The Albany News (Albany, Tex.), Vol. 124, No. 47, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 20, 2000 Page: 1 of 18
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: Texas Digital Newspaper Program and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the The Old Jail Art Center.
- Highlighting
- Highlighting On/Off
- Color:
- Adjust Image
- Rotate Left
- Rotate Right
- Brightness, Contrast, etc. (Experimental)
- Cropping Tool
- Download Sizes
- Preview all sizes/dimensions or...
- Download Thumbnail
- Download Small
- Download Medium
- Download Large
- High Resolution Files
- IIIF Image JSON
- IIIF Image URL
- Accessibility
- View Extracted Text
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
state by placing at the
regional academic meet
**.5ion P-l
r—
Easter events
Several events are slated
to celebrate the Easter
weekend, including a *
sunrise service Sunday.
See stories, pg. 6 •
AHS victories
Four local athletes will
advance to the regional
track meet after placing
at district on Monday.
See story, pg. 7
The
Albany Nev
"Oldest journalistic Venture West of the Brazos
H
Thursday, Apgn. 20, 2000,, Albany, Texas 764 30
12 Paces in 1 Section
Volume Number 124 : Number 47 Price 75(
Grant rejected for clinic operation
By Meljnda L. Lucas
Shackelford County Hospital
District board members verified
at their regular meeting on Mon-
day, April 17 that a large grant
applied for jointly by the Shack-
elford County Community Re-
source Center (CRC), Hendnck
Health System and the hospital
district had been turned down,
with CRC director Susan Jones
receiving word earlier this
month.
The directors, were hoping
that the grant would help fund
the medical clinic now being
operated as First Med by Hen-
dnck. The hospital district will
take over the clinic as of May 15.
Board meml«-r Steve-George
stated that he and John Ayers
had "put in lots of hours in the
last week or two putting figures
together' to present to the other
directors regarding different
options.
Ayers was not present at the
Monday night meeting and the
board opted to meet again in an
emergency.session on Tuesday
morning so that George and
Ayers could go through various
proposals regarding clinic per-
sonnel and salaries.
After an hour-long closed ses-
sion, a motion was approved to
advertise for an office manager
for the clinic. Margie Boone, who
has been serving as First Med's
office manager, submitted her
resignation effective May 15.
"Margie knew that she wasn't
going to be able to work for the
district but a few weeks because
the family expects to be moving,
and she decided that it would be
best if the new person was there
right from the beginning," ex-
plained hospital district busi-
ness manager Diedre Stewart
"She has offered to help with
training."
District to take over May 15
No action was taken after the
closed session concerning the
structure of the clinic, and Ayers
stated that the contract proposed
by Hendrick for the services of
nurse practitioner Melanie
Richburg and LVN Becci Hebel
is being reviewed by the district's
attorney
Another special meeting will
be held within the next few days
to make a decision regarding
that contract.
Presently, Richburg is in the '
local clinic 4-1/2 days per week
and Dr. Chester Tong is treating
patients one day a week. When
the district takes over the op-
IXlMNit Lui as / Ausany NlWS
Susan Jones (c), director of the Community Resource Center, takes on a new identity as
the Easter Bunny at last week's Scout Mother's Day Out Easter egg hunt and picnic lunch
sponsored by the CRC.
eration, Tong plans to be in the
office four days a week.
Board members emphasized
that at this time, they are not
planning to make any major
changes and that there will be
no interruption in the clinic ser-
vices.
Ambulance Issues
The directors learned that
LifeTech EMS, which operates
the local ambulance service, had
informed Stewart that the com-
pany did noi intend to pay for
repairs to the body of the new
ambulance since the repairs
weren't performed in their shop.
The ambulance was damaged
■ OLD JAIL ART CENTER
last month when a LifeTech
employee pulled it out of the
garage and scraped it against
the brick wall. At last month's
meeting, the board decided to
have it repaired by Reliable
Emergency Vehicles, where it
was purchased, in order to keep
several warranties intact. The
body work totaled $1,463.
The board instructed Stew-
art to have attorney Don Ander-
son look at the contract between
the district and LifeTech to make
sure that the EMS company is
responsible for the repairs
In addition, board president
AJma Godfrey-Nees» appointed
Melissa Black to head a commit-
tee to look into a district-oper-
ated ambulance service. They
also discussed the possibility of
offering an EMT school locally
and Black will investigate that
as well.
Black asked for 60 days to
formulate a complete set of fig-
ures to present to the board-
Other Business
• Stewart stated that a grant
application for funding that
would help pay for the new am-
bulance is complete except for
one letter from a local official,
which she will attempt to get
this week
• George reported that he and
Stewart had investigated exactly
what is serviced by several
meters on the hospital grounds
in an attempt to find out why the
electric bill for the unoccupied
hospital building is so high He
intends to discuss the situation"
further with West Texas Utili-
ties.
• Neese asked Stewart to
check into the availability of the
Whitney Theater for a reception
on May 14tohonorDr Tong and
Melanie Richburg
Educational funding received
Two years worth of funding
for art education by the Old Jail
Art Center has been secured in
the form of tour major awards
received during the past year,
according to OJAC Education
Director Kate Ferguson.
Gifts and grants for visual
arts education programs at the
local museum in 1999 and 2000
to date total over $95,000. All
monies go toward the adminis-
tration and implementation of
the Old Jail's Annual Education .
Series, which reaches more than
600youth and adults every year.
TTie first of the four grants
received by the art center was
given by Texas Prairielands
Foundation, which awarded
funds at the beginning of 1999
to execute an in-school elemen-
tary art education course called
Art-to-Go
The McDermott Foundation
of Dallas followed in August with
another gift to help fund the
Annual Education Series.
Then, successful grant-writ-
ing endeavors resulted in an
award from the Abell-Hanger
Foundation of Midland, which
serves the Permian Basin area
and su rrou nding regions of West
Texas. The Abell-Hanger award
was designated as a grant re-
quiring a full match.
The Brown Foundation Inc
of Houston was then approached,
and that board awarded monies
to help match the Abell-Hanger
pledge.
Together, the Brown Foun-
dation and the McDermott Foun-
dation awards met the terms of
the Abell-Hanger grant, boost-
ing the museum's education se-
ries significantly, said Ferguson
Because there is no formal
arts education in the Albany
public schools, the museum
launched its educational pro-
gramming in 1985 to address
this need. Visual arts education
is the main thrust of the Old
Jail's mission.
The local programs were a
huge success, said Ferguson and
have doubled in number and
attendance in the past 15 years
This success created a new con-
cern.
"The museum realized that
with the way our education pro
grams were taking off. we would
need a full-time staff memlier to
administer them, and funds to
get them off to a good, solid st art
These grants allow us to do that,"
commented Anne Allen, the Old
Jail s new Executive Director.
To administer the various
programs already in place, as
well -to createnew educational
oppori ; in ties for chi Id ren. youth
and adults, the Old Jail hired
Katt I- jUinwider Ferguson as
Education Director in February
of last year. She began at the
Old Jail as an intern the previ-
ous September, after serving as
a McDermott Intern at the Dal
las Must nn of Art
• rgus'ii is-responsible for
.ill edu''ai i on a 1 programming .it
the museum and collaborates
with Nam v Smith Elementary
and Albany High School admin-
i st rat or- and teachers on art
education projects in the local
schools
Programs that will benefit
from the funding include art
education workshops and activi
(See Old Jail, pg, 12)
AISD receives $173,250 in 2nd round of grants
By Oonnie A. Lucas
Albany school officials have
received word that the local dis-
trict has been included in the
second round of funding for Aca-
demic '2000 grants. v
The local district has received
verbal notification of a $ 173,250
grant to be used to extend the
current reading improvement
program through the sixth
grade. Albany received $128,750
last year in the first round of
grants to implement the com-
puter-based reading enhance-
ment program.
"The grant is designed to help
get every child reading at or
above their grade level by third
grade, and now we can continue
to offer extra assistance to stu-
dents in grades four through six,"
explained Superintendent Jeri
Pfeifer.
The district purchased the
GlassWorks Gold software pro-
gram with last's award, and
equipped each k-4 classroom
where- reading is taught with
two desktop computers and one
lap top.
The new funds will be used to
purchase additional software to
include the rest of the elemen-
tary campus, along with equip-
ping a third computer lab at
Nancy Smith Elementary. Some
of the funding will also be used
for staff training and develop-
ment.
While the grant money is spe-
cifically aimed at reading im-
provement, the district is plan-
ning to add the math portion of
the software to the computer
network at grade school with
funds out of their regular bud-
get.
Some of the funds will also be
used to computerize and auto-
mate the library at Nancy Sm th
Elementary.
"Our goal is to have all our
resources networked so that any
teacher or student can access
what they need from any loca-
tion on either campus," said Dr.
Pfeifer.
Another grant was recently
used to connect the two cam-
puses with a microwave tower
system.
"We only have verbal com-
mitment at this point," stated
Pfeifer. "I am still waiting to be
notified in writing before we ac-
tually develop plans and take
bids."
She said that with the addi-
tion of more classroom comput-
ers and another computer lab at
grade school, the campus should
be "at optimal level for student
access."
"I would love to see us be able
to add the math and language
modules of ClassWorks Gold
throughout the elementary cam-
pus. It is a very expensive pack-
age, but we will be working to
find the funds."
Pfeifer added that with the
technological • advances being
made at the grade school cam-
pus comes a challenge to up-
grade the junior high and high
school labs, along with keeping
the entire technology plan up to
date.
"You can just feel the success
that is happening at Nancy
(See School grants, pg. 12)
\
OliNN'i £t.
School board members Pam Davis (1) and Robert Montgomery (i i look on as
Wade, a second grader at Nancy Smith Elementary School demonstrates the
Gold computer reading program at Monday night's school board meeting.
. AS Ai HAN> NtWS
Robert's son
ClassWorks
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Matching Search Results
View 10 places within this issue that match your search.Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
Lucas, Donnie A. The Albany News (Albany, Tex.), Vol. 124, No. 47, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 20, 2000, newspaper, April 20, 2000; Albany, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth413430/m1/1/?q=12th%20Armored%20Memorial%20Museum: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting The Old Jail Art Center.