Potter County | featured news

A Canyon High School graduate has come home after more than a decade of cooking across the United States. His new job? Developing gourmet desserts at Imperial Taproom.
Marcus Snead, 31, left Texas for the bright lights of New York City and the French Culinary Institute (now known as the International Culinary Center), the same school that produced Food Network star Bobby Flay and world-renowned chef Jacques Pépin.
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The Amarillo Chamber of Commerce named 14 Top Businesses at its Business Excellence Awards Banquet & Dinner on Thursday night.
All businesses had to be for-profit, headquartered in Amarillo and have less than 150 employees. Winners were selected by the chamber’s Business Council from community nominees.
The Business Council looked at companies’ growth, innovation and community involvement when making its selections.
The winners, in alphabetical order, are:
■ Amarillo Family Eyecare

With $83.4 million from this bond, the Amarillo Civic Center footprint would grow to create an expansive lobby and front entrance, but the money requested in Proposition 5 would not renovate or expand the existing coliseum or auditorium.
The plan is to add a 75,000-square-foot hall on the east side of the existing building, renovate and expand the North Exhibit Hall into a 30,000-square-foot ballroom and turn the existing ballroom into a dedicated catering kitchen and 20,000 square feet of breakout meeting space.

The City of Amarillo wants $14.5 million to purchase new vehicles.
While supplemental documentation for the fleet bond proposition gives a vague description of vehicles, such as ladder trucks for the fire department and mowing equipment, Fleet Superintendent Glen Lavender was unable to provide a list of vehicles the city plans to purchase should the bond pass.
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If approved, the $65.6 million Proposition 7 will fund the construction of several new youth athletic facilities and update and expand current ones. It also will redevelop part of the former Coca-Cola building downtown into an indoor sports complex, build an indoor aquatic facility and expand the Hike and Bike trail at John Stiff Park.
Advocates of the proposal said Amarillo is missing out on millions in untapped revenue because it lacks adequate sports complexes to host tournaments.

The details of about $32.2 million in projects listed in an $89.5 million bond proposal to address the city’s street infrastructure are yet to be determined and would be up to the city if Amarillo residents pass the measure.
For a local group of residents opposing the bond package, that’s a problem and points to what they say is a common theme running through all seven propositions.
“These projects have no plan and are basically money to be used at the city’s discretion,” Amarillo Taxpayers member James Schenck said.

While this $20.1 million public safety bond includes new fire stations and firetrucks and improving parts of the city’s police department building, much attention is being given to proposed major changes at the Amarillo Animal Management & Welfare Department.
The animal shelter was thrust into the public spotlight last year when undercover videos revealed the unethical treatment of animals. In the aftermath, a new department director was hired and tasked with implementing best practices at the shelter.

Without help, Amarillo Senior Citizens Center will close, former board member Charlene Cole said.
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Bushland voters will have the opportunity to decide on Election Day whether they want to approve a maximum tax increase for Bushland Independent School District.
In August, the district’s board of trustees approved a maintenance and operations tax rate of $1.17 per $100 of assessed value, a 13-cent increase.
The move triggered a tax ratification election, giving the final say to voters.
Should the increase be voted down, the tax rate will roll back to its current rate of $1.04.

Raven Hunt was 6 years old when she was left alone in a little house on the edge of Amarillo’s Eastridge neighborhood.
Her mother, a drug addict, scooped up Hunt’s brothers, got in the car and drove away before the little girl had a chance to get in the car.
“She told me to go inside and get something out of her room, so I went and looked for it and went back to tell her it wasn’t there and then she was gone,” said Hunt.
For two days, Hunt was alone in the house. The pantries echoed their emptiness.