Potter County | featured news

TUESDAY
Amarillo City Council: 5 p.m. City Council Chambers, City Hall, 509 S.E. Seventh Ave. The council will hear a presentation by West Texas A&M President Dr. Walter V. Wendler about a partnership between WTA&M and the city; public hearing and first reading of an ordinance creating an East Gateway Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone; and a resolution establishing official policy for the renaming of city streets.

WEDNESDAY

On Friday, the Amarillo Police Department received a report of a robbery at gunpoint in the 4400 block of South Parker Street.
The victim told police he had gone to a residence in that block to visit with a friend, Jesse Albert Meyer, 20. The victim told police that while he was in the house two men — Bol Marko Deng, 17, and Brendon Kavon Peoples, 17 — pulled a gun on him and took his belongings.
Police said the victim was able to get out of the house without injuries and call the police to report the crime.

A fight, a battle, a struggle — while her experience with breast cancer was all of these and more, Terri Garrison describes her journey in a different way: A blessing.
“It made me a lot stronger, and it made me really realize that none of us knows what each other goes through, and we should always be kind and try to be compassionate,” Garrison said.
At the time of her diagnosis in December 2011, Garrison lived a busy life, often pulling double shifts at the nursing home where she worked and also managing to clean 50 to 60 houses every two weeks.

Amarillo police on Friday identified Steven Ray Woodard, 47, as the man killed earlier this week in a shooting west of Amarillo. At 11 p.m. Tuesday, Potter County Sheriff’s Office deputies were sent to a home in the 11000 block of Indian Hill Road, where Woodard lived, to investigate a reported dispute between neighbors.
They found Woodard with a gunshot wound to the upper body. He was taken to a local hospital, where he died Wednesday.
Woodard died due to blood loss from multiple gunshot wounds, according to a preliminary autopsy report.

The torch is being passed in auctioneering’s first family. Spanky and Amy Assiter’s daughter, Julia Sparks, will be the lead auctioneer at this year’s Amarillo Cattle Baron’s Ball on Nov. 12.
At 22 years old, Sparks has been an auctioneer for the past seven years, earned an international business degree from Oklahoma State University and raising millions of dollars for charities across the United States. She’ll also graduate from West Texas A&M next month with an MBA.

Debra Jones
BSA Hospital
Jones is one of two BSA Health System Employees of the Month for October. She is always willing to go that extra mile and genuinely cares about the job she performs, consistently striving to make BSA better.
Tanya Waldo
BSA Hospital
Waldo is one of two BSA Health System Employees of the Month for October. She is is an outstanding nurse and educator. She is a delight to work with and a huge asset to the BSA team.
Pam Biggers
BSA Hospital

Toot’n Totum
Retail chain, memorial team up for education
Toot’n Totum and the Texas Panhandle War Memorial are joining forces to raise funds for the TPWM Education Center. The education center is set to be built at the intersection of Interstate 27 and Georgia Street in Amarillo, near where the memorial is currently located.
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The first election I remember was 1968. I was 7 and a dedicated Republican.
Even at that age I understood the gravity of the situation: If Hubert Humphrey was elected we would have to go to school on Saturdays.
I was more sophisticated by the 1972 election.
My 6th grade class held a mock campaign.
Still a Republican and unnaturally knowledgeable of the issues, my peers chose me to portray Richard Nixon. Like the real Nixon, I won in a landslide.

Following in the footsteps of the cardinals who elected the Pope Francis as history’s first Latin American and Jesuit pope, the Jesuits have now elected their first-ever Latin-American leader.
A Vatican City gathering of Jesuits from around the world this week elected the Rev. Arturo Sosa S.J. (Society of Jesus) of Venezuela to replace the retiring Rev. Adolfo Nicolas S.J. of Spain as their Superior General.
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North Heights residents might soon have answers to a safety concern they’ve been raising to city leaders for months.
At recent North Heights neighborhood meetings and during Amarillo City Council meetings, residents have voiced concerns about several busy intersections that do not have crosswalks or signals to help slow traffic for children and pedestrians who are crossing the street.
City Council members are expected to discuss options for improving intersection safety in the neighborhood during their Tuesday work session.