Panhandle Magazine: Spring 2021

Spring 2021 Edition

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panhandle magazine Historic Neon

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The stories left behind and the person capturing them.

WELCOME Thanks for picking up Panhandle Magazine or logging on to panhandlemagazine.com.

It is time to appreciate the history, the art, the scenery of the Panhandle. Our mission has always been to tell the stories of the area and bring light to the great things going on around us.

This issue has features on public art, public recreation, people and companies that work through-out the area.

Region 16 Region 16’s impact on the rural area PAGE 29

Featured Photographer Jim Livingston

We love to hear from you. Send us more of your ideas, stories, and thoughts on how we can bring the good news around us to the entire area. Share those ideas on Facebook or email us.

PM Magazine is a division of Gray TV and KFDA-NewsChannel 10 Media.

@PANHANDLEMAGAZINE @PANHANDLEMAGAZINE

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Murals Finding their way across the Panhandle

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2021 Town updates from Borger and Friona

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Built in Borger

By Katie Lingor and Michelle Gray

COVID-19 Relief Efforts Borger, Inc. and the City Council of Borger created the COVID-19 Small Business Recovery Program to sustain and stabilize the Borger economy during the pandemic. The program assisted restaurants, retail stores and other businesses affected by the pandemic-related shutdowns with rent, utilities, insurance premiums and additional overhead expenses.

Borger, Inc. also offered the Small Business Marketing Partner Program, which provided local businesses, including sole proprietors, an opportunity to join Borger, Inc. as promotional partners to communicate locally and nationally that the City of Borger continues to be a great place to start and grow a business. Each business received $2,500 for their work in promoting Borger.

Downtown Revitalization In an effort to revitalize Borger’s downtown area, Borger, Inc. recently purchased a building constructed in 1927 at the corner of 6th and Main and is working to renovate the property. Upon completion, the site will house Borger, Inc.’s office and three retail spaces on Main Street. The retail spaces will be available for start-up small businesses. Borger, Inc. has purchased two additional buildings in the 400 and 500 blocks of Main Street and will continue downtown revitalization efforts by bringing new life to those properties next.

The City of Borger is also contributing to the redevelopment in a meaningful way with a major public parking and infrastructure project in the 400 block on Main Street that will be funded by a $350,000 Community Development Block Grant and partially matched by City funds.

Between the two programs, a total of 62 businesses participated, receiving more than $240,000 in assistance during the pandemic.

Renovation of Aluminum Dome The Aluminum Dome in Borger is an iconic landmark recognized throughout the Texas Panhandle for its unique geodesic structure. Based on community input during the City’s 2020 Comprehensive Planning meetings, the City of Borger staff and Council have worked with Parkhill to develop a renovation plan well-suited for the community. The updated structure will include a new Central Annex and Multi-Purpose Event Space to accommodate groups of up to 750 persons. A venue tax was approved by voters in November 2020, and the Borger City Council has voted to award the bid for construction to Plains Builders, with an anticipated start in April 2021.

BoomTown Scholarship Frank Phillips College, Borger ISD, Amarillo Area Foundation’s Don C. Dilley, Jr. Endowment, Amarillo National Bank’s Julia Williams Scholarship Trust and Borger, Inc. all partnered together to develop the BoomTown Scholarship. This program allows Borger High School graduates to earn an Associate Degree or a career certificate from Frank Phillips College at little to no cost to the student. Available certificates include welding, process technology, instrumentation, electrical, LVN and many others. Students who decide to work toward an Associate Degree can also opt to transfer their credits to a 4-year University after finishing at Frank Phillips College. The first 20 BoomTown Scholars graduated from Borger High School in 2020 and started at Frank Phillips College during the Summer and Fall semesters of 2020.

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3/26/2021 11:05:47 AM

Friona Spotlight

By Lee Davila

Parmer Paws Animal Resource Center The City of Friona worked in partnership with Parmer Paws to create the area’s first animal outreach center that would not only serve as a resource to Friona but to the entire county as well. Parmer Paws is a non-profit organization created in May 2018 whose mission is to help relocate neglected or homeless pets in Parmer County. The new facility will serve as a transition hub as animals leave local pounds to rescue facilities and is equipped with nine indoor/outdoor dog kennels with two large grassy areas. Also included are two cat rooms with patios or “catios” where the cats can safely play outside. The City of Friona helped with this project by volunteering time and providing financial assistance through the Friona Economic Development Commission.

New Housing Development The City of Friona has been experiencing a housing shortage and recently created an economic development plan for new housing in the area. The City surveyed local residents about their housing needs and wants and then used that information to create a plan for future housing development. Since then, the City has entered into a construction agreement and completed Phase 1 of a three-phase housing project on Ashland Avenue. The project is slated to be completed in October 2022 and will bring 21 additional housing units to the community.

New Community Center Renovations The City of Friona has long used the Friona Community Center as a gathering place for public, private and social gatherings for local, regional and interstate groups and organizations since its groundbreaking in 1973. Unfortunately, the center hasn’t seen much improvement since then. The City created a Visitor Impact Commission composed of community members to oversee and make recommendations for the Friona Community Center renovations. The community center has already received a new roof as well as a new central heating and air conditioning system. Soon it will receive a kitchen makeover and a facelift for the front of the center.

New EMS Building

Library Book Shoppe

The City of Friona opened its new EMS facility at 604 East 11th Street. Friona EMS provides emergency medical services to all of Parmer County during times of crisis and transports individuals to and from local hospitals. The new facility will house all three ambulances, furnish additional sleeping quarters and provide more common space for employees to work. These employees are generally part-time employees who have other employment commitments outside of their work at Friona EMS. Friona EMS functions in partnership with the Parmer Medical Center and the Panhandle Regional Advisory Council. Friona EMS has become an even more vital cornerstone of the county since the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak.

The Friends of the Library created a bookshop to sell a variety of used books at a significantly reduced cost. The bookshop’s current location is no longer available, so the City of Friona partnered with the Friends of the Library to build a new state of the art location that will not only continue to serve the needs of the shop but will also function as a meeting area for local students and residents. Work is near completion, and the new Library Book Shoppe should open within the month.

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by Lizzie W. Williams

Amarillo needs a way to connect volunteers with their favorite organizations!

This recurring thought echoed in my mind while working with numerous nonprofit organizations and coordinating volunteer efforts at Amarillo National Bank. I sat in board meetings and listened to the needs of various organizations, and their overwhelming need was to recruit and retain volunteers. On the flip side, I heard from eager individuals who wanted to volunteer but didn’t know how to get started.

Enter Hands On Amarillo, an online volunteer center for the nonprofit community of Amarillo and surrounding areas. Our mission is to connect local nonprofit organizations with passionate, enthusiastic volunteers at no cost to users or agencies. Our small board of directors has worked in many areas of the nonprofit sector and is committed to our mission and our community.

The beauty of Hands On Amarillo is that it is available 24/7, and the online outreach can be limitless throughout the Texas Panhandle. Currently, we have 136 organizations registered as well as more than 2,100 willing volunteers. Our website hosts thousands of views of our agencies and their needs every month, which allows us to connect volunteers to agencies that match their passions. Whether it be helping children, senior citizens or anything in between, we help people find the agency that fits them best .

Hands On Amarillo is a matching service for volunteers. Signing up as a volunteer allows people to add their personal interests, which in turn matches them to a nonprofit with the same interests and similar causes. We have connected people to all different kinds of organizations. These volunteers have helped children in the court system, packed food for school children, planted vegetables, mowed lawns, painted dayrooms, answered phones … and the list goes on and on.

Nonprofit organizations have a variety of options when registering at the Hands On Amarillo website. They get their own page to show what they are all about. They post volunteer needs, add calendar events, upload videos and feature anything else they want people to know about their organization.

Although COVID-19 made it difficult to organize volunteers over the last year, the need for volunteers remained, and we had to get creative in finding volunteers to fill those needs. Food distribution was critically important. We were able to direct volunteers to different churches and organizations to assist with those efforts. In another attempt to help out with the pandemic, Hands On Amarillo partnered with the Front Line Appreciation Group (F.L.A.G.) of Amarillo and our friend Sammi Murdoch to feed our front-line healthcare workers by purchasing meals from local restaurants and having them delivered directly to hospitals and clinics. Since May of 2020, we have sent more than 2,000 meals to doctors, nurses and other specialists dealing directly with COVID-19 patients.

We hope that as life begins to return to whatever the new normal will be, our volunteers will get those boots back on the ground and come out in droves to assist in all areas needing volunteers. Since late 2014, Hands On Amarillo has been connecting passionate people with organizations that share their passions. We invite any and all organizations in the Texas Panhandle to use our platform to fill their volunteer needs. Our motto at Hands On Amarillo is to help you help others, and we are devoted to doing just that.

For further information or to sign up as a volunteer or nonprofit organization, visit our website at https://www.handsonamarillo.org

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Jim Livingston: In The Viewfinder

By Nick Gerlich

I was trying to figure out what to do with the rest of my life, and I knew I loved photography, said Amarillo photographer Jim Livingston said.

“I Googled ‘photography programs,’ and Amarillo College popped up. I thought, well… why not?”

After three years of courses, he emerged with a Certificate in Photography, a badge of honor he wears proudly. It is what caused him to be traveling around the Panhandle during February’s snow storms taking photos while everyone else was home trying to stay warm.

While that is the short story of how Livingston embarked on his career, the story of how he got here in the first place, and where he’s going next, is far longer.

ribbon of pavement, even though the federal designation has long since expired. He is a partner in the Route 66 Information Center on Southwest 6th Avenue (Route 66), and he takes it as an omen that just took a while to come true. Fortyseven years, to be exact.

At the age of 12, his father received a job offer with the Ben E. Keith Company in Texas and was given the choice between relocating to either Grapevine or Wichita Falls.

In the late-70s, Wichita Falls was considered the city that had the most upside potential, so they moved there.

It was two years later that his sister gave him an analog Pentax K1000 camera, igniting a passion inside.

He fell in love with photography, and, as luck would have it, their From St Louis, With Love next door neighbor was a serious Livingston was born in St Louis photographer with his own dark in 1966, along the 1933 alignment room. of that historic highway through town. He finds it ironic that he “I’d go out and shoot a roll of black finds himself today along that same and white film, and he would help 11

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To El Salvador and Back Livingston found himself in Portland, Oregon, doing ministerial work for a short time and was then reassigned to do photographic work in El Salvador for nine months. It was there, during a period of severe political upheaval, that he grew tired of what he was seeing. “When University life then beckoned, I came home [in 1990], I threw my finding Livingston attending St camera away. I did not want to look Thomas University in Houston, through a viewfinder again,” he the University of Dallas, Gonzaga stated emphatically. and Midwestern State, ultimately earning a double major in his Upon his return, he decided he no undergraduate years and then an longer wanted to toil in the ministry.

MDiv, as he had felt a calling into “I didn’t want to teach theology ministry. anymore,” he said. “I did teach at Notre Dame High School for a bit, me process and print the photos.

He taught me everything I needed to know about the dark room,” Livingston recalled. “I lived to be a photographer as a teenager. I even hammered broom handles into the ground in our backyard so I could practice with depth of field.”

but I decided to return to school to study sociology. My intention was to one day get my PhD in that field, because I wanted to understand society.”

His plans changed, though, and he wound up working for the state of Texas as a mental health professional in Wichita Falls. “I did social work for a number of years, then screwed up my back really badly. I broke a bunch of bones and had problems working. In 2002 I became fully disabled,” Livingston continued.

Soon after that he started working for a bondsman in Wichita Falls. “I was familiar with the court system.

I did the legal end of all the work in the office,” he explained, but this was short-term as he grew weary of the system and heard the road calling.

I was homeless. I was living on the road with my camera and sleeping in my Jeep.

On the Road “I took off in my Jeep and for the next nine months I lived out of my vehicle. I had a cheap camera and started taking pictures of state parks. That’s how I got back into photography,” Livingston said with a smile. It was a new chapter to a story whose first act had not ended well. continued on page 13 WWW.PANHANDLEMAGAZINE.COM | SPRING 2021

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Livingston went on: “I was homeless. I was living on the road with my camera and sleeping in my Jeep. It’s all I had to do.” He found it to be therapeutic and healing, and he picked up right where he had left off. Turns out operating a camera is a lot like riding a bicycle.

“I saw how beautiful Bryce Canyon was, the coast of Oregon.

It allowed me to refocus. That 1.5-inch viewfinder became my magic window to see the world as beautiful again,” Livingston beamed. He bounced up and down the road, living in places as farflung as Montana and Alaska.

one I brag about the most is the certificate from AC. I learned so much from those professors. It was really training me to be a career photographer. In this field, no one cares about your degree. They care about your photography.”

By the Book Not exactly sure what to do with it all, he pitched “I Am the Panhandle” as a book project. “I wound up Livingston then found himself with 37 rejection letters,” he said doing an art show at an Amarillo sadly. For the man who says he has coffee shop, displaying photographs never lived inside the box, never of 64 people for the then-nascent done anything considered normal, “I Am Project’’ in which he asks Livingston took that as motivation people to answer three questions: to keep going anyway. He had I Am, I Regret, and Before I Die. nothing to lose and reformulated the project to focus on Route 66 people between Chicago and Santa Monica.

He had a $1000 monthly disability check, so it wasn’t exactly a pauper’s journey without food or gas money.

“I’ve got friends all over the US, and I did a lot of couch surfing. It was an inconvenience, but it gave me the ability to travel all over the US.” Amarillo by Morning On March 31, 2013, Livingston and his Jeep rolled into Amarillo, and that’s when he felt the bug to look for photography programs. Not exactly expecting to find one only minutes from where he had just landed, he looked at it more closely, enrolled and got an apartment nearby. “I lived on a pallet of blankets for about five months before I could afford anything. All the furniture in my apartment was from the back alley. It was the best decision of my life. I wish I had done it years ago,” Livingston said with a hint of remorse.

Although he wound up one course short of an AA degree, Livingston has nothing but praise for AC. “Of all the degrees I have, the 13

Those 64 told their friends, and within 11 months, Livingston had photographed 1100 persons.

Today, Livingston is collaborating with this writer to make the “I Am Route 66 Project” become a published reality as well as a traveling art show up and down the Route. It is one that builds bridges between the known and the unknown, the old and the young, the dreamers and the doers that span this road etched in American history.

As for Livingston shooting photos in blinding snowstorms, just chalk it up to his insatiable desire to continually hone his skills and build his portfolio. “The only reason I went out there was to shoot landscape photos,” he said with pride of his new home. “I rarely get to see the Panhandle with snow, and I wasn’t going to miss that for the world. That’s what makes life worth living for me.”

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possibly can. If I can make it look pretty in a photo, then all the better.”

Gerlich estimates there are at least 12,000 neon signs remaining, although only a small portion of those are actually in use. He has traveled throughout the lower 48 states in an effort to photograph as many of these as possible.

By Nick Gerlich

I N 2 01 3, D E M I LOVATO SA N G, “ BA BY WH E N TH EY LO O K U P AT TH E S K Y, WE ’ LL B E S H OOTI N G STA R S J UST PASS I N G BY. YOU ’ LL B E CO M I N G H O M E WITH M E TON I G HT; WE ’ LL B E B U R N I N G U P LI KE N E ON LI G HTS.” What Lovato captured in song is something that US businesses started embracing in the 1920s: neon advertising. After an inauspicious display at the 1910 Paris Auto Show by Georges Claude, his luminous gas-discharge tubes pulsing with rarefied gases such as neon slowly caught on as a form of outdoor advertising. The first neon signs in the US were both created for Los Angeles Packard automobile dealerships in 1923.

And the race was on to electrify American streets with messages to come hither and spend money.

For the next 40 years, our urban streets were covered in splashes of color from this electrified gas that some likened unto fire. Photos of Amarillo’s Polk Street from the mid-1940s show that practically every store had a neon sign hanging from its façade. A decade later along Route 66 on Amarillo Boulevard, every motel and restaurant installed a sign they hoped would attract more customers by being a little louder and more visible than others down the road.

By the 1970s, however, industry trends and civic opinions changed. Neon became expensive, especially compared to much cheaper backlit plastic signs. Furthermore, city councils became convinced that neon signs signaled motorists they were entering a seedy low-rent district.

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Neon slipped into disfavor as ordinances were passed and businesses replaced neon with less expensive alternatives.

Today, few working neon signs remain, although nationwide there are thousands of inoperable and rusting hulks from a bygone era left standing along the roadside. It is into this scenario that Nick Gerlich, Hickman Professor of Marketing at West Texas A&M University, finds himself, camera in hand.

“I am a documentarian first and foremost,” Gerlich said, “and an artist second. I want to record as many of these vestiges of the past as I

“I have enjoyed seeing the variety of neon signs that were used, including the use of arrows to point motorists toward a desired location,” Gerlich added. “Those arrows started out small, then grew larger and larger, sometimes in large swooping patterns with electric chaser bulbs to add motion, all designed to attract customers.”

It was, as he said, “The Golden Age of outdoor advertising.”

His passion is a perfect match for his vocation as a marketing professor.

In his estimation, those neon tubes spoke louder than words. With no more than ten seconds to grab the attention of a passing motorist, neon signs had to appeal to cents and sensibilities. When he comes upon a relic in the wild, he says he hears voices from the past—marketing voices—beckoning customers.

Gerlich has documented his efforts of the last 10 years on his Instagram account (@nickgerlich), as well as on a pair of custom Google Maps (eastern and western US) he designed, with pins showing the signs he has photographed and the known ones he has yet to visit. “I plan my travels around the blue pins on my map, the ones I have not seen. I want to photograph those the most. It’s kind of like a ‘Pokemon Go’ game for me.”

Although he realizes he will probably never photograph them all, given time, distance and financial concerns, not to mention the fact that signs come down and are either sent to the scrapper or sold to private collectors, he aims to do a high quality job. At the same time, he recognizes that this is a group effort of sign aficionados around the country, people who align themselves with hashtags such as #signgeeks and #signmonger.

“It’s truly a group effort, because the challenge is larger than any one single photographer could ever hope to accomplish,” Gerlich stated.

“Collectively, we have a chance of capturing the vanishing vernacular before it is gone.”

Gerlich recently staged a five-week “Miles and Miles of Texas” series on his Instagram account, a virtual tour continued on page 19 WWW.PANHANDLEMAGAZINE.COM | SPRING 2021

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If I can make just a small contribution to the memory of this bygone era, my time will have been well-spent

of the best locations and signs in the state. Each day he wrote a 300-word historical narrative of the city, its signs and its attractions. He plans to do a Spring Break virtual tour of Florida next.

“These posts allow me to showcase my favorite places, as well as hone my writing skills each day,” Gerlich commented.

Locally, Gerlich has documented every known sign in Amarillo, ranging from the Cowboy Motel, Cattlemen’s Club, Triangle Motel and Woods Inn on the Boulevard; Dennis the Menace Liquors on 6th; the Astro motel just west of Soncy on the Boulevard and more. Through the years, he has witnessed some of those signs stripped of their neon and channel lettering, only to be replaced by cheaper plastic alternatives. He mourns those losses like many would the loss of a pet because they signal the silencing of a voice, a voice that echoes in a different format for the modern era.

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ACCESS ystems Security S & e Fir

As one might expect, Gerlich is working on book projects that feature his photos and storytelling.

His Texas and Florida efforts are among the first of those, as well as one focusing on neon in the great American deserts. “There is little that makes my heart skip a beat than seeing a neon sign shining brightly across miles and miles of barren desert,” he said wistfully. The recently restored sign at Roy’s Cafe in Amboy, California, along Route 66 in the middle of the Mojave, is topmost in his mind.

“If I can make just a small contribution to the memory of this bygone era, my time will have been well-spent,” concludes Gerlich. “The things we take for granted are the things we one day realize we should have been preserving. My job is to preserve them at least in pictures.”

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By Karen Whelch

Several months ago, Panhandle PBS invited Black and biracial residents of our community to talk about race and racism.

Then I sat in front of a blank page on a computer screen to write the interview questions. How do you start a conversation that almost everyone in this country actively avoids?

After a long while, the only answer that came was “with respect.” After George Floyd, after Ahmaud Arbery, after Breonna Taylor, after Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin, we had to listen more than speak.

“The Handle: Living While Black” brings these conversations, raw and unflinching, to television and the web.

Panhandle PBS is making this special series of its newsmagazine, “The Handle,” available in as many formats as possible, hoping to help facilitate a real dialogue about race across the region.

TV scheduling information can be found at https://www.panhandlepbs.org/ livingwhileblack/ But whole episodes and individual segments can also be streamed any time at the same website. In addition, they can be accessed on the Panhandle PBS continued on page ?

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3/26/2021 11:06:15 AM

YouTube channel and the station’s other social media.

The station also is committed to rebroadcasting the series this fall, along with additional community discussions.

in an expert to help us understand the vocabulary of race and how to have a meaningful dialogue about it.

We perpetuate racism by not talking about our differences, by remaining silent and shushing the subject when it arises.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. often said white people and people of color live in two different Americas. The Panhandle PBS presents this series as a way to start former in a land of opportunity; the latter, lacking in one of the hardest conversations people can have the same. in this country. We’ve worked through some of the stumbles, the awkwardness, the intrusiveness of These interviews with people in our community asking our Black and biracial friends and neighbors illustrate King’s point. about our differences.

Help us understand how living in America is different for you than for me. There were, of course, many obvious examples. Just three months before, Floyd had died at the hands of police while in their custody in Minneapolis, Minn. That would not happen to me in my America. But it does in theirs.

By no means have we worked through them all. But the more we talk with our Black and biracial counterparts, the easier it gets to communicate more deeply, to find understanding and common ground. We want the same things: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Our hope is that this series can give you a leg up — What does racism look like to you? Most pulled in a support for starting your own conversations at home, long breath and let it out before they answered. at school, at work and in government. The segments and episodes can be used to start a dialogue without In more than 25 hours of interviews, our neighbors first staring blankly, wondering what to say. allowed themselves to be vulnerable about risk, trauma and disappointment. They also opened up Please, use this work to take your own first step. about resilience, perseverance and pride.

What took me aback, though, was how I felt asking. I would tread lightly on the word “black” and stumble awkwardly on the word “white.” Sometimes I even sidestepped the reference completely by using “people like me.” I didn’t want to offend anyone or make embarrassing errors.

When you watch “The Handle: Living While Black,” you’ll learn that feeling clumsy is a natural but necessary part of breaking down biases. We’ve brought 23

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Amarillo

Murals

By Eric Miller

Have you seen them?

They are everywhere in Amarillo and Canyon.

They represent the hard work and inspiration of artists, business people, educators and civic leaders. They are murals - oversized paintings that take a blank wall and transform it into something to admire, even when you’ve driven by it many times. The murals change with the time of day, amount of sunlight, and distance from the design. They bring color to previously subdued red, brown and gray walls, explains Beth Duke, Executive Director of Center City of Amarillo. In addition, they make outstanding backdrops for selfies, Tik-Toks and other forms of digital self-expression. They are always worth a stop, especially now as we search for things to do in our pandemic world.

Braley Beck, tourism coordinator for the Amarillo Convention and Visitor Bureau, has been an early promoter of city murals. In her job she is always looking for something new for visitors and residents to do. Her work has made her a defacto keeper of information, building a database of murals and art installations and creating a web page that’s a good place to start your own research.

Historic Route 66, particularly SW 6th Avenue between Georgia and Western Streets, is home to more than 20 murals large and small. Try to find “The Heart of Amwerica” mural on the side of 6th Avenue’s Massacre Haunted House, which depicts the entire length of Route 66. It's faded and blocked by trees, but this mural was Instagram-worthy before there was Instagram.

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New is the “Welcome to Amarillo” mural on the side of the Route 66 Visitor Center at 1900 SW 6th, site of the old Myers Chicken Restaurant.

Scope out Historic Route 66 by car, stop at the murals, shop with local merchants and grab something to eat or drink in one of the diverse restaurants.

Downtown boasts the results of the 2019 Hoodoo Mural Festival, a first-of-its-kind project that linked businesses with local civic and art leaders to create works of art throughout downtown. The festival brought in muralists from across the country to join local artists in improving the downtown streetscape. The festival added six murals, all within a short distance of each other.

The Hoodoo murals, with artist names and locations are: • Malcolm Byers at 300 SW 7th Avenue • Jerod DTOX Davies at 212 SW 6th Avenue • Sandra Fettingis at 509 S. Tyler • Ms. Yellow at 414 S. Polk • Blank Spaces Murals & WT Mural Squad at 406 S. Polk • Emily Ding at 411 S. Fillmore.

“We bought boxes and boxes of spray paint for the festival. In fact, we went to Albuquerque to get the extra paint we needed,” festival co-chair Andrew Hall commented.

Hall, a local resident and Center City board member, compares the Hoodoo collection of murals to nationally-known mural groups such as Crush Walls in Denver and Winwood Walls in Miami. They totally transformed the neighborhoods, making them big contributors to the economic development of the city. Hoodoo 2021 is tentatively set for October 2. To learn more about this project visit www.hoodoomural. com Jason Boyett guides the City of Amarillo’s Mural Grant Program, an effort of the city’s Beautification and Public Arts Advisory Board.

The program went through its first round of grants in 2018 and 2019, which netted a new mural in the passenger terminal at the Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport and four others located at 1200 S. Taylor, 2406 SW 3rd Avenue (two), 3405 S. Western and 3100 SW 6th Avenue.

COVID-19 stalled the effort in 2020, but it’s full speed ahead for 2021. New projects may be selected for development later this year. “We’re

catching up. It’s like dominoes - once one mural is completed it leads to more and more walls becoming canvases,” Boyett says.

Another city-related mural is along the 10th Street underpass between Grant and Garfield Streets. Sponsored by the Barrio Neighborhood Planning Committee, it’s worth parking at either end of the underpass and walking the sidewalks beneath the railroad tracks to see the entire mural.

Two groups of local art students are very active in creating murals: AISD's Blank Spaces and the WT Mural Squad. The AISD team, based at Caprock High School, has created 14 murals with plans and dreams for many more. In return, they have generated $40,000 for scholarships, according to group coordinator Shawn Kennedy, himself a muralist for more than 25 years.

The WT Mural Squad just re-created a mural at Canyon’s main intersection at 4th and 23rd.

When you go, see if you can name the four local notables in the “Mt. Rushmore” of the Panhandle. continued on page 27

Take a look at Visit Amarillo’s web site to plan out a path for your family to visit murals across the area: https://www.visitamarillo.com/things-to-do/arts/art-installations/ WWW.PANHANDLEMAGAZINE.COM | SPRING 2021

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Jeremy Baker CNS Pantex

Jeremiah Cunningham Xcel Energy

Don’t forget, murals aren’t always found outside. Some of the most artistically important murals in our area can be found inside, including the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum (PPHM), Amarillo’s Federal Building (formerly the main post office) and Canyon’s current post office. All these installations were the product of New Deal programs designed to keep painters active during the Great Depression.

“West Texas is blessed with some great mural art from the 1930s and 1940s,” Michael Grauer, former art curator at the PPHM, explains. There are the Julius Woeltz murals in the security lobby of Amarillo’s J. Marvin Jones Federal Building, another New Deal mural in the Canyon post office and murals found in numerous small towns across the Panhandle.

Pioneer Hall at PPHM displays eight murals around the top, completed by either Harold Bugbee or Ben Carlton Mead. They are easy to see; just stand in the center of Pioneer Hall and scan from left to right. This series outlines 700 years of Panhandle history, from the Antelope Creek civilization to the introduction of ranching in the late 1800s. These New Deal murals explain both our history and our artistic leanings.

Pay admission at the front desk to enjoy all the history and art within the museum, including a reproduction of Bugbee’s studio.

“Don’t forget the Reddy Kilowatt mural in the Ruhle Building and the collection of Harold Bugbee murals in the basement of the Herring 27

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Gina Blair

Sarah Davisson

American Quarter Horse Association

Hotel. While less accessible, they are very significant parts of our history, and I hope they will be restored,” Grauer says.

Businesses and nonprofit organizations like Quick Quack Car Wash, Six Car Pub and Brewery, Blue Crane Bakery, Blue Sky and Snak Pak for Kids use murals to engage their customers while telling a story. Malcolm Byers, a local muralist who participated in the 2019 Hoodoo Festival, recently created a mural for Pizzeria Nomad at 34th and Georgia that looks good enough to eat.

So, how do you get started on your mural tour?

Get your kids involved: develop a “mural” game where they are always on the look-out for murals as you drive around town. As you explore the area, you’ll develop your favorites. We all do.

Beck says, “I don’t have a favorite- it always depends on my mood,” but the Game Quest mural on Historic Route 66 with its link to video games holds a special place in her heart.

William Estep Cenveo

Kimberly Bush

Barnes Jewelry/Fire Slice Pizza

Andrew Flores Amarillo College

CNS Pantex

Recognizing 20 outstanding community members under age 40

Meagan Crawford BSA Health System

Kristin DeRight

Kyle Elder

Purpose+ Passion Boutique

Street Volkswagen

Bennet Graham

Devenie Graham

Brian Hudson

Blair Keaton

Cassie Stoughton

Johnny Terra

BSA Health System

Sharpened Iron Studios

Congrats to these 2020 Award Winners Joseph Graham Graham Brothers Jewelrs

Curtis Reneau

BSA Harrington Cancer Center

Amber Hamilton Amarillo College

Devin Savage

First Central Bank of Texas

Xcel Energy

City of Amarillo Public Health

S&B Services

Happy State Bank

Boyett, a fan of abstract design and precision, loves the black and blue geometric pattern on the north wall of 509 S. Tyler - it's one of the Hoodoo Festival murals. I admire the Route 66 mural on the side of the 6th Street Massacre Haunted House and would love to see it restored.

And finally, keep your eyes open. You never know when you’ll spot another mural!

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Region 16 Education Service Center History

by Matt Koumalats

The Region 16 Education Service Center has become an essential part of education in the Texas Panhandle. members, school librarians and numerous others. School districts may procure many of these services year round.

Additional resources for mission critical services are often delivered beyond the initial service to further support school districts.

Covering more than 27,000 square miles, Region 16 has a staff of approximately 340 employees dedicated to helping area students succeed at every level. Now in its 54th year of service, Region 16 has been able to assist area Independent School Districts (ISDs) in navigating the ever-changing educational environment. They do it by providing a number of programs and services tailored specifically for each ISD they serve. That means providing assistance to over 12,000 educators and helping to educate over 85,000 students.

Region 16 also provides a number of options that enable school districts to operate more efficiently and economically. Services like technology assistance, budget management and professional development continue to save area schools an estimated twenty million dollars annually. These savings can go right back to the schools for building improvements, teacher salaries and enriched learning environments for students.

The service center normally offers more than 500 workshops a year covering every subject and aspect of education. If it happens in a classroom, cafeteria, bus or gym, Region 16 is there to find innovative ways to assist school districts.

Examples include business manager services, federal program specialist services, technology specialist services, curriculum specialist services, counseling services, nursing services, librarian services and many more. Region 16 ESC is dedicated to helping educators and making students into lifelong learners.

First created in 1966, the Panhandle Educational Services Organization (PESO) was a partnership between West Texas State University and area school superintendents.

This group studied the needs of educators in our area and created an organization that would become the model

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for service centers statewide. They discovered a need for a centralized entity that could allow area ISDs to pool resources and expand on our area’s rich knowledge base.

The State of Texas liked what it saw in the PESO program.

One year later, the 1967 Texas Legislature directed the State Board of Education to create and operate 20 regional Education Service Centers (ESCs) across the state. PESO was renamed Region 16 and today services 61 school districts and three charter schools.

The Centers are dedicated service organizations, not regulatory arms of the Texas Education Agency, and participation by school districts in services of the centers is voluntary.

Today the ESCs provide school districts an array of services customized specifically for their individual school needs. Region 16 delivers these services in several different ways. In some instances, services are delivered at the ESC campuses at 5800 Bell Street or 1601 S. Cleveland Street in Amarillo. In other cases, ESC representatives provide technical assistance on-site in school districts. Region 16 also provides staff development opportunities for bus drivers, nurses, teachers, administrators, school board

Region 16 also operates an extensive Head Start program for disadvantaged students in our area. Studies continue to show the importance of an early education. Students in the Region 16 Head Start program get access to incredible teachers and staff who are dedicated to their success.

There are currently around 2,000 students enrolled in the Head Start and Early Head Start programs in cities across the Texas Panhandle. These students are getting the tools they will need to foster a love of learning and the social skills necessary to ensure a positive educational experience. Region 16 also serves as the fiscal agent of an Early Childhood Intervention program for special needs children.

Another area that Region 16 shines is its technology assistance programs. Having access to fast and reliable internet connection is crucial in today’s learning environment. The Technology Department at the ESC

works tirelessly to make sure area students can get and stay connected. To date, this team has connected almost every ISD in the area with high speed broadband internet, and they visit schools on a regular basis to ensure all their technology needs are met. They even offer Virtual Field Trips that give students a look at the wonders of the world without ever leaving their classroom.

Region 16 is also home to the Panhandle P-16 Council.

This group of education and business professionals come together to promote various initiatives aimed at improving education in the area. This Council includes local college and university presidents, area superintendents, business leaders and Region 16 personnel. The P-16 Council has had incredible success with their Why Teach program that encourages high school students to become teachers. The Council also created an award-winning set of information cards that were given to new mothers. These cards promote the importance of an early education and include ways to inspire learning in young children.

The Region 16 Education Service Center is an organization that every Texas Panhandle resident can be proud of. It is an idea first developed here by people dedicated to ensuring a quality education for every student in our area. That idea soon spread across the entire state of Texas. Region 16 continues to improve the lives of countless students and makes certain that local ISDs remain a healthy and cherished part of their communities.

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Mark Durham

by Brant Fricker

What do Roger Miller, Wolfman Jack, the Eagles and Amarillo all have in common?

The answer is legendary local musician Mark Durham. With a life story that reads like a musician’s version of Forrest Gump, Durham’s life has been interwoven with rock-n-roll and country music history as a professional bass player, guitarist and songwriter. He has played with Tanya Tucker, Dorsey Burnette, Billy Burnette, Bo Diddley, Vince Gill, Wolfman Jack, Juice Newton, Marty Stuart, Shelby Lynne and Roger Miller.

His band Blue Steel was the opening act for the Eagles’ Long Run Tour.

Like Forrest Gump, Mark Durham’s story seems beyond belief, but in this case it’s actually true.

Born in the same small town as hitmakers Sheb Wooley and Roger Miller, Durham made his mark in Erick, Oklahoma, playing with his local band, The Committee. A young Durham would be told by Roger Miller to keep practicing; an older Durham would be asked by Roger Miller to join his band.

served as a crash course in the dark side of the music business. In one trip they encountered colorful gigs, a gun-toting client with Mafia ties and a roadside dinner of Vienna sausages and crackers before returning home to Mark’s talent for playing the trombone in high school Oklahoma, with a part of earned him a scholarship to college where he formed Mark’s heart remaining his band the In Men. Their first trip to Los Angeles in California.

Even after earning a Business Degree and landing a good job in Oklahoma City, Mark still dreamed of being a musician. When asked to play bass for band Road Runner, Mark wasted no time. “I gave my two minute notice and off I went making three times the money,” Mark recalls.

Before long, Mark returned to the Golden State with a new band called Buckwheat and signed with a London record label. “We made a great record and got a lot of airplay,” says Mark. Buckwheat would also play the “Midnight Special” with legendary DJ Wolfman Jack.

One day the band’s managers made a shocking announcement. “We thought we were getting ready to do a string of club dates.They came in one day and said 31

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We went from rehearsing and recording to playing to crowds of 30,000 to 40,000 people!

that plans have changed. We’re going to be doing the Long Run Tour with the Eagles. We flipped,” smiles Mark. “We went from rehearsing and recording to playing to crowds of 30,000 to 40,000 people!” Before every show the Eagles would gather for their famous “Circle of Fear” with seven-part harmonies. “I still get chills just thinking about it,” remembers Mark.

Like many of his fellow musicians, Durham’s life took many twists and turns, ups and down, through dark paths and finally into the light. He and wife Linda made Amarillo their home in 2001, and in 2002 they started a night club on 6th street called Durham’s.

“We learned how to make a small fortune. You start with a large one,” laughs Mark.

Out of Durham’s Thursday night blues jam, Durham created the Texas Blues Rangers whose music can be heard on Spotify.

With all of the bands Mark has created and all the amazing people he’s played with, from Los Angeles to Nashville and everywhere in between, Mark enjoys a crowd of any size right down to a hungry soul in a nursing home. “I’ve held that golden ring, and it was amazing,” Mark says with a grateful smile. There’s much on the horizon for the music and ministry of Mark Durham. With a youthful spark in his eye Mark adds, “I look forward to getting back out there.”

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