
Commissioner Reynaldo "Moreno' Alaniz
emphasized that bids for highway con-
struction and improvements will be opened -
March 7
Pena then moved, seconded by Alvarez,
that the court pay off a $100,000 note owed
to First National Bank of Rio Grande City.
Auditor Jose G. Villarreal said that
Garcia Earns
All-District
HoopHonors
Senior forward John Garcia was the best
Rio Grande City player game in and game
out this season, and district coaches
rewarded him for his efforts by naming
him to the A11-164A basketball team.
The five players on the All-District team
were selected by the eight basketball
coaches in 16-4A at their district meeting
in Raymondville Tuesday Garcia, who
averaged 15 2 points per game in district
play and rebounded at a steady clip,
received five of seven votes in winning
first team honors
Garcia was not the only Rattler whose
talent and efforts went unrecognized
Center Jaime Solis, who scored at a 10.5
clip per game in district action, was
named to the second team by district
coaches Rattler coach Ricardo Lopez is
thrilled that Solis is only a junior, but rival
coaches have learned to dread his scoring
and rebounding skills.
Three Rattler roundballers received
honorable mention recognition Guards
Damacio Borrego, who scored 9.2 per
district game, and I-ee Vela, who averaged
62 each game and triggered the Rio
offense, received such honors as did senior
forward Dario Saenz, who scored at a 4.1
pace and played his best basketball at
season's end.
The other All-District honorees were
guards Kevin McLeroy of Raymondville
and Isidro Casanova of district champion
la Joya, arid forward Rene Guajanio of
Los Fresnos and center Mark Gar-*- of
Edcouch Elsa Casanova and Mcl.twoy
were unanimous choices to the first-("am
squad
~ 5
payment of th-r note would not interfere
with meeting the monthly payroll, and that
payment would put the budget in much
better shape.
Later, Alaniz expreiised anger at rumors
that allege that the Commissioners had
ordered that the distribution of surplus
commodities be stopped permanently
Both he and Judge Bias Chapa said that
distribution of the food will be continued
indefinitely, pending availability of the
commodities from the USDA.
The rumors have been especially viru-
lent in the northeast section of the county,
and Alaniz said the persons spreading the
rumors have a political axe to grind
Alvarez moved ai d Alaniz seconded that
the Court go on record in support of the
Rio Grande City CISD's effort to apply for
funds from the Brown Foundation for the
purpose of retaining teacher aide
personnel the rest of the year Local funds
are very tight, and the dire unemployment
situation made this step necessary
A Pena motion, seconded by Alvarez,
calling for D & F Industries of Pharr to be
paid $28,854 for completing the lighting of
the new baseball field passed with no
problem Alaniz moved, seconded by Pena,
that the Auditor's report be approved, and
that $26 80 be paid an unnamed employee.
The court also moved to approve a claim
of $163.10 to Zerox for work done for the
Federal Program Coordinator's Office.
/
rhief O F. Guffey of the Rio Grande City Fire Department
was one of several firemen from Starr County to attend a
training session in Edinburg aimed at helping volunteer firemen
become certified photo by Silvestre Garcia.
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Roberts, Kenneth. Rio Grande Herald (Rio Grande City, Tex.), Vol. 38, No. 18, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 1, 1984, newspaper, March 1, 1984; Edinburg, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth194913/m1/1/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rio Grande City Public Library.