Potter County | featured news

A private development project that will make a connection into the City of Amarillo’s storm sewer system may cause traffic delays along Hillside Road near Bell Street, according to city officials.
The private project will improve and provide storm sewer service in the immediate area. Weather permitting, the work is scheduled for completion by Dec. 14, the city said in a news release.
The northbound right turning lane on Bell Street at Hillside Road will be closed. The eastbound right hand lane on Hillside Road will be closed west of Bell Street.

United Supermarkets has kicked off its annual holiday food drive, which will run until Dec. 10 at all United, Amigos and Market Street stores.
Shoppers can make monetary donations at checkout or drop nonperishible food items in bins near the door. Every dollar donated will fund four meals at the High Plains Food Bank.
read more

There will be a free public performance on Sunday of Handel’s Messiah at St. Paul United Methodist Church, 4317 W. Interstate 40. A 50-person choir and a 20-piece orchestra will perform the classic piece beginning at 10:50 a.m.
It will feature soprano Cathy Weber, alto Tiffany Mosier, tenor Matt Oglesby and bass Steve Webber under the direction of Billy Talley.
Admission is free and childcare will be provided. For more information call 806-352-5615 or go online to www.saint paulonline.org.

It may soon start to look a lot like Christmas after an abnormally warm and lengthy fall season in the Texas Panhandle.
Forecasts from the National Weather Service office in Amarillo are calling for chilly temperatures throughout the weekend, and even a chance at rain as well as the region’s first snowfall of the year.
It could put a damper on a number of outdoor activities scheduled for tonight and this weekend.
read more

When an attacker drove his vehicle among a crowd of students at Ohio State on Monday, then begin stabbing 11 students, Matt Herzberger of Canyon began following the developments. His interest was a little different than most.
There was a time when Herzberger was on the front lines of a college campus safety threat — not as a first responder, but as one who would signal a first alert.
“When I worked on campuses, part of what I did was public safety,” he said.

Police and the mother of an infant who died in August are asking for the public’s help as they search for Celia Nicole Camacho, 25, a babysitter who has been charged in connection with the death of 4-month-old Actavio Chairez following an incident that occurred over the summer.
The case against Camacho has been an ongoing investigation since August following the “suspicious death of a child” while the baby boy was in her care, according to Amarillo Police Department Sgt. Brent Barbee.

Mission Amarillo’s Affordable Christmas Store will be held from 9 a.m. to noon on Dec. 10 at Caprock High School.
“We have 398 students registered and have received monetary and gift items donations for 260 so far,” Executive Director Jeff Parsons said in a news release.
“We need your help acquiring the gifts for another 138 kids. We need most of the items for kids ages 5 to 11 and 12 and up.”
read more

Amarillo Police Department arrested a man in connection with a home robbery Monday that left two elderly victims injured.
Michael Neal Royal, 38, was arrested Tuesday in the 3400 block of South Tyler Street for traffic violations. Police later connected him to a Monday home robbery where he allegedly struck a female victim in the head with an object, cut a male victim and then left.
read more

The Randall County Tax office announced that it will close both its Amarillo and Canyon locations on Jan. 3 as it transitions to new leadership. The closures will last from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

More than 400 exhibitors, many of them long-time supporters from as far away as Montana and Arizona, wrapped up the annual Farm & Ranch Show on Thursday at the Amarillo Civic Center.
It’s the area’s largest yearly farm and ranch program, and even though it just ended organizers said that next year’s show is already being planned.
Organizers estimate that this year the annual three-day event had a $5M positive economic impact on the city.