Saturday, April 04, 2009

'Pecos Brad' Becomes 'Border Brad' ...

We became friends during the time I lived and worked in Fort Stockton. Since then, I've headed north ... and now he is heading south.

According to
this post in the Fort Stockton Pioneer, Brad Newton, purchasing director for the City of Fort Stockton, has been named Presidio's new city administrator. Newton, who has been a Fort Stockton city employee since 2000, had been the director of city services, the Homeland Security emergency management coordinator and the public works director.

He was also Texas' rep on the Pecos River Compact Commission, a joint effort between feds and representatives of two states to better maintain the allocation of water from the Pecos River. In this and other capacities, he was a wonderfulo resource for a wide variety of articles I developed while I was managing editor and chief reporter of the Pioneer. He's a good photographer, too, whose images graced the pages of the paper from time to time ... and even followed me to Midland, appearing in the virtual pages of
mywesttexas.com while I was editor there ... then later at newswest9.com

He was also a gunfighter ... really ... 'Pecos Brad' ... part of the Pecos River Gang, a group of re-enactors that recounts events from Pecos County history. "I'll be Border Brad now," Newton said in the Pioneer article. He and I had a lot of contact in that area, as well, when I was a reenactor in Company A, 1st U.S. Infantry (memorial) at Historic Fort Stockton. Brad remains a wonderful source for those wanting to find out more about the history of West Texas.

He also knew a thing or two about electronics ... which came in handy, back in the 90s, when Fort Stockton set up its own tourism-oriented radio station (one of the first in West Texas) alongside Interstate Highway 10.

Oh, did I mention his spelunking? Brad has spent more time than just about anyone else I know exploring the sub-surface channel that once carried Comanche Spring ... one of West Texas' lost desert cienegas ... though it does come back some wintyers, when precipitation is high and irrigation activity is low. And that was always cause for celebratory notes and photos from Brad.

And now, he's headed for the border ... good luck ... Godspeed .... Vaya con Dios, Border Brad!

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